Terms and Conditions

1. Who this agreement is with

Business Partner is provided by Contempo Curations (Pty) Ltd, trading as Business-Partner.co.za, registration number 2022/735084/07, registered in South Africa and with its physical address at Suite 1, Prism Office Park, Ruby Close, Fourways, Sandton.

In these terms, "Business Partner", "we", "us" and "our" refer to that entity. "You" and "subscriber" refer to the person who creates the account and, where that person acts for a business, the business on whose behalf the account is created.

2. Accepting these terms

You accept these terms when you select the acceptance box, create an account, purchase a subscription or continue using the service after being given notice of an updated version.

If you accept these terms for a company, close corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship or other business, you confirm that you are authorised to bind that business. Electronic acceptance has the same effect as accepting a written agreement.

Our Privacy Policy and any price, subscription period or other commercial terms shown to you at checkout form part of this agreement. If checkout contains a specific term that conflicts with these general terms, the checkout term applies to that subscription.

3. What Business Partner provides

Business Partner is a subscription software service designed to help a small-business owner understand what needs attention and decide what to do next. Depending on the features available in your account, the service may provide:

A daily Morning Brief showing matters that may need attention.

Suggested customers to follow up for payment and draft messages for your review.

A compliance calendar based on information you provide about your business.

Answers and calculations drawn from documents you provide.

A record of recommendations and the decisions you take on them.

New or improved features released as Business Partner continues to develop.

The service may ask for more information, decline to answer where the information is missing or unreliable, or explain that a requested calculation is not available. Those limits are part of the service's intended operation.

4. You remain in control

Business Partner provides recommendations, calculations, reminders and drafts. It does not act independently for you.

A debtor-chasing message is prepared for you to review. Business Partner does not send it, contact your customer or represent itself as you. You decide whether to edit, approve and send it from your own email and in your own name.

Business Partner does not file returns, make tax payments, pay suppliers, move money, enter into contracts, dismiss employees or make other business decisions for you. You remain responsible for every instruction, communication, filing, payment and decision.

5. Who may use the service

You must have legal capacity to enter into this agreement and authority to act for the business connected to the account.

The initial service is intended for one business and one owner or authorised account holder. Unless your subscription expressly says otherwise, you may not use one subscription for several businesses, share the account with another person or allow another person to use your login.

You must provide accurate account and business information, keep it current, keep your password confidential and tell us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access.

6. The information and documents you provide

You decide what information to provide. You retain ownership of your documents, business records, questions and other material you submit.

You give Business Partner a non-exclusive licence to host, copy, organise, analyse and otherwise process that material only as reasonably necessary to provide, secure and improve the service in accordance with these terms and the Privacy Policy.

You are responsible for the accuracy, completeness, currency and legibility of the information you provide. Business Partner may rely on it without independently auditing it. If documents conflict, are missing or are out of date, recommendations and calculations may be incomplete or incorrect.

You must not upload information that is unlawful, malicious, misleading, infringing or unnecessary for the service. Where possible, remove personal information that is not relevant to the business question or feature you are using.

7. Processing uploaded personal information

When you upload documents or other material containing personal information about customers, suppliers, employees or any other person, you remain the responsible party for that information as defined in the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).

Business Partner acts as your operator and processes that information only with your knowledge or authorisation, on your instruction and for the purpose of providing the service to you. These terms constitute the written contract between the responsible party and operator required by section 21 of POPIA.

Business Partner will treat uploaded personal information as confidential and will not disclose it except where required by law or as necessary for the proper provision of the service. Business Partner will establish and maintain appropriate technical and organisational safeguards as contemplated in section 19 of POPIA. Business Partner may engage service providers to process information only where reasonably necessary to provide the service and will require them to observe appropriate confidentiality, security and data-protection obligations.

Business Partner will notify you immediately where it has reasonable grounds to believe that personal information processed on your behalf has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person. Business Partner will provide reasonable information and assistance to enable you to investigate the incident, meet your notification obligations and respond to affected data subjects.

You confirm that you are entitled to upload and instruct the processing of all information you provide; that you have given any required notice and obtained any required consent or other lawful basis; and that the upload does not breach POPIA, another law or a duty you owe to the people concerned. You must not upload more personal information than is reasonably necessary to use the service.

Business Partner may create aggregated and de-identified information from information processed across subscriber accounts and use it to measure and improve the service, provided that no subscriber, customer, supplier, employee or other person is identifiable and the information cannot be re-identified. Business Partner will not disclose one subscriber's identifiable information to another subscriber. De-identified information may be retained after your account ends.

On termination of the service, Business Partner will delete, return or de-identify uploaded personal information in accordance with the Privacy Policy, your lawful instruction and any legal retention requirement. Business Partner will provide reasonable assistance with requests from data subjects and with compliance obligations relating to the processing it performs as your operator.

8. Privacy, confidentiality and security

Our Privacy Policy explains how we process account information, uploaded information, usage information and communications, and how data subjects may exercise their rights.

We will treat your non-public business information as confidential and use it only to provide, secure, support and lawfully improve the service, or where disclosure is required by law.

We use appropriate technical and organisational safeguards, but no online service can guarantee absolute security. You must use reasonable security measures on your own devices and account.

9. Acceptable use

You must not use the website or service to break the law, infringe another person's rights or breach a duty of confidentiality; to upload malware, harmful code or material intended to disrupt or compromise a system; to gain or attempt to gain unauthorised access to an account, system, document or dataset; to misrepresent your identity, authority, business information or the source of a communication; to harass, threaten, deceive, unlawfully discriminate against or unlawfully profile another person; to reverse engineer, scrape, copy, resell or commercially exploit the service except as the law expressly permits; or to use automated means to overload the service or bypass limits, security controls or access restrictions.

We may investigate suspected misuse and take proportionate steps to protect subscribers, affected people and the service.

10. Intellectual property

Business Partner and its licensors own the service, software, design, branding, underlying methods, templates and other intellectual property that existed before or was developed independently of your uploaded material.

You retain ownership of your uploaded material. Subject to payment of applicable fees, you may use the briefs, recommendations, answers, calculations and drafts generated for your business for its internal and ordinary commercial purposes.

No ownership of the Business Partner software, brand or underlying systems transfers to you. You may not remove proprietary notices, use our branding without permission or present the service as your own product.

If you voluntarily give feedback, you permit us to use it to improve the service without identifying you or disclosing your confidential information.

11. Subscription fees and payment

This section takes effect from the date a paid subscription is offered to you and accepted. Section 13 explains the current access arrangements while Business Partner is pre-launch.

The subscription price, billing period, any applicable taxes and the total amount payable will be shown before you complete a purchase. Unless checkout says otherwise, prices are stated in South African rand.

A paid subscription is billed in advance for each subscription period, which is the period stated at checkout. By supplying a permitted payment method, you authorise our payment provider to charge the recurring subscription fee on each renewal date until the subscription is cancelled.

Payment information may be collected and processed directly by the payment provider under its own terms. Business Partner need not receive or store complete card or bank credentials.

Before completing the transaction, you will be able to review the subscription, price and billing information, correct mistakes and withdraw without placing the order. We will provide an electronic confirmation or receipt that you can save.

If payment fails, we may retry the payment and notify you. We may suspend paid access after giving you a reasonable opportunity to correct the payment failure. You remain responsible for fees properly incurred before suspension or cancellation.

We may change the subscription price, except where a founding rate applies, by giving at least 30 days' notice. A price change applies only from a future renewal date. If you do not accept it, you may cancel before that renewal.

The founding rate remains unchanged for as long as the subscription remains active. If the subscription is cancelled, or ends because a renewal payment is not completed, the founding rate ends and does not apply to a later subscription.

12. Delivery of the service

This section takes effect from the date a paid subscription is offered to you and accepted. Section 13 explains the current access arrangements while Business Partner is pre-launch.

Business Partner is delivered electronically. There is no physical product and nothing is shipped.

Access is provided immediately once your account is created and payment is successfully processed. You access the service by signing in at business-partner.co.za using the email address and password associated with your account.

If access is not available to you within a reasonable time after successful payment, contact ask@business-partner.co.za and we will restore it or, where we cannot, refund the affected period.

Access continues for each period you have paid for and ends in accordance with the cancellation and termination provisions below.

13. Current access arrangements

Business Partner has not yet launched commercially. During this period access may be provided without charge to invited or founding subscribers, and no payment is required or taken. The payment, billing, delivery, subscription period, renewal, cancellation and refund provisions in sections 11, 12, 14 and 15 take effect from the date a paid subscription is offered to you and accepted, and apply in full to that subscription from that date. Those provisions are deferred in time only. Nothing in this section removes or reduces a cancellation or refund right that section 14 or section 15 gives a paid subscriber, and nothing in it affects a right that applicable law gives you at any time. We will give notice before any charge is made and no charge will be made without your agreement.

14. Subscription period, renewal and cancellation

This section takes effect from the date a paid subscription is offered to you and accepted. Section 13 explains the current access arrangements while Business Partner is pre-launch.

The subscription period is the period stated at checkout. Unless checkout expressly states otherwise, the subscription runs month to month.

An annual subscription is paid in advance for twelve months. Both renew automatically on the renewal date for the period stated at checkout, until cancelled.

You may cancel at any time through the account cancellation method made available to you or by emailing ask@business-partner.co.za. Cancellation prevents the next renewal.

For a monthly subscription, cancellation takes effect at the end of the month already paid for, unless applicable law requires an earlier date. You will retain access until the end of the paid period and will not be charged for the next period if cancellation is received before renewal.

For an annual subscription, cancellation takes effect immediately in respect of future months, and section 15 sets out the refund of the months not used.

There is no cancellation penalty for either subscription period.

If applicable consumer law gives you a different or additional cancellation right, that right remains available.

15. Cooling-off rights and refunds

Nothing in these terms removes a cooling-off, cancellation, refund or other consumer right that applicable law gives you. That applies at all times, including before a paid subscription is offered to you.

The remaining provisions of this section take effect from the date a paid subscription is offered to you and accepted. Section 13 explains the current access arrangements while Business Partner is pre-launch.

Where section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 applies, a consumer may cancel an electronic transaction for services within seven days after the agreement was concluded, without reason or penalty. That statutory right may not apply where the service began with the consumer's consent before the seven-day period ended.

For a monthly subscription, and except where the law requires otherwise, fees for a month that has already started are not refundable merely because you stop using the service or cancel during that month.

Annual subscriptions

A subscriber who purchases an annual subscription may cancel it within 14 calendar days of the date on which the annual payment is confirmed and receive a full refund. The subscriber does not need to provide a reason.

If an annual subscription is cancelled after the first 14 calendar days, the refund will be calculated for the whole unused months remaining in the current annual subscription period. The annual subscription price will be divided by twelve, and the month in which the cancellation request is received will be treated as used and will not be refunded.

Example. You pay R1,990 for twelve months and cancel during the fourth month. Eight whole months are unused. The refund is eight twelfths of R1,990, which is R1,326.67.

To request cancellation and a refund, the subscriber must email ask@business-partner.co.za from the email address associated with the account. Business Partner will process the cancellation and refund and confirm completion by email.

Access may remain available temporarily while a cancellation and refund are being processed. Any temporary continued access does not reduce the refund due under this section.

Nothing in this section limits any other cancellation or refund right available under applicable law.

We will correct a duplicate or incorrect charge. Where the law requires a refund, or where we agree that a material service failure justifies one, we will process it within the period required by law or otherwise within a reasonable time.

16. Product development and changes to the service

Business Partner is committed to ongoing development and subscriber value. We may add, improve, replace or retire features as the product develops.

We do not promise that every feature will remain unchanged or available indefinitely. We will not use a product change to avoid an obligation already owed to you.

If a change materially reduces the core paid service during a period you have already paid for, we will give reasonable notice where possible and offer an appropriate remedy, which may include continued access for that period, an alternative feature, cancellation or a proportionate refund.

17. Availability, maintenance and support

We will provide the service with reasonable care and skill and will take reasonable steps to keep it available and secure.

The service may sometimes be unavailable because of maintenance, updates, security work, internet or infrastructure failures, or events outside our reasonable control. We do not promise uninterrupted or error-free access.

Support questions may be sent to ask@business-partner.co.za or by WhatsApp message to +27 66 330 3403. Please do not call that number or send financial documents, identity documents or other sensitive information through public support channels.

18. Important limits of the service

Business Partner is a business decision-support service. It is not your accountant, auditor, attorney, tax practitioner, financial adviser, debt collector, payroll administrator or company secretary.

Compliance dates are based on the information you provide and publicly available sources. Business Partner does not submit returns, confirm that a filing was accepted, calculate every statutory amount or replace advice from a suitably qualified professional.

Answers and calculations depend on the documents available to the service. You must consider the identified sources, dates, assumptions and any stated uncertainty before acting.

No recommendation, reminder, draft or calculation guarantees payment, profit, tax compliance, regulatory compliance or a particular business outcome.

19. Third-party services

We may use third-party providers for hosting, storage, security, communications, payments and specialist technology or model processing. Those providers may have their own terms and privacy notices where you interact with them directly.

We remain responsible for the obligations that applicable law and these terms place on us. We are not responsible for an independent third-party service that you choose to use outside Business Partner, except to the extent the law provides otherwise.

A future optional integration may require you to accept the third party's terms and authorise access to specified information. We will explain the access requested before you choose to connect it.

20. Suspension and termination

We may suspend access immediately where reasonably necessary to address a security threat, prevent unlawful use, protect another person or comply with law.

For another material breach, we will normally give notice and a reasonable opportunity to remedy it before suspension or termination. Where the Consumer Protection Act requires a specific remedy period, we will observe that period.

We may discontinue the service or terminate a subscription for operational reasons by giving at least 30 days' notice. If we end a paid subscription before the end of a period you paid for, without breach by you, we will refund the unused proportion.

When access ends, you may lose access to your documents, briefs and decision record. You can export everything Business Partner holds for your business at any time from your account settings, and you should do so before cancellation takes effect. We will handle retained information in accordance with the Privacy Policy and applicable law.

Terms that by their nature must continue after termination, including payment obligations already incurred, intellectual-property provisions, confidentiality, liability, indemnity, dispute and data-retention provisions, remain in force.

21. Important: warranties and limitation of liability

Please read this section carefully. It limits the circumstances in which Business Partner may be liable and the amount that may be recovered. It does not remove any right or remedy that cannot lawfully be limited.

To the extent permitted by law, Business Partner is not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential loss, or for loss of expected profit, revenue, savings, opportunity, goodwill or customer relationship, arising from use of or inability to use the service.

To the extent permitted by law, Business Partner's total aggregate liability arising from the service or these terms is limited to the subscription fees you paid to Business Partner during the 12 months immediately before the event giving rise to the claim.

The exclusions and limit above do not apply to fraud, gross negligence, wilful misconduct, death or personal injury caused by us, our breach of confidentiality or data-protection duties, or any liability that applicable law does not allow us to exclude or limit.

Where applicable consumer law requires us to remedy a service failure, we will provide the remedy required by that law. Nothing in these terms asks a consumer to waive a right under the Consumer Protection Act or the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.

22. Important: your indemnity for unlawful uploads or misuse

Please read this section carefully. It requires you to protect Business Partner against certain third-party claims caused by information you were not entitled to provide or by unlawful use of the service.

You indemnify Business Partner against a third-party claim, loss, damage, penalty or reasonable legal cost to the extent it arises from your material breach of the uploaded-information obligations in section 7, your infringement of another person's rights, or your unlawful or deliberately harmful use of the service.

This indemnity does not apply to the extent that the claim was caused by Business Partner's breach of these terms, negligence, gross negligence, wilful misconduct or failure to comply with applicable law.

We will notify you of a covered claim within a reasonable time, allow you a reasonable opportunity to participate in its defence and take reasonable steps to limit avoidable loss.

23. Complaints and disputes

Please first send a complaint to ask@business-partner.co.za with enough detail for us to investigate. We will try to resolve it promptly and in good faith.

If a consumer complaint is not resolved and the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud has jurisdiction, you may approach the Ombud through cgso.org.za. You may also use any regulator, tribunal, ombud or court available to you under applicable law.

Privacy complaints may be submitted to the Information Regulator through inforegulator.org.za.

Before starting court proceedings, the parties should try for 20 business days to resolve the dispute through direct discussion. This does not prevent either party from seeking urgent relief or using a statutory complaint process.

24. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms to reflect product changes, legal requirements, security needs or changes to our business.

We will give at least 30 days' notice before a material change affects an existing paid subscription, unless a shorter period is reasonably necessary to comply with law or address an urgent security risk.

A change will not retrospectively remove a right that has already accrued. If you do not accept a material change, you may cancel before it takes effect.

25. Electronic communications and notices

You agree that agreements, notices, receipts and other communications may be provided electronically through the website, your account or the email address connected to your account.

You must keep that email address current. A notice sent to it is treated as received when it becomes capable of being retrieved, unless the sender knows that delivery failed.

Notices to Business Partner may be sent to ask@business-partner.co.za. Formal legal service may be delivered to Suite 1, Prism Office Park, Ruby Close, Fourways, Sandton.

You should save a copy of these terms and each subscription receipt for your records.

26. General terms

These terms, the Privacy Policy and the commercial terms accepted at checkout form the entire agreement about the subscription, without excluding any representation or right that applicable law does not allow us to exclude.

If a provision is unlawful or unenforceable, it will be limited or removed only to the minimum extent necessary. The remaining provisions continue to apply.

A delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver. A waiver must be clear and applies only to the specific instance for which it was given.

You may not transfer this agreement without our written consent. We may transfer it as part of a genuine restructuring, investment, sale or transfer of the service, provided the transfer does not reduce your accrued rights.

Neither party is liable for delay caused by events beyond its reasonable control, provided it takes reasonable steps to reduce the effect. This does not remove payment or refund obligations that the law says must still be performed.

Nothing in these terms creates an employment, partnership, agency, fiduciary or joint-venture relationship between you and Business Partner.

27. Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

The parties submit to the jurisdiction of a competent South African court. Nothing in this section prevents a consumer from using a court, tribunal, ombud or regulator made available by applicable consumer-protection law.

28. Supplier and contact details

Legal entity: Contempo Curations (Pty) Ltd

Trading as: Business-Partner.co.za

Registration number: 2022/735084/07

Place of registration: South Africa

Founder and Chief Executive Officer: Stephen Oehley

Information Officer: Stephen Oehley

Physical and legal-service address: Suite 1, Prism Office Park, Ruby Close, Fourways, Sandton

Website: business-partner.co.za

Email: ask@business-partner.co.za

WhatsApp contact number: +27 66 330 3403 (messages only; please do not call)