Terms of use

The parties and the agreement

The “Customer” is the organisation that registers for, purchases or is identified on an order form for the service. “VerityPay”, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to the VerityPay contracting entity identified in the applicable quotation, order form or tax invoice. “Authorised User” means a person the Customer permits to access its account, including an administrator, payroll practitioner, manager, adviser or employee portal user.

These Terms, the Privacy Policy, the accepted plan or order form, and any expressly incorporated data-processing or service document form the agreement. Marketing material, demonstrations and statements that are not included in the agreement do not create a warranty or expand the service commitment.

Eligibility and authority

The Customer must be legally capable of contracting in South Africa or the jurisdiction stated in an order form. A person accepting these Terms for an organisation warrants that they have authority to do so. The service is intended for business, professional and workplace use, not private household payroll or use by a child acting on their own behalf.

VerityPay may request information reasonably needed to verify the Customer, its authorised representative, billing authority, lawful use or compliance obligations. We may decline or delay activation where verification is incomplete or risk is unacceptable.

The service

VerityPay provides hosted payroll and workforce administration tools. Depending on the plan and configuration, these may include employee records, payroll calculations, payslips, payment files, leave, time, expenses, loans, garnishees, benefits, HR records, reports, statutory outputs, employee self-service, integrations and related support.

Features, limits and availability are determined by the selected plan, order form and current product documentation. A feature being visible in a trial, preview, demonstration or interface does not guarantee that it is included in every plan or suitable for every Customer's circumstances.

Accounts, roles and access

The Customer is responsible for choosing its Authorised Users, assigning appropriate roles, separating payroll preparation and approval where required, reviewing access regularly and removing access promptly when a person's duties or relationship change. Accounts are personal and may not be shared.

The Customer and each Authorised User must protect sign-in links, devices, email accounts, API keys and integration credentials. The Customer must notify VerityPay promptly of suspected unauthorised access and remains responsible for activity performed through its account except to the extent directly caused by VerityPay's proven breach of the agreement.

Licence and permitted use

Subject to payment and compliance with the agreement, VerityPay grants the Customer a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable right during the subscription term for its Authorised Users to access and use the service for the Customer's internal payroll and workforce administration.

The Customer may use exports, payslips and reports produced from its data for its lawful business purposes. No right is granted to resell, white-label, commercially exploit or provide the service to an unrelated third party unless an accountant, bureau, reseller or enterprise arrangement expressly allows it.

Acceptable use

The Customer and its Authorised Users may not misuse the service or help another person to do so.

• Do not access another organisation's or person's information without lawful authority.
• Do not upload unlawful, malicious, infringing, deceptive or unnecessarily excessive information.
• Do not bypass access controls, probe for vulnerabilities, disrupt availability or introduce malware.
• Do not reverse engineer, scrape, copy or benchmark the service to build a competing product, except where a right cannot lawfully be restricted.
• Do not use automated requests at a volume that impairs the service or exceeds documented API limits.
• Do not use VerityPay to make unlawful employment decisions, evade statutory duties or send unsolicited communications.

Customer data and POPIA

The Customer retains its rights in information, records and files submitted to the service or generated specifically from its data (“Customer Data”). The Customer appoints VerityPay to process Customer Data to provide, secure, support and improve the service, comply with law and perform the agreement.

For workforce information, the Customer is normally the Responsible Party and VerityPay the Operator under POPIA. The Customer is responsible for lawful collection, notices, instructions, access decisions, accuracy, retention choices and responses to data subjects. VerityPay will process Customer Data only with the Customer's knowledge or authorisation, treat it as confidential, apply appropriate safeguards and notify the Customer of a qualifying suspected compromise without undue delay.

Where required for a regulated or enterprise Customer, the parties may enter a separate data-processing agreement. The Privacy Policy explains VerityPay's own processing and the current South African location of the primary production database.

Customer instructions and data quality

The Customer controls which information is entered and which actions are approved. It must ensure that instructions are complete, accurate, lawful and given by an authorised person. VerityPay may rely on information and approvals recorded in the service without independently verifying the underlying contract, identity document, bank instruction, court order, tax directive or employment decision.

The Customer must review imported data, employee details, remuneration, bank information, statutory references, effective dates, payroll inputs, reports and exports. It must correct errors before approval and release. The Customer is responsible for consequences caused by inaccurate, late, incomplete or unlawfully supplied data or instructions.

Payroll, payments and statutory responsibility

VerityPay applies configured payroll rules and available statutory tables to the information supplied. Calculations and warnings support the Customer's process; they are not a substitute for the Customer's review, approval and professional judgement.

Unless an order form expressly says otherwise, VerityPay does not hold Customer money, operate a bank account for the Customer, guarantee settlement, submit returns as the Customer's tax representative or confirm that a bank, SARS or another authority has accepted a file. The Customer is responsible for authorising payments, meeting bank cut-offs, checking beneficiary details, submitting returns, paying liabilities and retaining required evidence.

VerityPay is not a tax adviser, accountant, labour practitioner or law firm. Product guidance is general information and does not constitute tax, accounting, employment or legal advice. The Customer must obtain advice appropriate to its facts when treatment is uncertain.

Integrations and third-party services

The Customer may choose to connect payment, accounting, email, file, bank or other third-party services. Those services are governed by their own terms, availability, security and privacy practices. VerityPay is not responsible for a third party's acts, omissions, service interruption, changed interface, rejected transaction or use of information after the Customer authorises the connection.

The Customer authorises VerityPay to transmit the information and instructions reasonably required for the selected integration. It must verify mappings, destination accounts, recipients, scopes and results. VerityPay may suspend or remove an integration that creates security, legal or operational risk.

Trials, previews and beta features

A trial is available only for the stated period and may be limited by plan, employee count, transaction volume or feature. VerityPay may end or restrict a trial where it is abused, duplicated or used contrary to these Terms. Unless the Customer cancels or the checkout states otherwise, a paid subscription may begin automatically at the end of a trial using the authorised payment method.

Preview, pilot or beta features are supplied for evaluation, may be incomplete, may change or be withdrawn, and may have separate limits. They should not be used as the sole basis for a production payroll, statutory submission or irreversible decision unless VerityPay expressly confirms production readiness. To the extent permitted by law, beta features are provided without a service-level commitment or warranty.

Plans, fees and taxes

Fees, employee or usage limits, billing frequency and included features are those displayed and accepted at checkout or stated in the applicable order form. Unless stated otherwise, prices are in South African rand, exclude VAT and other taxes, and are payable in advance. The Customer is responsible for taxes, levies and bank charges other than taxes based on VerityPay's net income.

If plan usage exceeds an included limit, the Customer must reduce usage or move to an appropriate plan. VerityPay may correct an obvious pricing or clerical error before accepting an order and will give the Customer the option to proceed at the correct price or cancel the affected order.

Payment and renewal

The Customer authorises VerityPay and its payment provider to collect recurring fees using the selected card, debit order or other payment method. Subscriptions renew for successive billing periods until cancelled. The Customer must keep billing and payer information current and ensure sufficient authority and funds for collection.

An overdue amount may accrue lawful collection costs and interest at the lower of the maximum lawful rate or two percentage points above the publicly quoted prime lending rate of VerityPay's principal South African bank. VerityPay may retry a failed collection, restrict transactional features, place an account in read-only mode or suspend access after reasonable notice, subject to applicable law.

Cancellation, refunds and price changes

The Customer may cancel through the available billing controls or by written notice. Cancellation stops future renewal and ordinarily takes effect at the end of the current paid billing period. Amounts already paid are non-refundable and unused time is not credited, except where the order form or applicable law requires otherwise.

VerityPay may change fees or plan structure on reasonable advance notice. A price change applies from the next renewal after the notice period. If the Customer does not accept a material increase, its remedy is to cancel before that renewal. A plan downgrade may remove features or reduce limits; the Customer must export or adjust affected data before the downgrade takes effect.

Availability, maintenance and support

We aim to keep VerityPay reliable and available, but continuous or error-free operation is not guaranteed. Planned maintenance, urgent security work, infrastructure incidents, third-party outages, internet failure, load shedding and events outside reasonable control may affect the service.

Any binding availability target, support response time or service credit must be stated in an order form or service-level agreement. Otherwise, published targets are operational goals only. A service credit expressly agreed in writing is the Customer's sole financial remedy for the availability failure it covers.

The Customer must maintain practical payroll continuity arrangements, including authorised deputies, current contact details, adequate cut-off time and exports or records required for its own compliance obligations.

Changes to the service

VerityPay may improve, replace, add, limit or discontinue features to maintain security, comply with law, respond to provider changes or develop the product. We will not intentionally remove the service's core paid purpose during a current paid term without reasonable notice or a substantially equivalent route, unless urgent legal, security or technical circumstances require immediate action.

The Customer is responsible for using a supported browser, keeping its devices and integrations current, and adapting its procedures to documented product changes. VerityPay is not obliged to preserve a legacy workflow, export format or integration indefinitely.

Intellectual property and feedback

VerityPay and its licensors own the service, software, design, documentation, trade marks, models, templates, databases excluding Customer Data, and all related intellectual property. Except for the limited right to use the service, no right or ownership transfers to the Customer.

If the Customer or an Authorised User provides suggestions, ideas or feedback, VerityPay may use and incorporate them without restriction or payment, provided we do not identify the Customer publicly without permission. The Customer may not remove legal, copyright or proprietary notices from the service or documentation.

Confidentiality

Each party must protect the other's non-public business, technical and personal information using at least reasonable care, use it only for the agreement and disclose it only to personnel, professional advisers and service providers who need it and are bound by confidentiality duties.

Confidentiality does not apply to information that was lawfully known without restriction, becomes public without breach, is independently developed without use of confidential information or is lawfully received from another source. A legally compelled disclosure is permitted, and the receiving party will give advance notice where lawful and reasonably practicable.

Suspension

VerityPay may suspend or restrict access where reasonably necessary to address non-payment, unlawful or prohibited use, a security threat, material breach, excessive load, suspected fraud, provider or legal requirements, or risk to another customer or the service. Where practicable, we will give notice and an opportunity to remedy the issue.

Urgent action may be taken without prior notice when delay could increase harm. Suspension does not waive fees already due or the Customer's responsibility to meet payroll, payment, employment or statutory deadlines. We will restore access when the cause is remedied to our reasonable satisfaction.

Term, termination and data export

The agreement begins when these Terms are accepted or the order form starts and continues until cancelled or terminated. Either party may terminate for a material breach not remedied within a reasonable written cure period, insolvency, unlawful use or where continued performance would create a material legal or security risk. VerityPay may terminate a free account or trial on reasonable notice.

Before termination takes effect, the Customer should use available exports to preserve the records it must retain. Subject to payment, law, security and technical availability, we may provide a limited post-termination export period. We may then delete or de-identify Customer Data according to the Privacy Policy, backup rotation and legal retention duties. We are not required to retain an active production account indefinitely after termination.

Terms that by nature should continue survive termination, including accrued payment duties, confidentiality, intellectual property, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnities, dispute terms and lawful retention.

Warranties and disclaimers

Each party warrants that it has authority to enter the agreement. VerityPay warrants that it will provide the service with reasonable skill and care substantially in accordance with applicable documentation. If we breach this warranty, the Customer must notify us promptly and allow a reasonable opportunity to re-perform or correct the affected service.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the service is otherwise provided “as available”. We do not warrant that every calculation, alert, report, integration, legal reference or third-party result will be uninterrupted, complete or suitable for the Customer's particular facts. We disclaim implied warranties not capable of applying lawfully, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Nothing excludes a statutory warranty or consumer right that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential loss, or for lost profit, revenue, goodwill, opportunity or anticipated savings. VerityPay is not liable for penalties, interest, rejected payments, missed deadlines or data loss caused by Customer Data, Customer instructions, unauthorised use, third-party services or the Customer's failure to review, approve, export, submit or pay on time.

VerityPay's total aggregate liability arising from the service or agreement, whether in contract, delict or otherwise, is limited to the subscription fees paid or payable for the six months immediately before the event giving rise to the first claim. If the claim relates only to a free service, the aggregate cap is R1,000.

The exclusions and cap do not apply to liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including liability arising from fraud, wilful misconduct or gross negligence to the extent a limitation is prohibited. Each party must take reasonable steps to mitigate loss. Claims arising from the same or related events are treated as one claim for purposes of the cap.

Customer indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, the Customer indemnifies VerityPay and its personnel against third-party claims, regulatory demands, losses and reasonable costs arising from the Customer's unlawful or unauthorised Customer Data, employment decisions, payment instructions, statutory submissions, breach of these Terms, infringement of another person's rights, or use of the service contrary to documentation or law.

The indemnity does not apply to the extent the claim was directly caused by VerityPay's breach, gross negligence or wilful misconduct. VerityPay will give reasonable notice of an indemnified claim, allow the Customer to participate in the defence, and not agree to an admission or non-monetary obligation for the Customer without consent, not to be unreasonably withheld.

Events outside reasonable control

Neither party is responsible for delay or failure caused by an event beyond its reasonable control, including widespread network or cloud failure, utility interruption, natural disaster, epidemic, civil disorder, war, industrial action, government action, banking-system failure or a critical third-party provider outage. Payment obligations already due are not excused.

The affected party must take reasonable steps to reduce the impact and resume performance. If a force-majeure event materially prevents the service for an extended period, either party may terminate the affected order on written notice without liability for future fees after termination.

Notices and changes to these Terms

Operational notices may be delivered in the service or by email to an account contact. Formal legal notices must be sent to the addresses stated in the order form or invoice, with a copy to hello@veritypay.co.za for VerityPay. The Customer must keep its legal, billing and administrative contacts current.

We may update these Terms for legal, security, provider or product reasons. We will give reasonable notice of a material change. A change applies on the stated effective date or the next renewal, as indicated. If a change materially disadvantages the Customer and is not required urgently by law or security, the Customer may cancel before it takes effect. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance to the extent permitted by law.

Disputes and governing law

Before starting formal proceedings, a party must give written details of the dispute and allow at least 15 business days for authorised representatives to try to resolve it in good faith. This does not prevent urgent relief, debt collection, protection of confidential information or intellectual property, or a complaint to a regulator.

The agreement is governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. The parties consent to the jurisdiction of the courts of South Africa, and VerityPay may institute proceedings in the Western Cape High Court or any other court with jurisdiction. Nothing prevents a qualifying person from using a statutory forum or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded.

General

The Customer may not cede, delegate or transfer the agreement without VerityPay's prior written consent. VerityPay may transfer it as part of a merger, reorganisation, sale of business or transfer to an affiliate, provided the transferee assumes the relevant obligations.

The parties are independent contractors. The agreement creates no partnership, employment, agency, fiduciary relationship or authority to bind the other party. A failure to enforce a right is not a waiver. If a provision is invalid or unenforceable, it is adjusted or severed to the minimum extent necessary and the remainder continues.

The agreement is the entire agreement about the service and replaces earlier proposals or representations on the same subject, without excluding liability for fraud. Headings aid reading and do not change meaning. “Including” is not limiting, and an electronic record or acceptance is treated as writing to the extent permitted by law.