Terms and conditions

Effective date: July 15, 2026

These Terms and Conditions ("Terms") govern your use of Bead — the website, web application, and mobile apps (together, the "Service") that help religious education programs manage registration, family records, scheduling, attendance, communication, and optional payments.

By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you are using Bead on behalf of an organization (such as a congregation), you confirm that you are authorized to accept these Terms for that organization, and "you" includes both you and the organization.

Please also read our Privacy Policy, which explains how information is handled and is part of these Terms.

1. The Service

Bead provides software for running education programs: registration links and forms, household and student records, class scheduling and rosters, attendance, announcements and messaging, notifications, and — if an organization chooses to enable it — online payment collection.

Bead is free to use. There is no subscription, trial period, or paid tier for the software itself. If your organization collects fees online, standard card-processing costs charged by the payment processor apply to those payments (see Section 6). We reserve the right to set reasonable usage limits to protect the Service for everyone.

2. Who may use Bead

  • You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority where you live) to create an account.
  • Accounts are for administrators, teachers, staff, parents, and guardians. Children do not create accounts; information about students is entered and managed by adults, as described in the Privacy Policy.
  • You must provide accurate account information and keep your sign-in credentials secure. You are responsible for activity that occurs under your account. Tell us promptly if you believe your account has been compromised.

3. Organizations, roles, and responsibilities

When an organization uses Bead:

  • Administrators control access. Organization administrators decide who joins the organization, what roles they hold, and what each role can see and do. The organization is responsible for granting access appropriately — especially access to children's records and safety notes.
  • The organization owns its program data. Records entered by or for an organization belong to that organization and its families, not to Bead.
  • The organization is responsible for its data practices. The organization must have the right to collect the information it requests from families, use it only for legitimate program purposes, and honor families' requests to review, correct, or delete their information. Where laws require parental consent for collecting a child's information, obtaining that consent is the organization's responsibility as the party with the direct relationship with its families.
  • Removal of access. Administrators may remove members from their organization at any time. Bead may assist organizations with access changes but does not arbitrate internal disputes within an organization.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

  • Use the Service to violate any law or the rights of others;
  • Access records you are not authorized to see, or attempt to circumvent roles and permissions;
  • Use information obtained through the Service (such as family contact details or rosters) for any purpose outside the legitimate operation of the program — including marketing, solicitation, or harassment;
  • Upload content that is unlawful, infringing, or malicious (including viruses or other harmful code);
  • Probe, scan, disrupt, or overload the Service, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to its systems or other users' data;
  • Misrepresent your identity or affiliation, or create accounts by automated means;
  • Resell or white-label the Service without our written permission.

We may suspend or terminate access for violations of these Terms, and will notify the affected user or organization unless legal or safety reasons prevent it.

5. Your content

"Content" means anything you or your organization submit to the Service — records, registrations, messages, announcements, photos, and files.

  • You keep ownership. Bead claims no ownership of your Content.
  • License to operate the Service. You grant Bead a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide license to host, store, process, transmit, and display your Content solely to provide and maintain the Service — for example, storing records, delivering a message to its recipients, or generating a roster. This license ends when the Content is deleted, except for residual copies in backups that are purged on a rolling schedule.
  • Your responsibility. You are responsible for your Content and must have the necessary rights to submit it. We do not monitor Content, but we may remove Content that violates these Terms or the law.
  • No AI training. We do not use your Content to train artificial-intelligence models.

6. Payments

Organizations may optionally collect registration fees and other program payments through the Service.

  • Stripe processes payments. Online payments are processed by Stripe. Organizations that enable payments must complete Stripe's onboarding and agree to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement and Stripe's terms. Card details are handled by Stripe and never touch Bead's servers.
  • The organization is the merchant. Payments made through the Service are transactions between the paying family and the organization. Bead is not a party to those transactions and is not responsible for the organization's fees, refund decisions, or program obligations. Refund and cancellation policies are set by each organization — ask your program directly.
  • Processing costs. Stripe's standard card-processing fees apply to online payments. The Bead software itself costs nothing.
  • Disputes. Chargebacks and payment disputes are resolved between the family, the organization, and Stripe under Stripe's rules. Organizations are responsible for amounts owed in connection with their transactions, including refunds and chargebacks.
  • Compliance. Organizations must use payments features only for lawful, legitimate program-related charges.

7. Privacy and children's information

Our handling of personal information — including the special care we take with children's records — is described in the Privacy Policy. By using the Service you agree to it. Users with access to children's information agree to use it only for legitimate program purposes and to keep it confidential.

8. Availability and changes to the Service

Bead is built and cared for as an act of service to the community. We work to keep it reliable, and we plan maintenance thoughtfully — but we do not guarantee that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free. We may add, change, or discontinue features. If we ever intend to discontinue the Service as a whole, we will give organizations reasonable advance notice and a way to export their data.

9. Intellectual property

The Service — its software, design, and branding, but not your Content — is owned by Bead and protected by intellectual-property laws. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Service in accordance with these Terms. You may not copy, modify, reverse-engineer, or create derivative works of the Service except where the law permits it regardless of these Terms.

10. Disclaimer of warranties

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. Bead does not warrant that the Service will meet your requirements or be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free.

Bead is a record-keeping and communication tool. It does not replace your organization's own safety procedures: emergency information, allergy notes, and pickup authorizations are only as accurate as what has been entered, and notifications depend on third-party networks that can fail or be delayed. Do not rely on the Service as your sole channel for urgent or emergency communication.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Bead and the people who build and maintain it will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenues, data, or goodwill, arising out of or relating to the Service — even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Bead's total liability for all claims relating to the Service will not exceed one hundred U.S. dollars (US $100) — reflecting that the Service is provided free of charge.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so parts of this section may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

12. Indemnification

If you are an organization, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Bead and the people who build and maintain it from claims, damages, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your Content, your program's activities, your transactions with families, or your violation of these Terms or applicable law.

13. Termination

  • By you. You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. Organizations may close their account and may export their data before doing so.
  • By us. We may suspend or terminate access for violation of these Terms, to comply with law, or to protect the Service and its users. Except where immediate action is needed, we will give notice and a chance to remedy the issue.
  • Effect. On termination, your right to use the Service ends. Sections that by their nature should survive (including Sections 5, 10, 11, 12, and 15) survive termination. Data deletion after termination is handled as described in the Privacy Policy.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If a change is material, we will post the updated Terms here, update the effective date, and notify users through the Service or by email before the change takes effect. Continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms. If you do not agree, stop using the Service and delete your account.

15. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the state from which the Service is operated, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Before filing any claim, you agree to contact us and give us a chance to resolve the issue informally — most concerns can be settled with a conversation. Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally will be brought in the courts located where the Service is operated, and both parties consent to their jurisdiction. If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remain in effect.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to:

Bead — carl@carlflood.com