Provider Agreement

Effective November 3, 2026

This agreement is between you, a business that takes payments or manages its work through Cortigo, and Clipper Connect LLC, doing business as Cortigo. It says how card payments work on your own Stripe account, what you pay Cortigo, and who is responsible for what. Please read it: section 2 makes you the merchant for every card payment your clients make, section 8 makes you responsible for how the people who work for you are paid, and section 12 brings in the arbitration clause from our Terms of Service.

1. Who this agreement is between, and when it applies

Cortigo is operated by Clipper Connect LLC, a limited liability company doing business as Cortigo, of 1920 McKinney Ave, Floor 7, Dallas, TX 75201, United States ("Cortigo", "we", "us"). The Cortigo websites, the Cortigo mobile apps and everything we offer through them are the "Service".

You. "You" means the Provider: a shop, a school, an independent barber, or a barber renting a chair in someone else's shop. If you act for a business, you confirm you are authorized to accept this agreement on its behalf, and "you" means both you and that business. A "client" is a person who books or pays you through the Service.

When you accept it. You accept this agreement when you connect a Stripe account to Cortigo through the Service, when you take a payment through the Service, or when you tick the confirmations the app asks you for, whichever comes first. If you do not accept it, do not take payments through the Service.

How it fits with the Terms. Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy apply to you as well, and this agreement is in addition to them. If this agreement and the Terms say different things about a payment, a refund, a dispute, a fee, booth rent or how your staff are paid, this agreement prevails. For everything else, the Terms prevail.

Stripe. Card payments on the Service are processed by Stripe, our payment processor. Where this agreement says "Stripe's terms", it means the agreements Stripe asks you to accept for your account, including its connected-account agreement and its services agreement.

2. Your Stripe account, and your status as merchant of record

You are the merchant. You take card payments on your own Stripe account, connected to Cortigo. You are the merchant of record for every charge made on that account: the sale, each refund of it and each dispute about it are yours, not Cortigo's. Cortigo is not the seller, is not a party to the sale, and does not stand behind your charges.

Stripe's terms apply to you directly. When you connect your account you accept Stripe's connected-account agreement, and it governs your account alongside this agreement. If Stripe's terms and this agreement conflict about your Stripe account, Stripe's terms govern your relationship with Stripe.

Stripe's processing fee is yours. Stripe charges its processing fee to you, as the merchant, on the whole amount the client pays, the Booking fee in section 3 included, and takes it from your balance. Cortigo does not pay or refund Stripe's fees for you.

Negative balances. Your account is set up so that Stripe, and not Cortigo, bears any negative balance on it. What that means for you, including anything Stripe may recover from you, is set by Stripe's terms, not by us. Cortigo does not guarantee your account to Stripe and does not cover its losses.

Getting paid. Stripe pays your balance to your bank on the schedule you choose in the app or in Stripe: daily, weekly or monthly. Apart from the refunds and disputes we handle for you under sections 5 and 6 and the earlier payments in section 10, Cortigo never receives, holds or moves your money; the only part of a charge on your account that reaches us is the Booking fee. Stripe may hold, delay or reverse a payout under its own terms, may ask you for more information before releasing one, and may wait a few days before the first payout from a new account. We cannot release money Stripe is holding.

Verification. You must complete Stripe's identity, business and bank-account verification and keep it current. While Stripe has not enabled charges on your account, or has taken that away because it needs something from you, card payments to you are not available through the Service and your clients pay you in person. A barber renting a chair who has no Stripe account connected cannot take card payments through the Service.

What your clients see. The charge appears on a client's card statement under your business name, as you gave it to Stripe, not under Cortigo's. Keep that name one your clients will recognize; a charge they do not recognize is the most common reason for a dispute.

Your dashboard. Stripe gives you a dashboard for your account. Which kind of dashboard, and what you can do in it, depends on what Stripe offers your account under its terms. The app shows your payments, refunds and disputes as well.

3. The Booking fee

What it is. When a client pays you through the Service, by card, on your device or in cash, and your own amount is $10 or more, the client also pays Cortigo a Booking fee of $3. Your own amount is your services, any tax on them, and any tip the client chooses when booking. If your amount comes to less than $10 when the payment is taken, there is no Booking fee.

Who pays it, and how it reaches us. The client pays the Booking fee on top of your price, and sees it as its own line before confirming. On a card charge it is collected by Stripe in the same charge as your amount and passed to Cortigo; on a cash sale you collect it for us (see Cash below). You keep your full price, less Stripe's processing fee on a card charge, which applies to the whole charge, the Booking fee included.

It is per sale. The Booking fee applies to each sale of $10 or more, however the client pays - by card, on your device or in cash - including a cancellation or no-show fee you charge under your policy, and a booth rent charge under section 7. There is none on a tip a client adds after the visit.

Cash. On a cash sale the client pays you the Booking fee with the cash and you keep it, so you owe it to us. We recover what you owe from your later card charges that carry a Booking fee: on each such charge we add to the amount Stripe passes to us a part of your amount on that charge (the share is shown in the app), until the balance is cleared. The app shows what you owe and each recovery.

When a charge is refunded. The Booking fee is not refundable. On a full refund the client gets everything but the Booking fee back, and on a partial refund what you refund comes from your balance only; in both cases the Booking fee stays with Cortigo, as does any amount recovered on that charge for Booking fees from your cash sales. Section 5 says more about refunds.

Changes. We may change the amount of the Booking fee or the threshold at which it applies, with notice as described in section 21 of the Terms of Service. The amount in force is always shown to the client before they confirm.

Our only charge. The Booking fee is the only amount Cortigo charges for payments taken under this agreement, unless a separate written plan between you and Cortigo says otherwise. Stripe's fees are Stripe's, not ours.

4. Cards on file

How a card reaches your account. A client who saves a card with Cortigo agrees that a copy of it may be kept on the Stripe account of each shop or barber they book with. Stripe makes that copy on your account the first time you charge the card. Full card numbers stay with Stripe and never reach Cortigo's servers or yours.

What you may charge it for. You may charge a client's saved card only for that client's bookings with you, for a cancellation or no-show fee under the policy you published and the client accepted, for a tip the client chose or added through the Service, and, if you rent chairs out, for rent a renter approved in the app. Never for anything else: not for a sale made outside the Service, not for another business, and not after the client has removed the card or deleted their account.

Card details stay with Stripe. You keep no card numbers yourself. Do not ask a client to give you their card number outside the Service, and do not copy, export or record card details from Stripe anywhere else. The card network rules apply to you as the merchant.

5. Refunds

Your decision. Whether and how much to refund is your decision, under your own published policy and the law that applies to you. You issue refunds from the app. A paid booking that is cancelled before the visit is refunded automatically, except for the Booking fee.

From your account. Every refund is made on your Stripe account, from your balance, back to the card the client paid with. If your balance does not cover it, Stripe's terms say how the shortfall is made up. No refund, full or partial, returns the Booking fee, as section 3 describes.

Refunds we make for you. Cortigo may process a refund at your request. We may also process one on your behalf where the law, the card network rules, Stripe, or a client's substantiated complaint requires it. In each case the refund is made on your Stripe account, from your balance, and it remains your refund; it is recorded against the booking like any other. You authorize us to make refunds on your account for these purposes.

6. Disputes and chargebacks

They are raised against your account. When a client asks their bank to reverse a charge, the dispute is between the client, their bank and you, the merchant. Stripe holds the disputed amount and its dispute fee from your balance while the dispute is decided.

What we do for you. We tell you about the dispute in the app. We assemble an evidence pack from the booking record: the booking, the policies and consents the client accepted, the receipts and messages the Service holds, and anything you add. We submit that pack to Stripe on your behalf automatically 48 hours before Stripe's deadline, unless you turn auto-submit off in the app, which you can do for your whole business or for a single dispute. You can also review the pack and submit it earlier yourself, and Cortigo staff may submit it for you.

If you turn auto-submit off. You must then submit the evidence yourself before the deadline. If nothing is submitted, Stripe and the card issuer decide the dispute without it, and a dispute with no response is normally lost.

The result is yours. The card issuer decides the dispute, not Stripe and not Cortigo, and we do not guarantee the outcome. If you lose, the reversed amount, Stripe's dispute fee and any related loss are yours. If you win, the amount is returned to your balance by Stripe under its terms.

Your part. Keep accurate records of the services you provide, including who was served and when. Answer our requests about a dispute promptly, upload what you have, and never submit evidence you know to be false. You authorize us to prepare and submit dispute evidence on your behalf and to communicate with Stripe about a dispute on your account, for that purpose only.

7. Booth rent

If you rent a chair. The shop charges your rent to the card you saved, on the shop's own Stripe account, under the rent terms (the amount and how often it is charged) you approve in the app. The shop is the merchant for that charge, your card is copied to its account as section 4 describes, and you pay the Booking fee on each rent charge on top of the rent, as section 3 describes. The rental itself, including what the chair comes with and the hours you may use it, is between you and the shop; Cortigo is not a party to it.

If you rent chairs out. You are the merchant for every rent charge made on your account, and the rest of this agreement applies to those charges as to any other: Stripe's processing fee on the whole amount, refunds from your balance, and disputes raised against your account. Charge rent only on terms the renter has approved in the app, and only for the periods those terms cover.

8. Your staff, and how they are paid

Cortigo pays nobody who works for you. Your employees take no card payments on a Stripe account of their own. What a client pays for an employee's work lands in your Stripe account, and Cortigo pays none of it on to anyone. Cortigo is not your payroll provider, your accountant or anyone's employer of record.

Pay reports. Each pay period Cortigo prepares a pay report for you, from what the Service recorded: hours, commission, tips and bonuses. It is there to help you run your own payroll. Check it before you rely on it; what you pay, and how, is your decision and your responsibility.

You are the employer. You alone are responsible for how you classify the people who work for you, for their wages and overtime, for handling their tips as the law requires, and for withholding and paying payroll taxes. Nothing in the Service decides any of that for you.

A shop's confirmations. If you have employees, the app asks you to confirm five things before you use it for them. Each one is a representation you make to Cortigo, and you must keep it true for as long as you use the Service:

• you classify the people who work for you, as employees or independent contractors, yourself;
• you pay employee wages through your own payroll;
• you pay commission and card tips to employees through that payroll;
• you keep a written pay plan for each employee;
• you keep none of the tips.

A barber's confirmations. If you are an independent barber or rent a chair, the app asks you to confirm three things, which are likewise representations you make to Cortigo and must keep true: you set your own prices, hours and policies; the clients you serve are your own; and you hold the license your trade requires.

If a confirmation stops being true, tell us at contactus@cortigo.com before you take another payment. We rely on these confirmations, and a confirmation that was not true when made, or is not kept true, is a breach of this agreement.

9. Taxes, licenses and the law

Prices and taxes. You set your prices. You decide what tax applies to what you sell, you set it in the Service so that it is shown at checkout, and you collect and remit it. Cortigo does not calculate, collect or pay taxes on your sales.

Tax reporting. You are responsible for reporting your own income and paying your own taxes. Any tax form for your Stripe account's activity, such as a Form 1099-K, is issued where the law requires it, by whoever the law and Stripe's terms make responsible for it. The pay reports in section 8 are not tax forms.

Licenses. Hold and keep current every license, registration, insurance and qualification your trade requires, including under state barbering and cosmetology board rules and school licensing rules, and follow the law that applies to you. We do not verify any of it for you.

Consumer protection and card network rules. As the merchant you are responsible for complying with consumer-protection law and with the card network rules: publish your cancellation and no-show policy and charge only what it says, give receipts, and charge nothing a client did not agree to.

10. Payments taken before this agreement

The previous model. Before this agreement took effect, Cortigo took payments on its own Stripe account as your limited payment collection agent and paid you out from them. A payment Cortigo took or authorized on its own Stripe account, rather than yours, and everything that follows from it, is completed under the previous version of the Terms of Service, not under sections 2 to 6 of this agreement. That includes a hold placed on Cortigo's account and captured after this agreement took effect, a hold that expired and was charged again, a tip added after the visit to such a booking, a payment made in advance on Cortigo's account, and every refund and chargeback of any of those.

Transfers to you. Cortigo transfers that money to you for 120 days after the effective date. After that, no further transfers run automatically; any amount that remains is settled by hand when you ask us at contactus@cortigo.com.

Refunds and chargebacks of those payments. They stay on Cortigo's account, with no time limit. Where a chargeback of such a payment is lost, we may recover the reversed amount and any dispute fee from you, by setting it off against money we still hold for you or by asking you to pay it, and you agree to pay it within 30 days of our asking.

11. Data

Your clients' information. Use it only to provide your own services and to meet your own legal duties, as section 9 of the Terms of Service requires. Honor requests to stop messaging or to delete information, and comply with the privacy and marketing laws that apply to you.

What we share with Stripe. We give Stripe what it needs to run your account and your charges: the business and identity details you give us or Stripe, the copy of a client's saved card described in section 4, and the booking details and evidence that go with a charge, a refund or a dispute. Stripe handles that information under its own terms and privacy policy. Our Privacy Policy describes what we collect and what we do with it.

Consents we keep. We keep a record of each consent and confirmation made through the Service, such as a client saving a card or accepting your policy, a renter approving rent, and your confirmations in section 8, for at least six years, as evidence. We may give those records to Stripe or to a card issuer when a charge is disputed.

12. Suspension, ending it, and changes

Pausing payments. We may pause card payments through the Service, or disconnect your Stripe account from Cortigo, if you break this agreement or the Terms of Service, if we reasonably believe your account is being used unlawfully or fraudulently, if it exposes clients, Stripe or us to risk, if a chargeback against you is left unresolved, or if Stripe instructs us to. Where we reasonably can, we will tell you first. Disconnecting ends the link between your Stripe account and the Service; the account itself stays yours, and Stripe decides what happens on it under its terms.

Ending it. You may stop taking payments through the Service at any time, and may close your account as the Terms of Service describe. Ending this agreement does not undo a charge already made: you remain the merchant for it, its refunds and its disputes, and section 10 keeps running until the money it covers is settled.

What survives. Sections 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11, this section, and sections 16 to 22 of the Terms of Service carry on after this agreement ends, for as long as there is anything for them to apply to.

Changes. We may update this agreement as the Service changes, in the way section 21 of the Terms of Service describes: we tell you at least 14 days before a change that matters to you takes effect, unless it has to be immediate for legal or security reasons, and the date at the top always says which version is current. Carrying on taking payments through the Service after a change takes effect means accepting it.

Our promises, our liability, and covering our losses. Sections 16, 17 and 18 of the Terms of Service (what we do not promise, the limit of our liability, and covering our losses) apply to this agreement as if written here. Under section 18, that includes any claim arising from a charge, refund or dispute on your account, from how you pay or classify the people who work for you, or from a confirmation in section 8 that was not true.

Disputes between you and Cortigo, and governing law. Sections 19 and 20 of the Terms of Service apply to this agreement as if written here: talk to us first, then individual arbitration in Dallas County, Texas, which you can opt out of within 30 days of first accepting the Terms, under the laws of the State of Texas. A chargeback or a client's dispute of a charge is not a dispute between you and Cortigo; section 6 covers those.

13. Contact us

Clipper Connect LLC, doing business as Cortigo
1920 McKinney Ave, Floor 7
Dallas, TX 75201
United States

contactus@cortigo.com·+1 (607) 365-3610

See also our Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy.