Terms & Conditions

Effective date: July 19, 2026

These Terms & Conditions ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the website located at www.pine-and-birch.com, including all content, free tools, and services made available on it (collectively, the "Site"), operated by Pine & Birch Consulting Group ("Pine & Birch," "we," "us," or "our"), a technology consulting firm based in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada.

By accessing or using the Site, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Site. These Terms should be read together with our Privacy Policy, which explains how we collect and handle information.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By browsing the Site, submitting a form, subscribing to our newsletter, or using any of our free tools, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you are using the Site on behalf of a company or other legal entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind that entity to these Terms.

2. Description of Our Services

Pine & Birch provides technology consulting services, including but not limited to digital transformation, custom software and platform engineering, applied AI and automation, growth marketing, cloud infrastructure, and strategic planning advisory (collectively, the "Services"). Details of our Services are described on our Services pages and are provided for general informational purposes; specific engagements are governed by a separate written agreement or statement of work between Pine & Birch and the client.

The Site also publishes editorial content (our blog), illustrative case studies, and a collection of free online tools. Nothing on the Site constitutes a binding offer, and published pricing examples, timelines, or outcomes in case studies are illustrative rather than guaranteed results for any particular engagement.

3. Free Online Tools

We provide a number of free utilities under /tools (including, among others, image, PDF, color, and diagram tools). Unless a tool's own page states otherwise, these tools process your files and input entirely within your own web browser — nothing you open, upload, type, or generate in a free tool is transmitted to or stored on our servers. Because processing happens locally on your device, we have no visibility into, and no ability to recover, anything you work with in these tools.

3.1 No Warranty on Output

Free tools are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including as to accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. Some tools — for example, those that recompress images or optimize PDF file size — are inherently lossy or best-effort by design; always verify the output meets your needs, and keep a copy of your original file, before relying on or discarding it.

3.2 File Size & Browser Limits

Free tools enforce practical file-size limits (typically stated on the tool's own page) and depend on your device's available memory and processing power. We are not liable for a tool's failure to process a file that exceeds these limits or your device's capabilities.

3.3 No Professional Advice

Business calculators and estimators offered as free tools (for example, ROI or savings calculators) produce illustrative estimates based on the inputs you provide. They do not constitute financial, legal, tax, or professional advice, and should not be relied upon as such.

4. Acceptable Use

You agree not to, and not to attempt to:

  • use the Site in any way that violates any applicable federal, provincial, state, local, or international law or regulation;
  • probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Site, or breach or circumvent any security or authentication measures;
  • interfere with, disrupt, or place an unreasonable load on the Site's infrastructure, including through automated scraping, bulk downloading, denial-of-service activity, or excessive automated requests to our free tools or contact forms;
  • upload or transmit any virus, malware, or other harmful code, or use a free tool to process files you do not have the legal right to process;
  • reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of any part of the Site, except where such restriction is prohibited by applicable law;
  • misrepresent your identity or affiliation, or impersonate any person or entity, in any submission to the Site; or
  • use any content from the Site to train, fine-tune, or evaluate a machine learning or AI model without our prior written consent, other than incidental indexing by publicly disclosed, good-faith search or AI-assistant crawlers.

We reserve the right to restrict or terminate access to the Site, without notice, for anyone we reasonably believe has violated this section.

5. Consultations, Quotes & Engagements

Submitting our contact form, booking a consultation, or requesting a quote does not, by itself, create a contract for Services between you and Pine & Birch. A binding engagement begins only once both parties execute a separate written agreement, proposal, or statement of work, which will set out the specific scope, deliverables, fees, and terms for that engagement and will govern in the event of any conflict with these Terms.

6. Intellectual Property

The Site and its original content — including text, graphics, logos, the Pine & Birch name and marks, case study write-ups, blog articles, and the underlying software of our free tools — are owned by Pine & Birch or our licensors and are protected by Canadian and international copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.

You may view, download, and print content from the Site for your own personal or internal business reference. You may not reproduce, republish, redistribute, or create derivative works from Site content for commercial purposes, or remove any copyright or proprietary notice, without our prior written permission. Files you create using our free tools (for example, a resized image or a merged PDF) remain yours — we claim no ownership over output generated from your own input.

7. Content You Submit to Us

When you submit information through our contact form, newsletter signup, or live chat (collectively, "Submissions"), you grant Pine & Birch a non-exclusive right to use that information solely to respond to you and provide the Services or information you requested, as further described in our Privacy Policy. You represent that any Submission you provide is accurate and that you have the right to share it with us.

As explained in Section 3, files and text you process through our free tools are not Submissions — they never reach us, and this section does not apply to them.

8. Third-Party Links & Services

The Site may link to, embed, or rely on third-party websites and services — for example, Google Analytics for usage measurement and Tawk.to for live chat — that are not owned or controlled by Pine & Birch. We are not responsible for the content, privacy practices, or terms of any third-party site or service. Your use of those services is subject to their own terms and privacy policies, and we encourage you to review them.

9. Disclaimers

THE SITE, ITS CONTENT, AND ALL FREE TOOLS ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT ANY TOOL'S OUTPUT WILL BE ACCURATE OR SUITABLE FOR YOUR PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Case studies and testimonials published on the Site reflect specific client circumstances, are presented for illustrative purposes, and are not a guarantee that similar results are achievable for any other business.

10. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL PINE & BIRCH, ITS OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF (OR INABILITY TO USE) THE SITE OR ANY FREE TOOL, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SITE (AS DISTINCT FROM A SEPARATE PAID SERVICES AGREEMENT, WHICH IS GOVERNED BY ITS OWN TERMS) WILL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED CANADIAN DOLLARS (CAD $100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you. In that case, our liability will be limited to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Pine & Birch and its officers, employees, contractors, and agents from any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in any way connected with your violation of these Terms, your misuse of the Site or any free tool, or your violation of any rights of a third party.

12. Governing Law & Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. You agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Site will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in Ontario, Canada.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time to reflect changes to the Site, our Services, or applicable law. The "Effective date" at the top of this page will always reflect the most recent revision. Material changes will be reflected here; your continued use of the Site after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

14. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Site, in whole or in part, at any time and without notice, for conduct that we believe violates these Terms or is harmful to other users, us, or third parties, or for any other reason at our sole discretion. Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination (including Intellectual Property, Disclaimers, Limitation of Liability, Indemnification, and Governing Law) will survive.

15. General Provisions

Entire Agreement. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any separate written services agreement applicable to you, constitute the entire agreement between you and Pine & Birch regarding the Site.

Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

No Waiver. Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be considered a waiver of that right or provision.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms without restriction, including in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

16. Contact Us

Questions about these Terms can be sent to info@pnbconsult.com, through our contact page, or by mail to:

Pine & Birch Consulting Group
16945 Leslie St, Upper Level, Unit 20
Newmarket, Ontario, L3R 9A2
Canada