Terms of Operation

Commercial Engagement Framework

These operational terms supersede all prior agreements and form the legal basis of all Aetheris Systems (SMC-Private) Limited contracts, designed to ensure mutual accountability and project velocity.

Financial Terms & Milestone Gates

• 50/50 Structure: A non-refundable 50% mobilization fee is required to commence architecture. The final 50% is due immediately upon milestone delivery and User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
• Net 15 Terms: All invoices must be cleared within 15 days of issuance.
• Late Penalties: Late payments accrue a statutory interest rate of 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, per UK commercial law.
• Stoppage Clause: Aetheris reserves the right to halt all development and suspend server access if payment schedules are breached.

Scope Protection & Revisions

• Development is strictly bound to the approved Statement of Work (SoW).
• Features requested outside the SoW are processed as distinct Change Orders and billed additionally.
• Projects stalled by client unresponsiveness for more than 14 days may incur reactivation fees.

Intellectual Property Rights

• Conditional Transfer: 100% of custom Intellectual Property (IP) and source code is transferred to the client only upon clearance of the final invoice.
• Aetheris Systems retains the right to reuse underlying, non-proprietary boilerplate code and open-source libraries across future projects.
• Clients guarantee they own the rights to any assets (logos, datasets) provided to Aetheris for development.