In July 2009, we began a new support policy allowing our customers the best possible solutions for supporting ACT! and Act4Advisors. Due to our rapid growth in the number of customers, we have had to implement this new policy to better serve all customers and we hope you will follow our guidelines.

Allied Financial Software, Inc. (AFS) currently offers free telephone support for 30 days after your initial purchase for installation issues only.

Email and Installation Keycode Support

We currently provide free installation keycode and email support to customers who maintain the version of Act! they purchased Act4Advisors for or customers that purchase their Act! upgrades from us.

After 30 days from purchase, telephone support is offered under two options: Per Incident Support or Prepaid Annual Support.

Per Incident Support

On a per incident basis, a customer will pay $99 for each 30 minute increment or fraction thereof for each telephone support incident. An incident is defined as a specifically stated issue and not multiple issues. If the question is answered within 5 minutes, the customer will not be charged. Any abuse of this free 5 minutes would result in a per incident charge for the first 5 minutes. Questions lasting longer than 5 minutes are billed on the customer's credit card.

Prepaid Annual Support

The second option is to pay for annual telephone support for $399. This allows the customer (and one designated alternate user) to call in for telephone support for 12 months of support but limited to 6 hours cumulative. The customer can re-subscribe upon expiration.

For business reasons, we have the right to limit the length of each telephone call to 1 hour per day. The support person may, at their sole discretion, decide to schedule a follow-up call for any unresolved issues or may correspond additionally on the issue via email.

We will make every reasonable effort to resolve any issue you are having or answer most questions but we do not warrantee our support. If we are unable to resolve an issue, you are not entitled to a refund.

Training

It should be noted that support is not training. Our technical support staff will not provide training under any of the support options. Single issue items such as "How do I create a group?" or "Can you tell me how to perform a mail merge?" are not considered training if they are for a specific item. These questions should not result in discussions of other features and uses of the software.

Optionally, we offer live, web based training. This allows us to demonstrate how to use Act4Advisors via the internet. We can connect to your computer or you can view our computers while we train you and your staff over the internet and conference call.

The cost for live web based training is $99 per hour per computer connection to the web conference. This allows one person to be trained per connection. Also, each trainee who sits in on the training session will be billed $75 each. This is a flat charge and is not based on the time of the training. For example, a 3 hour training over one computer with 3 people would be billed at ($99 x 3 hours) + ($75 x 3 trainees)

Customers that schedule more than one training session will only incur the $75 per person for the first training session. If the follow-up training sessions are not scheduled in advance, the $75 charge would need to be paid for each session. Canceled sessions may also incur an additional charge.

Onsite training is also available. If the training is out of the metro-Atlanta area, the cost will be based on a $1500 per day plus travel and accommodation expenses. There is also a $75 per trainee charge above the first 10 attendees. A single day is counted for travel outside of the metro Atlanta area. Flights scheduled for us by customers should arrive back in Atlanta before 9:00 PM on the same day for no additional charge. Otherwise, a half day training fee will be billed for flights that are scheduled to arrive up to 12:00 midnight. If the flight is scheduled to return after 12:00 midnight, a full days rate is due. Note, you are not responsible for delays from weather, airline delays nor acts of God.

Consulting

Additionally, Allied Financial Software, Inc. can be contracted for ACT! and Act4Advisors consulting. Consulting includes database customization, database services, data conversions, custom labels, templates, reports or macros. Computer programming is also available. Our fees are $150 per hour billed in 15 minute increments plus expenses.

We believe these new support options will give you many choices on how best to support and train on your Act4Advisors. If you would like any additional information, feel free to send us an email or give us a call.