1. Definitions
“Provider” means Sumit Bansal, sole proprietor, trading as Automation Engineer, with operations based in India.
“Client” means the legal entity or individual that engages the Provider for Services.
“Services” means the automation engineering, AI agent setup, MCP integration, workflow consulting, and related deliverables offered under packages described at nextautomationengineer.com/packages or any successor URL.
“Engagement” means a specific paid project between the Provider and the Client, defined by a Statement of Work (SoW), an accepted proposal, or an invoice referencing one of the published packages.
“Deliverables” means the source code, prompts, configuration files, documentation, recipes, workflows, and any other tangible work product produced for the Client under an Engagement.
“Terms” means this document, located at nextautomationengineer.com/terms.
2. Acceptance & the agreement
By submitting a brief through the contact form, signing a Statement of Work, paying an invoice, or otherwise engaging the Provider for Services, the Client accepts these Terms in full.
The complete agreement between the parties consists of: (a) the Statement of Work or accepted proposal for the specific Engagement; (b) these Terms; and (c) any addenda the parties sign in writing. Where these Terms conflict with a Statement of Work, the Statement of Work prevails for that Engagement.
3. Services
The Provider offers Services under named packages — Automation Spark, AI Automation Audit, Workflow Sprint, Custom Build, the Stack bundle, and the Automation Care retainer tiers — described in detail at nextautomationengineer.com/packages. Each package has a fixed scope, a fixed timeline, and a fixed fee (Stack is scoped and quoted from an audit).
Services outside the published packages may be quoted on a custom basis. Any custom quote becomes binding only when both parties confirm acceptance in writing (email confirmation counts).
The Provider may modify, add, or retire packages at any time. Engagements already accepted are not affected by subsequent package changes.
4. Engagement process
A typical Engagement follows these stages:
- Brief — the Client submits requirements through the contact form, email, or a discovery call.
- Proposal — the Provider returns a Statement of Work (or references a published package) describing scope, deliverables, timeline, and fees.
- Acceptance & deposit — the Client confirms acceptance in writing and pays the initial fee (see Section 5).
- Build — the Provider performs the work asynchronously, with regular updates.
- Ship — the Provider delivers the Deliverables; the Client reviews and signs off.
- Tune — the support window described in the relevant package begins on the Ship date.
5. Fees, invoicing & payment
Fees are quoted in US Dollars unless otherwise stated.
Payment schedule by package. Automation Spark and the AI Automation Audit are paid in full before the Engagement begins. The Workflow Sprint and Custom Build follow a 50/50 schedule — 50% on signing, 50% on delivery. The Stack bundle is billed by milestone, as set out in the Statement of Work. The Automation Care retainer tiers are invoiced monthly in advance with a three-month minimum commitment from the start date.
Accepted payment methods. Wise, AirTM, PayPal, and bank wire transfer. The specific method is confirmed in the Statement of Work or invoice. The Client is responsible for any sending-side fees imposed by their payment provider; the Provider absorbs receiving-side fees on its end.
Invoicing. Invoices are sent by email and are due net-14 (fourteen days from invoice date) unless the Statement of Work specifies otherwise. The Provider reserves the right to pause work on an active Engagement if any invoice remains unpaid 7 days past its due date.
Late payments. Invoices not paid within 30 days of the due date may accrue late-fee interest at 1.5% per month or the maximum permitted by applicable law, whichever is lower.
Taxes. Fees quoted are exclusive of any taxes, duties, or levies that the Client’s jurisdiction may impose on the Client. The Client is responsible for such taxes. The Provider is responsible for its own income taxes in India.
6. Refunds & cancellation
Automation Spark & AI Automation Audit. Fully refundable if the Client cancels before work begins — for the Audit, before the first discovery call; for a Spark, before the build starts. After that point, each is non-refundable.
Workflow Sprint & Custom Build. The 50% deposit is non-refundable once the design phase begins (typically the same day as signing). The remaining 50% balance is owed on delivery. If the Provider fails to deliver within the timeline stated in the Statement of Work, and the delay is attributable to the Provider, the Client may cancel for a pro-rata refund of the deposit minus work demonstrably completed.
Stack bundle. Billed by milestone. Each milestone payment is non-refundable once that phase of work begins; remaining un-started milestones may be cancelled for a refund minus work demonstrably completed.
Automation Care retainer. Three-month minimum commitment on any tier. After the minimum, the Client may pause the retainer for up to 60 days without penalty, or cancel with 30 days’ written notice. Unused monthly hours do not roll forward and are not refundable.
Credit toward future work. Audit fees may be applied as credit toward a subsequent Sprint, Build, or Stack, and Spark fees toward a subsequent Sprint, when booked within 30 days of delivery, per the offer stated on the Packages page.
7. Client responsibilities
To enable the Provider to deliver the Services, the Client agrees to:
- Provide accurate, current, and complete information about the Client’s stack, processes, and requirements.
- Grant the Provider scoped, read-only or write access to the tools, APIs, and data necessary to complete the Engagement.
- Nominate a primary point of contact authorised to confirm requirements, review milestones, and sign off on delivery.
- Provide reasonable sample data (typically at least five representative inputs per workflow).
- Maintain active subscriptions, paid plans, and API credits for any third-party platforms used in the Deliverables.
- Respond to clarification requests from the Provider within a reasonable time (typically two business days) to avoid timeline delays.
- Approve production deployment before any change goes live on the Client’s systems.
Delays caused by the Client’s failure to meet these responsibilities do not constitute a breach by the Provider and may extend the Engagement timeline.
8. Intellectual property
Client ownership of Deliverables. Upon receipt of full payment for an Engagement, the Provider assigns to the Client all right, title, and interest in the Deliverables produced specifically for the Client. This includes source code, prompts, configuration files, recipes, and documentation, in each case as delivered to the Client.
Pre-existing materials. Methods, processes, frameworks, templates, scripts, and general know-how that the Provider developed prior to or outside of an Engagement remain the Provider’s property. The Provider grants the Client a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to use any such pre-existing material that is embedded in the Deliverables, solely as part of those Deliverables.
Third-party materials. Open-source dependencies, third-party APIs, paid plugins, and similar resources remain subject to their original licences. The Provider will not knowingly incorporate materials that conflict with the Client’s use.
Anonymised learnings. The Provider may use anonymised, aggregated learnings from an Engagement (general patterns, problem-solving approaches, statistical observations) to improve future Services. No Client-identifying data, code, or content is used without prior written consent.
Marketing use. The Provider may reference the existence of an Engagement and the Client’s name and logo in marketing materials only with the Client’s prior written consent. Without consent, the Provider may describe the Engagement only in general, anonymised terms.
9. Confidentiality
Each party may receive Confidential Information from the other during an Engagement. Confidential Information includes, without limitation: business plans, customer data, source code, financials, pricing, prompts, system architecture, and any information marked confidential at the time of disclosure or that a reasonable person would understand to be confidential under the circumstances.
Each party agrees to: (a) use the other’s Confidential Information solely for the purposes of the Engagement; (b) protect such Confidential Information with the same degree of care it uses for its own confidential information (and in no event less than reasonable care); and (c) disclose Confidential Information only to employees, contractors, or advisers who need to know and who are bound by similar confidentiality obligations.
Confidentiality obligations survive termination of the Engagement for a period of three (3) years, or longer if required by applicable law.
A mutual non-disclosure agreement (NDA) may be signed at the Client’s request. The Provider will also sign the Client’s standard NDA on request, subject to reasonable review.
10. Data, privacy & security
What we collect through the website. When a visitor submits the contact form, or completes a brief through the on-page concierge chat widget at nextautomationengineer.com, the Provider collects: name, work email, company, phone (optional), service requested, budget band, message text, and a source tag identifying which page or surface the submission came from. A timestamp, a generated unique identifier, the submitter’s IP address as observed at the network edge, and the two-letter country code derived from that IP address are added by the system. No other geolocation, device fingerprint, or browser identifier is recorded.
Why we record the IP address. The IP address and country code are stored solely to (a) defend the public form and chat endpoints against automated abuse via per-IP rate limiting, (b) help triage suspicious or duplicate submissions, and (c) form part of an audit trail in the event of a security incident. The IP address is never used for marketing, advertising, or location-targeted communications, and is not sold or shared with any third party.
How it is handled. Submissions are stored using industry-standard, GDPR-compliant data processors with encryption at rest and TLS in transit. Auto-acknowledgement emails are delivered through a transactional email provider with the same posture. A current list of sub-processors is available on request via the contact address in Section 18.
What we use it for. Solely to respond to the inquiry, qualify the lead, deliver Services if engaged, and maintain communication with prospective and active Clients. The Provider does not sell, share, or otherwise disclose form data to third parties for marketing purposes.
Retention. Form submissions are retained for a maximum of 24 months from the date of submission unless an active Engagement requires longer retention.
Your rights. Visitors and Clients may request access to, correction of, or deletion of their personal data by emailing the contact address in Section 18. The Provider will respond within 30 days.
Cookies and analytics. The website uses a privacy-first, cookieless analytics service to record aggregate visit and page-view counts. It sets no cookies, does not fingerprint devices, and collects no personally identifiable information, so no cookie-consent banner is required. The website uses no advertising pixels or cross-site trackers. Theme preference and admin-session state are stored only in the visitor’s own browser using localStorage and never transmitted off-device.
Security. The Provider uses industry-standard security practices including TLS in transit, encrypted-at-rest storage, secrets stored in a managed secrets manager, and the principle of least privilege for API tokens. No system is perfectly secure; the Provider does not warrant absolute security but will use commercially reasonable efforts to protect Client data.
11. Warranties & disclaimers
The Provider warrants that the Services will be performed in a professional and workmanlike manner consistent with industry standards. The Provider further warrants that Deliverables, at the time of delivery, will materially conform to the description in the Statement of Work.
No outcome warranty. The Provider does not warrant any specific business outcome, financial result, conversion rate, time savings, or other performance metric. Outcomes depend on many factors outside the Provider’s control, including the Client’s execution, market conditions, and third-party platform behaviour.
Third-party platforms. The Services often depend on third-party platforms (cloud, CRM, AI, automation, and similar). The Provider is not responsible for outages, API changes, pricing changes, deprecations, or other actions of these third parties.
Except for the warranties expressly stated in this section, all Services are provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including without limitation warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.
12. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:
- Neither party shall be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, or business interruption, arising out of or in connection with the Services or these Terms, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
- The Provider’s total aggregate liability for any and all claims arising out of or in connection with an Engagement shall not exceed the total fees paid by the Client to the Provider for that Engagement in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or US $5,000, whichever is greater.
The limitations in this Section 12 do not apply to: (a) the Provider’s intentional misconduct or gross negligence; (b) breach of Section 9 (Confidentiality); (c) the parties’ indemnification obligations under Section 13; or (d) any liability that cannot lawfully be limited.
13. Indemnification
By the Client. The Client will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Provider against any third-party claims arising from: (a) the Client’s misuse of the Deliverables; (b) the Client’s combination of the Deliverables with materials not provided by the Provider; (c) materials, data, or instructions the Client supplied that infringe a third party’s rights; or (d) the Client’s breach of these Terms.
By the Provider. The Provider will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Client against any third-party claims that the Deliverables, as originally delivered and used within the agreed scope, directly infringe the third party’s copyright, trademark, or patent rights. The Provider’s indemnification obligation is limited to the Provider’s actual aggregate liability cap stated in Section 12.
The indemnifying party’s obligations are conditional on the indemnified party: (i) promptly notifying the indemnifying party of the claim; (ii) granting the indemnifying party sole control of the defence and settlement; and (iii) cooperating reasonably in the defence at the indemnifying party’s expense.
14. Termination
Termination for convenience. Either party may terminate an Engagement for convenience by giving the other party at least fourteen (14) days’ written notice. On termination for convenience, the Client owes the Provider for all work performed up to the termination date, plus any non-cancellable third-party costs already committed on the Client’s behalf.
Termination for cause. Either party may terminate an Engagement immediately if the other party materially breaches these Terms or the Statement of Work and fails to cure the breach within ten (10) business days of written notice.
Survival. Sections covering Intellectual Property (8), Confidentiality (9), Data & Privacy (10), Warranties & Disclaimers (11), Limitation of Liability (12), Indemnification (13), Governing Law & Disputes (16), and this Section 14 survive termination.
15. Force majeure
Neither party is liable for any failure or delay in performance to the extent caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including: natural disasters; war, terrorism, civil unrest; pandemic, epidemic, or public-health emergency; widespread internet, electricity, or telecommunications outages; government action or sanctions; or actions of upstream service providers (cloud platforms, payment processors). The affected party will give prompt written notice and use reasonable efforts to resume performance.
16. Governing law & disputes
These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. The parties may, by mutual written agreement in a Statement of Work, designate a different governing law and jurisdiction for a specific Engagement.
Informal resolution first. Before initiating any formal proceeding, the parties agree to attempt in good faith to resolve any dispute through written correspondence and, if helpful, a videoconference between authorised representatives within 30 days of the dispute notice.
Arbitration option. Unresolved disputes may be referred to binding arbitration administered by the Indian Council of Arbitration under its applicable rules. The seat of arbitration will be New Delhi, India, conducted in English, by a single arbitrator agreed upon by the parties or appointed by the institution. Either party may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction for interim or injunctive relief without first exhausting arbitration.
Small claims. Either party may bring an individual action in a small-claims court of competent jurisdiction for claims within that court’s scope, instead of pursuing arbitration.
17. Modifications
The Provider may update these Terms from time to time. The updated version will be posted at nextautomationengineer.com/terms with a new “Last updated” date. Material changes will be communicated to active Clients by email at least 14 days before they take effect for that Client’s open Engagement. Continued use of the Services after the effective date of an update constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.
For any Engagement, the version of these Terms in effect on the date of the relevant Statement of Work governs that Engagement, unless the parties agree otherwise in writing.
18. Contact
For any questions about these Terms, including data-rights requests under Section 10, please email:
Sumit Bansal · Automation Engineer
sumit@nextautomationengineer.com