Terms of Service & Privacy Policy

EffortGuard is a proprietary software application. All source code, user interfaces, databases, algorithms, documentation, and other materials comprising EffortGuard are protected by United States copyright law, international copyright treaties, and other intellectual property laws. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

Subject to compliance with these Terms and payment of applicable fees, EffortGuard grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use EffortGuard solely for your internal business operations related to research administration and compliance monitoring.

This license does not permit: (a) resale, sublicensing, or redistribution of the software; (b) reverse engineering, decompilation, or disassembly; (c) creation of derivative works; or (d) use in violation of applicable laws or regulations.

You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, lease, or create derivative works from EffortGuard without express written permission. You may not remove, alter, or obscure any copyright, trademark, or proprietary notices contained in the software.

We collect and process personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy (Section 11). By using EffortGuard, you consent to the collection, use, and storage of your data as described herein. We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your information.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties. Aggregated, anonymized data may be used for analytics and service improvement purposes.

EffortGuard is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. While we strive for accuracy, EffortGuard does not warrant that the software will be error-free, uninterrupted, or suitable for any particular purpose. You assume full responsibility for your use of EffortGuard in compliance with federal award requirements.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, EffortGuard shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of or relating to your use of EffortGuard.

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of North Carolina, United States, without regard to its conflict of law principles. Any disputes shall be resolved in the state or federal courts located in North Carolina.

EffortGuard is a pre-certification effort monitoring and gap detection platform. It is not a certified effort reporting system and does not replace your institution's effort certification process. Reports, dashboards, alerts, and exports produced by EffortGuard are monitoring outputs only and must not be presented to auditors, federal sponsors, or institutional officials as certified effort reports.

EffortGuard is a pre-certification effort monitoring and gap detection platform. It is not a certified effort reporting system and does not fulfill or replace the effort certification requirements of 2 CFR §200.430 Compensation for Personal Services. EffortGuard has not been submitted to or approved by any federal agency as a substitute system under 2 CFR §200.430(i). The 76% effort threshold alerts apply exclusively to NIH awards per NIH Grants Policy Statement §9.2 and do not represent a universal requirement under 2 CFR Part 200. Institutions remain solely responsible for maintaining certified effort reports through their approved institutional effort reporting systems.

EffortGuard maintains effort records, gap alert history, corrective action logs, audit trails, and compliance flag documentation for a minimum of three years following submission of the final expenditure report for each associated federal award, consistent with 2 CFR §200.333 Retention Requirements for Records. Effort records associated with closed reporting periods are locked against editing and deletion during the applicable retention period.

Data We Collect. Name, email address, institution, effort and award data you enter, and usage data (pages visited, features used, timestamps).

How We Use It. To deliver the service, monitor compliance on your behalf, power AI compliance features, and improve product quality.

Data Storage. Primary database storage in the United States; Cloudflare (global edge) for application hosting.

Sub-processors. Anthropic PBC (AI features), Cloudflare Inc. (hosting & edge), Stripe Inc. (payment processing).

Data Retention. Active account plus three (3) years after account closure, consistent with 2 CFR §200.333.

GDPR Rights. EU/UK users may request access, correction, deletion, portability, or object to processing of their personal data.

No Sale of Personal Data. We do not sell personal data to third parties.

Contact. Privacy inquiries: privacy@effortguard.com. General inquiries: support@effortguard.com.