Licence & Permitted Use

One business. Your data. Our templates. Plain-English terms.

This licence applies to every Operating Standard product. It is the same text as the Licence and Disclaimer (version 2.1) supplied in our updated product packages. By downloading or using the files you accept these terms. "We" means The Operating Standard. "You" means the single business (one legal entity) that bought the product.

1. What you may do

• Use, copy and adapt the files for the internal operations of one business, including its employees and contractors working for that business.
• Make backup and working copies, and store them on your business systems.
• Enter your own information and change headings, roles, lists and layouts to suit how you work.
• Share completed outputs (for example a priced estimate, a cost report or a signed form) with your customers, suppliers, advisers or auditors where that is part of running your business.
• Use the worked example for training your own people.

2. What you may not do

• Resell, sublicense, share, publish or give away the blank templates, the worked examples or any substantial part of them, in original or modified form.
• Use the files with another legal entity, including a related company, without buying a separate licence.
• Use the files to create a template, software, course, membership or other product for sale.
• Remove The Operating Standard ownership and licence notices from the master files.
• Present the worked-example figures as real results, benchmarks or promises.

3. Ownership

We own the design, structure, wording, formulas and branding of the product files. You own the information you enter and the business-specific outputs you create. Changing the files does not transfer ownership of the underlying product.

4. Worked examples are fictional

Every company, person, project, supplier and figure in the worked examples is invented to show how the system works. They are illustrations, not industry benchmarks, and must not be relied on as rates, prices or results for your business.

5. Not professional advice

The product is a general business-management tool. It is not legal, contractual, accounting, tax, financial-product, employment, engineering, safety or compliance advice, and it does not check your contracts, awards, tax treatment or legal obligations. Get qualified advice where a decision has legal, financial, safety or regulatory consequences.

6. No guaranteed result

Outcomes depend on the accuracy of your inputs, your market, your contracts and how you run the work. We do not promise any particular price, margin, win rate, saving, cash position or other result.

7. Your responsibilities

• Keep an untouched master copy and control who can change your working files.
• Check formulas, assumptions, thresholds and outputs before you rely on them, especially after you change the structure.
• Protect any personal or confidential information you enter.
• Check prices, tax, contract notices and industry obligations before you issue anything to a customer.
• Test the files in your own version of Excel or compatible software before relying on them.

8. Australian Consumer Law

Our products come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. Nothing in this licence excludes, restricts or modifies any right or remedy you have under that law. To the extent the law allows, our liability for any other loss arising from use of the product is limited to supplying the product again or refunding the price you paid.

9. More than one business

If you need to use the product in more than one legal entity, buy a licence for each entity, or contact us to arrange a multi-business licence.

10. Version

Licence and Disclaimer, version 2.1, issued October 2026. This version replaces all earlier licence and disclaimer documents supplied with The Operating Standard products.