Service Terms

The deal between me and your lodge, in plain words: what I provide, what it costs, what your lodge is responsible for, and how you leave with everything.

Last updated 24 August 2026 · Questions to privacy@lodgemadesimple.com.

• 1. Who this agreement is between
• 2. What I provide
• 3. Your lodge's records — whose they are, who answers for them
• 4. Officer sign-ins
• 5. Fair use
• 6. Price and payment
• 7. Leaving
• 8. Continuity
• 9. Care, promises and liability
• 10. Changes to these terms
• 11. Governing law
• 12. Questions

1. Who this agreement is between

These terms are an agreement between me — the brother who runs LodgeMadeSimple, described on the Privacy page — and your lodge as a body. Not the Secretary personally, not the Treasurer personally: the lodge.

There's no form to sign and no box to tick. The lodge agrees to these terms by asking me to set it up on the software and by paying its first invoice, whichever comes first. If your Grand Lodge has signed its own agreement with me covering your lodge, that agreement comes first wherever the two differ.

In this page, "the software" means the service at admin.lodgemadesimple.com; "officers" means the brethren your lodge has asked me to give a sign-in; and "your records" means everything your lodge puts into it.

2. What I provide

• The software itself — members, dues, meetings, accounts, receipts, notice papers and reports, as described on the website — for one lodge, with as many members, officers and records as the lodge genuinely has.
• Setup, done by hand, by me: your lodge, its officers' sign-ins, and help getting your existing records in.
• Support by email, from the person who wrote the software, at no extra charge.
• Safe keeping of your records exactly as the Privacy page describes — Australian hosting, encryption, continuous backups, full audit log. That page is part of these terms.

3. Your lodge's records — whose they are, who answers for them

This is the clause that matters most, so let me be plain about the division of responsibility:

• Your records belong to your lodge. I claim no ownership of anything your officers put in, and I use it only to run and support the software.
• Your lodge decides what is recorded, and stands behind it. By using the software, the lodge confirms that it's entitled to keep the records it keeps here — its register of members, its attendance, its accounts — just as it was entitled to keep them in the minute book and the Treasurer's ledger before. Members' details go in on the lodge's authority, under its own constitution and by-laws, not on mine.
• Officers act for the lodge. When a Secretary or Treasurer types something in, they do it on the lodge's behalf. Responsibility for what the records say sits with the lodge as a body — an individual officer doing his honest best for his lodge answers to his lodge, not to me.
• I answer for keeping it safe. Storage, security, backups, and who can see what are my responsibility, and the Privacy page is my word on how that's done.

If a member asks about his details, the path is in section 10 of the Privacy page: the lodge decides what's recorded about its members, and I help either of you see, fix, export or remove it.

4. Officer sign-ins

• I set up sign-ins for the brethren the lodge nominates — usually the Treasurer and Secretary. There is no public sign-up.
• Sign-ins follow the office. At installation, or whenever an officer changes, the lodge tells me and access moves to the incoming brother. Please don't share one sign-in between brethren — it costs nothing to add another, and the lodge's audit log stays true.
• Officers should keep their passwords to themselves and tell me promptly if they suspect a sign-in has been compromised. I'll lock it and sort it out.

5. Fair use

The software is for your lodge's own business. That means: only record people and money your lodge genuinely has dealings with; don't put in records you have no right to hold; don't try to get at another lodge's data or around the software's limits. The per-lodge caps on uploads and AI scans exist so a mistake or a compromised sign-in can't run up damage; if your lodge legitimately hits one, tell me and I'll raise it.

If something is put in that plainly shouldn't be — another organisation's records, unlawful content — I'll tell the lodge and we'll sort it out together. Suspending a lodge is a last resort and hasn't happened yet.

6. Price and payment

• One flat fee per lodge per year, as published on the website at the time — or as agreed in writing with your lodge or your Grand Lodge, which then takes its place. Every feature included; no add-ons, no per-member charges.
• I invoice the lodge once a year, by email, in Australian dollars. Payment is by bank transfer or direct deposit within 30 days — the way lodges already pay their bills. No card details, ever; nothing is collected automatically.
• If the price changes, it changes at your next renewal, and I'll tell the lodge at least 60 days before that. No mid-year surprises.
• If an invoice goes unpaid I'll chase it gently and personally before anything else happens. Access is only ever paused after fair warning, and the lodge's records are never deleted for non-payment — see section 7 for how they come back to you.

7. Leaving

• The lodge can leave at any time, for any reason, by telling me. No notice period, no exit fee.
• Everything comes back to you: a complete export — members, accounts, dues, attendance, documents, the activity log — as spreadsheets and PDFs, free, whether you're leaving or not.
• Then it's deleted, within 14 days of your asking or the end of your subscription, whichever the lodge prefers, as the Privacy page describes.
• Refunds: if the software hasn't been what this page and the website promised, I'll refund the year. I'd rather refund a lodge than keep an unhappy one.

8. Continuity

The fair question to ask a one-man operation, answered in section 12 of the Privacy page and repeated here as a commitment: your lodge can export everything at any time; a second, trusted person holds access so the service keeps running if I can't; and if I ever wind it down, every lodge gets at least 90 days' notice and its complete records before anything is switched off. I'll put that in writing for any lodge or Grand Lodge that asks.

9. Care, promises and liability

I run this with care and I use it for my own lodge's books, so problems get noticed fast. But I won't dress it up as something it isn't:

• I aim for the software to be available whenever your lodge needs it, but I don't promise a formal uptime percentage. If planned maintenance will take it down at a time lodges might notice, I'll email officers beforehand.
• The software keeps your records; it doesn't replace the lodge's own judgment. Your Treasurer's figures, your auditor's review and your returns to Grand Lodge remain the lodge's responsibility — the software just makes them easier.
• Nothing in these terms excludes rights the Australian Consumer Law says can't be excluded. Where the law lets liability be limited, mine is limited to re-supplying the service or refunding what the lodge paid in the last 12 months — and the lodge, in turn, answers for the content of its own records as set out in section 3.

10. Changes to these terms

The same promise as the Privacy page: anything material, I'll email to every lodge's officers before it takes effect, and update the date at the top. Small clarifications I'll just publish here. If a change genuinely isn't acceptable to your lodge, section 7 applies — you can leave with everything, and I'll refund the unused part of the year.

11. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of New South Wales, Australia. If we ever disagree — and I'd consider it a personal failure to let it get that far — we'll talk first, brother to brother, before anyone reaches for anything formal.

12. Questions

Anything unclear, or anything your lodge or Grand Lodge would like put differently in a written agreement: privacy@lodgemadesimple.com.