These Terms and Conditions take effect from the 31st July 2026.
These Terms and Conditions explain how Sarah Swinburn Virtual Assistant provides services to clients. In particular, this includes booking services, as well as payment terms, confidentiality, cancellations and intellectual property.
By booking any of our services, you agree to these Terms and Conditions.
These Terms and Conditions apply when you use the Services we provide through our website https://www.sarahswinburnva.co.uk. Therefore, please read these Terms and Conditions carefully before using our services.
For the purposes of these Terms and Conditions:
- Site means https://www.sarahswinburnva.co.uk
- Services means the virtual assistant services offered through the Site.
- We, us, my, and our refer to Sarah Swinburn Virtual Assistant.
- You and Client refer to the user purchasing services.
Furthermore, we reserve the right to update these Terms and Conditions from time to time.
Booking Details
The following section explains how bookings are confirmed and when work can begin.
After the Discovery Call, we will discuss and agree the services you require. We will send you a Booking Form outlining the agreed services.
We will discuss ad-hoc or retainer fees during the Discovery Call.
Work will begin once:
- You have signed all required paperwork, and
- We have received the agreed deposit.
For ad-hoc work, you must pay an initial deposit of £100 before we begin any work. We will refund any unused time to the Client.
Hours of Work
Working hours are as follows:
Monday to Friday
9:30 am to 5:00 pm
Closed on Bank Holidays and during the Easter and Christmas holidays.
We will charge our out of hours rate for requests made outside of these hours.
We charge £40 per hour for work requested outside of our normal hours.
In addition, we charge £45 per hour for urgent work requested with less than 24 hours’ notice.
Where you choose ad-hoc support, we will record and track the time spent on your Services using a time-tracking application. We will send you a monthly time report to show the hours worked per month.
Where you choose a Retainer package, we will agree your guaranteed hours and availability with you. We will confirm the agreement in writing.
There is a minimum period of one hour per month.
Invoicing
At the end of each month, we will prepare a time report and send it with your invoice. We will email your invoice on the 1st of each month. If the 1st falls on a weekend, we will email it on the first working day.
We round invoices up or round down to the nearest 15 minutes.
Payment Terms
This section explains when invoices are issued and when payment is due.
Please make all payments by BACS or bank transfer within 7 days of the date of the invoice.
We provide our bank details on the invoice. Please ensure the invoice number is included when sending a payment.
If you do not make payment within 7 days, we reserve the right to stop work until we receive payment. We will apply late payment interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate.
If you do not pay an invoice by the due date, we may charge a £10 administration fee to cover reasonable costs associated with pursuing overdue payment.
You must pay for Retainer packages in advance. We will begin work once we receive payment.
Ad-Hoc and Retainer Packages
We provide ad-hoc work on a monthly basis and track the time spent on each task.
At the end of the month, we will prepare a time report and send it with your invoice. We round invoices up or down to the nearest 15 minutes.
Retainer packages begin on the first working day of the month. However, if your Retainer package begins part way through a month, we will calculate the hours for the remaining period. We will then charge the full monthly rate from the following month.
We do not carry unused hours forward to the following month, and we do not provide a monetary refund for unused hours.
If you use almost all of your allocated hours before the end of the month, we will notify you. We will discuss the available options with you. Subject to our availability, we can then agree how to continue the work.
We or the Client may give one month’s written notice if either party wishes to terminate the contract. We will invoice the Client for any work completed during the notice period that has not already been paid for.
If you wish to change from a Retainer package to Ad-Hoc support, please provide written notice. We will prepare a new Booking Form outlining the new agreement and send it to the Client for signing.
Confidentiality and Data Protection
Protecting your information is important to us. This section explains how confidential information is handled.
We and the Client agree to treat all information as strictly confidential, in line with current UK GDPR guidance (gov.uk) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
We are registered with the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office). You can find the Data regulator contact details on the Information Commissioner’s Office website. Our registered number is ZB654173.
Please refer to our Privacy Policy for information about how we collect, use and store personal data, including how long we retain it.
Responsibilities
The Client must provide us with accurate data and information so that we can provide services such as Data Entry, Audio Transcription, Copy Typing, Website Maintenance, and payment processing.
If we provide Proofreading or Editing services, you remain responsible for the final content.
We are not responsible for how the Client uses any document we produce or edit.
We accept no responsibility for plagiarised data, information or documents that the Client provides. We also reserve the right to return any such material to the Client.
Intellectual Property
Written content, which includes text on the Site and any blog posts are not to be copied or plagiarised.
We use original images on the Site wherever possible. Where we create images using AI tools or obtain them from image provider websites, we attribute them where required.
Users of the Site must not copy or use content, photographs, images, social media or blogs as their own work.
We retain ownership of all intellectual property related to any applicable copyrights or proprietary rights. Other product and company names that may be mentioned on the Site, blogs or social media may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Insurance
We hold Professional Indemnity insurance and will provide the policy details upon written request.