Things people ask before they sign up — answered honestly

Your customers are yours. You can export the full list, with notes and history, as a CSV any time — including the day you close. After closure, your operational data is deleted within 30 days; backups roll off after 35 days; invoices and other financial records we're legally required to keep stay for 7 years (HMRC). Full detail in our retention policy.

Yes — that's the plan. Proper multi-login (one subscription, multiple users on the same business) is on the build plan, and there are no per-user fees, ever — that's a brand promise. Until then, the supported pattern is one of you handling the admin; we don't recommend password sharing because it's against our terms and weakens the audit trail. The day multi-user lands, no-one's bill goes up.

Not until you turn over £90,000 in a rolling 12 months — the current HMRC threshold. Most solo outdoor operators are well below it. BuildRound tracks your revenue so you can see where you are; an automatic VAT-threshold warning is on the build plan. We can't give tax advice — talk to an accountant before you cross the threshold.

Two reasons. One: BuildRound is for solo operators and small teams, not 50-person crews — the maths works at this price for that audience. Two: a £40 tool you cancel because you can't justify it is worse than a £15 tool you keep. We'd rather have 20,000 users who love us than 2,000 who tolerate us.

Not for you. Existing operators stay on £15 for as long as you stay subscribed. New tiers and new prices for new sign-ups are fair game — squeezing existing customers isn't. The only exception, written into the terms, is statutory pass-through (e.g. if HMRC changes VAT).

For the services BuildRound is built for — lawn mowing, hedge trimming, pressure washing, gutter clearing, garden tidy, fence painting, basic landscaping — no, you don't. You'll want public liability insurance (£60–£200/year) and to register as self-employed with HMRC. That's it for the legal floor. The starting guide walks through both.

Yes — cash is first-class. One tap to mark a job paid in cash and it counts in all your totals: revenue, profit, tax estimates. No judgment, no separate flow. We're built for the actual UK trade, not Silicon Valley.

Card payments go through Stripe and Stripe's fees apply — lowest for standard UK cards, higher for premium and international cards (see Stripe's pricing page for live numbers). BuildRound takes nothing on top of Stripe's fee. Direct Debit (GoCardless) is on the build plan and is much cheaper than cards for regular fortnightly or weekly customers.

No. If a payment fails, Stripe retries it for a few days and we email you so it isn't a surprise. While the retries run, the dashboard is paused (you'll see a "sort your billing" screen, not your jobs), but your data is fully preserved — customers, invoices, history, all of it. Update your card or pay the outstanding invoice and you're straight back in. Nothing is deleted because of one failed payment.

Because that would make BuildRound your competitor instead of your tool. Marketplaces win when operators are interchangeable — yours and the next guy's are the same to them. We're built so you own the customer relationship and we never see the homeowner. Worth £15 a month on its own.

Yes. BuildRound is built for people whose "business software" is currently a paper diary and a WhatsApp thread. Setup takes 10 minutes in a wizard that doesn't ask for a card and doesn't require sign-up to see your booking page. If you can use WhatsApp, you can use this.

If the clipboard works for you, keep it. Most operators switch when one of three things happens: they hit ~15 customers and the diary stops scaling, they want to take cards or DD, or they get burned not knowing which jobs are actually profitable. BuildRound gives you scheduling, invoicing, and £/hr-by-customer in one place for £15. If you don't see the value in 30 days, cancel — we won't chase you.