Tallyterms editorial policy

This page is the contract behind every guide on the site. Each rule below can be checked from the guide itself, without trusting the editors.

How can you check a guide against this policy?

What counts as a primary source?

A primary source is the body that sets the rule or the price. A summary of that body's rule does not count, however accurate it looks.

Edge cases are handled the same way every time:

• Announced, not yet in force. A platform's own announcement can be quoted, with its date and the label "announced", until the help centre or the terms carry the rule.
• News reports. A news report can tell the editors that something changed. The guide states the change only once a primary source confirms it.
• Two primary sources disagree. The guide quotes both, links both and says they disagree. It does not pick the reading that suits its argument.
• Behind a login, or only in some countries. The guide says where the rule or price was visible. A figure the editors could not read is left out, and the source is linked instead.
• No source says. The guide states that the answer is unknown. It does not fill the gap with an estimate.

What do "checked" and "updated" mean?

• Checked plus a date: the day the source was opened, read and found to state the fact. It appears in each guide's header.
• Read, or opened and checked, plus a date: the same record in the Sources list at the end of each guide, given per source or once for the whole list.
• Updated plus a date: the day the guide's text last changed.

A guide can be updated without a re-check, for example to fix a typo. It is never stamped as checked on a new date unless its sources were opened again that day. An old checked date stays on display until the re-check happens.

How are prices handled?

• From the vendor's own pricing page only, linked, with "checked" and the date.
• With the plan name and the billing basis: monthly or annual, per seat or per workspace. When a vendor leads with the annual-billing figure, the guide says so.
• In the vendor's own currency. Tallyterms does not convert, because a converted figure matches no page a reader can open.
• Free tiers are described by the limits the vendor itself states, such as watermarks, export resolution or usage caps.
• A price that needs a sign-in or a sales call to see is left out, and the pricing page is linked instead.
• No price rankings and no "best" verdicts. Tool-stack guides list examples per job, each with the same fields.

What does Tallyterms not publish?

• Statistics, studies or surveys without a named, checkable source.
• Benchmark rates, CPMs or "average earnings" figures, unless a primary source publishes them.
• First-hand experience claims: "we tested", "a creator we work with", income reports, earnings screenshots.
• Ratings, review scores, testimonials, or follower counts offered as proof.
• Growth or algorithm tactics, rankings of scheduling tools, and reviews of AI tools.
• Ads, sponsored guides, paid placements or commission-paying affiliate links. No vendor, platform or brand pays to be included or left out.

Is a Tallyterms guide legal or tax advice?

No. Guides on contracts, licences, account standing, tax and platform reporting are general information. Each names the jurisdiction it covers, quotes or summarises the rule, and links the authority's own text with its read date. Guides on contracts and tax say on the page that they are not legal or tax advice. For a real case, such as a disputed deal or a letter from a tax office, ask a lawyer or tax adviser qualified where you live. The About page says more on this.

How is the affiliate handled?

Tallyterms is affiliated with Schedchie, a social media scheduler.

That is a commercial interest: the affiliate gains when a reader chooses it. The rules that follow limit where the affiliation can touch a guide.

1. In guides, the affiliate may appear only in the scheduling row of a tool-stack guide. Guides on platform pay, brand deals, rights, account standing and tax never name it. Outside the guides, only the About page and this page name it.
2. One mention per guide at most. Most guides have none.
3. In that row, the platforms' own free scheduling tools come first, where a platform offers one. At most two third-party schedulers follow, and the affiliate may be one of them. Every other row in the guide carries the same number of examples.
4. The affiliate is never ranked, scored, or called the best or recommended choice. Its entry has the same fields as the other example in its row.
5. Any page that names or links it carries a one-line affiliation disclosure near the top.
6. Its price comes from its own pricing page, with a checked date, like every other vendor's.
7. Links to the affiliate's site carry utm_source=tallyterms, which tells it the visit came from Tallyterms.

The disclosure follows the standard in the US Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides: a connection that "might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement", and that the audience does not reasonably expect, must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously (16 CFR 255.5(a)). The About page covers the EU rule as well.

How are guides written and checked?

• The byline is "the Tallyterms editors". There is no invented author and no persona.
• Each guide goes through a separate fact-check before it is published. Every checkable fact is reopened on its primary source that day. A fact that cannot be confirmed is cut or stated as unknown.

How often are guides re-checked?

A guide is also re-checked when a reader reports a change, or when a source announces one with an effective date.

• A re-check that finds no change moves the checked date and nothing else.
• A re-check that finds a change updates the text and both dates, and adds a dated change note to the guide.
• A guide past its interval keeps its old checked date on display until it is re-checked.

How are errors corrected?

Tallyterms separates a correction from an update.

When an error is reported or found:

1. The editors reopen the source the guide cites and any source the report links.
2. If a primary source confirms the error, the guide is fixed and its updated date changes.
3. If no primary source settles the question, the fact is cut or stated as unknown.
4. A report that links only a secondary source is checked against the primary source before anything changes.

Typos and wording fixes that change no fact are made without a note. Figures, rules and dates are never changed silently.

Corrections log

None as of 2026-09-28. Each correction that changes a figure, rule or date will be listed here with the guide, the date and what changed.

Where is this policy declared in the page code?

Every page's Organization markup names this page as its publishingPrinciples. On schema.org, that property points to a document setting out an organization's editorial principles as a publisher. The About page is named as ownershipFundingInfo, the schema.org property for an organization's ownership structure and funding, defined as a sub-property of publishingPrinciples. A crawler that reads the markup finds the same rules a reader finds here.

Related pages

• About Tallyterms: who publishes it, what it covers and leaves out, and the affiliation in full.
• All guides, grouped by topic, each with its checked date.
• Tallyterms home.

Sources

• 16 CFR 255.5, "Disclosure of material connections", FTC Endorsement Guides, via eCFR: ecfr.gov, read 2026-09-28.
• schema.org, publishingPrinciples property: schema.org/publishingPrinciples, read 2026-09-28.
• schema.org, ownershipFundingInfo property: schema.org/ownershipFundingInfo, read 2026-09-28.
• Example primary-source sites named in the table above: YouTube Help, TikTok Support, Instagram Help Center, eCFR, legislation.gov.uk, FTC, IRS, HMRC, each opened 2026-09-28.