Terms of Service

Hearth — operated by Lamplight Technology Consulting LLC (d/b/a Lamplight Software)

Effective date: January 1, 2026 Last updated: June 8, 2026

1. Agreement to these Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a contract between you and Lamplight Technology Consulting LLC, a Montana limited liability company doing business as Lamplight Software ("Lamplight," "Hearth," "we," "our," or "us"), governing your access to and use of the Hearth HR and payroll platform, its AI assistant Ember, and our website (the "Services"). By creating an account, clicking to accept, or using the Services, you agree to these Terms. If you are agreeing on behalf of a business, you represent that you are authorized to bind that business, and "you" refers to that business.

If you and Lamplight have signed a Master Services Agreement or an order form for Hearth, that agreement governs and controls over these Terms to the extent of any conflict.

2. Eligibility

The Services are for US-based businesses and their authorized users who are at least 18 years old. You must provide accurate registration information and keep it current.

3. The Services and Ember

Hearth provides software to run payroll, hire and onboard workers, manage time off, file certain tax forms, and handle related HR tasks. Ember, our AI assistant, proposes actions and shows you what will happen before any change is made. Ember proposes; you decide. No change to payroll, employment records, or money movement occurs without your review and confirmation, and sensitive matters — such as terminations, harassment issues, and garnishments — route to a person. AI output may be inaccurate or incomplete and is not legal, tax, accounting, or HR advice. You are responsible for reviewing each proposed action before confirming it.

4. Your responsibilities as the employer

Hearth is a tool you use to run your business. You — not Lamplight — are the employer of your workers and remain solely responsible for employment decisions, including hiring, classification of workers as employees or contractors, compensation, terminations, and compliance with employment, wage-and-hour, and tax laws. You are responsible for:

the accuracy and completeness of the data you and your users enter, including worker information, hours, wages, and tax elections;
reviewing and approving payroll runs, tax filings, and other actions before they are finalized;
maintaining sufficient funds in your connected bank account to cover payroll, taxes, and fees by the applicable deadlines; and
obtaining any consents from your workers needed for you to use Hearth to process their information.

5. Payroll, tax, and payment processing

When you approve a payroll run, you authorize Hearth and its banking partners to originate ACH debits and credits to move funds from your connected account to your workers and to tax authorities, and to prepare, file, and remit applicable payroll taxes and forms on your behalf. You authorize Hearth to act as your agent for these purposes. Funding must be available by the deadlines we communicate; late or insufficient funding can delay payroll and may result in penalties for which you are responsible. You may correct or reverse certain actions before applicable processing cutoffs (for example, before the ACH cutoff); after a cutoff, reversals may not be possible. You are responsible for tax penalties and interest except to the extent they result solely from our error.

6. Fees, trial, and cancellation

Hearth is priced per active employee, per month, according to the plan you select. We offer a 30-day free trial; after the trial, paid fees apply for the plan you choose. Fees are billed in advance and are non-refundable except as required by law. You can cancel at any time, effective at the end of your current billing period; there are no long-term contracts for self-serve plans. We may change our fees on reasonable notice, effective at your next renewal. You are responsible for applicable taxes other than taxes on our income.

7. Your data

You retain ownership of the data you and your users put into Hearth. You grant us the rights described in our Privacy Policy to host, process, and use that data to provide, secure, support, and improve the Services, to operate Ember, and to create and use de-identified and aggregated data. You can export your data at any time. Our handling of personal information is described in the Privacy Policy.

8. Acceptable use

You agree not to: use the Services unlawfully or to violate the rights of others; submit data you are not authorized to provide; attempt to gain unauthorized access to or interfere with the Services; reverse engineer the Services except as permitted by law; or use the Services to build a competing product or to train models that compete with the Services.

9. Intellectual property

The Services, including Hearth, Ember, and all related software and content, are owned by Lamplight and its licensors and protected by intellectual-property laws. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Services for your internal business purposes during your subscription. We may use feedback you provide without restriction.

10. Disclaimers

Except as expressly stated, the Services are provided "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE," and we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, and any warranty that the Services will be uninterrupted or error-free. Hearth is a software tool and does not provide legal, tax, accounting, or HR advice. You are responsible for your own compliance decisions.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, neither party will be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, goodwill, or data. Our total liability arising out of or relating to the Services will not exceed the greater of the amounts you paid us for the Services in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the liability or one hundred dollars ($100). These limits do not apply to your obligation to pay fees and amounts needed to fund payroll and taxes. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of these may not apply to you.

12. Indemnification

You agree to defend and indemnify Lamplight and its affiliates from third-party claims arising out of your data, your employment decisions and obligations as employer, your use of the Services in violation of these Terms or law, or your failure to fund payroll or taxes.

13. Termination

You may stop using the Services and cancel at any time. We may suspend or terminate access for non-payment, violation of these Terms, or other reasonable cause. On termination, your right to use the Services ends; you may export your data for 30 days, after which we may delete it subject to legal and payroll-recordkeeping requirements. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination will survive.

14. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Montana, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The state and federal courts located in Flathead County, Montana have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute not subject to a separate agreement between us.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will provide notice through the Services or by other reasonable means and update the "Last updated" date above. Your continued use of the Services after the changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

16. Contact

Lamplight Technology Consulting LLC (d/b/a Lamplight Software) — Hearth Email: [email protected] · [email protected] Mail: PO Box 3135, Columbia Falls, MT 59912 Phone: 877-642-6627