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Service Terms

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These terms govern Steinfin's managed accounts receivable and credit control services. They apply to clients who have agreed a paid service with us.

Use of our website is covered separately by our Website Terms, and how we handle personal information is explained in our Privacy Policy.

1. The agreement

Steinfin is operated by Consul International (company ID M61319502J). In these terms, "we" and "us" mean Steinfin, and "you" means the business that engages us.

What makes up the agreement

Your agreement with us is made up of:

  • your order form, meaning the proposal or order form we agree with you, which sets out the services, scope, fees, currency, start date, notice period and any other terms specific to you
  • these Service Terms
  • data processing terms covering how we handle personal information on your behalf

If your order form conflicts with these terms, your order form applies. The agreement starts when we have both accepted your order form, which can be signed or accepted electronically.

Before you are a client

Enquiries and the free AR health check do not create a service agreement. They are covered by our Website Terms until we both agree an order form.

2. The services

We provide managed accounts receivable services. Depending on what we agree with you, these can include credit control, invoice follow-up, cash collection, invoice query and dispute management, cash application, AR cleanup, reporting and managing the workflow around each account.

Not every client receives every service. Your order form sets out exactly what we will do for you, including which entities, customers and invoices are in scope, and anything excluded. We will carry out the services with reasonable care and skill.

What we are not

We follow up your own invoices on your behalf. We are not a debt collection agency. We do not buy, take over or become the owner of any invoice or debt, and you remain the owner of your invoices and your customer relationships throughout.

What the services do not include

Unless your order form says otherwise, the services do not include:

  • legal, tax, accounting or regulated financial advice
  • audit or formal bank reconciliation
  • legal proceedings or formal debt enforcement
  • insolvency services
  • making credit, pricing or other commercial decisions for you

If a matter needs a lawyer, an accountant or a licensed or regulated provider, we will tell you, and our work on it stops at the edge of the agreed service.

3. Acting on your behalf

We carry out routine accounts receivable work within the authority you give us. Decisions that affect your business stay with you.

What stays with you

We will not agree any of the following on our own authority. We bring them to you with the relevant context, and act only on your decision:

  • price concessions, discounts or settlements
  • payment plans outside rules you have agreed with us
  • referral to external debt recovery or any other formal escalation
  • decisions on contractual disputes or sensitive customer matters

We do not issue credit notes or refunds, change or cancel your invoices, write off balances, move money, or start legal action. Where one of these is needed, we flag it and you or your advisers carry it out.

Disputes between you and your customers

We can help identify, record and follow up invoice queries and disputes. We do not decide your or your customer's contractual rights. You remain responsible for deciding how a dispute is resolved.

Payments and cash application

Your customers pay you directly through your normal payment arrangements. We do not receive or hold payments on your behalf. Where cash application is included, we match payments to invoices and flag exceptions such as short payments, overpayments and unclear receipts. Recording allocations in your accounting system is done by us only where your order form or your written instructions say so.

4. Customer communication

We contact your customers by email and phone about invoices that are in scope, and through any other channel we agree in writing.

  • We communicate in your name, as your accounts team, unless we agree a different approach with you.
  • We agree the tone, wording and contact rules with you before we contact anyone.
  • You can tell us which accounts need different handling or should not be contacted at all.
  • We only discuss a customer's own invoices with that customer.

Instructions we can decline

We may decline an instruction that is unlawful, misleading, abusive, outside the agreed scope, or likely to create a legal or security risk. If that happens, we will tell you and explain why. We may also pause contact with a customer while a concern like this is resolved.

5. Your responsibilities

The service depends on accurate, timely information from you. You agree to:

  • make sure you have the right to share the information we need and to instruct us to contact your customers about their invoices
  • give us accurate invoice, customer contact, payment term and account information
  • give us the access to your systems that we agree is needed, or the same information by another agreed method
  • agree communication and escalation rules with us, and tell us about any sensitive accounts
  • answer our questions and decisions within a reasonable time
  • tell us promptly when a customer pays you directly, raises a dispute, receives a credit or adjustment, or when a balance, contact or instruction changes
  • tell us about any legal restriction affecting a customer or an invoice

We act on the information available to us. You remain responsible for the validity of your invoices, your accounting records, your tax treatment and your commercial terms with your customers. If information you give us is wrong or out of date, we are not responsible for the consequences of acting on it in good faith.

6. Systems, access and providers

Access to your systems

Where we connect to your accounting system, such as Xero, QuickBooks or Sage, you authorise the connection from your own account. We will not ask you to share your password. You should give us only the access the agreed service needs, and you can review or revoke it at any time.

Integrations and third parties

Integrations depend on the providers' own systems, your permissions and technical compatibility, and they can be affected by changes the providers make. We rely on third-party providers for parts of the service, such as hosting, email, communications and business software. We remain responsible for the services we provide to you.

Availability

We aim to provide the service reliably, but it may occasionally be affected by maintenance, updates, security work or third-party outages. Unless your order form includes a specific service level, no particular response time or availability level applies.

7. Fees and payment

Our services are provided for a monthly fee. Your order form sets out:

  • your fees and how they are calculated
  • the currency you are billed in
  • how and when we invoice you, and when payment is due
  • how any taxes, such as VAT, apply

Prices on our website are starting prices shown in a currency based on the visitor's location. Your order form, not the website, sets the fees and currency that apply to you.

If your workload changes

Your fees are based on the scope and workload agreed at the start. If that changes significantly, for example more invoices, more entities, a larger ledger, more query and dispute work, extra reporting or new systems, we will review the scope and fees with you. Changes to your fees or scope take effect only once we have both agreed them.

8. Term and ending the agreement

Unless your order form says otherwise, the service runs on a rolling monthly basis. Either of us can end the agreement by giving written notice, as set out in your order form.

Ending the agreement for a serious reason

Either of us may end the agreement straight away by written notice if the other seriously breaches it and does not put it right within a reasonable time after being asked to, or becomes insolvent.

What happens when the agreement ends

  • We stop the services, including contact with your customers.
  • We hand back open matters, such as ongoing conversations, promises and queries, so nothing is left unattended.
  • The connection to your accounting system is disconnected, and our access to your systems ends.
  • We invoice any fees due up to the end date.
  • Your information is returned or deleted in line with our data processing terms and the law, except where we are legally required to keep certain records.

9. Data, confidentiality and security

Your data

You keep all rights in your business information and your customer data. You give us permission to use it only to provide the services to you.

Data protection

When we handle personal information about your customers, we do so on your behalf and on your instructions, as set out in our data processing terms. You are the controller of that information. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information more generally.

Confidentiality

We will each keep the other's confidential information confidential and use it only for the purposes of the agreement. This includes customer data, financial information, pricing, business processes and system access details. This does not apply to information that is already public, that the other party already lawfully had, or that must be disclosed by law.

Security

We will use appropriate measures to protect your information, as described on our Security page. You are responsible for the security of your own systems and logins, including removing access for people who leave your business.

AI and automation

We may use automation and AI tools to help organise and support the work. People at Steinfin oversee the service, and automated tools are never given authority to make the decisions that stay with you under section 3.

10. Intellectual property

We own our systems, software, workflows, templates, processes, website and brand, and everything we develop for running our service. Nothing in the agreement transfers them to you.

You own your data, documents, customer information, trademarks and business content. We use them only to provide the services.

You can use the reports, analysis and other outputs we provide to you for your own business purposes.

11. Outcomes and liability

No guaranteed outcome

We will follow up your invoices with reasonable care and skill, but we cannot control how your customers respond. We do not guarantee that any invoice will be paid, paid in full or paid by a particular date, that any dispute will be resolved, or that your payment times will improve by a set amount.

Liability

Any limit on either party's liability under the agreement is set out in your order form. Nothing in the agreement limits or excludes any liability that cannot legally be limited or excluded.

Events outside our control

Neither of us is responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as major infrastructure or network outages, government action or natural disasters. The affected party will tell the other promptly and do what it reasonably can to limit the impact.

12. General terms

Changes to these terms

We may update these Service Terms for new agreements. Changes to an existing client's agreement only take effect once we have both agreed them in writing, or as your order form allows. The date at the top shows when this page was last updated.

Transferring the agreement

Neither of us may transfer the agreement to someone else without the other's written agreement.

Other terms

If any part of the agreement is found to be unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. If either of us does not enforce a right straight away, we can still enforce it later.

13. Concerns and contact

If you have a concern about the service, please raise it with us first so we can try to put it right. You can email [email protected] or use our contact page.

Questions about these Service Terms can be sent the same way.