Last updated: 2026-10-16
These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the Ataru Cesium application and the ataru.io website (the "Service"), operated by Ataru LLC ("Ataru", "we", "us", or "our"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms.
Ataru Cesium is a set of business tools that helps freelancers and independent consultants track time and other billable work, invoice it by the hour, the unit, a fixed fee or a retainer, record what their clients pay, plan for taxes, and organize their financial data. The Service is provided as a convenience tool. It is not a financial institution, accounting service, or tax advisory service. Ataru does not move money, collect payments on your behalf or hold funds; the payments, write-offs and credits you record are your own bookkeeping.
You can try the Service without an account. A demo is a temporary account filled with sample data. It ends after a set time (24 hours unless we change it) and is deleted a day or two after it ends, unless you keep it by signing up, when these Terms apply to it as to any account. While it runs, a demo cannot send email, reach billing, export or delete data, vote on or suggest roadmap items, contact support, or look up addresses.
When you import data, the Service may suggest how the columns of your file match its fields and which incoming names may be ones you already have. Some suggestions come from a machine learning service Google operates for us (Privacy Policy, Third-Party Services). A suggestion is only a proposal: it fills in choices that you review, can change, and confirm before anything is imported. No decision about your data is made automatically. Only the minimum the Privacy Policy describes leaves the Service, and our provider may not use it to train models or keep it. Every import can be completed without suggestions, and you remain responsible for checking what you import (Section 2).
You are solely responsible for:
Where the Service describes features as "unlimited" (for example, time entries, items, invoices, payments, statements, clients, or projects), this means there are no artificial caps enforced by the app on day-to-day usage. We reserve the right to apply reasonable fair-use limits to bulk imports, automated traffic, or activity patterns that materially exceed those of a single freelancer or small business in good faith. If we believe your usage approaches such limits, we will contact you before taking any action.
The Service does not provide financial, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Tax percentages, withholding calculations, and "safe to spend" amounts shown by the Service are based entirely on values you provide. The Service applies your inputs mathematically; it does not validate, recommend, or guarantee their accuracy. Write-off reasons, credit balances and the income method you choose are your own classifications. The tax estimate applies your inputs to your own records under the method you pick; it is not advice on which method applies to you.
You should consult a qualified tax professional or accountant for tax advice. Any reliance on the Service's calculations is at your own risk.
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory. We do not warrant that:
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Ataru LLC, its officers, employees, and affiliates shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to:
In no event shall our total liability exceed the amount you paid us in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim, or $100, whichever is greater.
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Ataru LLC from any claims, losses, or damages arising from your use of the Service, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any third-party rights.
New users receive a free trial of at least 14 days that begins on the date you create your account. No credit card is required to start the trial. At the end of the trial, you must subscribe to continue using the Service. Your data is preserved during and after the trial per Section 8.
The Service is offered on the following subscription plans:
Pricing is available at ataru.io/pricing and is subject to change with notice. Existing subscribers' pricing for the current billing period is locked in at the rate they subscribed under.
By subscribing, you authorize Ataru to automatically charge your payment method on each renewal date until you cancel. Annual subscriptions auto-renew on the anniversary of your initial paid charge. Monthly subscriptions auto-renew each month.
For annual subscriptions, you will receive an email reminder 30 days before renewal and a final reminder 7 days before renewal. You may cancel at any time before the renewal date to avoid the next charge.
If you cancel within 30 days of your first paid charge, you will receive a full refund of that charge. This guarantee applies only to your first paid invoice as a new subscriber, not to subsequent renewals or to re-subscriptions after cancellation.
You may cancel your monthly subscription at any time via the in-app cancellation flow at /cesium/billing/cancel or through the Stripe Customer Portal. Cancellation
takes effect at the end of your current billing period. No partial refund is issued for unused days within a billing period outside the 30-day money-back window
in Section 7.4.
You may cancel your annual subscription at any time via the in-app cancellation flow. If you cancel mid-term and outside the 30-day money-back window:
Refund formula: refund = max(0, paid amount - (months elapsed since charge x current monthly rate))
In plain language: you pay only for the months you used at the equivalent monthly rate. The annual discount applies if and only if you stay the full annual term.
Examples (assuming $48 annual paid, $5 monthly equivalent rate):
If your refund amount is greater than zero, your access ends immediately upon cancellation. If your refund amount is zero (you have used 10+ months of an annual term), your access continues until your anniversary date with no refund issued.
Refunds are issued to your original payment method and typically appear within 5 - 10 business days. Stripe processing fees on the original charge are not returned (Stripe policy); this is borne by us as a cost of providing this refund policy.
You may switch between monthly and annual plans at any time:
The in-app plan-switching flow shows you the exact dollar amounts before you confirm.
If a renewal payment fails, your subscription enters a "past due" state. We retain full access to the Service for 14 days to allow you to update your payment method.
During the past-due period:
If payment is not recovered within 14 days, your subscription is canceled and access is suspended. Your data is preserved per Section 8.
We may suspend or terminate your account at any time for any reason, including violation of these Terms. You may delete your account at any time through the application settings.
When we invite you to try an import source we have not yet checked against real exports, finishing an import from it may offer one free month: 30 more days of your trial, or, if you already pay, a credit equal to one month of the monthly plan, applied to your next invoice. The offer for each source ends once ten accounts have claimed it, each account can claim it once, it has no cash value, and it does not depend on sharing your file. We may end the offer at any time.
While your account is active, we retain your business data for as long as you use the Service.
When your subscription ends (whether by cancellation, payment failure, or expiry), or your free trial ends without a plan, your data is retained for 90 days from the end-of-access date (for a trial, the day after its last day). During this period:
Your data includes time entries, items, invoices, payments, write-offs, credits, other income records, expenses and tax records; all of it follows the same retention and deletion.
Notwithstanding the deletion timelines above, we may retain specific records longer where required to comply with a legal obligation, resolve a dispute, or respond to a lawful request. We retain only what is necessary and for no longer than required.
If you create a sign-in but never finish setting up an account, and it holds no data, we delete it once 30 days have passed since you created it and since you last signed in.
You may request immediate permanent deletion at any time via the account settings page. This is irreversible. We recommend exporting your data first if you wish to retain it.
The Service is a tool, not a system-of-record for your tax compliance. You are responsible for retaining your own business records as required by your jurisdiction (typically several years for tax authority audits). If you cancel and let your data delete after the 90-day retention window, you cannot recover it. Use the export feature to keep your own copies. Statements of account are generated from these records when you ask for them and are not stored separately.
You may request deletion of your personal data at any time, in accordance with applicable data protection laws (including GDPR Article 17 and CCPA). Deletion requests are honored within 30 days; account-holder self-service deletion via account settings is honored immediately.
A client, project or task with tracked time, items or invoices cannot be deleted; you can archive it, which hides it from active views and keeps its history. One with no data can be deleted.
Once you send an invoice (or mark it sent), its amounts, rates, tax, fees and line items are fixed and do not change if you later edit your rates or archive the related client or project. Payments, write-offs and balances you carry forward change what is still owed on an invoice, never its lines.
We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the Service at any time with or without notice. We are not liable for any modification, suspension, or discontinuance.
We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via the Service or email. Your continued use after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict of law principles. The cancellation and refund mechanisms in Section 7 are designed to comply with California Auto-Renewal Law (Bus. & Prof. Code Section 17600 et seq.) and provide clear and conspicuous disclosure of recurring charges.
For questions about these Terms, please use the contact form.