Small Business Terms of Service Template
Four documents and two sheets that check your refund, cancellation and data practices against what you actually do before publishing a word.
Free download · No account needed
Policy Register
[Company], Inc. — every clause, checked against real practice
A clause only ships once its own row confirms real practice actually matches it. A blank Match column means nobody has checked yet.
| Document | Clause | Actual Practice Today | Match? |
|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | — | — |
| — | — | — | — |
| — | — | — | — |
A policy generator checks a clause category. This checks a fact
| Generic generator | Did you answer the question for this clause category? Yes, so the clause ships |
| Policy Register | Does your last dozen refund requests actually match the clause you are about to publish? If not, the register flags it before you publish, not after a customer tests it |
Most gaps are not missing clauses. They are clauses already contradicted by what the business does every week.
Every terms-of-service generator online answers the same kind of question: pick a business type, answer a checklist of clause categories, get a document. None of them ask the question that actually determines whether a clause holds up: does this match what the business already does? A refund clause your own support team contradicts on half of last year's requests is not stronger for being strict on paper. A privacy promise to delete data within 30 days that was never implemented is not protection; it is a written admission waiting to be checked.
Fernbridge Analytics, a fictional three-person B2B SaaS company, ran its year-old, bought-online policy set through Policy Register for the first time. Of the last 34 cancellation requests, 19, 55.9 percent, had already been given a refund by support despite a "no refunds, no exceptions" clause, totaling $3,607 nobody had reconciled against the policy. Repeatedly acting against a written term without objection can itself waive that term, whatever the document still says.
The second contradiction was worse. Of 61 accounts closed more than 30 days earlier, only 8 had actually been deleted despite a privacy promise to purge data within 30 days of closure; the other 53 sat untouched in production. A posted policy is a representation to customers, and the FTC's deceptive-practices authority reaches a promise that was never true as readily as one that stopped being true. Policy Register found both gaps before either did.
What's in the pack
Policy Register
Every clause a policy would contain, checked against real request history and real system behavior rather than assumption.
Jurisdiction Note
The state-specific disclosure and cancellation-mechanism rules that apply no matter what your own practice already is.
Terms of Service
Cancellation, renewal and liability terms drafted from the register, so nothing here contradicts what customers actually experience.
Privacy Policy
Data collection, retention and third-party disclosures written to match what your systems actually do, not a generic checklist.
Refund Policy
A single stated window and proration formula, replacing ad hoc case-by-case decisions with a rule every customer gets the same answer from.
Acceptable Use Policy
Rules the business actually enforces, so a clause nobody applies against a known violation stops sitting in the document unenforced.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Install the pack so the agent interviews you about actual practice first, or take the blank Word and CSV files away and fill them in yourself.
- 2
Describe what actually happens today
Real refund and cancellation handling, the real cancellation mechanism, what actually happens to data after account closure, not what a policy should say.
- 3
Reconcile every clause against practice
Policy Register flags every mismatch and ranks it by exposure, then Jurisdiction Note adds the state-specific rules that apply regardless of practice.
- 4
Publish only after the gaps are closed
Each of the four documents gets drafted from the reconciled register, so nothing ships that contradicts what customers already experience.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. Four documents and two sheets download as Word and CSV files with no signup and no credit card. "Edit with AI" is a separate, optional path for founders who want the agent to run the reconciliation itself. The rest of the packs sit in the template library.
What format are the downloaded files?
Word documents (.docx) for the four policies, and CSV (.csv) for Policy Register and Jurisdiction Note, zipped together into one download. They open natively in Word, Pages, Google Docs, Excel, Numbers and Sheets, with nothing to convert.
What does 'Edit with AI' actually do?
It creates a free River account and installs this exact pack as a private workspace. The agent interviews you about actual refund, cancellation and data practices, builds the register from your answers, then drafts the four documents to match.
Why would my own practice matter more than the clause?
Because a written term a business repeatedly ignores without objection can be found waived by conduct, whatever the document says. A posted policy is also a representation the FTC treats as enforceable, the same way an advertised price is. A clause nobody follows protects nobody.
How is this different from a terms and conditions generator?
A generator answers a checklist of clause categories and assumes the answer describes reality. This checks the answer against real request history and real system behavior first, then drafts from whichever version, the clause or the practice, turns out to be the one that should change.
Do I still need a lawyer?
Yes, and this is not legal advice. What changes is what you hand them: a register showing exactly which clauses already match practice and which do not, rather than a generic document neither of you has checked against how the business actually runs.
How is this different from a client services agreement?
A service agreement and SOW is negotiated paper for one client's engagement. This is the same terms published once for every customer, refund window, cancellation mechanism and data handling included, reviewed before signing rather than negotiated after.
Find out which of your policies your own practice already contradicts
Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open it in River and have your actual refund, cancellation and data practices checked first.
Edit with AI