Terms of Service

1. Definitions

In these Terms:

• Account means a registered user account that provides access to the Platform.
• Authorised User means a person authorised by a School to use the Platform, including an owner, principal, administrator, teacher, staff member, parent, guardian, or contractor.
• Customer Data means data uploaded, entered, generated, submitted, stored, or otherwise processed through the Platform by or on behalf of a School.
• School (or "Organisation") means a preschool, ECD centre, Grade R class, school, aftercare programme, business, trust, non-profit organisation, or other legal entity registered to use the Platform.
• Personal Information has the meaning assigned to it in POPIA.
• Platform means the EarlyTrack website, web application, mobile application, services, tools, features, integrations, documentation, and related software.
• POPIA means the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013.
• Responsible Party and Operator have the meanings given to them in POPIA.
• Subscription means the paid or trial plan through which a School receives access to the Platform.
• User, you, or your means an individual or School using the Platform.

2. The Platform

EarlyTrack is a South African software platform for preschools, ECD centres, Grade R classes, and aftercare programmes. It provides digital tools to assist with administration, communication, developmental assessments and progress tracking, learner records, attendance, enrolment, parent engagement, invoicing, payment tracking, reporting, curriculum planning, document storage, and related operational activities.

The available features depend on the Subscription selected by the School. We may add, change, improve, remove, or suspend features from time to time. We will use reasonable efforts to notify you where a material change to the Platform is likely to significantly affect your use of it.

The Platform is a software tool that supports the School's own staff and processes. It does not replace the professional judgment of teachers, principals, bookkeepers, or accountants.

3. Eligibility and Authority

You may use the Platform only if you are at least 18 years old and legally capable of entering into a binding agreement.

If you create, administer, or use an Account for a School, you confirm that:

• You are authorised to accept these Terms on behalf of that School
• The School is legally entitled to use the Platform
• The School is responsible for the actions and omissions of its Authorised Users
• All information supplied during registration, subscription, verification, and use of the Platform is accurate, complete, and current

Parents and guardians may use the parent-facing area of the Platform only where access has been granted by the relevant School.

4. Accounts and Security

The School's account is created and controlled by its authorised administrators. Administrators decide which staff members receive access and with which roles and permissions, and are responsible for keeping that access appropriate and up to date.

You must maintain the confidentiality of your Account credentials, including usernames, passwords, authentication codes, and recovery information. You are responsible for:

• All activities carried out using your Account
• Ensuring that only authorised persons access the Platform
• Removing or disabling staff access promptly when a staff member leaves or changes roles
• Maintaining accurate Account, billing, and contact information
• Notifying us immediately if you suspect unauthorised access, a compromised password, or a security incident

You may not:

• Share Account credentials with unauthorised persons
• Use another person's Account without permission
• Impersonate another person, preschool, school, Organisation, or entity
• Attempt to bypass authentication, access controls, or security measures
• Create multiple Accounts to circumvent restrictions, payment obligations, suspensions, or termination

5. Verification and Non-Genuine Accounts

We may verify the identity, authority, and legitimacy of a School, administrator, owner, principal, or other User registered on the Platform.

We may suspend, restrict, investigate, or terminate an Account immediately and without prior notice where we reasonably believe that:

• The Account does not represent a genuine preschool, ECD centre, school, or lawful education-related Organisation
• Information supplied during registration, onboarding, verification, billing, or use of the Platform is false, misleading, incomplete, fraudulent, or intended to impersonate another person or Organisation
• The Account has been created for testing, deception, spam, unlawful activity, unauthorised data collection, competitive intelligence gathering, or a purpose unrelated to legitimate Platform use
• The person creating or operating the Account does not have authority from the Organisation they claim to represent
• The Account creates a security, privacy, legal, financial, reputational, or operational risk to us, the Platform, a child, a parent, a guardian, a staff member, a School, or another User
• You fail to provide reasonable verification information or supporting documents after we request them

For verification, we may request reasonable information or documentation, including proof of identity, proof of authority, Organisation registration details where applicable, physical address, principal or owner details, and proof that the Organisation operates as a genuine preschool, ECD centre, school, or related entity.

Where an Account is suspended or terminated under this clause, we may disable access immediately, preserve records where legally required, and delete or de-identify data according to our retention procedures and applicable law. No refund will be due for a termination caused by fraudulent, false, misleading, unauthorised, or non-genuine Account activity, except where required by applicable law.

6. Subscription, Fees and Billing

EarlyTrack is offered on paid Subscription plans. Current plans, pricing, billing cycles, included features, and limits are described on our pricing page, or in an order form, quotation, invoice, or separate subscription agreement.

Unless stated otherwise:

• All fees are stated in South African Rand (ZAR)
• Fees are inclusive or exclusive of VAT as indicated on the pricing page or invoice
• Subscription fees are payable in advance
• You are responsible for applicable taxes, bank charges, and payment-provider fees
• You must ensure that your billing details remain accurate and current
• We may invoice you electronically

Subscriptions are billed through our third-party payment provider. We do not store card details ourselves. Where recurring payments apply, you authorise us or our approved payment service provider to process payments in accordance with your selected Subscription.

If payment is overdue or a subscription lapses, we may issue reminders, restrict paid features, make access read-only, suspend access, or terminate the Subscription after reasonable notice. Access can be restored by settling the subscription.

We may amend our fees by giving at least 30 days' written notice before the new fees take effect. If you do not accept the new fees, you may cancel your Subscription before the next billing period.

The School may cancel at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period, and amounts already paid are not refunded except where required by law.

7. Free Trials and Promotions

New schools receive a free trial with full access to evaluate the Platform. When the trial ends, a short read-only grace period applies so that no information is lost while the School decides. If no Subscription is taken, access is restricted until a plan is activated. School data is not deleted when a trial lapses; retention and deletion are described in the Privacy Policy.

We may offer free trials, promotional access, discounts, or limited-feature plans from time to time. A free trial or promotion may be limited by duration, features, user numbers, data storage, support, integrations, exports, or other restrictions. Unless we state otherwise, access ends automatically when the trial period ends unless you select a paid Subscription.

We may change, withdraw, or limit a promotion at any time, provided that this will not affect a paid Subscription already purchased under the applicable promotional terms.

8. Customer Data

As between you and us, your School retains ownership of its Customer Data, including student, parent, staff, and financial records. We claim no ownership of it.

You grant us a limited, non-exclusive right to host, store, back up, copy, transmit, display, and process Customer Data only to the extent reasonably necessary to:

• Provide, operate, support, secure, and maintain the Platform
• Perform our obligations under these Terms
• Process instructions from your School and its Authorised Users
• Prevent fraud, abuse, security incidents, and unlawful activity
• Comply with legal obligations
• Improve our products and services using aggregated or de-identified information that does not identify a child, parent, guardian, staff member, School, or other individual

We do not sell Customer Data. The School can export its key data from within the Platform while its Subscription or read-only access is active.

You are responsible for ensuring that Customer Data is accurate, lawful, relevant, and appropriate for use in the Platform. You confirm that you have all required rights, permissions, notices, consents, and legal authority to collect, upload, use, disclose, and process Customer Data through the Platform.

9. Children's Information

The Platform may process Personal Information relating to children, including names, dates of birth, learner records, attendance, photographs, developmental information, assessment records, allergy information, medical information, emergency contacts, parent or guardian details, and fee-related information.

Your School is responsible for ensuring that it has a lawful basis to process all Personal Information entered into the Platform, including the Personal Information of children. Your School must:

• Obtain and retain valid consent from a competent person, including a parent or legal guardian, where consent is required
• Provide appropriate privacy notices to parents and guardians
• Obtain and record permissions relating to photographs, communications, medical information, assessments, and third-party sharing where applicable
• Limit access to learner information to staff and users who require it for legitimate duties
• Keep learner and parent information accurate and up to date
• Apply appropriate access controls, safeguarding practices, and internal policies
• Respond to requests from parents, guardians, or other data subjects in accordance with applicable law

You must not upload, disclose, or use a child's Personal Information through the Platform unless you have the authority and lawful basis to do so.

10. Privacy and POPIA

For Customer Data processed through the Platform:

• The School will generally be the Responsible Party, because it determines the purpose and means of processing Personal Information
• We will generally be the Operator, because we process Personal Information on behalf of and according to the instructions of the School
• We will process Customer Data only as necessary to provide the Platform, follow documented instructions, comply with applicable law, and protect the security and integrity of the Platform
• We will implement reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect Personal Information against loss, damage, unauthorised access, destruction, and unlawful processing
• We will notify the School without undue delay if we reasonably believe that Personal Information processed by us has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person

The School remains responsible for determining whether its collection and use of Personal Information is lawful under POPIA and other applicable laws.

Our handling of Account information, billing information, support communications, website data, and Platform usage information is explained in our Privacy Policy.

11. Sensitive and Medical Information

If you use the Platform to process health, allergy, dietary, disability, behavioural, developmental, or other sensitive learner information, you must ensure that such information is collected, used, stored, and shared lawfully and only where reasonably necessary. You must restrict access to sensitive learner information to appropriately authorised persons.

The Platform is not a medical service and must not be relied on for medical diagnosis, emergency care, clinical advice, emergency response, or safeguarding decisions. In an emergency, contact the relevant emergency services, parent, guardian, healthcare provider, or safeguarding authority directly.

12. Parent and Guardian Access

Schools may invite parents and guardians to a parent portal to view their own children's information, reports, invoices, and communications. The School controls access to learner information, and the School remains responsible for the accuracy of the information it shares through the portal.

The School is responsible for verifying the identity and authority of a parent, guardian, or other person before granting access to learner information.

Parents and guardians may access only information relating to their own child or children. They may not access, copy, distribute, publish, share, or misuse information relating to another learner, parent, guardian, staff member, or School. Parents and guardians use the portal under these Terms as they reasonably apply to them.

13. Acceptable Use

You may use the Platform only for lawful, legitimate, and authorised purposes related to the management and operation of a School. You may not use the Platform to:

• Break any applicable law, regulation, court order, or regulatory requirement, including POPIA
• Upload, store, send, or publish unlawful, defamatory, abusive, discriminatory, harmful, threatening, obscene, or infringing content, or content you do not have the right to use
• Harass, threaten, shame, intimidate, unfairly pressure, or discriminate against any person
• Upload viruses, malware, ransomware, spyware, or harmful code
• Interfere with, disrupt, damage, overload, or compromise the Platform or its infrastructure
• Conduct unauthorised security testing, penetration testing, scraping, crawling, harvesting, or data extraction
• Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, copy, modify, distribute, sell, lease, sublicense, or create derivative works from the Platform, or use it to build a competing product, except where expressly allowed by law
• Access data, Accounts, systems, or functionality without authorisation, including another School's data
• Send unsolicited marketing messages or spam
• Use the Platform for unlawful collections, unlawful credit practices, or improper communication with parents or guardians

We may investigate suspected misuse and may suspend or terminate Accounts that breach this clause, as described in section 21.

14. Communications and Marketing

You agree that we may send you service-related communications electronically, including by email, SMS, WhatsApp, push notification, in-platform notification, or another electronic method using the details you provide.

Service-related communications may include security alerts, password resets, billing notices, payment reminders, support responses, Platform updates, maintenance notices, legal notices, and changes to these Terms.

We will send direct marketing communications only where permitted by applicable law. You may opt out of non-essential marketing communications by using the unsubscribe method provided. You cannot opt out of essential communications necessary for the operation, security, billing, legal administration, or support of your Account while your Subscription remains active.

15. Invoicing, Payments and Collections Features

The Platform's finance features, including fee management, invoicing, payment reminders, payment tracking, arrears monitoring, financial reporting, payroll tools, the general ledger, and accounting integrations, are administrative tools only. They support the School's own bookkeeping and do not constitute accounting, tax, or legal advice, and they do not replace a qualified accountant, tax practitioner, or auditor.

Your School remains solely responsible for:

• The accuracy of fee structures, invoices, statements, account balances, payment allocations, discounts, interest, and charges
• Ensuring that fees, collection actions, payment reminders, and communications are lawful and contractually permitted
• Ensuring that communications with parents and guardians are respectful, accurate, and compliant with applicable law
• Obtaining required consent, mandates, authorisation, or permissions for payment processing
• Complying with applicable consumer-protection, debt-collection, credit, privacy, and electronic-communications laws
• Its statutory and tax obligations, and having its financial affairs reviewed by suitably qualified professionals

We are not your debt collector, credit provider, legal representative, attorney, or financial adviser unless this is expressly agreed in a separate written agreement.

You must review all automated messages, payment reminders, account classifications, AI-generated communications, recommendations, and reports before relying on or sending them.

16. Artificial Intelligence Features

The Platform may include AI-enabled features, such as draft observation comments, communications, document summaries, reporting assistance, administrative suggestions, fee-reminder drafts, curriculum-support tools, or data insights.

AI-generated content may be inaccurate, incomplete, unsuitable, biased, or outdated. AI outputs are suggestions intended for review by a qualified person before use. You are responsible for reviewing, verifying, editing, approving, and using AI-generated content appropriately before acting on it or sharing it with another person, and the School remains responsible for the content it approves, sends, or relies on.

You must not rely on AI-generated content as a substitute for professional, legal, medical, educational, financial, safeguarding, or debt-collection advice. You must not use AI features to generate unlawful, discriminatory, harmful, misleading, abusive, or inappropriate content.

AI features can be left unused without affecting the rest of the Platform.

17. Third-Party Services and Integrations

The Platform relies on reputable third-party providers for services such as payment processing, email, SMS and WhatsApp delivery, cloud storage, AI processing, and analytics. In addition, the School may choose to connect optional integrations, for example connecting its own Xero organisation for accounting synchronisation.

• Optional integrations are activated by the School's administrators and can be disconnected by them at any time.
• When the School connects a third-party service, relevant school data is shared with that service to make the integration work, as described at the point of connection and in the Privacy Policy. The third party's own terms, privacy notices, fees, availability commitments, and security practices apply to its handling of that data.
• We do not control and are not responsible for the availability, content, security, acts, omissions, failures, or policies of third-party services, but we choose and use them with reasonable care.

Where Personal Information is transferred outside South Africa, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the transfer is permitted under POPIA and subject to appropriate safeguards where required.

Online card payments (Yoco)

Online card payments for school fees, where a school chooses to offer them, are processed by Yoco under the school's own merchant agreement with Yoco:

• The school is the merchant. We are not a party to the payment and at no point hold, receive, or control the funds; Yoco settles amounts directly to the school.
• Yoco's transaction fees are charged to the school under its agreement with Yoco.
• Refunds, chargebacks, and payment disputes are matters between the parent, the school, and Yoco. The Platform records the payment outcome against the school fee account but does not adjudicate payment disputes.
• The availability of the online payment facility depends on Yoco's service and on the school keeping its Yoco connection active.

Online payments (PayFast)

Online payments for school fees, where a school chooses to offer them through PayFast instead of Yoco, are processed by PayFast under the school's own merchant agreement with PayFast:

• The school is the merchant. We are not a party to the payment and at no point hold, receive, or control the funds; PayFast settles amounts directly to the school.
• PayFast's transaction fees are charged to the school under its agreement with PayFast.
• Refunds, chargebacks, and payment disputes are matters between the parent, the school, and PayFast. The Platform records the payment outcome against the school fee account but does not adjudicate payment disputes.
• The availability of the online payment facility depends on PayFast's service and on the school keeping its PayFast connection active.

18. Intellectual Property

We and our licensors own all rights, title, and interest in the Platform, including its software, source code, interfaces, design, branding, features, workflows, documentation, templates, content, databases, intellectual property, and underlying technology.

Subject to your compliance with these Terms and payment of applicable fees, we grant your School a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right to access and use the Platform during the Subscription term. No other rights are granted.

You may not use our name, branding, trademarks, logos, or other intellectual property without our prior written permission.

If you provide feedback, ideas, suggestions, or improvement proposals, you grant us the right to use them without restriction or compensation, provided that we do not disclose your confidential information without permission.

19. Confidentiality

Each party may receive confidential information from the other party. Confidential information includes Customer Data, credentials, pricing, product plans, technical information, security information, financial information, business processes, and non-public information.

Each party must:

• Protect the other party's confidential information using reasonable care
• Use confidential information only for purposes connected with these Terms and the Platform
• Disclose confidential information only to personnel, advisers, and service providers who need to know it and who are subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations

Confidential information does not include information that:

• Is or becomes publicly available without a breach of these Terms
• Was already lawfully known by the receiving party
• Is independently developed without use of the other party's confidential information
• Is lawfully obtained from a third party without a confidentiality restriction
• Must be disclosed by law, court order, or regulatory requirement

20. Availability, Maintenance and Backups

We will use commercially reasonable efforts to make the Platform available and secure. However, we do not guarantee that the Platform will always be uninterrupted, error-free, fully secure, or available at all times.

The Platform may be unavailable because of maintenance, upgrades, security work, infrastructure failures, internet outages, third-party service interruptions, force majeure events, or circumstances outside our reasonable control. Unless a separate written Service Level Agreement applies, no specific uptime or response-time commitment applies.

We provide support through the contact channels on our website and in the Platform's help centre.

We make regular backups as part of operating the Platform. You remain responsible for maintaining appropriate internal records and backups of important operational, financial, enrolment, attendance, and learner information. Our operational backups are not a substitute for your School's own recordkeeping, compliance, and continuity obligations.

21. Suspension and Termination

The School may cancel its Subscription at any time from within the Platform or by contacting us. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period.

We may suspend, restrict, investigate, or terminate access to the Platform immediately, or after reasonable notice where practical, if:

• You fail to pay undisputed fees when due
• You breach these Terms or another agreement with us
• You create, use, or operate a fake, misleading, unauthorised, fraudulent, or non-genuine preschool, school, ECD centre, Organisation, or User Account
• You provide false, misleading, incomplete, or fraudulent information
• Your use of the Platform creates a security, legal, privacy, financial, reputational, or operational risk
• You use the Platform unlawfully or in a manner that may harm a child, parent, guardian, staff member, School, us, or a third party
• We reasonably suspect fraud, unlawful activity, unauthorised access, or misuse
• We are required to do so by law, a court order, or a regulatory authority

Where reasonable, we will give notice and an opportunity to remedy the issue first.

On expiry, cancellation, suspension, or termination:

• Your right to access and use the Platform may end immediately
• You should export Customer Data before the end of the applicable access period
• We may retain Customer Data only as required by law, for legitimate backup, security, audit, or dispute-resolution purposes, or as described in our Privacy Policy
• We may delete or de-identify Customer Data in line with our data-retention procedures, subject to legal and technical limitations
• All unpaid fees and obligations accrued before termination remain payable

Termination does not affect rights or obligations that arose before termination or provisions intended to survive termination (including sections 8, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, and 27).

22. Disclaimer

The Platform is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

We do not warrant that the Platform will:

• Be uninterrupted, error-free, completely secure, or always available
• Meet every School's requirements
• Be compatible with every device, browser, operating system, network, integration, or third-party service
• Produce accurate, complete, legally compliant, or suitable reports, invoices, communications, assessments, recommendations, or AI-generated outputs

You are responsible for reviewing and validating information generated, stored, displayed, or communicated through the Platform before using it to make operational, educational, financial, legal, medical, safeguarding, or collection-related decisions.

Nothing in these Terms excludes rights or remedies that cannot lawfully be excluded under South African law, including any right the School may have under the Consumer Protection Act.

23. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

• Neither party will be liable for indirect, incidental, special, punitive, or consequential loss, including loss of profits, revenue, business opportunity, goodwill, anticipated savings, or data
• Our total aggregate liability arising from or related to the Platform and these Terms will not exceed the total Subscription fees actually paid by your School to us during the 12 months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim
• This limitation does not apply to liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability arising from fraud, gross negligence, or wilful misconduct

24. Indemnity

Your School indemnifies us against third-party claims, liabilities, losses, damages, costs, and expenses arising from:

• Customer Data uploaded, created, submitted, or processed by your School or its Authorised Users
• Your breach of these Terms or applicable law
• Your failure to obtain required authority, permissions, consents, or notices relating to Customer Data
• Your unlawful use of communication, invoicing, payment, marketing, or collections features
• A claim that your Customer Data infringes another person's rights

This indemnity applies only to the extent permitted by applicable law.

25. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make a material change, we will provide reasonable notice through the Platform, by email, or by another appropriate electronic method.

Your continued use of the Platform after the updated Terms become effective means that you accept the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the changes, you must stop using the Platform and cancel your Subscription before the updated Terms take effect, where reasonably possible.

26. Governing Law and Disputes

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

The parties must first attempt in good faith to resolve a dispute through written discussions between authorised representatives. If a dispute cannot be resolved within 30 days, either party may refer the dispute to a court with jurisdiction in South Africa.

Nothing in this clause prevents either party from seeking urgent legal relief where necessary, including to protect Personal Information, confidential information, intellectual property, Platform security, or the rights and safety of children.

27. General

• Entire agreement: these Terms, the applicable Subscription plan, order form, quotation, Privacy Policy, and any separate written agreement form the complete agreement between you and us concerning the Platform.
• Severability: if any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in force.
• Assignment: you may not assign, transfer, or delegate your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign or transfer our rights and obligations as part of a merger, acquisition, restructuring, financing, or sale of business assets, provided that the receiving party assumes materially similar obligations.
• No waiver: a failure to enforce a provision of these Terms is not a waiver of that provision.

28. Contact Details

EarlyTrack

Support and general queries: support@earlytrack.co.za

Information Officer and privacy contact: support@earlytrack.co.za

For privacy requests, including requests to access, correct, delete, object to, or query the processing of Personal Information, contact us at support@earlytrack.co.za. See also our Privacy Policy.