End-User License Agreement for ServeWay™ Ministry Management Software
Version 1.0 · Effective October 7, 2026
These are the same License Terms everywhere they appear: the installer and first-run screen, the About/Licenses screen in the app, the ServeWay™ User Manual, and the License Terms page on serveway.org.
Plain-language summary
This box is a quick guide. The numbered terms below are the actual agreement. If the two ever seem to differ, the numbered terms control.
- One-time price, lifetime license. A ServeWay™ license costs $99.00 US once. It keeps working even after your support ends.
- First year of support included. The $99.00 includes one year of tier 1 support and updates plus 2 hours of tier 2 (live person) support. After that, renewing is optional: $49.00 US per year, or $99.00 US per year with 4 hours of tier 2 support.
- Try it free first. The free trial lasts 45 days from installation. Because you can try everything first, purchases are not refundable except where the law requires it or as described in Section 19 (if ServeWay™ is discontinued).
- Your data stays with you. Your church’s data lives in a MySQL or MariaDB database you choose: on a church PC, on your own server, or, if you pick Hosted by ServeWay™, on our server. We do not sell member data. Activation sends only your church name, your church phone number if you leave that box checked, and license information.
- Support requires paid support. All support (the automated tier 1 phone voice agent, the live tier 2 person, phone, email, and chat) is available only while you have paid support. The User Manual is always available, in the app and on our website.
- Outside services are your own accounts. Twilio, Brevo, AI providers, and the other optional services bill you directly at their own rates, with no ServeWay™ markup, under their own terms. AI answers can be wrong, so a person should check them.
- You are responsible for backups, getting your members’ consent before you text, call, or email them, and keeping member data secure.
- Notifications are not emergency alerts. They only work while a ServeWay™ PC is running, and we cannot guarantee any message is delivered.
- No guarantees, limited liability. ServeWay™ is provided “as is.” If something goes wrong, our liability is limited to what you paid us in the last 12 months.
- If we ever stop, you get at least 60 days’ notice, you keep using your licensed version and your data, and we will make reasonable efforts to release a final update or license file so it keeps working.
1.1 Who we are. ServeWay™ is made and sold by Paul Franklin, a sole proprietor doing business as ServeWay™ (“we,” “us,” “our,” or “ServeWay™ Staff”).
1.2 Who you are. “You” means the church, ministry, or other organization that installs or uses ServeWay™, and the people who use it for that organization.
1.3 Agreeing to these terms. By selecting “I agree” during installation, or by installing or using ServeWay™, you agree to these terms. If you are accepting for a church, you confirm that you are allowed to do so on its behalf. If you do not agree, do not install or use ServeWay™.
1.4 Related documents. These documents are part of this agreement: the ServeWay™ Privacy Policy, and the Third-Party Software Licenses document (see Section 16). Current prices are listed on the Pricing page at serveway.org.
1.5 Pre-release versions. Some versions may be labeled “beta” or “preview.” Those versions may have more bugs than usual and may change without notice. Everything in these terms still applies to them.
3.1 What you get. When you buy a license and follow these terms, we give you a lifetime, non-exclusive right to install and use ServeWay™ for your church’s own ministry and administrative work. “Lifetime” means the license does not expire. It lasts as long as you follow these terms, even if your paid support ends.
3.2 How many computers. One license covers one church (one organization), on any number of Windows PCs that the church owns or controls, including touchscreen kiosks, all using that church’s ServeWay™ database.
3.3 Moving to a new computer. If you replace a computer, contact support and we will help you move ServeWay™ and your license to the new PC. This help is part of support, so it is available while you have a paid support period. You may always move ServeWay™ yourself by following the User Manual.
3.4 What the license is not. You are buying a license to use the Software, not ownership of the Software. We keep all rights we do not expressly give you in these terms.
3.5 Transferring your license. You may not sell, rent, lend, or sublicense ServeWay™ to anyone else. If your church merges with or is taken over by another church, you may transfer the license to that church by telling us in writing.
4.1 Included with a new license (one-time price of $99.00 US):
4.2 Optional yearly renewals. After the first year, renewing support is optional. You may keep using your lifetime license without renewing. Renewal options are:
4.3 Tier 2 hours. Tier 2 time is counted in 15-minute steps. Unused tier 2 hours end when the paid support period they came with ends and do not carry over.
4.4 Late renewals. You may renew at any time. A new paid support period starts on the date you pay. You do not have to pay for the time you were not renewed.
4.5 Prices. Prices are in US dollars. Any sales tax that applies will be shown before you pay. Current prices are on the Pricing page. Prices for future purchases and renewals may change (see Section 18), but a price change never affects a license you have already bought.
5.1 You may try ServeWay™ free for 45 days from installation, with full features. The trial starts on first run.
5.2 When the 45-day trial ends without a purchase, ServeWay™ asks for a license before it opens again. Your data stays in your own database. Buying a license lets you keep using that installation.
5.3 Support during the trial is limited to the User Manual unless we choose to offer more.
6.1 Your license file. After you buy, we email your license file to the email address you gave us. You enter it in the app under Enter License. Keep your license email in a safe place.
6.2 What activation sends. When you activate a ServeWay™ license, the Software sends ServeWay™ Staff only:
None of your church’s member or ministry data is sent.
6.3 How we use it. We use this information only to manage your license and to recognize your church when you contact support. The phone number is only a convenience to help us recognize your call. It is not proof of who is calling. See the Privacy Policy for details.
6.4 Do not get around the license. Do not share, alter, or copy license files for other organizations, or try to get around the trial or license checks.
7.1 Support needs a paid support period. All support for ServeWay™, by phone, email, or chat, tier 1 or tier 2, is available only while your church has a paid support period in place. That includes the first year that comes with your license. When your paid support period ends, support and updates stop until you renew. Your license keeps working.
7.2 Tier 1 support. Tier 1 is an automated phone voice agent. It answers from the ServeWay™ User Manual. It is not a person, and it can be wrong or incomplete. Its answers are for information only. Check important answers against the User Manual, or ask for tier 2.
7.3 Tier 2 support. Tier 2 is a live person. Tier 2 time comes from the hours included with your license or renewal.
7.4 Hours. Live (tier 2) support is available 8 AM to 6 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, except major holidays.
7.5 Checking who is calling. To protect your church, we will ask for your support number (a random number we email to you, for example SW-4827-9153) and your church name before we help with your account.
7.6 Updates. During a paid support period, you may download and install updates we release. We decide what goes into updates and when they are released. After your paid support period ends, you may keep using the last version you installed.
7.7 The User Manual is always available. Even without paid support, you keep access to the ServeWay™ User Manual, both in the app and as a current version on our website.
7.8 What support does not cover. Support covers ServeWay™ itself. It does not include fixing your Windows PCs, network, printers, database server, website hosting, or third-party services, or entering your data for you. We may help with these at our discretion.
8.1 You own your data. Your church owns its data. Nothing in these terms gives us any ownership of it.
8.2 Where your data lives. You choose one of three places. This PC stores the data in MariaDB on a church computer. Church’s own server stores it on a database host your church runs. Hosted by ServeWay™ stores that church’s ServeWay™ database on our server. The church website keeps its own WordPress database. The ServeWay™ plugin can use a separate login on the ServeWay™ database. That login has only the grants the plugin needs. It is not the login the Windows app uses. We do not sell member data.
8.3 Sending us information for support. Please do not send us member data when asking for help. If you choose to share a screen or a file that contains member data, we will use it only to help with your support request and will make reasonable efforts to delete any copy we receive once the request is closed.
8.4 Your responsibilities. You decide who can sign in to ServeWay™ and what each person may do. You are responsible for your own passwords, database password, API keys, and user permissions, and for following any laws and church policies that apply to your data.
8.5 Sensitive records. ServeWay™ can store sensitive records you enter, such as children’s check-in records, allergies, medical notes, authorized pickups, and giving records. You are responsible for deciding what to store, getting any permission needed (for example, from a parent or guardian), and protecting it. ServeWay™ is not designed as a medical-records system, and we are not a HIPAA business associate.
8.6 Hosted by ServeWay™. This option is separate from the ServeWay™ license. The price is $5 a month, billed once a year ($60) through Stripe, and the charge starts after the 45-day trial. Hosting is free during that trial. The database runs on our Linux server. Connections require TLS and check the certificate name hosted.serveway.org. The database files are encrypted at rest. Member fields are encrypted on the church PC before they are stored, so ServeWay staff cannot read names, phones, emails, addresses, notes, gifts, or amounts. Record ids, foreign keys, and dates stay readable. The church key stays on the church PC and in a recovery file the church keeps. It is never sent to ServeWay. The nightly backup is an encrypted file around that field ciphertext. Staff who can open the backup file still cannot read the member fields. The Windows app and the website plugin use different logins. We take a nightly encrypted backup while the subscription is paid. From the app, an administrator can restore a backup. We copy it into a new database and switch only when that copy works. The previous copy is kept for 7 days. If you do not buy by day 45, the database becomes read-only and we email a link to download your data. That email does not attach the backup. A reminder email is sent at day 52. We delete that database on day 60. If a paid subscription lapses, restore is turned off. After 30 days the database is read-only. An export remains available. After 90 days we delete that church’s hosted database. We keep the billing record for 7 years and then delete it. Write to support@serveway.org.
8.7 Data retention after hosted service ends. After a hosted service ends or an account is closed, ServeWay™ keeps that hosted data (hosted databases and hosted church websites) for 45 days in a read-only state, then deletes or anonymizes it. ServeWay™ never erases data on your own computers, or data on your own hosting or a third-party host.
9.1 Backups. If you chose This PC or Church’s own server, you are responsible for backups. Back up that database regularly and keep a copy somewhere other than the computer it runs on. If you chose Hosted by ServeWay™, we take the nightly backups described in Section 8.6 while the subscription is paid. ServeWay™ also has features for saving your settings to a file (see the User Manual). Use them, and test that you can restore.
9.2 System needs. ServeWay™ is supported only on Windows 11 Pro. Other versions and editions of Windows are not supported, even if ServeWay™ seems to run on them. You are responsible for your computers, Windows updates, security software, network, and database server. Future versions of Windows, MySQL, MariaDB, or other software may stop working with older versions of ServeWay™.
10.1 A watcher must be running. Website forms and approved notification email, text, and calls are sent only while a watcher is running. That watcher is a ServeWay™ PC, unless you turn on Send notifications from ServeWay™. That switch is available only when the church database is Hosted by ServeWay™, or when our server has reached the church’s own database on the internet. It is not available for This PC or for a private address. When the switch is on, our server reads the forms mailbox and sends the approved notification email, text, and calls. A call sends the message text to your Twilio flow. We do not upload a voice recording. A ServeWay™ PC does not have to stay on for those sends. Serving reminders stay a button on the Notifications screen and still run on the PC where you press that button. When the switch is off, keep one ServeWay™ PC turned on. A UPS battery backup is recommended for that PC. Paid support covers questions about this.
10.2 No delivery guarantee. We cannot guarantee that any message will be sent, delivered, or delivered on time. Delivery depends on your PC, power, internet connection, settings, and third-party services such as Twilio and Brevo.
10.3 Not for emergencies. ServeWay™ is not an emergency alert system. Do not rely on it for emergency, safety, or time-critical warnings. In an emergency, call 911.
11.1 Optional services. ServeWay™ can connect to optional third-party services, including:
11.2 Your accounts, your bills. If you use any of these, you sign up with the provider directly, and the provider bills you directly at its own rates. ServeWay™ does not add any markup and does not include those fees in the license price.
11.3 Their terms apply. Each provider’s own terms and privacy policy apply to your use of its service. We are not responsible for third-party services, including their outages, changes, price changes, account decisions, or content. A provider may change or end its service in a way that stops a ServeWay™ feature from working.
11.4 Keep your keys private. API keys, tokens, and passwords for these services belong to your church. Keep them private.
12.1 Off unless you turn them on. AI features use your church’s own API key with the AI provider you choose. Each AI feature has its own on/off switch: Ask ServeWay™ help, AI check reading, and Grok Imagine images.
12.2 Where AI requests go. When you use an AI feature, the information it needs (for example, your question or a check image) is sent from your PC to the AI provider under your church’s account. It is not sent to ServeWay™ Staff. The provider’s terms and privacy policy apply.
12.3 AI can be wrong. AI output can be inaccurate, incomplete, or inappropriate. A person should review AI output before relying on it. This matters most for AI check reading: always have a person confirm amounts, names, and funds before saving or reporting financial records.
13.1 You agree not to use ServeWay™ to:
13.2 Consent is your responsibility. Your church is responsible for getting and keeping proof of consent from the people you contact, and for honoring opt-outs. That includes following the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) for texts and calls, the CAN-SPAM Act for email, any similar state laws, and your providers’ rules (for example, Twilio’s and Brevo’s messaging policies). When someone replies STOP or unsubscribes, stop contacting them that way.
13.3 Keep member data secure. Give each person only the permissions they need, use strong passwords, keep your PCs and database protected, and remove access for people who leave.
14.1 Ownership. ServeWay™, including its code, design, User Manual, and documentation, is owned by Paul Franklin and is protected by copyright and other laws. © 2026 Paul Franklin.
14.2 No source code. Your license does not include source code. The ServeWay™ source code and the Programmer’s Reference are sold separately, and only with a signed non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Quotes for customization are available on request.
14.3 Restrictions. Except where the law allows it even though these terms say otherwise, you may not:
ServeWay™ is an unregistered trademark of Paul Franklin. These terms do not give you any right to use it, except to refer to the Software accurately. All other names and logos (for example Windows, Microsoft 365, PowerPoint, MySQL, MariaDB, Twilio, Brevo, Grok, Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Google Calendar, YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, MUX.com, WordPress, OBS, and OpenLP) belong to their owners. Mentioning them does not mean those owners endorse ServeWay™.
ServeWay™ includes open-source and other third-party components. Their licenses are listed in the separate Third-Party Software Licenses document, which you can open from the Licenses button in the app’s Help window and on our website. Those licenses apply to those components. Nothing in these terms limits any rights those licenses give you.
17.1 No refunds after purchase. Because you can use the full product free for 45 days before buying, license and renewal purchases are not refundable, except:
17.2 Chargebacks. If you dispute a charge with your bank instead of contacting us first, we may pause support until the matter is resolved.
18.1 Features. We may add, change, or remove features in future versions. We are not required to keep any particular feature in future versions. Changes in an update do not affect a version you already installed unless you install the update.
18.2 Prices. We may change prices for future purchases and renewals. A price change never affects a license you have already bought, or a paid support period you have already paid for.
18.3 These terms. We may update these terms. For changes that affect existing customers, we will give at least 30 days’ notice by email to the address on file and on our website before the change takes effect. Updated terms apply to purchases, renewals, and updates after they take effect. A change to these terms will not take away your right to keep using a version you already licensed.
ServeWay™ is made by a small, independent developer. We hope to support it for many years, but we want you to know ahead of time what happens if we ever have to stop. Because ServeWay™ runs on your own computers and your data is in your own database, stopping our services does not shut down your church’s software.
19.1 At least 60 days’ notice. Before we stop providing updates, support, or license activation for ServeWay™, we will give at least 60 days’ notice. We will send it by email to the address on file for your license and post it on our website. Please keep your email address up to date with us. If something outside our control (such as serious illness or the death of the owner) makes 60 days’ notice impossible, we, or someone acting for us, will give as much notice as we reasonably can.
19.2 You keep your licensed version. Your lifetime license does not end because we stop. You may keep using the version you licensed indefinitely under these terms. (We cannot promise that future versions of Windows or other software will keep working with it.)
19.3 Your data stays in your database. If your church hosts its own database, your data is already in your own database, not with us, so there is nothing to retrieve from us. If your church uses ServeWay™ database hosting, we will give you a full encrypted export of your database before service ends, so you can move it to your own server. You can keep using it, back it up, or move it to other software with standard MySQL or MariaDB tools.
19.4 Keeping licensed copies working. Before we shut down license activation, we will make reasonable efforts to release a final update or license file that lets existing licensed copies keep working without online activation. This is a good-faith effort, not a guarantee.
19.5 Prepaid support. If we stop paid support before the end of a paid support period you have already paid for, we will offer a prorated refund for the unused time. The refund is prorated by full unused months. For the first year included with a new license, the support portion is valued at $49.00 US. Example: if you paid $49.00 for a renewal year and 6 full months are left, the refund would be $24.50.
19.6 The User Manual. The copy of the User Manual in your app stays there. We will keep the current User Manual available to download from our website for at least the notice period, and we intend to keep it available after that if we reasonably can. We recommend saving a copy.
19.7 Third-party services. Your accounts with third-party services belong to your church and are not affected by our decision. Some features may stop working later if those providers change their systems.
19.8 If someone takes over ServeWay™. If ServeWay™ is sold or handed over to another person or company instead of being discontinued, we will require the new owner to honor existing lifetime licenses.
20.1 We hope ServeWay™ serves your church well, and the 45-day free trial lets you test it first. But we cannot promise it will be perfect.
20.2 SERVEWAY™, THE USER MANUAL, SUPPORT ANSWERS (INCLUDING ANSWERS FROM THE AUTOMATED VOICE AGENT), AND ALL AI OUTPUT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR REQUIRED BY LAW, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT PROMISE THAT SERVEWAY™ WILL BE ERROR-FREE OR UNINTERRUPTED, THAT IT WILL NOT LOSE DATA, THAT ANY MESSAGE WILL BE DELIVERED, OR THAT ANY THIRD-PARTY SERVICE WILL WORK.
20.3 Some states do not allow certain warranties to be excluded. In those states, the exclusions above apply only as far as the law allows.
21.1 TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST DATA, LOST DONATIONS OR REVENUE, MISSED OR LATE MESSAGES, OR THE COST OF REPLACEMENT SOFTWARE, EVEN IF WE WERE TOLD THEY WERE POSSIBLE.
21.2 TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATED TO SERVEWAY™ OR THESE TERMS IS LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US FOR SERVEWAY™ IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT THAT LED TO THE CLAIM.
21.3 Some states do not allow these limits. In those states, they apply only as far as the law allows.
If someone makes a claim against us because of how your church used ServeWay™ (for example, texting or calling people without consent, or misusing member data), you agree to cover our reasonable costs of that claim, to the extent the law allows.
23.1 By you. You may stop using ServeWay™ at any time by uninstalling it. Ending your use does not entitle you to a refund except as described in Section 17.
23.2 By us, for breach. If you seriously break these terms, we may end your license. Unless the breach is copying or sharing the Software without permission, getting around the license, or illegal use, we will first tell you in writing and give you 30 days to fix it.
23.3 What happens then. If your license ends, you must stop using and uninstall ServeWay™. Your data is still yours and stays in your database. Sections 8, 14, 15, and 20 through 25 continue to apply.
24.1 Talk to us first. If you have a problem, please contact us first. Most issues can be solved with a conversation. Both sides agree to try in good faith to work it out for at least 30 days before going to court.
24.2 Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any lawsuit about these terms must be brought in the state or federal courts serving Jackson County, Georgia, unless the law requires otherwise. Either side may use small claims court if the claim qualifies.
25.1 Entire agreement. These terms, the Privacy Policy, and the Third-Party Software Licenses document are the whole agreement between you and us about ServeWay™. They replace earlier drafts and conversations about the same subject.
25.2 Severability. If any part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies, and that part will be applied as fully as the law allows.
25.3 No waiver. If we do not enforce a term right away, we can still enforce it later.
25.4 Transfer by us. We may transfer this agreement to a business that takes over ServeWay™, including an LLC that Paul Franklin forms. That business must honor existing licenses (see Section 19.8). You may transfer it only as Section 3.5 allows.
25.5 Events beyond our control. We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by things outside our reasonable control, such as power or internet outages, natural disasters, illness, or problems with third-party services.
25.6 Notices. We will send notices to the email address on file for your license. You can send notices to the email address below.
ServeWay™ Staff
© 2026 Paul Franklin. ServeWay™ is a trademark of Paul Franklin. ServeWay™ License Terms, Version 1.0, effective October 7, 2026.