Terms of Service

1. Agreement to Terms

By using this website or engaging GuildHall Compact LLC ("GuildHall," "we," "our," or "us") for services, you agree to these Terms of Service. If you do not agree, please do not use this site or initiate an engagement with us.

These terms govern your use of ghforge.com and describe the basis on which GuildHall delivers services. They are not themselves the engagement contract.

Paid work is governed by two signed documents: a Master Services Agreement (the "MSA"), which sets the standing legal terms of the relationship, and a Sales Order for each engagement: a Trial Sales Order or a Partnership Sales Order, which sets that engagement's scope, deliverables, fee, and timeline. Order of precedence is: the Sales Order controls scope, deliverables, fees, payment, and timeline; the MSA controls everything else, including intellectual property, confidentiality, limitation of liability, and governing law; and these Terms yield to both in the event of any conflict.

2. Services

GuildHall offers three ways to engage:

• Discovery Call, no charge. A brief, no-cost conversation (approximately 30 minutes) to assess fit: whether there is a problem worth addressing and whether your available data can support the work. No fee and no service-delivery obligation attaches to a Discovery Call.
• The Trial. A single, focused engagement that takes one specific problem start to finish, under a defined written scope with a defined finish line. Billed as a flat fee, currently published at $500. You keep the resulting artifacts and configurations. The Trial is a one-time engagement. It is not a subscription or a retainer, and no implementation commitment or further engagement is required.
• The Partnership. An ongoing, month-to-month engagement in which GuildHall embeds with your team across three concurrent areas: Operations Advisory, Configuration & Enablement, and Reporting & Analytics. Billed as a flat monthly fee, starting at $500 per month depending on scope. Month-to-month; either party may cancel as described in Section 6.

If you enter a Partnership, GuildHall will credit half of the Trial fee you paid (currently $250) toward your first month's Partnership invoice. This credit applies whenever you enter a Partnership. There is no deadline tied to how much time has passed since your Trial.

Work that falls outside the scope defined in your signed engagement document is not performed unless you and GuildHall agree to it in writing in advance. Any fee for that additional work is the one set out in, or agreed under, that engagement document. No additional charge arises from work you have not agreed to.

The prices referenced in this Section are those currently published by GuildHall and are provided for informational purposes; published prices may change from time to time. The specific fee and scope that apply to your engagement are set forth in the applicable signed engagement document, which controls in the event of any conflict with the published prices described here.

3. Trial Deliverable Scope

The Trial's specific deliverables and boundaries are agreed in writing before work begins and are set forth in the applicable engagement document. Subject to that written scope, a Trial engagement includes:

• One or more working sessions with your team (remote or on-site, as agreed). Travel expenses, if any, are agreed in advance in writing
• Review of the operational documents and workflow information you provide that are relevant to the agreed scope
• Delivery of the scoped result together with a written findings summary
• One clarification session of up to 30 minutes, within 30 days after delivery, at no additional charge

The Trial does not include:

• Software implementation or development beyond what is expressly defined in the written scope
• Ongoing support, maintenance, or monitoring
• Any guarantee of specific business outcomes (see Section 9)

The Trial result and findings reflect GuildHall's professional analysis based on the information you provide and the scope agreed in writing. The quality of the findings depends on the completeness and accuracy of that information. You are responsible for all implementation decisions.

4. Partnership Scope

The Partnership is an ongoing engagement, typically entered after a Trial (though some clients begin directly with a Partnership), in which GuildHall provides continued support across three concurrent areas: Operations Advisory, Configuration & Enablement, and Reporting & Analytics. Work includes establishing and maintaining reliable data and sources of truth, ongoing operations and analytics support, regular check-in sessions, and ongoing upkeep. The specific scope and cadence are defined in your signed engagement document.

GuildHall will make reasonable efforts to keep recommended tools and workflows current. We cannot guarantee uninterrupted operation of third-party platforms and tools that are outside our control.

5. Payment Terms

• The Trial: A single invoice is issued on the earlier of (a) completion of the engagement or (b) thirty days after the Sales Order takes effect. Payment is due within thirty days of the invoice date (Net-30). If an invoice issues under (b) before completion and the engagement is then cancelled, the invoice is adjusted or voided to match what is actually owed.
• Partnership monthly fee: In the amount set forth in the signed Sales Order. Invoiced on or near the first business day of each month for that month. First month is prorated if the engagement begins mid-month. Payment is due within thirty days of the invoice date (Net-30). If you enter a Partnership after completing a Trial, the credit described in Section 2 (currently $250) is applied to the first month's invoice.
• Agreed out-of-scope work: Where you have agreed to additional work in writing under Section 2, it is invoiced on the basis set out in that written agreement. Net-30 from invoice date.

Preferred payment method is ACH bank transfer. Check and wire transfer are also accepted. Credit card payments may be accommodated by arrangement.

Amounts not received within 30 days of the invoice date accrue a service charge of 1.5% per month (18% per annum) on the outstanding balance, or the maximum rate permitted by law if lower. Interest does not accrue on any amount subject to a good-faith dispute raised in writing. GuildHall reserves the right to pause active service delivery on accounts more than 30 days past due.

6. Cancellation and Termination

Trial cancellation

The Trial is invoiced on delivery (Section 5), so if you cancel before the kickoff call there is no charge, and GuildHall will refund any amount you have already paid. If you cancel after the kickoff call but before delivery, GuildHall will invoice for time and work completed to date at a prorated rate; any overpayment will be refunded.

Partnership cancellation

Either party may cancel the Partnership with 30 days' written notice to the other party. Written notice means email to the address on file for each party. Monthly fees already paid for a period in progress are non-refundable; monthly fees paid in advance for a period not yet begun will be refunded.

GuildHall's right to terminate

GuildHall may terminate an engagement with written notice if: (a) a payment remains outstanding more than 30 days past due and has not been cured within 5 business days of a written payment demand; or (b) the client commits a material breach of the engagement document or these terms and fails to cure within 15 days of written notice of the breach.

Data return on termination

Within 15 days of any engagement termination, GuildHall will return or make available all client-provided materials (documents, files, exports) that are in our possession. GuildHall will delete its copies of client-provided data within 60 days of termination, unless retention is required by law or to resolve a pending dispute.

7. Intellectual Property

GuildHall retains ownership of its methodology, analytical frameworks, internal tools, templates, and all pre-existing intellectual property that GuildHall brings to an engagement. Nothing in these terms transfers ownership of GuildHall's methods to you.

You retain full ownership of your business data, SOPs, processes, and any materials you provide to GuildHall during an engagement. Providing those materials to GuildHall does not transfer any ownership rights.

Deliverables created specifically for your business under a paid engagement, primarily the findings report and any custom workflow documentation, are yours. GuildHall grants you a perpetual, non-exclusive license to use those deliverables for your own business operations.

GuildHall may reference your engagement as a case study or in marketing materials with your written approval. We will not reference your business by name or share specific findings without that approval.

8. Confidentiality and Client Data

All paid engagements are conducted under a signed Master Services Agreement (MSA), executed before work begins, together with a Sales Order that sets the scope and fee for that specific engagement. Mutual confidentiality obligations are set out in Section 9 of the MSA, which governs how engagement-level confidential information is handled and controls over this section in the event of a conflict.

For information exchanged before an MSA is in place, for example, during a Discovery Call or initial email exchange, both parties agree to treat any non-public business information shared in that context as confidential, to use it only for the purpose of evaluating a potential engagement, and not to disclose it to third parties without the other party's written consent.

Client data

GuildHall works within your existing systems and vendor accounts and does not take ownership of your data. We do not accept protected health information, payment card data, or export-controlled or ITAR-regulated information in connection with an engagement unless the signed engagement document expressly authorizes it and specifies the safeguards that apply.

Where an engagement involves personal information about your customers, employees, or contacts, that information is handled under the confidentiality terms of your signed MSA. Nothing in this section is a representation that GuildHall's services satisfy the requirements of any particular data-protection or industry regulation; you remain responsible for determining what your own legal and regulatory obligations require.

Our use of AI tools

GuildHall uses third-party artificial-intelligence tools, currently Anthropic's Claude, to help perform analysis, drafting, and automation work. Material you provide in the course of an engagement may be submitted to that provider as part of delivering the services. We want to be straightforward about what that does and does not mean:

• GuildHall does not train any model on your information. We do not build, fine-tune, or improve models of our own using client material.
• The provider's terms may permit the provider to do so. GuildHall accesses the service on a standard subscription tier. Under that tier, the provider may use submitted material to improve its own models, and retains it under its own retention schedule rather than ours. We do not currently hold a data-processing agreement or a zero-retention arrangement with the provider, and we will not claim otherwise.
• We do not submit regulated or controlled material. Protected health information, payment card data, and export-controlled or ITAR-regulated information are not accepted at all (above), and are never submitted to an AI tool.
• You can tell us to stop. You may direct us in writing, at any time, for specific systems or categories or for your engagement as a whole, not to submit your information to these tools, and we will comply. Email [email protected] with the subject line "AI Processing".
• The work is ours. All findings, recommendations, and deliverables are GuildHall's own professional work product and GuildHall's responsibility, whether or not AI tools were used in producing them. Your rights under Sections 9, 10, and 11 are unaffected.

If we add or change AI providers, we will update this section and notify active client contacts by email.

9. Warranties and Disclaimers

GuildHall will deliver all services with reasonable professional care and in a manner consistent with generally accepted professional standards for business operations and analytics consulting.

Findings and recommendations delivered as part of a Trial or Partnership engagement are GuildHall's professional opinion based on the information you provide. They are not a guarantee of any specific business outcome. Any estimates included in a findings report are projections based on available data and industry benchmarks, actual results will depend on your implementation decisions and operational context. GuildHall makes no guarantee of specific ROI, revenue increase, cost savings, or any other financial outcome.

This website is provided "as is." GuildHall does not warrant that ghforge.com will be available at all times, error-free, or free of security vulnerabilities. We do not control Cloudflare's infrastructure and cannot guarantee uptime at the hosting level.

10. Limitation of Liability

GuildHall's total liability to you for any claim arising out of or related to these terms or any engagement, regardless of the legal theory, is limited to the total fees you paid to GuildHall in the 12 months immediately preceding the claim.

GuildHall will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or punitive damages, including lost profits, loss of data, or business interruption, even if GuildHall has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

This limitation of liability applies to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law and survives termination of any engagement or these terms.

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless GuildHall and its principals from any third-party claims, damages, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from: (a) your misuse of deliverables or recommendations from a GuildHall engagement; or (b) your breach of the engagement document or these terms.

GuildHall agrees to indemnify and hold you harmless from any third-party claims arising from GuildHall's infringement of a third party's intellectual property rights through GuildHall's own pre-existing tools, frameworks, or methodology. Each party is responsible for defending claims arising from its own pre-existing intellectual property.

12. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These terms, and your use of this website, are governed by the laws of the State of Missouri, without regard to its conflict-of-law provisions. Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally will be heard in the state courts of Jackson County, Missouri. You consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts. If you have a signed MSA with GuildHall, the governing law and venue for your engagement are the ones stated in that MSA, and they control over this section.

Before either party initiates litigation, both parties agree to participate in a 60-day good-faith mediation period. Either party may request mediation by written notice to the other. The parties will jointly select a mediator within 10 business days of that notice. Costs of mediation will be shared equally. If mediation fails to resolve the dispute within 60 days, either party may proceed to litigation.

Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking emergency injunctive relief where necessary to prevent irreparable harm.

13. Changes to These Terms

GuildHall may update these terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page and send direct email notice to active client contacts. Continued use of this website or an active engagement after receiving that notice constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

Changes to these terms do not affect a signed engagement document that is already in effect, that engagement continues under the terms in place when it was signed, unless both parties agree in writing to amend it.

14. Contact

Questions about these terms:
GuildHall Compact LLC
Lee's Summit, Missouri
[email protected]