Terms of service

By using builtsum.com, the free tools or a BuiltSum account you agree to these terms. In short: the free tools are free to use for real work, a paid plan is a month-to-month or annual subscription you can stop at any time, your data stays yours, and BuiltSum produces documents and calculations for you to check, not legal or accounting advice.

1. The free tools

The calculators, generators and templates under /tools are free, for commercial use included, without an account. They run in your browser and save to your device. You are responsible for checking every quantity, amount and form before you rely on it or send it to a client. The embed snippets on calculator pages may be placed on your own website unmodified; the link back to BuiltSum they contain must stay.

2. Accounts

An account is created the first time you sign in with an email address. You must be able to receive email at that address and must not share sign-in links or codes. An account owner may add team members; the owner is responsible for what those members do in the account. You must be at least 16 and using BuiltSum for a business purpose.

3. Plans, billing and cancellation

• The Free plan allows 1 active project with full functionality. Paid plans are Solo ($49), Crew ($99) and Company ($149) per month, billed monthly or annually (annual is ten months’ price for twelve). Current prices and what each plan includes are on the pricing page; a change in price applies from your next renewal and is announced by email first.
• The 14-day trial requires no card. When it ends, the account drops to the Free plan unless a plan is purchased. Nothing is deleted.
• Payments are taken by card through our payment provider. A paid plan runs for the period paid for and lapses to Free when that period ends unless renewed. You can stop renewing at any time from your account; there is no cancellation fee and no notice period.
• Refund requests are reviewed individually. Email hello@builtsum.com from the account’s address with the payment reference.

4. Your data

Everything you enter (estimates, schedules of values, pay applications, costs, time, logs, client details) remains yours. You grant us only the licence needed to store it, display it back to you and the people you share it with, generate documents from it, and send it to services you connect, such as QuickBooks Online. You can export it at any time and can have the account deleted as described in the privacy policy. You are responsible for having the right to enter any client or third-party information you store.

5. Share links

Proposals, pay applications, invoices and project pages you share are visible to anyone with the link. Send links only to the people who should see them, and issue a new link if one is forwarded further than you intended. Recipients who accept a proposal or certify a pay application through a link do so by typing their name; you are responsible for confirming that the person had the authority to do so under your contract.

6. Documents, calculations and advice

BuiltSum generates documents and performs calculations from the numbers you enter. It does not verify that your contract permits a rate, that a statute applies to your project, that a quantity matches your drawings, or that a form will be accepted by a particular owner, architect or agency. The retainage law table, the labor-burden and markup guidance and every article are educational and can be out of date; they are not legal, tax or accounting advice. Check with your own advisor before relying on them.

BuiltSum is an independent software product and is not developed, endorsed, approved, sponsored by, or affiliated with the American Institute of Architects (AIA). AIA®, G702®, and G703® are registered trademarks of The American Institute of Architects. All references to AIA documents or trademarks are used solely for comparison and identification purposes. BuiltSum produces AIA-style documents, not official AIA Contract Documents. If your contract requires official AIA forms, purchase them from AIA Contract Documents at aiacontracts.com. This tool does not provide legal advice.

7. Acceptable use

Do not use BuiltSum to store or send unlawful content, to attempt to access another account or our systems, to scrape the site at a rate that disrupts it, or to resell the service. We may suspend an account that does, after notice where practical.

8. Availability and changes

We aim to keep BuiltSum available continuously but do not guarantee it. Features may be added, changed or withdrawn; a change that removes something a paid plan depends on is announced by email in advance. If we discontinue the service, account owners receive at least 60 days’ notice and the ability to export their data.

9. Warranties and liability

BuiltSum is provided as is. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement, and we are not liable for indirect, consequential or special losses, including a rejected pay application, a missed retainage release, an incorrect bid or lost profit. Our total liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

10. Termination

You may stop using BuiltSum at any time and may ask us to delete the account. We may close an account for breach of these terms. On closure you keep the right to export your data for 30 days, after which it is deleted as described in the privacy policy.

11. Changes to these terms

When these terms change, the effective date above changes with it, and account owners are emailed before material changes take effect. Continuing to use BuiltSum after that date is acceptance of the new terms. Questions about them go to the contact page.