Terms of Service

1. Who may use the Service

Hivelee is a business platform for licensed childcare providers: centers, in-home programs, preschools and similar organizations (each a "Customer"). A Customer's owners, directors, teachers and other staff use the Service under the Customer's account ("Staff Users"). Parents and guardians of enrolled children may be invited by a Customer to the family portal ("Family Users").

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. If you accept these Terms on behalf of an organization, you confirm that you have the authority to bind it, and "you" means that organization. Children are never users of the Service; information about children is entered by Customers and families on their behalf (see Section 6).

2. Accounts and security

• Keep your sign-in credentials confidential and do not share an account between people. Each staff member should have their own user.
• You are responsible for activity that happens under your account and for the users you invite. Remove access promptly when someone leaves your organization.
• Tell us right away at support@hivelee.io if you suspect unauthorized access.
• Keep your account information accurate, including the email address we use to reach you about billing and security.

3. Plans, trials, billing and cancellation

Hivelee offers a free plan, paid plans and individually priced modules at the prices published at hivelee.io/pricing or shown inside the Service at the time of purchase. We do not charge per-child fees. Unless stated otherwise:

• Paid subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly or annual) until you cancel.
• You may cancel or downgrade at any time from your plan settings. The change takes effect at the end of the current billing period and you keep access until then.
• Except where the law requires otherwise, fees already paid are not refunded for partial periods. If you believe you were charged in error, contact us and we will review it.
• Free trials convert to the free plan, not to a paid plan, unless you choose to subscribe.
• We may change prices; we will give existing subscribers at least 30 days' notice by email or in the Service before a price change applies to them.
• Subscriptions purchased on the web are billed through Stripe. Subscriptions purchased inside the iOS or Android app are billed by Apple or Google under their own terms, and cancellations and refunds for those purchases are handled through the app store.
• Prices exclude taxes; you are responsible for any sales, use or similar taxes that apply.

4. Tuition payments processed through Hivelee

Customers can accept tuition and fees from families through the Service. Those payments are processed by Stripe under a connected account that belongs to the Customer; Hivelee is not a bank, money transmitter or party to the payment. By enabling payments you also agree to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement.

• Processing fees and any platform fee are disclosed in the Service before you enable payments and are deducted from each payment as shown there.
• The Customer is responsible for the accuracy of the amounts it charges, for refunds it issues, and for chargebacks, disputes and returned bank debits on its account, including related fees.
• We and Stripe may delay, hold or reverse payouts, cap volumes, or request verification when required to prevent fraud or to comply with law or card-network rules.
• Family Users authorize each payment they make through the portal and are responsible for keeping their payment method current.

5. Your content and data

Everything you enter into the Service — enrollment records, daily logs, photos, messages, financial records and so on — is "Customer Data". As between you and Hivelee, you own it. You grant us the limited right to host, process, transmit and display Customer Data as needed to provide, secure and improve the Service and as described in our Privacy Policy. We do not sell Customer Data.

While your account is active you can export your records (reports, rosters, financial data and family media) from the Service. After an account is closed we delete or anonymize Customer Data on the schedule described in the Privacy Policy, except where we must keep records to meet legal, tax or accounting obligations.

6. Children's information and families

Hivelee processes information about children (names, dates of birth, attendance, health and allergy notes, photos, developmental observations) only because Customers and families enter it in the course of providing care. The Customer decides what is collected and who may see it. The Customer is responsible for:

• having the right, under its enrollment agreements and applicable law, to collect that information and to share it with Hivelee as its service provider;
• obtaining and recording any consent it needs from families — for example for photos and videos — before publishing media or tagging a child in it;
• inviting only the authorized guardians of a child to the family portal and removing access when it should end; and
• keeping its own licensing, health and safety records as its licensing agency requires. The Service helps you organize them; it is not a substitute for them.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• use the Service to break the law, to harass anyone, or to send unsolicited bulk messages;
• access another Customer's data, probe or bypass our security, or interfere with the Service or the users of it;
• upload malware or content you do not have the right to share;
• copy, resell, scrape or reverse-engineer the Service, or use it to build a competing product; or
• misrepresent who you are or your authority to act for an organization or a child.

We may suspend or remove content or accounts that violate these Terms.

8. AI-assisted features

Parts of the Service draft text, transcribe speech, summarize records or suggest actions using artificial-intelligence models, some of them provided by third parties. AI output can be wrong, incomplete or out of date. You are responsible for reviewing anything the AI produces before you rely on it, send it to a family or file it with an agency. AI features do not provide legal, medical, tax, licensing or financial advice.

9. Payroll, accounting and compliance tools

The billing, accounting, payroll, ratio-monitoring and licensing-readiness tools perform calculations from the data and settings you provide. They are record-keeping and planning aids, not professional advice, and they do not file taxes or reports with any government agency on your behalf unless a feature expressly says so. Verify important figures with your accountant, payroll provider or licensing agency. You remain responsible for complying with the laws and licensing rules that apply to your program.

10. Our intellectual property; your feedback

The Service, including its software, design, templates, documentation and trademarks (including "Hivelee" and the Emma-Lee mascot), belongs to Blue Cimarron LLC or its licensors and is protected by intellectual-property law. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Service during your subscription in accordance with these Terms. If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them without obligation to you.

11. Third-party services

The Service relies on third parties such as Stripe (payments), email and push delivery providers, cloud hosting, AI model providers and the Apple and Google app stores. Their services are governed by their own terms, and we are not responsible for them. The providers we share data with are listed in our Privacy Policy.

12. Term, suspension and termination

These Terms apply for as long as you use the Service. You may close your account at any time from your account settings or by contacting us. We may suspend or terminate access if you materially breach these Terms, if required by law, if a payment is overdue after notice, or if continued operation would create a security or legal risk; where practical we will notify you first and give you a chance to fix the problem. Sections 5, 10 and 13 through 16 survive termination.

13. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We do not promise that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that it will meet every requirement of your licensing agency.

14. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, Blue Cimarron LLC and its officers, employees and suppliers will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data or goodwill, arising out of or related to the Service, even if advised of the possibility. Our total liability for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the amount you paid us for the Service in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim (or US$100 if you paid nothing). Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of these may not apply to you.

15. Indemnification

If you are a Customer, you will defend and indemnify Blue Cimarron LLC against third-party claims, including by families, staff or agencies, that arise from your Customer Data, your use of the Service in violation of these Terms or the law, or the operation of your childcare program.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware and applicable United States federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Before filing a claim, you agree to contact us at support@hivelee.io and give us 30 days to try to resolve the matter informally. Any dispute that is not resolved informally will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you consent to their jurisdiction. Nothing in these Terms limits rights you have under consumer-protection law that cannot be waived.

17. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as the Service evolves. We will post the new version here and update the "Last updated" date; for material changes we will also notify account owners by email or in the Service at least 30 days before they take effect. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept it.

18. Contact us

Blue Cimarron LLC
Support: support@hivelee.io
Privacy: privacy@hivelee.io