Version: September 3, 2026
1. Who these terms are between
Proteasoft is the studio of Daniel Lascelles, trading under the registered business name D.L. Proteasoft, based in Larnaca, Cyprus. In these terms, and in every quote and invoice built on them, "Proteasoft", "I" and "me" all mean Daniel Lascelles trading as D.L. Proteasoft. "You" means the client named in the quote.
These terms are written for business clients: companies, sole traders, and solo practitioners buying services for their work. If you're buying as a private individual, for purposes outside a trade or profession, tell me before you accept a quote. Any consumer rights that the law does not allow to be waived remain in force regardless of these terms.
2. How we agree to work together
Every engagement starts with a written quote. The quote describes the work, the price, the payment schedule, and the timeline, and it states the version date of these terms. When you accept the quote in writing (email is enough), or by paying the deposit, we have an agreement, made up of the quote and that version of these terms. Where the quote and these terms say different things, the quote wins. A quote is open for 60 days unless it says otherwise, and the price holds for all of it. The start date is set when you accept, because that's the moment your place in my schedule is reserved. If the start date in the quote is no longer available when you accept, I'll tell you before you commit. If your company issues purchase orders or has its own supplier terms, they don't form part of our agreement unless I've accepted them in writing.
Later versions of this page don't change a project you've already agreed to. I keep a dated copy of every version and will send you the one that governs your project whenever you ask.
3. Changes during a project
If you want to change or add something mid-project, I'll price the change and show you its effect on the timeline before we continue. The change happens once you've agreed to both, by email. Small clarifications that don't move the price or the schedule don't need this step.
4. Payment
Unless your quote says otherwise, project work is paid in two parts. Half is due when you accept the quote. It reserves your place in my schedule, and the work starts once it reaches my account. The other half is due when the work is approved, as clauses 6 and 7 describe, and in any case before the site or the software goes live. Invoices are payable within 14 days.
Hosting is billed yearly, in advance. Support and maintenance are billed monthly. Prices are stated without VAT; VAT is added at the rate in force on the invoice date. Hosting and support prices can change from one renewal to the next. I'll tell you at least 60 days before a change takes effect, and you're free to end the service instead.
If you dispute part of an invoice, tell me straight away, and pay the undisputed part on time while we resolve the rest.
If a month looks difficult, tell me before the due date and we'll see what's possible. If an invoice simply goes overdue, I'll send a reminder first. If it's still unpaid 14 days after that reminder, I can pause the project, the hosting, or the support until the account is settled, and the timeline moves by at least the length of the pause. Overdue amounts carry interest at the statutory rate for commercial transactions in Cyprus (Law 123(I)/2012, which implements Directive 2011/7/EU): the European Central Bank reference rate plus eight percentage points, together with the recovery costs that the law allows. I'd rather never use this paragraph.
Deposits pay for work done and for the place reserved for you, so they aren't refundable once work has started. If I ever cancel a project for a reason on my side, I'll refund what you've paid for work that wasn't delivered.
Usage fees for third-party services, such as AI APIs, payment providers, or email delivery, are yours, billed by the provider or passed through at cost.
5. Your part of the schedule
Every timeline in a quote assumes that content, feedback, and approvals arrive when we agreed they would. The quote states when I need your content. When something on your side is late, the timeline extends by at least the delay, and by more if my schedule has filled with other work in the meantime. I'll tell you as soon as I see that a date is at risk, whether the cause is on my side or on yours.
If I get no response from you for 60 days, despite my reminders, I can close the project and invoice the work completed up to that point. Restarting later is always possible. It begins as a new discussion and depends on my availability at the time.
6. Staging, launch, and the fix period
For websites, you follow the build on a private staging link and give feedback while the work takes shape. The site goes live once you've approved it and the payments due up to launch have been made. If I deliver something for review and get no response within 14 days, despite a reminder, the work counts as approved.
For 30 days after launch, I fix without charge any bug in something the quote included, provided that it existed at launch and wasn't caused by later changes from you or from a third party. New features, requests to change something that was built as agreed, and problems caused by third-party updates are new work, and I'll quote them.
7. Custom software
Custom software means the internal tools, integrations, and AI features that I build in C#/.NET or as WordPress plugins. The quote describes what the software must do, and delivery is measured against that description.
When I deliver the software for testing, you have 14 days to check it against the quote. Report anything that falls short within those 14 days, and I'll fix it. The software counts as accepted when the corrections are done, when the 14 days pass without a report, or earlier if you start using it in your daily work. The 30-day fix period of clause 6 then runs from acceptance. On full payment you also receive the complete source code, so that any developer can take the project over after me.
Some software includes AI features, like turning documents into structured data or answering questions from your own files. AI models are probabilistic: they are right most of the time, and sometimes wrong in a way that looks confident. I build and test these features with care, but reviewing the output before you act on it is your responsibility. The models themselves are third-party services, and clause 14 applies to them.
8. What you own
On full payment, everything made specifically for your project is yours: the design, the custom code, the configuration, the content we created together, and the data. Until then, the work remains mine. Your domain is registered in your name and stays that way. I ask you to register and renew it yourself, so that nobody stands between you and it. If you ever decide to leave, you take all of it with you, and the site doesn't have to carry any credit or link back to me.
Two things work differently. Open-source components (WordPress, WooCommerce, and the themes, plugins, and libraries around them) belong to their own projects and come to you under their own licences. The same goes for the WordPress themes and plugins I write for you: WordPress is licensed under the GPL, so the code I write for it reaches you under the GPL as well, which gives you the right to use it, change it, and pass it on. Nobody can take that away from you, and it's one of the reasons I build with WordPress. Custom software written outside WordPress, as described in clause 7, isn't affected by this and comes to you as set out there.
The general-purpose tools, code snippets, and know-how that I bring to every project remain mine, and I stay free to use and license them on other projects. That takes nothing away from the rights you receive above; it only means you don't get them exclusively.
Third-party assets bought for the project, like fonts, stock photography, or premium plugin licences, remain under their own licence terms. Renewals that aren't listed in the quote are your responsibility.
9. Your content
You confirm that you hold the rights to the material you give me (text, images, video, logos, data) and that it's accurate and lawful for your business. I'll point out anything that looks like a problem when I see it, but the legality of your products, your claims, and your industry's rules remains your responsibility, together with your own advisors. If a third party brings a claim against me because of content you supplied or approved, or something you instructed me to build, you'll cover the costs that result from it.
10. Showing the work
Unless you ask me not to, I may show the project in my portfolio: the name, screenshots, a link to the live site, and a plain description of what was built. Anything confidential stays out. If you prefer the project to stay private, one email is enough, at any point.
11. Hosting
Hosting includes the server, SSL certificates, off-site backups, and uptime monitoring, as described on the hosting page and in your quote. I run the servers directly and keep them updated and secure. I'll do everything reasonable to keep your site up, but hosting depends on networks and hardware that can fail, so I don't promise uninterrupted service unless your quote states a specific service level. Hosting plans are sized for the normal use of a business website; if your site's needs grow beyond the plan, I'll propose an upgrade before it becomes a problem.
Use the hosting only for lawful purposes. If your site breaks the law, or if something on it threatens the server or the other sites on it, whether through an attack or through a mistake, I can suspend it or act immediately to contain the problem, and I'll tell you what happened as soon as I reasonably can.
Hosting is paid a year at a time and renews each year. I send the renewal invoice about 30 days before the date, and that is the moment to leave: tell me before the renewal, and the hosting simply ends there. Amounts paid for the current year aren't refunded, so if you move away mid-year, the rest of that year isn't returned. Either way, once your account is settled, I hand over a complete copy of the site and its database, along with every credential I hold on your behalf. Practical help with the move to the new host is available, quoted as a separate small job. When the hosting ends, I delete the server copy and the backups, so the handover copy is the one to keep safe.
12. Support and maintenance
Maintenance covers security updates, plugin updates, off-site backups, uptime monitoring, and, where your quote includes them, small content changes, as described on the support page and in your quote. Larger jobs, like a redesign or a whole new section, are quoted separately. If you ask me to postpone or skip an update, the risk of running the older version is yours. Support runs by email on Cyprus working days, and I aim to reply within one business day. Either of us can end the arrangement with 30 days' written notice.
13. Website audits
The audit fee is agreed up front and stays the same regardless of what I find. I carry out the audit from the outside, together with whatever you send me, so it covers what can be seen that way. The report is yours: take it to your own developer, to a different developer, or back to me for a repair quote. The report is written for you and your project, and I accept no responsibility towards anyone else you choose to share it with. Findings that touch law, branding, or photography are noted as observations. The accessibility review is a good-faith check against WCAG 2.2 AA; the report is not a conformance certificate or legal advice. If I find an active vulnerability or signs that the site has been compromised, I'll email you the same day, ahead of the written report.
14. Third-party software and services
WordPress sites depend on themes and plugins that other people maintain, and every site depends on infrastructure, platforms, and services that neither of us controls. I choose these components carefully and keep them updated, but I don't control their plans, their prices, or whether they continue to exist. When one is abandoned, or breaks in a way that an update can't fix, I'll propose the best replacement and quote the work. The same applies to search engines, payment providers, and social platforms: I follow their rules and current best practice, but their decisions are outside my control.
The same goes for people. When a project needs a photographer, a designer, or a lawyer, I'll refer you to someone I trust, but you hire them directly and they invoice you. I don't add a markup or a coordination fee, and their work is a matter between you and them.
15. What I don't promise
I build to current best practice for performance, on-page SEO, and accessibility, and I'll tell you before we start what's realistic for your budget and your market. Rankings, traffic, and sales depend on your offer, your competition, and platform decisions that neither of us controls. So I don't guarantee specific commercial results, and I'd be wary of anyone who does.
16. Confidentiality
What I learn about your business while working for you stays between us, during the work and after it. The same applies to what you learn about my business. Disclosure happens only where the law requires it.
17. Data protection
How I handle your own contact details is described in the privacy policy. When I host or maintain your site, I also process the personal data inside it, like customer records, orders, and form submissions. I process that data only on your instructions and only to the extent needed to run, secure, and support the site, in line with the GDPR. Your site's own privacy policy, cookie setup, and lawful bases remain your responsibility; I'll gladly refer you to a Cyprus lawyer who does exactly this work.
18. Liability
I take responsibility for my own work, and when something goes wrong, fixing it is the first remedy: tell me what happened, and give me a reasonable opportunity to correct it before anything else.
If I breach these terms and it causes you loss, my total liability, adding all related claims together, is capped at the fees you paid me under the relevant quote or, for hosting and maintenance, at the fees of the twelve months before the event. Fees here mean my charges without VAT. If data is lost, my responsibility is to restore it from the most recent available backup.
I'm not liable for loss of profit, revenue, savings, opportunity, goodwill, or business interruption, or for any indirect or consequential loss, or for problems caused by your content, by third-party services, or by changes that someone other than me made to the site, or by access you give to others. Any claim under these terms must be raised within twelve months from the moment you became aware of the problem, or should reasonably have become aware of it, and never later than twenty-four months after the work concerned was delivered or the event took place.
These limits are part of how the price is set: taking on unlimited risk would make every project cost far more. Nothing here limits liability that the law doesn't allow me to limit, such as liability for fraud.
19. Ending an agreement
Either of us can end an agreement if the other commits a serious breach and doesn't fix it within 14 days of a written notice that names the problem. You can also simply stop a project: you pay for the work done and the costs already committed up to that point, the deposit remains earned as clause 4 describes, you receive the work you've paid for, and the agreement ends there, with nothing further owed on either side. Very rarely, a project turns out to need something I cannot provide, such as skills outside my tools or a scope that has moved away from what I do. If that happens, I'll tell you as early as I can, and you are protected in the same way: you pay only for the work done, you receive that work and its files, I refund anything you've paid beyond it, and I hand over to your next developer at no charge. Hosting and maintenance end as described in their own sections.
20. Small but necessary clauses
Neither of us is responsible for delay caused by events genuinely outside our control, like natural disaster, war, or the failure of infrastructure we both depend on, though amounts already due remain payable. Email is our channel for notices and approvals, and an agreement reached by email counts as written: use info@proteasoft.com for me, and I'll use the address on your quote for you. Neither of us transfers an agreement to a third party without the other's consent; I may, though, transfer it to a company through which I continue the same business, with your rights unchanged. If one of us doesn't enforce a term on some occasion, the term still applies afterwards. Terms that by their nature continue, like ownership, confidentiality, payment, and the limits on liability, survive the end of an agreement. If a clause here turns out to be unenforceable, the rest remain in force. For each project, the quote plus the applicable version of these terms is the whole agreement between us.
21. Governing law and language
These terms, and every agreement built on them, are governed by the law of the Republic of Cyprus, and the courts of Cyprus have jurisdiction over any dispute. We will always try to resolve a disagreement between ourselves first. These terms are published in English and in Greek; if the two versions ever disagree, the English version prevails.
22. Questions
If anything here is unclear, send me a message and I'll explain. If something seems wrong for your situation, say so before you accept the quote, and we'll adjust it there. The quote can adjust these terms for your project. That's what it's for.