Payment terms and upfront fees

1. The short version

The rest of this page is the detail behind those four sentences. It forms part of our terms of service.

2. The upfront deposit

2.1 How much and when

Unless your agreement says otherwise, the upfront deposit is 50% of the total project fee. The invoice is issued when your agreement is signed and is due within seven (7) calendar days.

2.2 What the deposit does

• It reserves your slot in our delivery schedule — we turn other work away to hold it;
• It funds the first half of the team's time, which we commit before any further money moves;
• It opens your client portal, with your agreement, invoice and project record inside it.

2.3 Work starts when it clears, not when it is sent

Bank transfers can take two to three business days to settle. The start date in your agreement runs from the date funds clear in our account, and your portal shows the moment we mark the payment received.

2.4 If the deposit is not paid

If the deposit is unpaid 14 days after the invoice date, the quoted price and the reserved start date lapse. We will write to you first, and we will always requote rather than silently drop you.

2.5 Smaller engagements

For engagements under TZS 800,000 we invoice 100% upfront, because the administration of splitting it costs more than the split is worth. This is stated in the quote.

3. The balance

3.1 When it falls due

The remaining 50% is invoiced at handover — when the work is complete, tested and presented to you — and is due before the production launch. For work with no launch event, such as design deliverables, it is due within seven days of delivery.

3.2 What handover means

Handover is the point at which the deliverables meet the scope in your agreement and are demonstrated to you on a staging environment or in a review session. It is not conditional on you having launched, marketed or begun using the work.

3.3 Milestone splits

Above TZS 8,000,000 the balance may be split across two or three milestones. Each milestone has a defined deliverable and its own invoice, and the split is written into your agreement before you sign.

4. How to pay

We accept:

• Bank transfer — CRDB or NMB. Account details appear on every invoice.
• Mobile money — M-Pesa, Tigo Pesa and Airtel Money. Numbers appear on every invoice.
• International transfer — SWIFT, for clients paying from outside Tanzania. Correspondent bank charges are borne by the sender.

4.1 Reference your invoice

Always quote the invoice number in the payment reference. Unreferenced payments can take several days to match, and your project does not start until we can match it.

4.2 Receipts

A receipt is issued and posted to your portal within one business day of a payment being matched. Your portal always shows the invoiced amount, the amount received and the balance outstanding.

5. Currency and taxes

Invoices are issued in Tanzanian shillings (TZS) by default. We will invoice in US dollars (USD) on request; the rate is fixed at the Bank of Tanzania mid-rate on the date of the quote and does not move during the project.

Prices exclude VAT and any other applicable tax. Where withholding tax applies, you must gross the payment up so that we receive the invoiced amount in full and supply us with the withholding certificate.

Bank charges, mobile money charges and currency conversion costs are borne by the payer.

6. Late payment

We would rather talk than charge interest — if cash flow is tight, tell us early and we will almost always find an arrangement. Where nobody has been in touch:

1. Day 7 after due date: a reminder, and interest begins to accrue at 2% per month on the outstanding balance;
2. Day 14: a second reminder and a call;
3. Day 21: work may be suspended and access to staging environments and unlaunched deliverables revoked, after written notice;
4. Day 45: the debt may be referred for recovery, and reasonable recovery costs are added to the balance.

7. Ownership and the final payment

Intellectual property in the deliverables transfers to you on receipt of the final payment. Until then, everything we have produced remains our property and is licensed to you for review only.

Source code, design source files, credentials, domain control and hosting access are handed over within three business days of the final payment clearing.

8. Changes to scope and price

A fixed-price quote is fixed. If the work takes us longer than we estimated, that is our risk, not your invoice.

The only thing that changes the price is a change to the scope. When one is requested:

1. We price the change in writing, including any effect on the delivery date;
2. You approve it in writing — a reply in the portal or by email is enough;
3. The change is invoiced with the next scheduled payment, or separately if it is substantial;
4. Your portal flags that the signed agreement no longer matches, and asks for a fresh signature on the revised version.

9. Hosting, care plans and retainers

Hosting and care plans are billed monthly or annually in advance. Annual payment attracts a 10% discount.

Retainers are billed monthly in advance and require one month's written notice to end, from either side. Unused hours in a retainer month do not roll over unless your agreement says they do.

If a hosting or care invoice goes unpaid for 30 days, the service is suspended after written notice. Your data is retained for a further 60 days so you can move it, and is deleted after that.

10. Disputing an invoice

If you think an invoice is wrong, tell us within seven days of receiving it, in writing, with the specific line you dispute and why.

We suspend the disputed amount — and only the disputed amount — while we look into it, and respond within five business days. Undisputed amounts remain payable on their original due date.

11. Refunds

Refunds are governed by our refund policy, which sets out exactly what is refundable before work starts, after work starts, and if we fail to deliver.

How to reach us about this document

Questions about this document, or a request under it, should go to info@tech-x.co.tz with the document name in the subject line. We acknowledge every message within two business days.