Payment and Pricing Terms

1. How work is priced

We publish no fixed list prices, and the reason is not evasion: we sell engineering time against a specification, not a product with a unit. Two projects described in the same sentence — "a customer portal", "a mobile app" — differ by a factor of five in effort once you know how many systems they integrate with and what has to migrate out of software that already exists.

So every engagement is priced after a paid discovery phase, invoiced separately at the start. You leave discovery with a fixed written estimate and a specification you own, whether or not you build it with us. We won't quote a fixed price from a conversation, because a number given without a specification is either padded or about to be renegotiated.

What that means for the charge on your statement: every payment we take corresponds to a numbered invoice, and every invoice references the statement of work or discovery order it was raised against. Quote us that number and we'll send you the signed document behind it.

2. From quote to invoice

The sequence is the same on every engagement, and nothing is charged before you agree it in writing:

• Written estimate — a scoped price with the assumptions it rests on, valid 30 days from issue
• Statement of work — the estimate turned into deliverables, a schedule and a billing plan, signed by both sides under our master services agreement
• Invoice — raised against a milestone, a month of work or a discovery order, carrying its own number, the SOW reference, currency, tax treatment and due date
• Receipt — issued on settlement, quoting the same invoice number

Changes to scope come back as a written change request with a cost and schedule impact, approved before work starts. You never see an invoice for something you did not sign off. The commercial framework around all of this is set out on our engagement models page.

3. The three billing shapes

Fixed price. Discovery is invoiced separately at the start. After that, typically 30% at kick-off, then milestone payments against agreed deliverables, with a final tranche on acceptance. Each milestone invoice names the deliverable it is tied to, so you approve work rather than a date.

Time and materials. Invoiced monthly in arrears with a timesheet breakdown by person and task, so you see what each engineer worked on before you pay for it. Want a ceiling? We add a per-sprint spend cap to the SOW — most clients do.

Dedicated team. Billed monthly per engineer at the agreed rate. Team size changes on 30 days' notice in either direction, and the invoice follows the size in effect that month, pro-rated where someone joins or leaves partway through.

Engagements move between these models — fixed-price first release, then a dedicated team, is the common path. A switch needs 30 days' notice and a short re-contract.

4. Currencies

We invoice in USD, GBP, EUR, AED or INR. The currency is fixed in the statement of work and stays fixed for the engagement. We don't re-invoice because an exchange rate moved, and we don't add a currency surcharge.

An invoice is settled when the full amount arrives in the invoiced currency. If your bank converts at its own rate, that conversion is between you and your bank.

5. Payment terms

Terms are 14 days net from the invoice date by default. Where your procurement policy requires 30 days, we accommodate it — tell us before the SOW is signed rather than at the first invoice, so the schedule is drawn correctly.

Discovery is payable before we hand over the specification, and the fixed-price kick-off tranche before build work begins. Everything after that follows the terms above.

6. If an invoice runs late

Work continues normally through a late invoice. Finance departments have cycles, approvals get stuck behind somebody's leave, and we don't down tools over a payment a week past due.

If an invoice goes materially overdue, we raise it as a conversation before it becomes a stoppage: a named person on our side calls a named person on yours and we agree a date. Suspending work is a last resort and never a surprise — written notice comes first. If an invoice is disputed, tell us which line and why: the disputed portion is held while we resolve it, the rest falls due as normal.

Full IP in the work transfers to you on final payment, and where an engagement ends early, IP in everything already paid for assigns to you whatever the reason for the exit — the full position is in our terms of service.

7. Tax

Clients in India. GST is charged at the applicable rate and shown as a separate line on the invoice, alongside the place of supply and the SAC code for the service. Our GST registration details are printed on the invoice; if you need them before one is raised, email [email protected].

Clients outside India. Services supplied to a client established outside India are treated as an export of services under Indian GST law, which is zero-rated, so no Indian GST is added to your invoice where the conditions for export treatment are met. Any tax obligation arising in your own jurisdiction is yours to meet — in practice, accounting for the supply under a reverse-charge or self-assessment mechanism for VAT or its local equivalent. We'll add whatever invoice wording your accountant needs for that.

Withholding tax. Some jurisdictions require you to deduct tax at source on payments to an overseas supplier. If that applies, tell us before the first invoice, not after it. We invoice the gross amount, you remit the net, and you send us the withholding certificate or tax deduction receipt. India has double taxation avoidance agreements with most of the markets we work in, and those let us claim credit for what you deducted — but only against the certificate. Without it, the deducted sum stays outstanding, because it is money we cannot recover. Where your finance team needs a tax residency certificate to apply the treaty rate, ask and we'll provide it.

None of this is tax advice; what you owe, and where, is for your advisers to determine.

8. Processing and bank charges

Charges on the sending side are yours: your bank's outward remittance fee, card processing where you pay by card, and your own conversion spread. Charges on the receiving side are ours and are not passed back as a line item.

Correspondent bank deductions on an international wire are the awkward case — money occasionally arrives short because an intermediary bank took a fee neither of us chose. We show you the remittance advice and agree the difference before anything is re-invoiced, rather than quietly raising a second invoice for a shortfall you never saw.

9. How payments are handled

We do not store card details. Card numbers, CVV codes and bank credentials are never held on our systems, and nobody at Canopus will ask you for them by email or on a call. Online invoice payment is being enabled and is not live yet; when it is, card details will be entered on the payment provider’s own hosted page, and what returns to us is a transaction reference and an amount, not the instrument. Until then, an invoice is settled by transfer to the account printed on it. The providers, and the cookies they set at checkout, are listed in our cookie policy before any of it goes live.

Our bank details are issued on the invoice and do not change mid-engagement. If you receive a message claiming they have changed, treat it as fraudulent and call +91 817 979 7732 to verify before sending anything.

Refunds go back to the original payment method in the original currency. When one is due and how it is calculated is set out in the refund policy, alongside what we commit to delivering under service delivery.

10. Work we decline on price

Two floors, published so nobody spends a week on a proposal that was never going to work:

• No website projects under $3,000. Below that, a good template and a competent freelancer will serve you better than we will; you would be paying us for coordination overhead.
• No marketing retainers under about $2,000 a month. Below that, nothing meaningful is sustainable across content, technical work and reporting, and a retainer becomes a subscription to activity.

We would rather say this on a page than in month three of an underfunded engagement.

11. Questions about an invoice

Email [email protected] with the invoice number, or use the form on our contact page. Billing queries reach a person rather than a ticket queue, and you get a reply within one business day. You can also call +91 817 979 7732.

If your system needs a purchase-order number, a vendor onboarding form or a particular invoice format, send it at SOW stage. We complete those as a matter of course, and doing it early is what stops a first payment slipping by a month.