Questions, answered plainly

It's a tool that asks the right person at your school, in good time, whether each contract should be renewed or cancelled, and keeps a record of what they said.

Most school contracts renew automatically: software licences, photocopier leases, insurance, servicing. The deadline for cancelling is often months before the renewal date, and it tends to pass unnoticed. The school then pays for another year of something nobody chose to keep. RenewBud makes sure someone decides before that deadline.

No. If you can read an email and click a button, you can answer a renewal question. Managing the contract list is about as hard as keeping a simple spreadsheet.

No. Most staff never log in. They receive an email with a question and two buttons, and that's all they need to do. Only the people who manage the contract list, usually Finance or the business manager, use the system itself.

Anything with a renewal date: software and MIS licences, curriculum subscriptions, insurance, equipment leases, catering and cleaning contracts, servicing and maintenance, memberships and utilities.

A spreadsheet holds the dates, but it doesn't remind anyone, it doesn't ask the person who actually knows whether the contract is still needed, and it doesn't record their answer. RenewBud does those three things. You can keep your spreadsheet and import it.

It's how far ahead you must tell a supplier that you want to stop. If a contract renews on 1 April with 90 days' notice, the real deadline is early January. RenewBud works that date out for you and asks for a decision about a month before it.

It's your school's own private area in RenewBud: your contracts, your team and your settings. Nobody outside your school can see it.

If you have a contracts list in Excel, usually under an hour: upload it, check it on screen and confirm.

Yes. Upload your Excel or CSV contracts list, or fill in our template. You don't have to type anything in again, and departments and categories are created for you.

Before anything is saved, RenewBud shows you every row and what will happen to it: which rows are complete, which have something missing, which are duplicates, and who would be emailed. Rows with gaps are still imported, marked as incomplete, and send nothing until someone fills them in.

For 24 hours you can undo the whole import with one click.

Leave it blank in your spreadsheet and RenewBud assumes 30 days, a common notice period. You can correct it later when you find it in the contract.

No. It runs in your web browser, on a computer, tablet or phone.

No. It works on its own. It doesn't connect to your finance system, your MIS or anyone's inbox.

Yes. Add your school's logo and colour in Settings, and they appear on the emails your staff receive.

The member of staff you name as responsible for each contract, for example the head of department or the site manager. Each contract can have a different person. Nobody outside your school is emailed.

It shows your school's name followed by "via RenewBud", with your logo. It says which contract is up for renewal, what it costs and the date to decide by, with two buttons: "Yes, renew it" and "No, cancel it".

Because the question comes from your school, and RenewBud is the tool that delivers it. The email address it comes from is hello@renewbud.com.

About a month before the deadline for cancelling each contract, which RenewBud works out from the renewal date and the notice period. You can change the 30 days for your whole school in Settings, or for a single contract.

Two reminders follow, a week apart by default. If there's still no answer after the last one, the renewal is recorded as cancelled and the person managing it is told, while there's still time to tell the supplier. Nothing renews in silence.

Yes. In Settings you choose how many days before each deadline the first email goes, and how many days to wait before each reminder. Any single contract can have its own timing too.

They get one email per contract, when that contract's deadline is about a month away. Contracts with different dates arrive at different times of the year.

Ask your IT team to allow emails from renewbud.com. It takes them a couple of minutes, and we can give them the details they need.

No. Emails only go to the people you list as responsible. Before an import, any address that isn't from your school's own email domain is highlighted, so a supplier's address in the wrong column is caught before anything is sent.

No. RenewBud records the decision and tells the person who manages the contract. They then contact the supplier, as they do today, but in time.

If your school uses RenewBud, yes. It shows your school's name, comes from hello@renewbud.com and asks about a contract you are responsible for. It will never ask for a password, bank details or a payment. If in doubt, ask your Finance team.

No. They click a button in the email, choose a reason if they wish, and confirm. There is no password and nothing to sign up for. Only the people who manage renewals need an account.

You are asked to confirm before your answer is saved, so a slip is easy to correct. After that, reply to the email: your reply reaches the person who manages the contract.

Reply to the email. Your reply goes to the person at your school who manages the contract, and they can pass the question to the right colleague.

Yes. You have about a month, and you can add a note with your answer to explain it.

You'll get reminders over the following weeks. If the deadline is close and there is still no answer, the person managing the contract is told, so they can follow it up.

Your answer is recorded and the person who manages the contract is told straight away. If you chose to cancel, they contact the supplier. You don't need to do anything else.

Your data is stored in the UK. Each person has their own login, two-step verification is available for every account, and sensitive settings are stored encrypted. Every action in your workspace is logged.

Details of your contracts (supplier, cost, dates, notes) and the names and work email addresses of the staff involved. We don't hold pupil data, and we don't hold your school's bank or card details.

No. Your data is used only to run RenewBud for you. We don't sell it, share it for marketing or show adverts.

Yes. It's on our website, ready for your data protection records.

Only the people you invite to your workspace. You choose what each person can do: view only, manage renewals, or change settings.

Yes. You can export your contracts to Excel or CSV at any time, and you can ask us to delete your data.

Yes. Every decision is stored with who made it, when and why, and every change in the workspace is logged. Reports can be downloaded as PDF.

There is a free plan for a small number of contracts. Paid plans depend on how many contracts, people and schools you have. Prices are on our pricing page.

Yes. Start on the free plan, or take a free trial of a paid plan.

Yes, any time, from Settings → Billing. There is no long contract, and your data stays intact if you come back later.

Yes. Each school gets its own workspace, with its own contracts and team, all on one plan and one bill. One person can belong to several workspaces and switch between them. For larger trusts we price per school: get in touch.

By card, monthly or yearly. For trusts, we can send a single yearly invoice, paid by card through a secure link.

Usually one person in Finance or the business manager. The dashboard shows what needs attention today, in plain words.

Yes. Invite colleagues to your workspace and choose what each can do. How many people you can invite depends on your plan.

You set its next renewal date, and the cycle starts again at the right time.

Change the name on their contracts to their replacement. Nothing else needs to change.

Set your financial year start date once in Settings, and Spend and Savings reports can be filtered to "this financial year" instead of the calendar year.

Use Help inside RenewBud to send us a question and follow the answer, or write to hello@renewbud.com. A real person replies.