Terms and Conditions

This website is operated by SOFT DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS (Pty) Ltd, a private company registered in South Africa under registration number 2023/165773/07, trading as Soft Development Solutions. In these terms “I”, “me” and “my” mean that entity, and “you” means the client engaging it.

The business is run by Abrie Els, who does the development work personally. Full company and contact details are in section 20.

Soft Development Solutions is a software development business in the information-technology industry. It designs, builds, deploys and maintains custom software for clients, specifically:

• Websites. Marketing and brochure websites, landing pages and multi-page content sites, including enquiry forms, search-engine metadata, analytics and hosting setup.
• Web applications.Custom business software delivered through a web browser — ordering and customer portals, internal tools for stock, scheduling and job tracking, administrative dashboards, reporting with data export, and multi-user systems with role-based permissions.
• Integrations. Connecting the above to third-party services such as payment gateways, the WhatsApp Business Platform, email delivery services and accounting exports.
• Hosting and maintenance. Hosting, monitoring, backups, dependency and security updates, and ongoing development work on software I have built, provided as a monthly service.

These are professional services. Nothing sold on this website is a physical product, and nothing is shipped. What you receive and when is set out in section 9 and in the delivery and fulfilment policy.

A fuller description of each service is on the services page.

Work starts from a written quote or written confirmation of a monthly plan. The quote sets out the scope, the fee in South African Rand (ZAR), the payment schedule and an estimated delivery timeline. A quote is valid for 30 days from its date unless it says otherwise.

Accepting a quote — in writing, or by paying a deposit or a first subscription invoice — forms a contract between us on these terms together with that quote. Where the quote and these terms conflict, the quote wins on scope, price and dates, and these terms govern everything else.

Changes to scope

Anything you ask for that is not in the accepted scope is quoted separately and only built once you have approved that quote in writing. I do not add work to an invoice without agreement, and I do not build out-of-scope work on the assumption it will be approved.

This section applies if you are on a monthly plan. These are recurring payments, so please read it carefully.

Free trial

A new subscription starts with a free trial of 14 days unless the quote says otherwise. No payment is taken during the trial. If you cancel before the trial ends, you are charged nothing. If you do not cancel, the subscription continues and the first payment becomes due on the day the trial ends.

Billing cycle

• Subscriptions are billed monthly in advance. The first billing date is the day the trial ends, or the start date in the quote, and each subsequent charge falls on the same day of each month.
• The monthly amount, the billing date and the payment method are confirmed to you in writing before the first charge.
• Where a month has no corresponding day (for example a billing day of the 31st in February), the charge falls on the last day of that month.
• Each charge covers the month ahead. Nothing is charged retrospectively and nothing is charged twice for the same month.

Minimum term

There is no minimum term. Subscriptions run month to month.

Price changes

I may change a subscription price, but not without at least 30days’ written notice to you before the new price takes effect. If you do not accept the increase you may cancel before it applies, and the notice period in section 10 is waived in that case.

Cancelling

You may cancel at any time by giving 30 days’ written notice to [email protected]. The full detail, including what happens to your data and your final invoice, is in the refund and cancellation policy.

What is not included

A subscription covers the software and the work described in your plan. It does not cover third-party costs you incur in your own name — domain registration, paid API usage, SMS or WhatsApp message fees, or paid third-party services — unless the quote says it does.

This section applies if you are paying for a once-off build.

• Deposit. 50% of the quoted fee is payable on acceptance of the quote. Work starts within 5 business days of that payment clearing.
• Balance. The remaining 50% is payable on delivery, before ownership transfers. Larger projects may be split into milestone invoices instead, as set out in the quote.
• Delivery. Delivery means the software deployed and working as described in the scope, handed over with its source code and the documentation needed to run it.
• Acceptance. You have 14 days from delivery to report anything that does not match the agreed scope. I fix those things at no charge. After 14 days the build is treated as accepted, and further changes are new work.
• Defects after acceptance.For 30 days after acceptance I fix any defect in my own code at no charge — a defect meaning the software not doing what the scope said it would. This does not cover new features, changes of mind, or faults in third-party services.
• Your responsibilities. A fixed-price build depends on you supplying content, access and decisions when needed. Timelines move if they are delayed, and prolonged delay on your side may be treated as a cancellation under the refund and cancellation policy.

All prices on this website, in every quote and on every invoice are quoted and charged in South African Rand (ZAR). I do not quote, invoice or accept payment in any other currency. The merchant outlet country at the time of presenting payment options is South Africa.

Published monthly rates are on the pricing page. Once-off builds are quoted per project because the work varies too much for a single published figure to be meaningful.

VAT: TODOconfirm VAT registration status, the VAT number if registered, and whether published prices include or exclude VAT

Third-party costs — domain registration, hosting beyond what a plan includes, paid API usage, message fees — are either itemised in the quote or billed to you at cost. Where it is cleaner for you to hold an account in your own name, I will say so rather than marking it up.

Payment may be made by:

• Card. Visa and Mastercard, processed through Payfast by Network.
• Instant EFT. Through Payfast by Network, using your existing internet banking.
• Bank transfer (EFT). Directly into the business bank account, the details of which are on every invoice and available on request.

Invoices are payable on the date stated on them. Hosted services may be suspended where an invoice is more than 14 days overdue, as set out in section 16. I will always contact you before suspending anything.

Card transactions are acquired for SOFT DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS (Pty) Ltd via Payfast by Network, an approved payment gateway for South African acquiring banks. Payfast uses strong transport encryption, and no card details are stored on this website. You may view Payfast’s security certificate and security policy at payfast.io.

Your customer details are stored by me separately from your card details, which are entered by you on Payfast’s own secure pages and are never transmitted to or held by this website. I never see, request or record your full card number, expiry date or CVV — if anyone claiming to be me ever asks you for those, it is not me.

The full statement is on the payment security page.

Nothing sold here is a physical good, so nothing is shipped and there are no courier or postal costs. What you receive is access to software, or software delivered and handed over to you.

• Subscriptions. Subject to availability and receipt of payment, access is provisioned within 2 business days of payment being confirmed, and delivery is confirmed by email to the address you gave, containing your access details or the URL of the service.
• Once-off builds. Work begins within 5 business days of the deposit clearing. Delivery is to the date in the accepted quote, and is confirmed by email containing the deployed URL, the source code or repository access, and the handover documentation.
• If something cannot be delivered.In the event of unavailability — if I cannot deliver what you paid for at all — you are refunded in full within 30 days.

The full version is in the delivery and fulfilment policy.

The provision of services by SOFT DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS (Pty) Ltd is subject to availability. In cases of unavailability you are refunded in full within 30 days.

• Cooling off. Where the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act applies, you may cancel within 7 days of payment and receive a full refund, provided the service has not yet begun at your request.
• Subscriptions. Cancel any time with 30days’ written notice. The current paid month runs to its end; part-months are not refunded.
• Once-off builds. Cancelling after work has started attracts an administration fee of 10% of the project fee, plus the cost of work already done. Anything paid beyond that is refunded.
• How refunds are paid.To the same method used to pay, where possible. Card refunds are made through Payfast and reach your account on your bank’s own timeline.

The full policy, including worked examples and what is not refundable, is in the refund and cancellation policy. It forms part of these terms.

Once-off builds

Full ownership of the delivered software — source code, database schema and documentation — transfers to you once the final invoice is paid in full. Until then I retain ownership. Third-party open-source components keep their own licences, which travel with the code; I will tell you what they are.

Subscriptions

You get a non-exclusive licence to use the software for as long as the subscription is current. The code stays mine. If you later want to own it outright, ask and I will quote a buy-out.

Your material and your data

Your content, your brand and your data are yours throughout. I use them only to do the work you have asked for.

Reusable components and portfolio

General techniques, libraries and components I have written and reuse across projects remain mine, and transferring ownership of a build does not transfer those. I may describe work I have done in general terms, but I will not name you as a client or publish screenshots without your permission.

SOFT DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS (Pty) Ltd takes responsibility for all aspects relating to transactions concluded on this website, including the sale of the services described here, customer service and support, dispute resolution, and delivery of those services.

What I warrant

I warrant that the work will be performed with reasonable skill and care, and that delivered software will do what the agreed scope says it will. I do not warrant that software will be free of all defects, because no software is.

What I cannot be responsible for

• Failures in third-party services the software depends on - hosting providers, payment gateways, messaging platforms, APIs or your own internet connection.
• Loss or corruption of data caused by your own systems, your own staff, or changes made to the software by anyone other than me.
• Consequences of you not acting on a security update, backup or warning I have given you.
• Business decisions you make on the basis of what the software reports.

Limit on liability

To the extent the law allows, my total liability arising out of any engagement is limited to the fees you have actually paid me for that engagement in the twelve months before the claim arose, and I am not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including lost profit, lost revenue or lost business opportunity. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including under the Consumer Protection Act where it applies.

• Give me the content, access, credentials and decisions the work needs, when they are needed.
• Make sure you have the right to use anything you give me - text, images, logos, data. You indemnify me against claims arising from material you supplied.
• Keep your own credentials secure, and tell me promptly if you think they have been compromised.
• Use the software lawfully, and not to send unsolicited bulk messaging, to store information you have no right to hold, or in breach of any applicable law.
• Pay invoices by their due date.

SOFT DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS (Pty) Ltdtakes all reasonable steps to protect the personal information of users. For the purpose of this clause, “personal information” is as defined in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).

What is collected, why, who it is shared with, how long it is kept and what rights you have over it are set out in full in the privacy policy, which forms part of these terms.

The services offered on this website are available to South African clients. I may accept work from outside South Africa by prior written agreement, but prices, invoicing and payment remain in South African Rand (ZAR) and these terms, governed by South African law, still apply.

Suspension for non-payment

Where an invoice for a hosted service is more than 14 days overdue I may suspend access until it is settled. I will contact you first. Suspension does not delete anything, and service resumes once payment is received.

Termination by either of us

You may cancel a subscription on 30days’ notice. I may terminate a subscription on 60 days’ written notice, which is longer on purpose: you need time to make other arrangements. Either of us may terminate immediately if the other commits a material breach and fails to remedy it within 14 days of being asked to in writing.

If I terminate

If I end a subscription for any reason other than your breach, I refund the unused portion of the current paid month pro rata, export your data to you, and give you a reasonable handover.

On termination

Your data is exported to you on request and retained for 30 days after the final billing period, after which it is deleted. Ask for the export before that window closes.

This website and these terms are governed by the laws of South Africa. SOFT DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS (Pty) Ltd chooses as its domicilium citandi et executandi for all purposes under this agreement, whether in respect of court process, notice, or other documents or communication of whatsoever nature:

57 Camborne Road, New Redruth, Alberton, Gauteng, TODOpostal code, South Africa

The country of domicile of this business is South Africa.

SOFT DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS (Pty) Ltd may, in its sole discretion, change this agreement or any part of it at any time without notice. The version published on this page applies, and the date at the top shows when it last changed.

Two things temper that. A change does not alter the price, scope or delivery terms of a quote you have already accepted — those are fixed by the quote. And any increase in a subscription price still requires the 30days’ notice in section 4.

If something has gone wrong, email [email protected] with the detail. I acknowledge complaints within one business day and aim to resolve them within 14 days.

If you paid by card and we cannot resolve it between us, you may take it up with your card issuer. I would rather you came to me first: raising a chargeback before contacting me usually costs us both more time than fixing the problem would have.

This website is run by SOFT DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS (Pty) Ltd, a private company based in South Africa, trading as Soft Development Solutions, with registration number 2023/165773/07 and TODOdirector(s) / owner(s).

Contact details

• Physical address: 57 Camborne Road, New Redruth, Alberton, Gauteng, TODOpostal code, South Africa
• Email: [email protected]
• Telephone: 060 640 1905
• Business hours: Monday to Friday, 09:00 - 17:00 SAST
• Customer service: all enquiries, support requests and complaints go to [email protected], answered within one business day.

The same details, plus VAT status and area served, are on the contact page.