Payment & Ownership Terms

These terms govern payment obligations and intellectual property for all services provided by The Framework Group ("we," "us," "our," or "the Company") to you ("you," "client," or "customer"). Where a signed proposal, statement of work, master services agreement, or order form conflicts with these terms, the signed document controls for that engagement. Capitalized terms not defined here have the meaning given in our Terms of Service.

Web development, website design, landing page, and similar build projects that are not divided into milestones or billing phases are invoiced and payable in full, in advance, before work begins. Full payment is required before the project is scheduled, before a start date is reserved, and before any design, development, configuration, content migration, or deployment work is performed. Work will not begin, and no deliverable will be provided, until the full amount has cleared.

This advance payment reserves your place in our production schedule, commits staffing capacity to your project, and funds non-cancelable third-party costs. Amounts paid under this section are non-refundable, as described in our cancellation policy.

Where a project is divided into milestones, phases, or stages, each milestone payment is due before work on that milestone begins. Milestone amounts are earned when the milestone work commences and are non-refundable once work on the milestone has started, whether or not the milestone deliverable has been reviewed or accepted. Deliverables for a milestone may be withheld until the corresponding payment has cleared in full.

Unless your statement of work states otherwise, milestone sign-off is deemed to occur if you do not provide written notice of a specific, material non-conformity within ten (10) business days of delivery of the milestone deliverable.

Where we agree to a payment plan, it is offered as an administrative convenience and is not a financing, credit, or lending arrangement. Installments are due on the schedule stated in your proposal or invoice regardless of project progress, timeline changes, or delays outside our control. Payment plans do not reduce the total engagement value.

If you cancel an engagement or default on a payment plan, all remaining scheduled installments accelerate and become due immediately, in addition to any termination fee that applies.

Invoices are due upon receipt unless the invoice or statement of work states otherwise. Overdue amounts may accrue interest at the lesser of 1.5% per month or the maximum rate permitted by applicable law, calculated from the due date until paid, together with any reasonable administrative, collection, or legal costs we incur. We may pause or suspend work, withhold deliverables, and suspend managed services or support while any undisputed invoice remains unpaid, and suspension during non-payment does not extend project timelines or reduce amounts owed.

Payments are made by the methods we designate, which may include card or other online checkout options processed by a third-party payment provider. We do not store full payment card numbers on our systems; payment details are handled by our payment provider under its own security standards and terms. Payment processing timelines, refunds, and chargebacks are also subject to that provider's rules. Our Refund, Return & Cancellation Policy governs how disputed charges are handled.

Overpayments are credited to your client account. If you pay more than the amount properly due, whether by duplicate payment, an overpayment on an installment, or a payment made ahead of an invoice, the excess is credited to your client account. Account credits are applied to future work, additional project phases, change orders, or modifications to existing work on your engagement. Credits are not transferable to another client or company and are not redeemable for cash.

Refunds are returned to the original method of payment. Where a refund is issued, it is processed only to the original method of payment used for the original charge, and there are no exceptions. We do not refund to a different card or bank account, to a different person or company, by cash, by check, or as an account credit in place of a refund that is owed. The original payment method must still be valid; if it is not, we will work with you and our payment provider to return the funds to that same method, and the refund is not redirected to any other destination.

Refund eligibility is governed by our Refund, Return & Cancellation Policy. This section governs how an overpayment or an approved refund is applied.

Fees exclude applicable sales, use, value-added, and similar taxes, which are your responsibility unless you provide a valid exemption certificate. Domains, hosting, software licenses, platform subscriptions, stock assets, plugins, advertising spend, and other third-party products purchased or committed on your behalf are billed to you at cost plus any applicable handling charge, are non-refundable, and may renew automatically with the third-party provider unless you cancel them directly.

Upon receipt of final payment in full for an engagement, you own all custom products and deliverables we create specifically for you under that engagement. This includes custom website and application code, custom designs and user interfaces, brand assets produced for you, written documentation, configuration work, and other project-specific work product (together, the "Deliverables"). Ownership transfers automatically upon our receipt of final payment in full; no further documentation is required, although we will sign a reasonable assignment or intellectual property transfer document on request.

"Final payment in full" means that all fees for the engagement, including every milestone, installment, change order, termination fee, and pass-through cost, have been received and cleared.

Until final payment in full has been received, the Company retains ownership of all Deliverables, and you receive no license, title, or right to use, copy, modify, publish, deploy, reproduce, sublicense, or distribute them. Any use, publication, or deployment of a Deliverable before final payment is unauthorized. We may, at our discretion, grant a limited, revocable, non-transferable license for review, testing, or staging purposes before final payment; that license ends automatically if the engagement is cancelled or an undisputed invoice remains unpaid.

If an engagement is cancelled before final payment, ownership of partially completed work remains with the Company unless we agree otherwise in writing, and any transfer is conditioned on payment of all amounts due under the cancellation policy.

We retain all rights in our pre-existing and independently developed materials, including our methodologies (including the "Framework One" methodology), internal tools, frameworks, utilities, templates, component libraries, design systems, know-how, and general skills and experience. Where such materials are embedded in your Deliverables, we grant you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use them as part of the Deliverables, but you may not extract, resell, or redistribute them as standalone products. Third-party and open-source components included in your Deliverables remain subject to their own license terms, which we will identify on request.

We may display completed work, screenshots, and a general description of the engagement in our portfolio, including on this website and in proposals, unless you notify us in writing that you do not consent. We will not disclose your confidential business information in doing so.

Either party may end an engagement as described in our Refund, Return & Cancellation Policy. In summary: cancellations by the client require thirty (30) days' prior written notice; work and fees continue through the notice period; if the project is complete, substantially complete, or in its final stage of delivery, the remaining balance of the project becomes immediately due; payment plan installments accelerate; and all clients have termination fees based on their specific scope of work. Termination fees and amounts due are payable within fourteen (14) days of invoice.

Questions about these terms, invoices, or ownership of deliverables can be directed to info@widgetfl.com or (850) 363-9780. We may update these terms at any time by posting a revised version on this page; the "Last updated" date above reflects the most recent revision.