CrechelyCrechely
DRAFT — not yet reviewed by a lawyer. Published so it’s honestly visible, not because it’s finished. See Privacy Policy and POPIA notice too.

Terms of Service — Crechely (working name)

Status: DRAFT — not yet reviewed by a lawyer. Do not publish this or start charging customers until a lawyer has reviewed it, the bracketed placeholders are filled in, and it's cross-checked against the Privacy Policy (`PRIVACY_POLICY.md` in this folder) and `SECURITY.md` in the main project so the three documents agree with each other.

Last updated: [DATE]

1. Who these terms are between

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between [YOUR REGISTERED BUSINESS NAME] ("we", "us"), the provider of Crechely (the "Service"), and the school or organization that creates an account ("you", "the school", "Customer"). By creating an account or using the Service, you accept these Terms on behalf of your school, and you confirm you're authorized to do so.

2. What the Service is (and isn't)

The Service is software that helps a school record categories/classes, children, payment plans, payments received, and generate statements. It is a record-keeping and billing-tracking tool for your school's own use.

It is not: accounting, tax, or legal advice; a payment processor for collecting money from parents (your school still collects fees through whatever means it already uses — bank transfer, cash, etc. — and records that collection in the Service); a guarantee of accuracy of any statement or figure beyond what your own staff entered; or a substitute for your school's own financial controls and record-keeping obligations under applicable law.

You are responsible for the accuracy of the data your school's staff enter, and for reconciling the Service's records against your school's own bank statements and financial records periodically.

3. Accounts and roles

  • Your school's account is created by whoever first registers; that person becomes the first Admin. Admins can invite other staff and assign them a role (Admin, Accountant, Manager, or Viewer) that controls what they can see and do.
  • You're responsible for who you invite and what role you give them — Accountant and Admin roles can record and see financial data; choose accordingly.
  • You're responsible for keeping login credentials confidential and for all activity under your school's account. Tell us immediately at support@crechely.co.za if you suspect unauthorized access.
  • We may suspend an account we reasonably believe is compromised, being used fraudulently, or in breach of these Terms, and will try to notify the school's Admin(s) when we do.

4. Subscription, billing, and cancellation

  • The Service is offered on a paid subscription basis (monthly or yearly, as shown at signup); pricing is set in [CURRENCY — confirm: is the displayed price the one actually charged, or does it vary by currencyCode? Make sure this section matches what the product actually does] and may change with [FILL IN NOTICE PERIOD, e.g. 30 days'] notice before it applies to your next renewal.
  • Payment is processed by Stripe. By subscribing, you also agree to Stripe's own terms for the payment method you use.
  • [FILL IN: trial length, e.g. "New accounts get a 14-day free trial."]
  • Subscriptions [FILL IN: auto-renew? cancellation process — e.g. "auto- renew each billing period until cancelled; you can cancel anytime from the Billing Portal, and cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period, with no partial refund for the unused portion, unless required otherwise by law"].
  • If a payment fails, the Service may show a limited-access state while Stripe retries the charge per its normal retry schedule; continued failure will result in suspension of access until payment succeeds or the subscription is cancelled.
  • [FILL IN refund policy, if any, e.g. "no refunds except as required by law" or a specific money-back window — decide this deliberately, don't leave it silent.]

5. Your data, and what you're allowed to record

  • You retain ownership of all data you enter into the Service — the children's, families', and financial records are your school's, not ours. See the Privacy Policy for how we handle it.
  • You must have a lawful basis (e.g., your own enrolment agreement with families) for recording personal information about children and parents/guardians in the Service, and must comply with applicable data protection law (including POPIA, if your school operates in South Africa) in how you collect and use that information.
  • Don't use the Service to store information you're not legally permitted to hold, or for any child/family without the appropriate basis to process their data.
  • You're responsible for controlling who at your school has access, and at what role/permission level.

6. Our responsibilities

  • We'll use reasonable technical and organizational measures to keep the Service secure and your data available, as described in SECURITY.md/PRIVACY_POLICY.md.
  • We'll aim for [FILL IN if you want to commit to an uptime target — many early-stage products deliberately don't commit to a formal SLA yet; if you don't, don't imply one either].
  • We'll notify you of a security incident affecting your data as described in the Privacy Policy.

7. Service availability and changes

  • We may modify, add to, or remove features of the Service over time; we won't unreasonably degrade the core functionality your school is paying for without notice.
  • We may need to take the Service down temporarily for maintenance; where practical we'll do this at low-usage times and/or give notice.
  • [FILL IN if you plan to offer any uptime commitment or credits — most early-stage single-region deployments don't, and shouldn't promise one they can't back up operationally.]

8. Limitation of liability

[This section carries real legal weight and should be drafted by a lawyer familiar with South African consumer/contract law (and the Consumer Protection Act's limits on what can be excluded, if it applies to your customer relationships) rather than copied from a template. A typical structure liability clauses use — decide the actual numbers/scope with counsel, don't just fill in a number here:]

  • To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability to you arising from or related to the Service is limited to the amount you paid us in the [FILL IN, e.g. "12 months"] before the claim arose.
  • We are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages (e.g. lost revenue, lost data beyond what a reasonable backup process would recover) arising from use of the Service.
  • Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law (for example, liability for gross negligence or willful misconduct, where South African law does not permit exclusion).

9. Termination

  • You may cancel your subscription at any time through the Billing Portal; see Section 4 for what happens to access and billing.
  • We may suspend or terminate an account for material breach of these Terms (e.g. non-payment after a reasonable cure period, fraudulent use, or using the Service to store data you're not permitted to hold), with notice where practical.
  • On termination, [FILL IN — should match the retention section of the Privacy Policy: e.g. "your school's data will be available for export for [N] days, after which it will be permanently deleted."]

10. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of [FILL IN — likely South Africa, given your first customers, but confirm with counsel especially if you ever serve schools in other countries], and disputes will be resolved in the courts of [FILL IN JURISDICTION].

11. Changes to these Terms

We'll update the "Last updated" date when these Terms change, and [DECIDE: notice period/method for material changes — e.g. email to Admins 30 days before changes take effect].

12. Contact

[YOUR REGISTERED BUSINESS NAME] [SUPPORT/LEGAL EMAIL ADDRESS] [PHYSICAL/REGISTERED ADDRESS, if required in your jurisdiction]