Terms of service

01Agreeing to these terms

These terms are the agreement between you and Shadow Access Inc. (“Shadow Access”, “we”, “us”) about using Shimly, our construction management software. By creating an account, accepting an invitation to a company on Shimly, or using Shimly, you agree to these terms and to our privacy policy. If you sign up for a company, you confirm that you are allowed to accept these terms for it. If you do not agree, please do not use Shimly.

Clients and subcontractors who open a private link from a company are not Shimly customers, but the rules in section 9 still apply to how they use it.

02About Shimly and early access

Shimly is a web app for the office and a mobile app for the field, for trade, renovation and construction companies.

03Who can use Shimly

Shimly is for businesses and the people who work with them. You must be able to enter into a binding agreement and, if you act for a company, be authorized to do so. Give us accurate information, keep your sign-in details to yourself, and tell us promptly at hello@shimly.ca if you think someone else has used your account. You are responsible for what happens under your account.

04Accounts, office users and free users

• A company has an owner, who controls billing and the plan, and may have admins who manage users and settings. One person can belong to more than one company.
• Office users (owner, admin, project manager, estimator and bookkeeper) count toward your plan. Field crew, clients and subcontractors are free and unlimited.
• Owners and admins decide who has access and what role they have. You are responsible for removing people who should no longer have access, and for what your users do in Shimly.
• When you invite crew by phone number, you confirm that you may give us their number for this purpose. We text them a one-time sign-in code.

05Plans, trial and billing

• Plans. Shimly has Free, Starter, Pro and Business plans. What each includes, and its price, is on the pricing page. Prices are in US dollars, and Canadian companies pay the same numbers in Canadian dollars. Taxes are extra and are added at checkout.
• Free trial. New companies get a 14-day trial of the Pro plan with no card needed. We remind the owner 3 days and 1 day before it ends. If the company has not subscribed by then, it moves to the Free plan. Nothing is deleted.
• Paid plans are month-to-month or annual, with no setup fees. Payment is handled by Stripe. A paid plan renews automatically until it is cancelled. An annual plan is billed once a year.
• Extra office users. If you add more office users than your plan includes, Shimly asks you to confirm the extra charge first. They are billed on the same schedule as your plan.
• Changing plans. The owner can change plan in Shimly. We show the prorated charge for today before you confirm.
• Failed payments. If a renewal payment fails, the owner sees a banner while Stripe retries, and everything keeps working. If the payment still cannot be collected, the subscription is cancelled and the company moves to the Free plan. Nothing is deleted, and paying again restores the plan.
• Changes to plans and prices. We may change plans and prices. We will give notice before a change applies to your subscription, and you can cancel before it does. Promo codes and special offers apply on the terms stated when they are offered.

06Cancelling and closing

• Cancel in the app. The owner can cancel the plan in Settings → Your plan and data. A trial moves to Free right away. A paid plan keeps what you paid for until the end of the period, then moves to Free. Free limits apply only to new things you add, and nothing is deleted.
• Close the company. The owner can close the company. Everyone else loses access, and for 30 days the owner can still sign in, export the data or reopen the company. After that, the company and all its data are permanently deleted.
• Export any time. You can export all your data (CSV, PDF and ZIP) whenever you like, including after you cancel and during the 30 days.

07Your data and our software

• Your data is yours. The information, files and content your company puts into Shimly (“your data”) belong to your company. We do not claim ownership of them.
• What we may do with it. You give us permission to host, copy, process, display and send your data only as needed to provide, secure and support Shimly for you, including through the service providers named in our privacy policy.
• Your responsibilities. You must have the right to put your data into Shimly, including your clients’ and crew’s personal information and photos of people and places. You are responsible for the accuracy and legality of what you create with Shimly, such as quotes, change orders and invoices, and for what you send to your clients.
• Our software. Shimly’s software, design and brand belong to Shadow Access. While you have an account, you may use Shimly for your business. You may not copy it, reverse engineer it or resell it.

08AI features

Shimly’s AI features can make mistakes. They draft things for a person to check, and you are responsible for checking them before you rely on them or send them on.

• Shimly never sends a quote on its own. Drafted estimates are added to a quote for you to edit and send.
• AI daily logs and receipt readings are drafts that your team reviews and saves.
• Weekly client updates are drafted for your office to review. You can edit or skip any update. If it is left alone, Shimly sends it at the scheduled time. Updates only go to clients you have sent a project link to, and you can turn the links or the feature off.
• AI features have monthly allowances that depend on your plan, and we may change them. Typing always still works.

What the AI features send, and to whom, is described in our privacy policy.

09Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• break the law, or use Shimly to send unlawful, misleading or abusive messages;
• send emails or texts through Shimly to people who have not agreed to receive them, or in breach of anti-spam and privacy laws;
• try to reach another company’s data, or to probe, test or get around Shimly’s security, limits or plan restrictions;
• upload malware, or content you do not have the right to share;
• misuse sign-in codes, create accounts or send messages by automated means, or share your sign-in details or private links so that people who should not have access get it;
• overload or interfere with the service.

We may remove content or suspend access that breaks these rules (section 12).

10Third-party services

Shimly works with other services, such as Stripe, QuickBooks Online, Xero, email and text providers and an AI provider. Their own terms and privacy policies apply to your use of them, and we are not responsible for their services.

• Accounting sync. You connect your own QuickBooks Online or Xero account, one at a time. Shimly sends clients, invoices and payments, and can bring in customers, items and payments you ask for. Shimly shows a sync log and spells out errors, but a sync can fail, and we cannot promise that every record reaches your accounting system or matches how your accountant treats it. Check your books.
• Online payments. Payments from your clients go through your own Stripe account, and you agree to Stripe’s terms. The money goes to your Stripe account, not to us. Stripe’s fees, refunds and chargebacks are yours. Bank (pre-authorized debit) payments take about 5 business days to clear and can fail.

11Availability, support and offline use

• We work to keep Shimly running, but we do not promise that it will be uninterrupted or error-free. We may change or maintain it from time to time.
• The mobile app works without signal and sends your changes when it reconnects. Until then, changes exist only on the phone, and signing out of the app clears anything not yet sent.
• Support is by email at hello@shimly.ca. We usually reply within one business day. The Business plan includes priority support.

12Suspension and ending

• You can stop using Shimly at any time (section 6).
• We may suspend or end access if you break these terms or the law, or if your use puts Shimly or other people at risk. Where we reasonably can, we will tell you why and give you time to export your data first.
• During early access, we may change or end Shimly or a plan. If we do, we will give notice and a chance to export your data.
• The parts of these terms that by their nature should continue, such as data ownership, disclaimers and the limits on liability, do.

13Disclaimers

Shimly is not legal, tax or accounting advice. It helps you track tax, holdback, prompt-payment, WSIB and training or licence requirements, but the rules vary by province and by contract. Starter price lists, tax rates, templates and suggested training lists are starting points for you to check, and you should ask your own advisor.

Shimly records client approvals, such as the name a client typed, the time and the device they used, and signatures. We cannot promise that these records are enough for any particular contract, claim or court.

To the extent the law allows, Shimly is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. This matters most during early access.

14Limits on our liability

To the extent the law allows, Shadow Access is not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential losses, or for lost profits, revenue, business or data, arising from your use of Shimly. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us for Shimly in the 12 months before the event that led to the claim.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

15Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. We will post the new version here with a new date at the top. If a change is significant, we will tell account owners before it takes effect. If you keep using Shimly after a change takes effect, you accept the new terms. If you do not agree, you can cancel and export your data.

16Contact

Questions about these terms: hello@shimly.ca. Your message goes to the Shadow Access team, and we usually reply within one business day.