Terms of Service

Last updated: 6 October 2026 · Version 1.0

1. The agreement

These terms are an agreement between Forenota, a South African business ("Forenota", "we", "us") and the business that signs up for Forenota ("you", the "Customer"). The person who accepts these terms confirms they are at least 18 and authorised to bind the business.

By creating an account, starting a trial or paying, you accept these terms and our Privacy Policy (forenota.com/privacy). If you do not agree, do not use Forenota.

Forenota is a business-to-business service. Nothing in these terms limits any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 or the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (ECTA) where those Acts apply to you, and these terms must be read to give effect to those rights.

2. The service

Forenota is an operations assistant for businesses. It tracks tasks, deadlines, follow-ups, schedules and compliance dates; reads information you give it; and sends reminders, summaries and requests to the people in your business through WhatsApp, Telegram, email and the Forenota dashboard (the "Service").

Forenota works only inside your business. It does not contact your customers or other third parties on your behalf. Drafts it prepares for you are for you to review and send yourself.

We improve Forenota continuously and may add, change or remove features. If we remove a feature that is a core part of your plan, we will give you at least 30 days' notice and you may cancel with a pro-rata refund of any prepaid fees for the remaining period.

3. Accounts and team members

• You are responsible for your account, for keeping log-in details secure, and for everything done through your account.
• You choose who to add as team members and what roles they have. You are responsible for their use of Forenota and for removing access when someone leaves.
• You must give accurate account and billing details and keep them up to date.
• Tell us immediately at support@forenota.com if you suspect unauthorised access.

4. Acceptable use

You and your team must not use Forenota to:

• Break any law, including POPIA, labour, tax or anti-spam laws
• Message people who are not part of your business, or send marketing or unsolicited messages through the Service
• Upload information you have no right to use, or special personal information without a lawful basis
• Harass, threaten or discriminate against anyone
• Upload malware, or try to access another customer's data, bypass security, probe for vulnerabilities, or overload the Service
• Manipulate or misuse the AI, including by uploading content designed to make it act against these terms
• Resell, sublicense or provide the Service to third parties, or copy it to build a competing product
• Use the Service in a way that breaches WhatsApp's or Telegram's terms

We may suspend access that breaches this section, as set out in section 10.

5. WhatsApp, Telegram and other third-party services

Forenota relies on third-party services, including Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform, Telegram, payment providers and AI model providers. Their availability, rules and pricing are outside our control. If a third party changes or withdraws its service, we will try to provide an alternative (for example, moving messages to another channel) but cannot guarantee it. Your team's use of WhatsApp and Telegram is also subject to those platforms' own terms.

Integrations you choose to connect (such as Google Calendar, Xero or Sage) are governed by those providers' terms. You authorise us to access them only as needed to provide the features you turn on.

6. AI output and no professional advice

Forenota uses AI to read information and generate reminders, summaries, answers and drafts. AI can make mistakes, misread documents, or miss information. You agree that:

• You are responsible for checking important output before relying on it, especially dates, amounts and names.
• Forenota is a reminder and organisation tool. It is not tax, accounting, legal, financial, HR or compliance advice. Compliance dates are based on published SARS, CIPC and other rules and the information you give us; rules and dates can change. Confirm obligations with your accountant or adviser.
• You remain responsible for meeting your own legal, tax, regulatory and contractual obligations, whether or not a reminder was sent or received.
• Messages may be delayed or not delivered because of network, device, platform or third-party problems. Do not rely on Forenota as the only reminder for critical deadlines.

7. Fees and billing

• Fees are as shown on forenota.com/pricing or agreed in writing, in South African rand. Prices exclude VAT unless stated; VAT is added where applicable.
• Subscriptions are billed in advance, monthly or annually, through Paystack, and renew automatically for the same period until cancelled.
• You authorise us (through Paystack) to charge your chosen payment method on each renewal date.
• If a payment fails, we will notify you and retry. If it is still unpaid 7 days after the due date, we may pause reminders and messaging until it is paid (section 10). Your data is not deleted during a pause.
• We may change prices by giving at least 30 days' notice by email. The new price applies from your next renewal after the notice period; if you do not agree, you can cancel before then. Founding member pricing (section 8) is not affected by general price changes.
• If your team grows past your plan's limit, we will ask you to upgrade. Upgrades take effect immediately and are charged pro-rata for the rest of the billing period; downgrades take effect at the next renewal.
• Third-party usage costs (such as WhatsApp message fees) are included in your plan unless your plan or a written agreement says otherwise. We may apply fair-use limits, published on the pricing page, to prevent abuse.

8. Free trial and founding member pricing

• New customers may get a free trial (currently 14 days). No card is needed to start. At the end of the trial, the account pauses unless you choose a plan.
• Founding member pricing, where offered, continues for as long as the subscription stays active without a break. It ends if the subscription is cancelled or unpaid for more than 30 days, and cannot be transferred.
• We may end or change trial and promotional offers for new sign-ups at any time; this does not affect offers already accepted.

9. Cancellation and refunds

• You can cancel at any time from the dashboard (Settings > Billing) or by emailing support@forenota.com. The subscription stays active until the end of the current paid period, and does not renew.
• Monthly plans: fees already paid are not refunded.
• Annual plans: if cancelled within 14 days of payment, you get a full refund. After 14 days, you get a refund for the remaining unused full months.
• Billing errors (such as duplicate charges) are refunded in full.
• Refunds are paid to the original payment method, usually within 10 business days.
• If ECTA's cooling-off right applies to you (section 44 of ECTA, for natural persons acting as consumers), you may cancel within 7 days of the transaction for a full refund, without reason or penalty.

10. Suspension

We may suspend all or part of your access, with notice where reasonably possible, if:

• Fees remain unpaid 7 days after the due date
• You or your team seriously or repeatedly breach section 4
• Your use threatens the security, stability or legal compliance of the Service, or of other customers
• A law, court, regulator or platform provider (such as Meta) requires it

We will restore access as soon as the reason is resolved. Suspension for your breach does not entitle you to a refund for the suspended period.

11. Your data

You own all content you and your team put into Forenota ("Customer Data"). You give us a limited licence to host, copy, process, transmit and display Customer Data only as needed to provide, secure and support the Service, and as you instruct.

We do not sell Customer Data, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models. We may use aggregated, de-identified statistics (which cannot identify you, your business or any person) to run and improve the Service.

12. Data processing (operator terms)

For Customer Data that contains personal information, you are the responsible party and we are your operator under POPIA. We will:

1. Process it only on your documented instructions, which are these terms and your use of the Service's features, unless the law requires otherwise

2. Keep it confidential, and ensure our staff and contractors are bound by confidentiality

3. Maintain appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational security measures (POPIA section 19), as described in our Privacy Policy

4. Use only sub-operators listed in our Privacy Policy, under written terms with equivalent protection, and give you at least 14 days' notice of new sub-operators so you can object or cancel

5. Transfer it outside South Africa only as POPIA section 72 allows

6. Notify you without undue delay, and within 72 hours where possible, if we have reasonable grounds to believe it has been compromised, and help you meet your notification duties

7. Help you respond to data subject requests and Information Regulator enquiries, as far as reasonably possible

8. Delete or return it at the end of the agreement, as set out in section 19

You confirm that you have a lawful basis for all personal information you put into Forenota, have told your team members about Forenota, and will not instruct us to process it unlawfully.

13. Our intellectual property

Forenota, its software, design, branding, documentation and everything we create (other than Customer Data) belong to us or our licensors. We give you a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Service during your subscription, for your internal business purposes. If you send us suggestions or feedback, we may use them freely without obligation to you.

14. Confidentiality

Each party will keep the other's confidential information confidential and use it only for this agreement. This does not cover information that is public through no fault of the receiving party, already known to it, independently developed, or required to be disclosed by law (with notice to the other party where allowed).

15. Availability and support

We aim to keep Forenota available 24 hours a day, but do not guarantee uninterrupted service. Planned maintenance will be scheduled outside South African business hours where possible, with notice for anything expected to take longer than 30 minutes. Support is by email at support@forenota.com on business days, 08:00 to 17:00 SAST.

16. Warranties

We will provide the Service with reasonable skill and care. Apart from that and any warranty that the law does not allow us to exclude, the Service is provided "as is". We do not warrant that it will be error-free, that every reminder will be delivered or that AI output will be accurate or complete (see section 6).

17. Limitation of liability

To the extent allowed by law:

• Neither party is liable for indirect, special or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, business or goodwill, even if foreseeable.
• We are not liable for penalties, interest or losses arising from missed deadlines or obligations, including tax and regulatory deadlines, since you remain responsible for them (section 6).
• Our total liability arising from or relating to these terms in any 12-month period is limited to the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.
• Nothing in these terms limits liability for fraud, wilful misconduct or gross negligence, or any liability that cannot be limited under the Consumer Protection Act or other law.

18. Indemnity

You will indemnify us against third-party claims, fines and reasonable legal costs arising from Customer Data you had no right to provide, your breach of section 4 or section 12, or your breach of law (including POPIA) in using the Service.

19. Term, termination and your data

• These terms apply from sign-up until your subscription ends.
• Either party may terminate immediately by written notice if the other materially breaches these terms and does not fix the breach within 14 days of being asked to, or becomes insolvent.
• After the subscription ends, your account is read-only for 90 days so you can export your data (items, reminders, team, documents and reports, in CSV and original file formats). After 90 days, we delete Customer Data, except what we must keep by law (such as invoices), and backups are overwritten on their normal cycle.
• Sections that by their nature should continue (including 11 to 14, 17, 18 and 21) survive termination.

20. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. For material changes we will give account owners at least 30 days' notice by email or in the app. If you do not agree, you may cancel before the change takes effect and receive a pro-rata refund of any prepaid fees for the remaining period. Continuing to use Forenota after that date means you accept the updated terms.

21. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. If a dispute arises, the parties will first try in good faith to resolve it by negotiation for 20 business days. If that fails, either party may refer it to the courts of South Africa, and the parties consent to the jurisdiction of the South African High Court or Magistrate's Court with jurisdiction over the matter. Nothing prevents either party from seeking urgent relief from a court.

22. ECTA disclosures (section 43)

23. General

These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between us about the Service. If any part is found unenforceable, the rest remains in force. A failure to enforce a right is not a waiver. You may not transfer this agreement without our written consent; we may transfer it to a successor who takes over Forenota and is bound by these terms. Neither party is liable for delays caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including load shedding, platform outages or network failures. Notices to us go to support@forenota.com; notices to you go to the account owner's email address.