1. Agreement and Parties
These Terms of Service govern the use of the JinYer Balance website and the services provided under the name JinYer Balance. By using this website, requesting a quote, submitting a project brief, purchasing from the store, or engaging services, you agree to these Terms.
In these Terms, "JinYer Balance" refers to the creative and technology practice operating under that name. "Client" refers to the person or organization engaging services. Where the Client is a business, the person accepting these Terms confirms they are authorized to bind that business.
These Terms apply alongside any proposal, statement of work, invoice or written project agreement. Where a signed project agreement conflicts with these Terms, the project agreement governs for that project.
2. When a Project Is Accepted
A project begins when the Client approves a proposal or statement of work in writing and pays the deposit described in these Terms, unless a written agreement says otherwise.
Submitting a contact form, a project brief or a referral form is a request. It does not create an engagement and does not reserve capacity.
Before beginning any project, JinYer Balance will provide the scope of work, the deliverables, the estimated timeline and the fee.
3. Services
JinYer Balance provides creative and technology services, which may include:
- Brand identity and creative direction
- Bilingual website design and development (English and Spanish)
- Video production, motion advertising and photography
- Content production and social media
- Marketing strategy and consulting
- Custom AI systems and automations
- Software systems: serverless functions, APIs, databases and integrations
- Client portals, dashboards, intake and lead-capture systems
- E-commerce: online store, print-on-demand products and fulfilment setup
- Ongoing maintenance and monthly service plans
Not every service is offered in every engagement. The services actually included, and their limits, are those described in the applicable proposal, statement of work or project agreement.
Services are delivered in English, in Spanish, or in both, as agreed.
4. Fees and Payment
Fixed-price work of $500 or less is paid in full before work begins. For larger projects, a deposit of 50% of the project fee is required before work begins, unless the project agreement states otherwise. Larger systems and custom projects may instead be billed against milestones set out in the proposal. A deposit is non-refundable once work has commenced.
Final payment is due before final delivery or publication, or as set out in the project agreement. Where a project is billed against milestones, each milestone is invoiced as it is reached. Retainer and monthly service plans are paid in advance for each period.
Invoices are due within 30 days of issue unless stated otherwise. Overdue amounts may incur a late fee of 1.5% per month (18% per year).
JinYer Balance may suspend or terminate services on accounts with overdue balances.
Fees are exclusive of taxes. The Client is responsible for any sales, use or similar taxes that apply.
Where a project requires third-party services in the Client's name — domains, hosting, software subscriptions, model or API usage, advertising spend, stock media licences — those costs are the Client's and are not included in the fee unless the agreement says so.
Payments for store purchases are processed by a third-party payment processor. JinYer Balance does not store payment card details.
5. Work Beyond the Agreed Scope
Work beyond the agreed scope is quoted and approved in writing before it begins. Where hourly work is agreed, the hourly rate is the rate stated in the project agreement.
Where a project agreement does not state an hourly rate, the standard rate of $125 per hour applies.
No additional work is chargeable unless the Client has approved it in writing.
6. Revisions and Approvals
The number of revision rounds included is stated in the project agreement. Revisions within scope refine agreed work; they do not change its direction.
A change of direction, added pages, added features or new deliverables are out of scope and are quoted separately.
Revisions beyond the included rounds are billed as described in the clause on work beyond the agreed scope.
Requests for approval or feedback should be answered within five business days, unless the project agreement states a different period. Where the Client does not respond within that period, the deliverable may be treated as approved so that the project can proceed.
A project paused at the Client's request, or by the Client's inactivity, for more than 30 days may lose its place in the schedule. Resuming it may require a new start date, and the scope or fee may be revised where the delay affects costs, availability or work already completed. There is no obligation to resume immediately on the original schedule.
7. Client Responsibilities
The Client agrees to provide, in reasonable time: content, materials, brand assets, approvals and feedback; and access to any accounts, platforms or systems the work requires.
The Client confirms that any material it provides — text, images, video, music, logos, data, customer lists — is either owned by the Client or licensed to it for the intended use, and that JinYer Balance may use it to perform the services.
The Client is responsible for the accuracy of the information it provides, including claims about its business, its products, prices and regulated statements.
Where account credentials are shared, the Client is responsible for granting the minimum access required and for revoking it when the engagement ends.
The Client is responsible for its own decisions about how deliverables are used, published or acted upon.
8. Timelines and Delivery
Timelines are estimates. They assume the Client provides materials, approvals, feedback and access when requested.
The timeline for a project is set out in its proposal, and depends on the scope, its technical dependencies, how quickly the Client responds and current availability. Where a proposal states a delivery period, that period runs from the point at which the deposit is paid and all required materials, content and access have been received, and applies only to the scope described in that proposal.
JinYer Balance is not responsible for delays caused by the Client, by third parties, by platform or provider outages, or by circumstances beyond its reasonable control.
Launch or deployment may depend on accounts, domains or approvals controlled by the Client or by a third party.
9. Ownership and Intellectual Property
Material the Client provides remains the Client's.
Deliverables created specifically for the Client transfer to the Client on receipt of payment in full. Until then, all work product remains the property of JinYer Balance.
JinYer Balance retains ownership of its pre-existing materials, including templates, frameworks, reusable code, internal tools, methods and know-how. Where such material is embedded in a deliverable, the Client receives a perpetual, non-exclusive licence to use it as part of that deliverable.
Deliverables may incorporate third-party components — open-source libraries, plugins, fonts, stock media, platform services. Those remain governed by their own licences, and some may require the Client to hold a subscription or licence in its own name.
Unless the Client asks otherwise in writing, JinYer Balance may display completed work in its portfolio, case studies and marketing materials.
Music, recordings and audio produced under the JinYer Balance or CandelaInk labels remain owned by JinYer Balance unless a separate written agreement transfers or licenses them.
10. Artificial Intelligence Services
Where an engagement includes AI systems, automations or AI-assisted production, the following applies.
Third-party models and tools
AI work depends on models and services operated by third parties. Those services may change their behaviour, pricing, terms or availability, or may be discontinued, without notice and outside the control of JinYer Balance. Their own terms apply to their use.
Client inputs
The Client authorizes JinYer Balance to submit the material it provides to such third-party services for the purpose of performing the agreed work. The Client is responsible for ensuring it has the right to do so.
The Client should not provide confidential information, personal data about third parties, or copyrighted material belonging to others for processing by AI tools unless this has been agreed in writing and the appropriate safeguards are in place.
Generated output
AI-assisted output delivered as part of a project is treated like any other deliverable: whatever rights JinYer Balance holds in it transfer to the Client on payment in full, and the Client receives a perpetual, worldwide licence to use it for any lawful purpose. JinYer Balance does not claim ownership of it after that point. What is not promised is exclusivity: the law on whether AI-generated material attracts copyright at all is still developing, and no warranty is given that such rights exist or that comparable output will not be produced for someone else.
Similar or identical output may be generated for other users of the same tools. JinYer Balance does not and cannot warrant that generated output is unique.
Accuracy and review
AI-generated output can be inaccurate, incomplete, outdated or entirely fabricated. It is not delivered as verified fact.
Deliverables are reviewed by a human before delivery to the extent described in the project agreement. Review reduces error; it does not eliminate it.
No specific accuracy, performance or business result is warranted.
Client responsibility for use
The Client is responsible for reviewing AI-assisted deliverables before publishing or acting on them, and for any consequence of that use.
Some sectors — among them health, legal, financial and regulated advertising — restrict what may be published and may require disclosure that content is AI-assisted. The Client is responsible for compliance in its own sector.
Limits and prohibited use
AI tools carry safety restrictions that may prevent certain requests. JinYer Balance will not build or operate systems intended to deceive, impersonate a real person or organization, generate unlawful content, or evade a platform's rules.
Automated systems can fail, misfire or produce unintended results. Where an automation acts on the Client's own systems or on its behalf, the Client is responsible for supervising its operation after handover.
11. Software, Automations and Systems
Where an engagement includes software -- serverless functions, APIs, databases, client portals, dashboards, intake systems or integrations -- the following applies.
Such systems depend on third-party platforms. Those platforms may change their APIs, impose or alter rate limits, deprecate features, suffer outages or discontinue services. JinYer Balance is not responsible for the consequences of a third-party change or outage.
Unless the project agreement says otherwise, systems are delivered into accounts owned by the Client. After handover the Client owns and controls those accounts and is responsible for their subscriptions, usage costs, access management and continued operation.
Support after delivery, monitoring, backups and maintenance are included only where a maintenance or monthly service plan is in place, and only to the extent that plan describes. Where no plan is in place, no monitoring, backup or maintenance is provided.
Data migration, where included, is performed on the data supplied by the Client. The Client is responsible for retaining its own copy of any data before a migration.
12. Hosting and Deployment
Websites and systems are typically deployed on third-party infrastructure. JinYer Balance does not operate that infrastructure and does not guarantee uptime, availability or performance.
Domains and DNS are registered and controlled in the Client's own accounts unless agreed otherwise in writing. The Client is responsible for renewals.
Where JinYer Balance holds accounts on the Client's behalf during a project, control is transferred to the Client at handover or at the end of the engagement.
After handover, responsibility for hosting, uptime, renewals and security updates sits with the Client, except to the extent a maintenance plan says otherwise.
13. Security
JinYer Balance takes reasonable measures to protect the systems it builds and the information it handles. No system, and no method of transmission over the internet, is perfectly secure, and no absolute security is promised.
Where credentials are shared, both parties are responsible for handling them carefully. The Client is responsible for enabling multi-factor authentication where a platform offers it, for granting the minimum access required, and for revoking access when it is no longer needed.
JinYer Balance is not responsible for a breach originating with a third-party provider, or for a compromise arising from credentials, devices or accounts under the Client's control.
If JinYer Balance becomes aware of an incident affecting the Client's systems or data, it will inform the Client without undue delay.
14. Third-Party Services
Delivering the services depends on third parties: hosting and content delivery, databases, transactional email, form processing, payment processing, print-on-demand fulfilment, anti-bot verification, analytics, AI and model providers, media platforms, stock libraries, fonts, plugins and open-source software.
Those services are governed by their own terms, which apply to their use. Some require the Client to hold an account or subscription in its own name and to pay for usage directly.
JinYer Balance is not responsible for a third party's failure, change of terms, price increase, outage or discontinuation, and is not liable for loss arising from one.
Which third parties receive personal information, and for what purpose, is described in the Privacy Policy.
15. Store and Physical Products
Physical merchandise sold through the JinYer Balance store is produced and shipped on demand by a third-party print-on-demand provider. Placing an order means accepting that provider's production and shipping terms.
Orders typically take 3-7 business days to produce and a further 3-7 business days to ship within the United States. International orders may take longer. Shipping times are estimates and JinYer Balance is not liable for carrier delays.
Because items are printed to order, returns and exchanges are not accepted unless an item arrives damaged, defective, or materially different from what was ordered. In those cases, contact us within 30 days of delivery with photographs of the item and packaging. This matches the window the fulfilment provider itself allows for misprinted, damaged or defective items.
Printed products may vary slightly between runs in colour, placement and finish. Variation within normal production tolerance is not a defect.
Product availability depends on the fulfilment provider and may change without notice.
Digital products, where offered, are delivered electronically and are non-refundable once delivered, except where the law requires otherwise.
16. Warranties and Disclaimers
JinYer Balance warrants that services will be performed with reasonable skill and care, and that to its knowledge the work it originates does not infringe the rights of a third party.
Beyond that, services and deliverables are provided as is. No specific business result is warranted. In particular, no warranty is given as to:
- search engine rankings, traffic or visibility
- conversion rates, leads, sales or revenue
- advertising performance or return on ad spend
- social media reach, followers or engagement
- the accuracy or reliability of AI-generated output
- uninterrupted availability of any website, system or third-party platform
- the behaviour of third-party algorithms, which change without notice
Where a specific, measurable outcome is contracted, it will be stated in writing in the project agreement. Nothing said in marketing materials, proposals or conversation creates a warranty unless it appears there.
17. Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, JinYer Balance is not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages, nor for lost profits, lost revenue, lost data or lost business opportunity, arising from the services or from the use of or inability to use any deliverable.
This includes, without limiting the general position: website or system downtime; failure, change or discontinuation of a third-party service; loss or corruption of data; errors in AI-generated output; the operation or misfire of an automation; and the Client's own use of a deliverable.
Where liability cannot be excluded, the total liability of JinYer Balance for any claim is limited to the fees paid by the Client for the project or service period that gave rise to the claim.
Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.
18. Indemnification
The Client agrees to indemnify and hold harmless JinYer Balance from claims, damages and reasonable costs arising from:
- material the Client supplied, including copyright and trademark claims
- the accuracy of claims the Client asked to publish
- personal data the Client supplied or asked to be processed
- material the Client submitted for processing by AI tools
- the Client's use of a deliverable, including any AI-assisted output
- instructions from the Client that JinYer Balance carried out
- content prohibited under these Terms or under a third-party platform's rules
JinYer Balance agrees to indemnify the Client against a third-party claim that work originated by JinYer Balance infringes that third party's intellectual property, except where the claim arises from material or instructions supplied by the Client.
19. Confidentiality
Each party will keep confidential the non-public information it receives from the other, and will use it only to perform or receive the services.
This includes account credentials, business and financial information, customer data, unreleased products and plans.
Confidential information may be shared with the third-party services required to deliver the work, to the extent necessary. Those services are described in the Privacy Policy.
Confidential information should not be submitted to AI tools except as agreed under the Artificial Intelligence clause.
Displaying completed work as a case study is permitted under the Ownership clause and is not a breach of confidentiality; a Client may withdraw that permission in writing.
20. Cancellation and Termination
The Client may cancel a project at any time in writing. Deposits are non-refundable once work has begun, and the Client will be invoiced for work completed to the date of cancellation, at a prorated portion of the project fee or at the applicable hourly rate, whichever is greater.
JinYer Balance may terminate an engagement where payment remains overdue beyond 15 days, where the Client does not provide materials or approvals needed to proceed, or where the Client requests work that is unlawful, that breaches a third party's rights, or that falls outside what JinYer Balance is willing to produce.
Monthly plans are month to month and may be cancelled by either party with notice before the next billing date. Fees already paid for the current period are not refunded.
On termination: work product for which payment has been received transfers to the Client; outstanding balances remain payable; access granted for the engagement is revoked; and accounts, files and credentials held on the Client's behalf are handed over.
Licences granted to the Client for paid deliverables survive termination. Provisions on confidentiality, ownership, liability and indemnity also survive.
21. Disputes and Governing Law
The parties will first attempt to resolve any dispute through good-faith negotiation for no less than 30 days.
If negotiation does not resolve it, the parties will submit the matter to non-binding mediation with a mutually agreed mediator before beginning proceedings.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Ohio, United States of America, without regard to its conflict-of-law provisions. Proceedings will be brought in the courts located in that state.
Services are provided from the United States and these Terms are written for that setting. Where a Client is located elsewhere, local consumer-protection rules may apply in addition to these Terms, and nothing here removes a right that cannot be waived under the law that applies to that Client.
22. Governing Language
These Terms are published in English and in Spanish.
The English version is the governing version. Where the two differ, the English version prevails, except where the law applicable to a Client requires otherwise. Both versions are prepared from the same source so that they carry the same meaning.
23. General
JinYer Balance may update these Terms. Changes take effect when posted. A project agreement signed before a change remains governed by the Terms in effect when it was signed, unless both parties agree otherwise in writing.
Neither party is liable for failure or delay caused by circumstances beyond its reasonable control.
If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
These Terms, together with any applicable proposal or project agreement, are the entire agreement between the parties on their subject matter.
For questions about these Terms, use the contact form on this website or write to contact@jinyerbalance.com.