The working agreement, in plain language.

The Diagnostic is a fixed-price, fixed-scope engagement. Six evidence cards, a two-page executive brief, a twenty-two-page appendix, and ninety days of read-only dashboard access. The scope does not change mid-engagement.

Optimization is the Diagnostic bundled with a repricing wave, a catering package rebuild, and structured-data publication. Six months of dashboard access. Same fixed-price shape.

Margin Watch is a monthly retainer. Full dashboard access, monthly reconciliation, quarterly repricing waves, drift alerts, and one monthly call. No annual minimum. Month to month.

Chain programs are quoted per location with volume steps. Every chain engagement has its own written scope. Chain terms are otherwise identical to the single-location tiers.

Nothing on this page overrides a signed statement of work. Where the written contract you sign differs from what this page says, the contract governs.

Diagnostic and Optimization can be paid in two installments. First installment at kickoff, second at delivery. Or in full at kickoff, at the operator's choice.

Margin Watch is billed monthly, in advance. The invoice arrives on the first business day of the month, payable within fifteen days.

Chain programs are billed per the schedule in the written statement of work.

Payments are accepted by ACH, wire, or check. Credit cards are accepted for balances under ten thousand dollars, with a three percent processing surcharge disclosed on the invoice.

If a payment is more than thirty days late, we pause new work on the engagement and notify you in writing. The dashboard stays available. If a payment is more than sixty days late, we pause dashboard access and hold new deliverables until the balance is current. If a payment is more than ninety days late, the engagement is closed and the outstanding balance is subject to standard collection.

Prices on the tiers page are exclusive of applicable sales tax. Where a jurisdiction requires it, sales tax is added to the invoice.

Margin Watch can be canceled any month, in writing, with no penalty and no annual minimum. The dashboard goes read-only for thirty days after cancellation, then archived, then deleted per the schedule on the privacy page.

The Diagnostic can be canceled before kickoff for a full refund of the first installment. After kickoff and before the first working call, the first installment is refunded less a five hundred dollar administrative fee. After the first working call, the first installment is retained, the second is not billed, and work stops on request.

Optimization can be canceled before kickoff for a full refund. After kickoff, the same schedule as the Diagnostic applies to the diagnostic portion, and any completed Optimization work billed to that point is invoiced at the standard rate.

If, at any point during Margin Watch, you feel the retainer has not justified its cost within one operating quarter, tell us. If we cannot make it right within thirty days, the last month is refunded. This has been requested exactly zero times to date.

The Diagnostic deliverables are yours: the six evidence cards, the two-page executive brief, and the twenty-two-page appendix. Distribute them internally, share them with a partner, hand them to your accountant, upload them to your investor data room. No permission required.

The dashboard is a licensed product. Your access to it is tied to your active engagement. Screenshots, exports, and CSV downloads of your own data are yours.

The methodology, the reconciliation logic, the peer-cell composition rules, the query scoring rubric, and the model behind the Opportunity Model belong to Ignite XDS. We do not license these to third parties. You may not extract, reverse-engineer, or resell them.

Anonymized peer contributions from your restaurant remain in the network per the terms on the privacy page. You may request removal at any time and we honor the request within thirty days.

Every twenty-minute fit-test call is treated as confidential. Nothing you say on that call is repeated, shared with a distributor, referenced in marketing, or used to inform a proposal to another operator.

Every Diagnostic is treated as confidential by default, whether or not a written NDA is in place. Your data, your invoices, your P&L discussions, your operating challenges, and your Diagnostic findings are not shared outside the Ignite XDS team assigned to your engagement.

You may request a signed NDA before the first call. Send us your form, we sign it and return it the same day, or offer our short-form NDA if you prefer.

Named case studies, testimonials, and public references require your written permission. We do not name operators in marketing, on the site, on stage, or in sales conversations without explicit consent. Every case narrative on this site is anonymized to a composite.

Every engagement starts with a twenty-minute fit-test call. Four questions. If the answers point to a Diagnostic, we send a proposal within two business days. If they do not, we say so on the call and we suggest a firm that fits your situation better.

About one operator in five leaves the first call with a “no” from us. Cash-only restaurants, tasting-menu fine dining, ghost kitchens without a public storefront, and QSR chains over fifty locations are the four archetypes we most often decline. We hold to this because saying yes to a wrong-fit engagement wastes the operator's money and our team's time.

If we take a Diagnostic and the Wedge Proof stage finds nothing worth acting on, you hear that plainly in the delivery meeting. You still receive the full deliverables. You do not receive a proposal for Optimization or Margin Watch. About one Diagnostic in five ends that way.

Margin Lab is a strategic read of your restaurant. It is not a substitute for your accountant, your operations team, your health department, your labor counsel, your tax advisor, or your operating judgment.

We stand behind the accuracy of every reconciled figure in the Diagnostic. If a number we present as fact turns out to be wrong, we correct it, publish the correction in your appendix, and if the correction changes a material recommendation, we revise the recommendation at no additional cost.

We do not stand behind the outcome of any pricing move, menu change, or operational decision you make from a Diagnostic. The Opportunity Model is ranged, capacity-capped, and explicitly not a forecast. Repricing waves are recommendations, not guarantees. Your operating context is yours.

Our aggregate liability for any single engagement is limited to the amount you paid us for that engagement in the twelve months preceding the claim. The written contract you sign may include additional or different limitations; where it does, the contract governs.

If we materially change these terms, we notify every active client in writing at least thirty days before the change takes effect. You may reject the change by canceling your engagement, and Watch fees paid in advance are refunded on a prorated basis.

If we materially change the roadmap on this site in a way that affects the platform feature an engagement was scoped against, we notify you and offer either an amended engagement scope or a full refund of unearned fees.

If a dispute arises that we cannot resolve in a phone call, we agree in good faith to attempt mediation before litigation. If mediation does not resolve it, the written contract you signed governs jurisdiction. Where there is no signed contract, the state of Florida governs, because Ignite XDS is based there.