We have built our App for both Android and iOS, and have made sure we support over 95% of the operating systems out there going back to Android 5.0 and iOS 8.0. Additionally, we have tested our App on all the popular handsets coving the majority of the phones purchased. Nothing is fool proof however so if you spot something odd, let us know.

Currently, no. The App will only display portrait as we feel this gives the user the best experience.

Yes, you can suspend or delete either of them. We are really serious about you staying in control of your data so you can turn off/on your service profile whenever you like or delete your account completely if you wish.

We take the privacy of our users really seriously and the personal data you input to set up your account is not visible to all users. There are some bits that are shared in order to help people understand who you are, so your profile description, photographs that you upload and availability are naturally visible. Once a booking is requested and accepted, details are privately shared with the other party to allow them to do the job or service and contact one another about the job if needed. This is no different from what happens in real life.

Stripe does the same job as PayPal. It is a multi-Billion Dollar company that counts Apple and Twitter among its customers. Stripe allows demanders of a service to pay for services that have been done and also allows the provider of services to receive that payment. It is extremely efficient and extremely secure. Stripe is the market leader in App payments is backed by investors like PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, and Elon Musk (of Tesla car fame). No payment data is held on our servers further protecting users. Our method is far safer than emailing an invoice, as it is all done within our system and transfers are automatic! Payments will be made to providers on a weekly basis, on a Friday – all ready for the weekend.

Setting up is simple and you only need to do it once. It costs nothing and although you may not see much traffic in the early days, if your profile is good and you have reviews (even from families and friends), the jobs will start to roll in. The more jobs you do through Togetherdom, the more review opportunities you will have, which in turn will draw in more potential bookers.

ONLY when a service is completed and you are paid do we levy a service fee ( 7.625% + VAT). We have avoided all upfront costs and make sure that fees are levied only when you are earning.

For that fee, you get ALL of the following:

• A listing for as many of your services as you need
• Visibility to everyone in your chosen area
• The booking and diary management benefits
• Directions to each job built in
• A ratings and review process that increases trust and bookings
• The ability to see the rating of your customer to help you avoid bad customers
• A disputes process in-App (it might happen!), designed to leave an audit trail to improve resolutions (coming soon)
• Payment that means your money is paid direct to your bank every week, so no more invoicing and no more chasing payments and running to the bank
• We cover all the payment processing fees on your behalf
• All the earnings info available when you need it, saving tons of time on admin (and reducing your accountant bills!)

There is a charge of £2+VAT per month ONLY in months where payments are made to you. So, no activity in a month, no costs! We want to keep Togetherdom free if you have not earned.

So, to summarise: If you earn nothing in a month – no fees

We hope that you find our approach to be a fair one.

We do not charge anything upfront, nor do we charge a subscription or charge for enquiries. These are often called  ‘pay to play’. We also do not filter results for you. We let you see exactly who is available in your area and you get to see all the ratings and choose the person directly. No filtering from us. We believe that you are the best judge of who you want to work with and work for.

The more information you share on your profile, the more you build trust and are more likely to get bookings. According to Career ReForm, profiles with a photograph are 11 times more likely to be clicked on than one without. Bottom line – having a headshot photo establishes your credibility and allows people to more easily recognise you when you turn up to work for them. But most importantly, it cements your personal brand.

No. You can stay on our system for as long as you like, safe in the knowledge it costs you nothing. You only pay a small service fee when a job is actually booked and completed.

In short, no. This is against the T&Cs of the app. No telephone numbers of emails addresses can be mentioned in either your description or on the photographs you upload (so no business cards etc!). There is a great chat function on the App that you can use to talk about the job if needed. For our service to be able to bring all these benefits without any subscription element, we need to ensure that business is done via the App at all times.

What you see on the App at the time of booking is what you pay. We hate all those charges you sometimes see at the checkout, so we don’t do it!

The listed price already INCLUDES our Service Fee (9.375%+VAT) which covers ALL of the following:

• Access to the App that allows you to see local providers
• A ratings and review process that increases trust and helps you avoid ‘rogue traders’
• The booking and diary management benefits
• A disputes process in-App (it might happen!), designed to leave an audit trail to improve resolutions (coming soon)
• Integrated payments – once you are happy with the job, you click ‘Rate and Pay’. No more searching for cash or writing cheques!
• We cover all the payment processing fees on your behalf
• A history of all past services together with info you exchanged for the job, for easy future reference

To summarise: What you see listed is what you pay. Period.

We hope that you find our approach to be a fair one.

You are calling the shots. You get to reply to people who contact you – or not. You can choose to take on a job requested of you – or not. We are talking about local people with local small businesses – building local communities again! Just be yourself and you will be surprised at how easy and safe it is.

We are not qualified to give tax advice and as an online business acting as a marketplace we do not get involved in the payment of tax for individuals or businesses. What we have developed is a simple method for you to track what you have been earning and download that into your email inbox so that you can do your own calculations. We put the data in a really easy to read format so it makes like much easier when you come to look at your tax return or work with your accountant. This saves you a lot of time and money.

As an ethical and socially responsible business we firmly believe that paying tax is the right thing to do for everyone. Getting cash in hand does not mean you can avoid tax. Take a look at this plumber who got caught, was jailed for 14 months and owed £117,602, made up of £64,674 in unpaid income tax and national insurance, plus interest. He effectively ended up paying DOUBLE tax when he paid it all back: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2226847/Builder-paid-cash-hand-entire-27-YEAR-career-jailed-117-000-tax-avoidance.html) .

Apart from paying your fair share, there are other benefits from a reputational perspective. If a person avoids paying tax, what other rules or regulations might you ‘avoid’, and therefore how good a job will you really do? Playing fair encourages trust.

Yes. You specify on your service set-up page how far you want to travel. If for instance you only want to work a maximum of 3 miles from your house, then set that in your profile and the system makes sure that only people searching within 3 miles of your house can see your profile.

No problem. You set when you want to work with our inbuilt calendar function. These are the only times that are made available to demanders. You can easily block out holiday periods as unavailable. You have to accept each booking in order for it to be a commitment, so you retain control at all times. Cannot do the time requested of you? Go back to the demander, suggesting a new time.

Yes, all jobs completed via the App are rated. This ensures that the process remains robust and transparent. The more jobs you do via the App the higher your rating and the higher the levels of trust. This will help enhance the visibility of service providers and show to all the good quality of the work that they do. Correspondingly, consistent poor reviews will show that some providers need to improve their service in order to compete with better rated people.

We realise that everyone gets busy. When a job finishes, both sides will be notified and reminded to rate. The demander of the service will be asked to rate and pay. The notification will sit in your action centre for 72 hours until actioned. In the event that parties are too busy to rate, the system takes the view that if there has been no complaints, then the provider should be paid and ratings automatically applied to both parties. The fairest way is to award 5 stars to both as any other rating would penalise either party with no actual foundation. We think that is the fairest approach for all.

Again, we want to be as fair and transparent as possible. When someone books a service they want to know that the person coming to work for them is a ‘good’ person. Equally, anyone going to do a job for someone will want to know that they are a good person to work for. Trust and respect go both ways. We believe that this process enhances trust and adds a much higher measure of protection of both parties. No system is ideal, but we believe that this method is SIGNIFICANTLY better than hiring someone or working for someone with no prior knowledge of their behaviours, which is what happens in many situations today.

Just as in real life, disagreements will always happen. Doing business via the App should be no different to a real-life experience. What we have tried to do is improve the experience by adding the extra trust and visibility that a rating system offers. Both the demander and the provider are rated and this is visible to all parties. This is important as a provider needs to know that a person is a good person to work for and also the demander needs to see that a provider will do a good job.

In the event of a dispute, we have a dispute resolution process in-App (coming very soon) where the provider and demander can message to resolve the issue. We encourage users to go down this route rather than leaving a negative review without fully understanding the circumstances. At the end of the day, if there is no agreement, the demander can leave a bad rating which is more powerful than in real life where poor traders can often continue for ages without any penalty. As both parties are rated, this works both ways to protect everyone involved.

The system is primarily built for services but can handle fixed price jobs too (this can be selected in the service set up), so if you make flower planters for £30, you can list that.

We encourage all users to use the inbuilt message system as this provides a paper trail and is more efficient than trying to remember conversations. The address of the parties will only be shared when a booking is made.We have a provision to chat about a job before a booking is made.

We are all busy and we recognise that some things just slip by despite our best intentions. We have built into the App automatic payment of a job 72 hours after if has been confirmed as completed. This gives both parties enough time to assess the job and raise a dispute if necessary. In the absence of a dispute, we assume there are no issues so a job should get paid for and a default rating will be left.

This is a big leap forward from real life where there would be a lot of time and money wasted chasing non payment. Oh, and by the way, 3 outstanding payments will temporarily freeze a demander’s account as a reminder that ratings in Togetherdom are an important part of our community and how it functions.