Terms of Use

Version: v0.4.0 Authority version: terms.v0.4.0 Last updated: 2026-08-01 Status: Initial-cohort active terms Target path: docs/public/terms_of_use.v0.4.0.md

These Terms govern access to and use of Undertake during the initial cohort. They govern a Work Contract only when Undertake shows this exact version and records the member's explicit acceptance with its integrity hash.

Operator: Michael McCartney, a Montana sole proprietor.

Undertake is the service name used in these Terms. Reading these Terms, browsing, accepting an invite, or continuing to use another surface does not by itself record acceptance of this version. When an action requires these Terms, the action must identify the version, link the complete text, explain what the action does, and obtain an unchecked affirmative choice. If you do not agree, do not take that action.

1. Undertake and member responsibility

Undertake is an invite-only exchange system for scoped Work Contracts between members. It is not an employer, employment agency, payroll provider, public job board, or source of legal, tax, financial, insurance, or employment advice.

The seller/provider named on a Work Contract is the contracting provider for the underlying work. Michael McCartney, operating Undertake, supplies the software, payment-facilitation, record, and limited operational-review paths described here; he does not sell or perform the underlying work unless a Work Contract expressly names him as the seller/provider.

You must be at least 18, able to form a binding agreement, using a valid access path, and legally permitted to offer, request, perform, buy, and accept the work. You remain responsible for taxes, licenses, permits, insurance, professional obligations, and legal compliance.

Undertake does not promise work, income, acceptance, collection, payout timing, refund timing, dispute outcome, visibility, or continued access.

2. Accounts, invites, privacy, and conduct

Do not share, sell, transfer, impersonate, automate, bypass, scrape, enumerate, or misuse account, invite, member, offer, Work Contract, payment, or proof access.

Do not harass, exploit, submit fabricated material, manipulate records or payments, evade active fees or Work Contract terms, offer illegal work, or attempt unauthorized access.

Undertake may limit, lock, hide, remove, reconcile, review, suspend, or close activity when system state, provider state, safety, legal risk, or integrity requires it. The active Privacy Notice describes data handling. Payment, work, proof, audit, fraud-prevention, tax, and legal records may remain after account exit when necessary.

The Privacy Notice is a notice, not a hidden grant of permission. Processing needed to operate a requested action is described before or with that action. Any future optional data use or communication that requires consent must use a separate, unselected choice that can be declined and later withdrawn. It may not be bundled into Work Contract or payment acceptance.

3. Work Contracts and frozen payment schedules

A Work Contract may freeze:

• buyer and seller/provider;
• scope, price, quantity, and USD currency;
• a payment schedule and exact payment amounts;
• platform-fee and payout economics;
• proof and completion requirements;
• the exact Terms and payment-notice versions and integrity hashes;
• cancellation, recovery, refund, lock, and reconciliation rules.

Do not accept, pay for, or perform a Work Contract unless its visible scope, schedule, amounts, proof requirements, and completion terms are clear enough for you to proceed.

Under the Basic Payment v0.4 path, a Work Contract may use one of four bounded schedules:

• pay in full after accepting the Work Contract and before work;
• pay 50% after accepting the Work Contract and 50% after accepting the work;
• pay 25% after accepting the Work Contract and 75% after accepting the work;
• accept the Work Contract without payment, then pay in full after accepting

the work.

The Work Contract shows the schedule that applies. Members cannot substitute a different amount, date, account, payment step, or provider state.

These paths are USD-only, buyer-initiated, and limited to one or two payments. They do not provide recurring billing, automatic final charging, arbitrary installments, partial refunds, or a saved-card guarantee.

4. Acceptance, work, and payment timing

Before a seller/provider first saves or changes a Basic Payment v0.4 schedule, Undertake shows these Terms, the payment notice, and the selected schedule. A separate unchecked control states that **Save version** records agreement to the exact legal versions and instructs Undertake to apply the selected schedule to new v0.4 Work Contracts created from that Offer. This does not accept any future Work Contract; each Work Contract keeps its own frozen terms and actions. The seller/provider may decline by not saving the v0.4 schedule.

Before Basic Payment v0.4 acceptance, the buyer is shown the Work Contract, payment schedule, exact buyer total, these Terms, and the Payments, Refunds & Payouts notice. The acceptance control names each item, begins unselected, and states which button records agreement. No marketing choice, optional data use, or unrelated policy is included in either seller or buyer acceptance.

Acceptance records the exact frozen Work Contract, payment Plan, Terms, payment notice, expected amounts, and acceptance-notice version. Acceptance itself does not create a Stripe payment.

For a schedule with payment due before work, seller/provider work may begin only after provider evidence confirms each required before-work payment.

For pay-after-work, acceptance may permit work without an earlier charge. This does not guarantee collection. The buyer must return and initiate payment after accepting the work.

For split payment, provider-confirmed payment of only the first step is a partial payment, not payment completion. Work acceptance and every required payment must be complete before Undertake may record final financial completion, rewards, reputation, reviews, or related value events.

The seller/provider adds proof or completion materials. The buyer may accept the work, request specific changes while that path remains available, or reject it. A buyer decision does not itself create, release, refund, reverse, or charge back money.

5. Checkout, provider truth, and recovery

Stripe is the current payment and payout provider. Stripe rules, fees, reviews, holds, restrictions, reversals, disputes, chargebacks, identity checks, tax requirements, and account state may affect checkout, refund, or payout.

A checkout interruption may leave payment confirmation pending. Undertake may retrieve or reconcile the same checkout before allowing a new one. A new checkout is allowed only after provider evidence confirms the earlier checkout expired or did not create a chargeable payment.

Undertake does not treat a browser return, timeout, webhook order, or locally printed message as payment proof. Provider-confirmed, correctly bound payment evidence controls payment state.

6. Cancellations, rejection, and full refunds

Before any payment, a Work Contract may be cancelled when its visible state allows it and no payment attempt remains unresolved.

After any payment, ordinary cancellation cannot erase payment truth or bypass the shared resolution path. Rejection may cancel later unpaid payment steps, but does not itself refund a paid step.

An eligible buyer may request review of one exact full refund of all paid steps. Opening a review does not approve or create a refund. Recorded rules may approve a seller/provider's structured agreement to a full refund; other requests may require authorized Operations review.

Approval reserves exact paid charges for refund and cancels unpaid steps. Provider confirmation remains required for every required charge and application-fee consequence before the Work Contract is marked refunded. Irreconcilable provider or binding conflicts may lock the payment record.

This authority is not retroactive. A Work Contract remains governed by the exact accepted document versions and payment authority frozen on that contract.

7. Fees, payouts, BeaCredits, and taxes

The standard platform fee is 12%, ordinarily split into a 6% buyer fee leg and a 6% seller fee leg. A retained relationship may use the visibly frozen lower fee policy. Exact Work Contract amounts control.

Seller/provider payout readiness must be verified through Stripe Connect before paid checkout. Provider fees, refunds, reversals, disputes, chargebacks, taxes, reserves, and adjustments may affect availability and payout.

Basic Payment uses a direct charge on the seller/provider's connected Stripe account. The seller/provider is the merchant and contracting provider for the underlying work. Undertake collects the visibly stated application fee and may administer the recorded refund and reconciliation paths, but does not become the provider of the work or silently acquire a right to debit a member outside the recorded payment, refund, provider, or legal paths.

BeaCredits are internal fee offsets, not cash, stored value, wages, a bank balance, or a withdrawable or transferable asset. They may be reserved, applied, reversed, restored, blocked, or expired according to Work Contract and payment truth.

8. Content, records, suspension, and system changes

You keep ownership of submitted content subject to Work Contract rights. You allow Undertake to host, process, display, route, preserve, and review content as needed to operate the service, enforce terms, maintain records, and comply with legal or operational requirements.

Undertake may preserve immutable Work Contract, Plan, acceptance, payment, provider, proof, decision, resolution, and audit records. Operational records are not employment references, credit reports, licenses, certifications, or public reputation scores.

Undertake may change or discontinue future features and may pause creation of new Work Contracts under a payment version. A pause does not rewrite an existing Work Contract's frozen authority or remove the runtime needed to complete, reconcile, cancel, or refund it.

9. Disclaimers and liability

Undertake is provided on an initial-cohort, as-available basis. To the maximum extent allowed by law, the Operator disclaims implied warranties and liability for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, punitive, lost-profit, lost-revenue, lost-opportunity, lost-data, or business-interruption damages.

To the maximum extent allowed by law, the Operator's total liability for a claim will not exceed platform fees actually paid to and retained by the Operator for the specific Work Contract or transaction giving rise to the claim. Pass-through payments, payouts, refunded amounts, provider fees, taxes, and chargebacks are not retained platform fees.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions or limits. In those places, the limits apply only to the extent allowed by law.

10. Disputes and changes

Members should first use the support, payment-recovery, or resolution path available on the relevant Work Contract. The Operator may review system and provider records for support, safety, reconciliation, or integrity.

A later Terms version may govern a future Work Contract only after the affected member receives conspicuous notice and takes an action that explicitly records acceptance of that version. Silence, a preselected control, or continued use does not record acceptance. A later version does not replace the version frozen on an existing Work Contract unless applicable law requires it.