Service Level Agreement
Last updated: 27 March 2026
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1. Scope
This Service Level Agreement ("SLA") applies to Enterprise plan subscribers of the Assayed platform (assayed.co.uk). Standard and Starter plan customers receive best-effort support without contractual uptime guarantees.
This SLA forms part of the agreement between Cairnstone Consultancy Ltd ("we", "us", "our") and the Enterprise customer ("you", "your") and should be read in conjunction with our Terms of Service. Terms not defined herein shall have the meaning set out in the Terms of Service.
2. Service Availability
Assayed commits to 99.5% monthly uptime for the production API and web application. Uptime is calculated as:
Uptime % = (total minutes - downtime minutes) / total minutes × 100
Scheduled maintenance windows, communicated at least 48 hours in advance via email to affected customers, are excluded from downtime calculations. Emergency security patches may be implemented with minimal or no advance notice. We will endeavour to schedule routine maintenance outside UK business hours where practicable.
"Downtime" means the loss of external connectivity to the production environment for a continuous period of five minutes or more, as measured by our internal monitoring systems.
3. Support Response Times
Response times are measured during UK business hours (Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00 GMT/BST), excluding Scottish public holidays.
| Plan | Standard Issues | Critical Issues |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | 24-hour response | 4-hour response |
| Standard | 48-hour response | 48-hour response |
| Starter | Best-effort email support | |
A "response" means an acknowledgement from our support team with an initial assessment of the issue, not necessarily a full resolution. Resolution times depend on the severity and complexity of the issue.
4. Incident Classification
| Severity | Definition |
|---|---|
| Critical | Service completely unavailable for a continuous period of five minutes or more. |
| High | A major feature is unavailable, such as assessment creation, report generation, or data export. |
| Medium | Degraded performance or a minor feature is unavailable, but core functionality remains operational. |
| Low | Cosmetic issues, documentation errors, or minor UI inconsistencies with no functional impact. |
Incident severity is determined by Assayed in its reasonable discretion, taking into account the number of affected users and the impact on core business operations.
5. Service Credits
If monthly uptime falls below 99.5%, Enterprise customers whose accounts are in good standing (no overdue invoices) are eligible for service credits as follows:
| Monthly Uptime | Service Credit |
|---|---|
| 99.0% to 99.4% | 10% of monthly fee |
| 98.0% to 98.9% | 20% of monthly fee |
| Below 98.0% | 30% of monthly fee (maximum) |
Claiming Credits
Service credits must be requested in writing to support@assayed.co.uk within 30 days of the incident that gave rise to the claim. The request must include the date, approximate time, and duration of the downtime experienced, along with any supporting evidence such as screenshots or error logs.
Credit Application
Approved credits are applied to the next billing cycle. Credits cannot be exchanged for cash, transferred to another account, or carried over beyond one billing cycle. The maximum aggregate credit for any calendar month shall not exceed 30% of that month's subscription fee. To be eligible for service credits, the customer's account must be in good standing with no overdue payments at the time of the request.
6. Exclusions
This SLA does not apply to downtime or issues caused by:
- Scheduled maintenance communicated at least 48 hours in advance.
- Force majeure events, including but not limited to natural disasters, acts of war, government actions, pandemics, or widespread internet outages.
- Issues arising from the customer's own network, equipment, software, or internet connectivity.
- Delays or failures caused by the unavailability of government registries or third-party data providers and infrastructure upon which Assayed depends, including but not limited to Supabase, Companies House API, T2A, and Vercel.
- Beta, preview, or experimental features that are clearly labelled as such.
- Use of the Service in violation of the Acceptable Use Policy or the Terms of Service.
- DNS propagation delays or domain registrar issues outside our control.
7. Remedies
Service credits described in Section 5 are the sole and exclusive remedy for any failure by Assayed to meet the service levels defined in this SLA.
This SLA does not modify, amend, or supersede any provision of the Terms of Service, including the limitation of liability provisions contained therein.
8. Monitoring and Reporting
Service availability is monitored continuously via automated internal health checks. Assayed maintains internal logs of all downtime events, including timestamps, duration, root cause, and remediation steps.
Enterprise customers may request a monthly uptime report by emailing support@assayed.co.uk. Reports will be provided within 10 business days of the request and will cover the preceding calendar month.
9. Modifications
Assayed reserves the right to modify this SLA with at least 30 days' written notice to affected Enterprise customers. Material changes will be communicated via email to the primary account contact.
Changes that improve service levels or increase credit entitlements may take effect immediately. Changes that reduce service commitments will not take effect until the start of the next subscription renewal period, unless the customer consents to earlier application.