Billing Policy

Quotations and invoices

Quotations set out scope and pricing and are valid for the period stated on the document. Once accepted, we issue invoices in Kenyan Shillings (KES) or US Dollars (USD) as agreed.

Each invoice shows the work or services covered, applicable taxes (including 16% VAT where it applies), and the due date.

Where a quotation lists assumptions, those assumptions are part of the price. If one turns out not to hold, we come back to you with a revised figure before doing the work, not after.

Payment terms

Unless your agreement states otherwise, invoices are due within the period shown on the invoice. Larger engagements may be milestone-based, with a deposit before work begins; see Deposits and cancelling before work begins for how a deposit is treated if plans change.

We accept M-Pesa, bank transfer and card payments. Payment details are provided on each invoice.

Please quote the invoice number on your payment so we can reconcile it. Bank charges on international transfers are for the payer's account unless agreed otherwise.

Taxes and withholding

Prices are exclusive of taxes unless stated otherwise, and VAT is added where it applies. Where you are required to deduct withholding tax, send us the withholding certificate so the deduction can be applied against the invoice.

Late payments

We send reminders as invoices approach and pass their due date. Persistently overdue accounts may have work or access paused until the balance is settled, as set out in the relevant agreement.

Where an account is paused for non-payment, work resumes once the balance clears; timelines are re-planned from the resumption date rather than the original schedule.

Recurring and subscription billing

Subscription products are billed in advance on the agreed cycle (monthly, quarterly or annually). You can change or cancel a subscription in line with its terms; cancellation stops future renewals.

We notify you of a price change before it takes effect at the next renewal, so you can decide whether to continue.

Disputed invoices

If you believe an invoice is wrong, tell us within the payment period with the detail of what is disputed. We hold collection on the disputed portion while we investigate; undisputed amounts remain payable on the original terms.

Refunds: the principle

We sell expert time and deliverables that cannot be returned once handed over, so refunds are assessed on work performed and costs already committed on your behalf, not on satisfaction after delivery. Where money has been paid and the corresponding work has not been done, you get it back.

This policy is the default position. A signed agreement or statement of work may vary it, and where that agreement is silent, what follows applies.

Some amounts are always refunded in full, with no deduction and no argument:

• Duplicate payments, overpayments and payments sent for the wrong amount.
• Anything paid for work that was never started and never scheduled.
• Any engagement we cancel, cannot resource, or cannot deliver to the agreed scope.

Deposits and cancelling before work begins

Larger engagements start with a deposit, typically 50% of the quoted value. The deposit reserves a delivery window in our schedule and funds mobilisation: scoping, drafting the rules of engagement, assigning named engineers or analysts, and preparing tooling. It is not a holding fee, which is why it is earned before day one and is not refundable as a matter of course.

If you cancel before the agreed start date, we retain a share of the total agreed amount, not merely a share of the deposit. Notice reduces what we retain; it does not remove it, because a window we committed named people to cannot be refilled at short notice:

Training seats and cyber range access are the exception to all of the above. They run on the softer scale set out under Refunds by service type, and are returned in cash rather than held as credit, because an individual learner buying a seat is not in the same position as an organisation cancelling a booked engagement.

• 10 or more business days' notice: we retain 50% of the total agreed amount.
• 5 to 9 business days' notice: we retain 75%.
• Fewer than 5 business days' notice, or after work has begun: we retain the full amount, then reconcile it as set out in the next section.
• Third-party costs already committed on your behalf are retained on top of the above in every band.
• Amounts retained are held as credit against future work with us for 12 months rather than returned as cash, unless we are the party who cancelled.
• Rescheduling instead of cancelling: one change of date at 5 or more business days' notice carries no charge.

Withdrawing after work has begun

Once an engagement is under way we retain the greater of the 50% minimum above and the value of the work performed, plus third-party costs committed on your behalf and a cancellation fee of 10% of the undelivered value. We issue a closing statement setting that out against everything you have paid. Where a balance remains in your favour it is held as credit; where the work performed exceeds what you have paid, we invoice the difference.

The retained share never falls as an engagement progresses. Withdrawing later cannot return more than cancelling earlier would have.

Where you withdraw from a milestone-based engagement, you keep the work product for every milestone you have paid for, and we hand it over on exit.

Once the final deliverable for a stage has been issued, that stage is not refundable. A penetration test report, a gap analysis or a set of findings cannot be returned or un-read.

If you ordered the wrong thing

Ordering the wrong service, the wrong number of seats or the wrong scope is a mistake we would rather fix than charge for, and how we handle it depends only on whether we have started work.

Caught before work begins, we retain nothing beyond third-party costs already committed, and we will move you onto the correct service at no charge. Caught after work has begun, we charge for the work performed to that point and issue the balance as a credit against the correct service, valid for 12 months, rather than returning it as cash. A payment sent in error, twice or for the wrong amount, is simply refunded in full.

Where incorrect or incomplete information supplied to us causes work to be redone, the redone work is chargeable. We will always flag this before doing it, not after.

Refunds by service type

Different services carry different rules, because they fail in different ways:

• Penetration testing and VAPT: where the client cancels before testing begins, 50% of the total agreed amount is retained and the balance of what has been paid is refunded, whatever notice is given. Once testing is under way we retain the greater of that 50% and the work performed. Once the report or the debrief has been delivered, no refund applies: the findings cannot be returned. Where Neurobyte cancels, or cannot resource or deliver the assessment, everything paid is refunded in full.
• ISO 27001 and compliance programmes: unstarted milestones are refundable. Fees already paid to a certification body are not, as they leave our hands.
• ERP and custom software: milestone-based, with unstarted milestones refundable and paid work product handed over on exit.
• Managed EDR/MDR and SOC monitoring: billed in advance, with no refund for part of a period already started. Cancelling stops future renewals. If we terminate, the unused portion is refunded pro rata.
• Training and cyber range access: you may substitute a delegate at any time at no charge, or transfer to the next cohort at 5 or more business days' notice. Cancelling outright is refunded in full at 10 or more business days' notice, at 50% between 5 and 9 days, and not at all under 5 days. Refunds here are paid in cash rather than held as credit. Once lab credentials or course materials have been issued, the seat is not refundable. The 50% minimum that applies to our other services does not apply to training.
• Advisory retainers: unused hours roll into the next cycle once, and are not refundable as cash.

Costs we cannot refund

Some amounts leave our hands the moment they are committed, so they sit outside any refund calculation: certification body fees, software and platform licences, examination vouchers, cloud and infrastructure charges, and travel booked for an on-site engagement. We commit these only where your quotation or agreement provides for them.

Transaction costs are also not reimbursed. Refunds are made in the currency invoiced, and neither exchange rate movement between payment and refund, nor bank charges, nor M-Pesa transaction fees are compensated. Where withholding tax has already been remitted to the Kenya Revenue Authority, that portion is recovered from KRA rather than from us.

Worked examples

The figures below use a KES 400,000 penetration test where the full fee has been paid, so the effect of each rule is visible. They illustrate the rules above rather than setting prices, and the calculator at /refund-calculator will work the same sums for your own numbers.

• Client cancels 12 business days before testing: we retain 50%, being KES 200,000, and KES 200,000 is refunded.
• Client cancels 6 business days before a non-VAPT engagement: we retain 75%, being KES 300,000, and KES 100,000 is held as credit.
• Client cancels 2 business days before: the full amount is retained.
• Client abandons the test on day 3 with KES 120,000 delivered: the 50% minimum applies, so KES 200,000 is retained and KES 200,000 refunded, the work delivered being worth less than the minimum.
• Client abandons at KES 320,000 delivered: we retain the KES 320,000, which exceeds the minimum, and KES 80,000 is refunded.
• Client withdraws after the report was delivered: nothing is refunded.
• Neurobyte cancels at any point before delivery: everything paid is refunded in full, in cash.
• Paid twice by mistake: the duplicate is returned in full, with no deduction.
• Learner cancels a KES 30,000 training seat 14 business days before the cohort: the seat is refunded in full, in cash. At 6 days' notice, KES 15,000 is refunded.

How to request a refund

Email billing@neurobyte.co.ke within 30 days of the payment or invoice concerned, quoting the invoice or quotation number and what you are asking to be refunded. We acknowledge within 2 business days, decide within 5, and pay approved refunds within 14 days of the decision.

Refunds are paid only to the account or payment method the original payment came from. We do not redirect a refund to a different account on request, whatever the reason given, because that request is a well-known fraud technique and we would rather point at this policy than debate it.

Every refund is issued as a credit note against the original invoice, so your records and ours continue to agree. Contact billing@neurobyte.co.ke or info@neurobyte.co.ke with any question about an invoice, a deposit or a payment.