Terms of Service

Last updated: 27 May 2026 · Sweet Phoenix (Pty) Ltd · Version 1.2

1. The Service

Compliance Guard tracks expiry dates for South African business compliance documents and sends reminder notifications via WhatsApp and email. The service is provided "as is" and "as available". Sweet Phoenix makes no warranty that reminders will always be delivered, that the service will be available at all times, or that any stored or extracted data will be accurate or complete.

2. Notification delivery — no guarantee

Reminders and notifications may fail to deliver. Causes of delivery failure include but are not limited to: WhatsApp account linking expiry, WhatsApp or Meta platform outages, email spam filtering, email server outages, third-party infrastructure failures (Resend, Vercel, Supabase, Render), cron job failures, network issues, or your device settings.

Sweet Phoenix accepts zero liability for any missed, delayed, or undelivered notification — regardless of cause. You acknowledge that you use the reminder feature at your own risk and that you remain solely responsible for monitoring your own permit and licence expiry dates. You should not rely exclusively on Compliance Guard notifications as your only method of tracking compliance obligations.

3. AI / OCR disclaimer

Compliance Guard uses optical character recognition (OCR) and AI-assisted processing to extract permit types, expiry dates, and other information from uploaded documents. This technology is not infallible and may produce incorrect results. Sweet Phoenix makes no warranty of accuracy for any AI- or OCR-extracted information. You must independently verify all extracted data against the original document before saving. By saving a scanned permit you confirm that you have reviewed the extracted data and accept full responsibility for its accuracy. Sweet Phoenix is not liable for any loss, fine, or consequence arising from reliance on incorrect AI/OCR output.

4. Account & Eligibility

• You must be 18 or older and authorised to act on behalf of any business you register.
• You are responsible for the security of your login credentials and all activity under your account.
• You may not share accounts or allow unauthorised access to your account.

5. WhatsApp & Email Reminders

By providing your mobile number you consent to receive WhatsApp messages from our business account for permit reminder purposes only. We do not send unsolicited marketing. You can opt out at any time in Settings or by replying STOP. Standard data charges may apply.

6. Subscriptions & Billing

• Free plan: up to 3 permits, email reminders only.
• Personal plan: R99/month — unlimited permits, WhatsApp + email alerts, Compliance Vault, Renew-for-Me priority.
• Business plan: R499/month — everything in Personal plus team members, multi-workspace, supplier & contractor compliance, OHSA Section 37(2), audit reports.
• Subscriptions billed monthly via PayFast. Cancel anytime — access continues until period end.
• All prices in South African Rand (ZAR), inclusive of VAT where applicable.
• No refunds for partial months except where required by the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008.

7. Renew-for-Me Service

On Personal and Business plans you may request a permit renewal-on-behalf service. The following conditions apply:

• Application deadline: requests must be submitted at least 2 calendar months before expiry.
• Documentation: all required documents must be supplied in full at the time of request.
• Fees: vary per document type; a written quote will be provided before payment is taken.
• Liability commencement: Sweet Phoenix's liability for a renewal begins only once you have received written confirmation that the service has been accepted, fees paid in full, and processing formally commenced.
• No liability where you missed the 2-month deadline, supplied incomplete documentation, or written confirmation was not issued by Sweet Phoenix.

8. Audit logging

Compliance Guard records all significant permit actions — status changes, team assignments, renewal notes, document uploads, and deletions — in an audit log accessible to organisation administrators. Terms acceptance records (including timestamp, IP address, and version) are retained indefinitely for legal compliance. By using the service you consent to this logging.

9. Acceptable Use

• Do not upload fraudulent, altered, or forged permit documents.
• Do not attempt to access data belonging to other organisations or users.
• Do not reverse-engineer, scrape, or abuse the API.
• Do not use the service in any way that violates South African law.
• Breach of these rules may result in immediate account suspension without refund.

10. Disclaimer & Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by South African law:

• The service is provided "as is" without any warranty of any kind.
• Sweet Phoenix is not a legal, regulatory, or compliance advisor. Nothing in the service constitutes legal advice.
• Sweet Phoenix's total aggregate liability is limited to the total fees you paid in the 12 months preceding the claim.
• Sweet Phoenix is not liable for indirect, consequential, or punitive damages; loss of profits; business interruption; fines or penalties from any authority; or loss from notification delivery failure — even if advised of the possibility.
• OCR/AI extraction errors are your responsibility to verify before acting on them.

11. Subscription, Cancellation & Refund Policy

Compliance Guard subscriptions are billed monthly in South African Rand (ZAR) via PayFast, a Payment Card Industry (PCI-DSS) compliant payment gateway. By subscribing you authorise Sweet Phoenix (Pty) Ltd to charge the recurring amount to your PayFast-registered payment method on the same date each calendar month.

11a. How to cancel

You may cancel your subscription at any time directly from Settings → Subscription → Cancel subscription. Cancellation takes effect immediately — no further monthly charges will be made. You retain access to your paid-tier features until the end of the current billing period; thereafter your account reverts to the Free tier (3 permits, no WhatsApp alerts, no team features). Your data is never deleted on cancellation — you can re-subscribe at any time.

If the self-service cancel button is unavailable for any reason, you may also cancel by emailingcompliance@sweetphoenix.co.zawith your registered email address and the subject line "Cancel subscription". We will confirm cancellation within one business day and issue a cancellation reference number.

11b. Add-on subscriptions (Workforce Module & Storage Booster)

Optional monthly add-ons — the Workforce Compliance Module (R149/month) and the 1 GB Storage Booster (R10/month) — are separate recurring charges billed by PayFast. Each add-on may be cancelled independently by emailing us; the entitlement (workforce access or additional storage) remains active until the end of the paid calendar month.

11c. Refund policy

Monthly subscription fees are non-refundable once charged, except in the following circumstances:

• Duplicate charge: if you were charged twice for the same billing period due to a system error, we will refund the duplicate amount in full within 5 business days of a written request with proof of duplicate transaction.
• Service unavailability: if the platform was materially unavailable for more than 72 consecutive hours in a billing period due to a fault on our side (excluding scheduled maintenance communicated in advance, third-party infrastructure outages, or force majeure), you may request a pro-rata credit for the affected days. Credits are applied to the next billing cycle; cash refunds are at our sole discretion.
• Cancellation within 24 hours of first subscription: new subscribers who cancel within 24 hours of their first payment and have not materially used the paid features (i.e., no documents uploaded, no team members invited, no WhatsApp alerts triggered) may request a full refund. Requests must be made in writing tocompliance@sweetphoenix.co.zawithin the 24-hour window.

To request a refund, emailcompliance@sweetphoenix.co.zafrom your registered account email with the subject line "Refund request — [your registered email]". Include your PayFast payment reference number. We will acknowledge your request within 1 business day and resolve it within 5 business days. All approved refunds are processed back to the original payment method via PayFast.

Sweet Phoenix (Pty) Ltd reserves the right to decline refund requests that do not meet the above criteria. Nothing in this policy limits your rights under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008.

12. Termination

You may delete your account at any time in Settings. We may terminate accounts that breach these terms with 14 days' written notice for minor breaches or immediately for serious breaches. On termination, billing records are retained as required by SARS and permit data is deleted within 30 days.

13. Governing Law

These terms are governed exclusively by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Any dispute shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, or as agreed in writing.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these terms. We will notify you via email at least 14 days before any material change. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance. A record of your acceptance of each version is stored in our audit log.

15. Contact

Sweet Phoenix (Pty) Ltd
📞 071 592 9220 (Mon–Fri 08:00–17:00 SAST)
✉️ compliance@sweetphoenix.co.za
🌐 complianceguard.sweetphoenix.co.za