# Service Level Agreement
Effective from 9 May 2026. Version 1.1.0.
This Service Level Agreement (this "**SLA**") is incorporated into, and forms part of, the Master Services Agreement (the "**MSA**") between ElevateFinance Private Limited ("**ElevateFinance**", the "**Supplier**", "**we**", or "**us**") and the Customer. It applies to paying Customers on the GROWTH, PRO, and ENTERPRISE tiers. The STARTER tier is offered on a best-efforts basis and is not entitled to service credits under clause 3.
This SLA is read together with the MSA, the Acceptable Use Policy, the Data Processing Agreement (the "**DPA**"), the Sub-Processor List, the CERT-In Incident Runbook, and the Privacy Policy.
## Defined terms
In this SLA:
- "**Platform**" or "**Service**" means the software-as-a-service
product operated by ElevateFinance under the apex domain
`elevatefinance.co` and every white-label tenant subdomain
configured under the MSA.
- "**Customer**" means a Chartered Accountant firm or other entity
bound by the MSA.
- "**Core Paths**" means the Platform paths that materially affect
the Customer's day-to-day operations, including tenant subdomain availability, the documented programmatic interfaces, the receipt verifier, the payment-partner webhook ingress, and the scheduled-task endpoints.
- "**Downtime**" has the meaning given at clause 1.3.
- "**Working Hours**" means 09:00 to 18:00 Indian Standard Time on
Monday to Friday, excluding declared public holidays at ElevateFinance's principal place of business.
- "**Working Day**" means a day other than a Saturday, Sunday, or
declared public holiday at ElevateFinance's principal place of
business.
Capitalised terms not defined here have the meanings given in the
MSA.
## 1. Uptime target
**Plain-language summary.** ElevateFinance targets 99.5% monthly uptime on the Core Paths. Downtime is measured against external monitoring, and only sustained errors count.
1.1 ElevateFinance targets ninety-nine point five percent (99.5%)
monthly uptime of the Core Paths.
1.2 Monthly uptime is calculated as `(total minutes in calendar month minus Downtime minutes) divided by total minutes in calendar month`, expressed as a percentage rounded to two decimal places.
1.3 "**Downtime**" means a period during which the Core Paths respond with HTTP 5xx errors for more than three (3) consecutive minutes from ElevateFinance's external monitoring infrastructure.
## 2. Incident response targets
**Plain-language summary.** Severity levels and first-response
targets are set out below. P1 is on call twenty-four hours a day,
seven days a week.
| Severity | Definition | First-response target | Coverage |
| -------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | ------------- |
| **P1** | Platform unreachable for the Customer's tenant; data loss; security incident | within two (2) hours | 24x7 |
| **P2** | Significant feature degraded; reduced Platform performance | within eight (8) Working Hours | Working Hours |
| **P3** | Single feature defective; cosmetic issue | within twenty-four (24) Working Hours | Working Hours |
| **P4** | Documentation or feature-request question | within five (5) Working Days | Working Hours |
## 3. Service credits
**Plain-language summary.** If monthly uptime falls below the
target, the Customer is entitled to a service credit on the next
invoice. Credits are the exclusive financial remedy for an SLA
breach.
3.1 If monthly uptime falls below 99.5%, the Customer is entitled to a service credit calculated as five percent (5%) of that month's Annual Platform Fee (pro-rated to a calendar month) per half-percent (0.5%) of Downtime below 99.5%, capped at fifty percent (50%) of that month's pro-rated Annual Platform Fee.
3.2 Service credits are the Customer's sole and exclusive financial remedy for any breach of this SLA. They are not a refund and do not constitute a payment by ElevateFinance to the Customer.
3.3 The Parties acknowledge that the percentages in this clause 3 have been negotiated as a genuine pre-estimate of the loss arising from Downtime, taking into account the Fees, the technical risk profile of a software-as-a-service offering, and the allocation of risk in the MSA. The Parties accept the percentages as reasonable compensation under Section 74 of the Indian Contract Act 1872.
3.4 To claim a service credit, the Customer must:
(a) submit a written claim within thirty (30) calendar days of the
end of the affected month;
(b) identify the affected period and provide reasonable supporting
evidence; and
(c) be in good standing on payment of every Fee due.
3.5 Service credits are applied against the Customer's next
invoice. No cash refund is owed.
3.6 Where the Customer is on the STARTER tier, no service credit is owed. This SLA does not apply to the STARTER tier save for clause 4 (which applies to all tiers).
## 4. Exclusions
**Plain-language summary.** Some periods do not count as Downtime, including planned maintenance, emergency maintenance, force majeure, third-party outages, government data-source unavailability, noisy-neighbour throttling, Customer-caused issues, and lawful suspension under the MSA.
The uptime target and the service credits do not apply to Downtime or performance degradation caused by:
(a) **Planned maintenance** for which ElevateFinance has given at
least seven (7) calendar days' notice through the Platform's
status page;
(b) **Emergency maintenance** required for security or stability,
provided ElevateFinance gives notice as soon as commercially
reasonable;
(c) **Force Majeure** within the meaning of clause 17 of the MSA;
(d) **Third-party outage** affecting the Customer's connectivity (internet service providers, DNS, end-user devices);
(e) **Sub-processor outage** outside ElevateFinance's control (the providers identified in the Sub-Processor List), though ElevateFinance shall use commercially reasonable efforts to design around expected sub-processor unavailability;
(f) **Government data-source unavailability** (the Income Tax Department, the GSTN, NSDL, NPCI, or any other government source);
(g) **Rate-limit-driven throttling** of a noisy-neighbour tenant
exceeding the tier-specific entitlements published in the
Documentation;
(h) **Customer-caused issues** (malformed programmatic-interface calls, exhaustion of the Customer's tier-specific entitlements, or a security incident within the Customer's environment); and
(i) **Suspension lawfully effected** under clause 12 of the MSA.
## 5. Maintenance windows
**Plain-language summary.** Routine maintenance is scheduled
outside Working Hours where possible and is announced in advance
on the status page.
5.1 Routine maintenance is scheduled outside Working Hours where
possible, typically in the early-morning Indian Standard Time
window.
5.2 ElevateFinance publishes planned maintenance at the Platform's status page at least seven (7) calendar days in advance.
## 6. Capacity limits
**Plain-language summary.** Tier-specific entitlements (peak
requests-per-second, document-upload quota, concurrent webhook
ingress) are published in the Documentation and may be revised on
notice.
6.1 The Customer's per-tier capacity limits are published in the
Documentation.
6.2 ElevateFinance may revise the capacity limits on no less than thirty (30) calendar days' written notice.
## 7. Continuous improvement
**Plain-language summary.** Post-incident reports are published
internally for every P1 or P2 incident, redacted of any
tenant-identifying information.
7.1 ElevateFinance publishes post-incident reports within five (5) Working Days of resolving any P1 or P2 incident.
7.2 Reports are redacted of any tenant-identifying information.
## 8. Cross-references
This SLA is read together with:
- Master Services Agreement
- Acceptable Use Policy
- Data Processing Agreement
- Sub-Processor List
- CERT-In Incident Runbook
- Privacy Policy
- Refund Policy