Terms of service

Who we are

Pencil is a software service for UK tradespeople, operated from the United Kingdom. It is not a bank, insurer, or legal adviser. The legal name, trading address and, if applicable, company number of the contracting party must be stated here before paid subscriptions are offered.

The Service

Pencil helps you draft replies, quotes, and follow-ups from business conversations. Some content is generated using third-party artificial intelligence systems. Generated content may be inaccurate, incomplete, or unsuitable. You must review it before use and remain responsible for what you send, your prices, your contracts, and your work. Pencil does not take job payments from your customers.

Features may change as we improve the Service. We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability or that every feature will always be available.

Trial and account

New accounts start with a 14-day trial. You must give a working UK mobile number and accept these terms. You must be 18 or over and buying Pencil for your trade, not as a consumer. One trial per person or number. We do not take a card to start the trial. When the trial ends we pause drafts until you take out a paid subscription. We may refuse, suspend, or close an account if we reasonably believe these terms are being abused.

You are responsible for the phone number you register and for keeping your account secure. Activity carried out through your account is treated as authorised by you unless you tell us promptly that it has been compromised.

Subscriptions, payment, and cancellation

If you buy a paid plan, its price, billing period, included features, and any minimum term will be shown before purchase or in an order confirmation. Prices exclude VAT unless stated otherwise. You authorise us and our payment provider to take recurring payments using your selected payment method.

Monthly and annual subscriptions renew automatically for successive periods of the same length until cancelled. You may cancel through the account or the cancellation method stated in your order confirmation. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period. Except where the law requires otherwise or we expressly agree, fees already paid are non-refundable and we do not refund unused time.

We may change subscription prices by giving at least 30 days’ notice. A price change applies from your next renewal after the notice period. You may cancel before then. If payment is late or fails, we may suspend paid features after giving reasonable notice.

Third-party services

The Service can interoperate with third-party messaging, artificial intelligence, hosting, calendar, and payment services. Their own terms may also apply to your use of those services. We are not responsible for a third-party service or for changes, outages, or restrictions imposed by its provider. You must only connect accounts, numbers, and content you are entitled to use.

Privacy and customer data

How we handle personal data is explained in our privacy policy. For personal data relating to your account, Pencil generally acts as controller. For personal data about your customers that you submit to the Service (“Customer Data”), you are the controller and Pencil is your processor.

Data processing terms

This section is the data processing agreement between you and Pencil for the purposes of Article 28 UK GDPR. Processing lasts while we provide the Service and during the deletion period in the privacy policy. Its subject matter is Customer Data; its purpose and nature are storing, organising, analysing, and transmitting that data to provide messaging, scheduling, drafting, quoting, invoicing, support, security, and related features.

Customer Data may include names, contact details, addresses, messages, job details, appointments, quotes, invoices, photos, recordings, and other content you provide. Data subjects may include your customers, prospective customers, suppliers, workers, and contacts.

As processor, Pencil will:

• process Customer Data only on your documented instructions, including these terms and your use of the Service, unless UK law requires otherwise;
• ensure people authorised to process Customer Data are bound by confidentiality obligations;
• maintain appropriate technical and organisational security measures having regard to the risks, in accordance with Article 32 UK GDPR;
• assist you, taking account of the nature of processing and information available to us, with data-subject requests, security obligations, breach notifications, data protection impact assessments, and prior consultation under Articles 32–36 UK GDPR;
• notify you without undue delay after becoming aware of a personal data breach affecting Customer Data;
• on termination, delete or return Customer Data at your choice, except where law requires retention, subject to the deletion timetable and backup cycles stated in the privacy policy; and
• provide information reasonably necessary to demonstrate compliance with this section and permit reasonable audits by you or an independent auditor, no more than once a year unless a breach or regulator reasonably requires more. Audits must protect other customers’ data and confidential information and must not unreasonably disrupt the Service.

You give general written authorisation for the sub-processors listed in the privacy policy. We will impose materially equivalent data-protection duties on them. We will give reasonable advance notice of a new sub-processor where practicable. You may object on reasonable data-protection grounds; if we cannot resolve the objection, either party may end the affected Service.

We will tell you if, in our reasonable opinion, an instruction infringes data-protection law. You remain responsible for the lawfulness, accuracy, and transparency of Customer Data and your instructions, including having a lawful basis and giving required notices to data subjects.

Intellectual property

Pencil and its licensors retain all rights in the Service, software, designs, documentation, and brand. These terms give you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Service for your own business while your trial or subscription is active.

You retain your rights in Customer Data and other content you provide. You grant Pencil and its sub-processors a worldwide, non-exclusive licence to host, copy, transmit, and process that content only as needed to provide, secure, support, and comply with the law in relation to the Service.

As between you and Pencil, you may use, edit, and send drafts generated for you, subject to any rights of others and applicable law. Because generated content may not be unique, we do not promise that a draft is capable of ownership or that another user will not receive similar content.

If you give us feedback, you permit us to use it without restriction or payment, but we will not identify you publicly without permission.

Acceptable use

Do not use Pencil to spam, impersonate others, break the law, or send content you do not have the right to send. Do not try to access other people’s accounts or our systems, introduce malicious code, circumvent usage limits, reverse engineer the Service except where the law permits it, or use generated content without checking it. You are responsible for your dealings with customers and for complying with trade, advertising, tax, and consumer-protection law.

Ending the agreement

You may stop using the Service at any time and may cancel a paid subscription as described above. We may suspend or end access immediately where reasonably necessary for security, non-payment, unlawful use, material breach, or to protect others. Otherwise, we may discontinue the Service by giving reasonable notice.

When this agreement ends, your right to use the Service ends. Accrued payment obligations and provisions intended to survive, including intellectual property, confidentiality, liability, data deletion, and governing law, continue to apply.

Liability

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

Subject to that, neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, business, contracts, anticipated savings, goodwill, or data, whether direct or indirect. Pencil is not liable for decisions you make from generated content, disputes between you and your customers, or failures caused by third-party services outside our reasonable control.

Subject to the paragraphs above, Pencil’s total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the Service in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of: (a) £100; and (b) the total fees you paid to Pencil in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

Changes

We may update these terms. The date at the top is the current version. If a change is material we will take reasonable steps to tell you in the product. Continued use after that is acceptance of the updated terms.

General

These terms (including the data processing terms above) and any order confirmation are the entire agreement about the Service and replace earlier discussions about it. If they conflict, an order confirmation takes priority for its commercial details, followed by these terms.

If part of these terms is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. A delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver. You may not transfer this agreement without our written consent. We may transfer it as part of a reorganisation, financing, or sale of the business, provided your rights are not materially reduced. No person other than you and Pencil may enforce these terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, except that we may still take action in another country to protect our intellectual property.