ToolBox Pro subscription terms

1. The plan

ToolBox Pro. R599 a month, including VAT. One subscription with everything in it: a verified profile, leads in your trades and suburbs, quoting, messaging, invoicing and payments, your calendar and availability, a portfolio, reviews and replies, and insight into how your business is doing. There are no tiers, no add-ons and no feature held back for a dearer plan.

What the app does will grow as we build, and everything new joins the same subscription at no extra charge. Where a change removes something significant, section 7 tells you what happens.

2. What we never charge

3. What a subscription does not buy

• It does not move you up a homeowner's search results. Ranking is described in section 7 of the Platform terms of use, and paying us is not one of the inputs.
• It does not change verification. Every tradesperson passes the same checks, paying or in their free year, and no badge is for sale.
• It does not soften the rules. The ToolBox Standard and the sanctions policy apply identically to a paying member.
• It does not remove or reorder your reviews. Nothing does.

4. Billing

The subscription is sold on the web, not through Google Play or the Apple App Store, and paid by card. Card payments are processed by Paystack, which holds your card details. We never see your card number: we keep only the card's brand, its last four digits, its expiry date and a code Paystack gives us to charge it again, which we store encrypted.

• The price includes VAT where it applies. Until ToolBox is registered for VAT, no VAT is charged, and your receipt says so.
• Your first paid month starts on the day you pay. If you still have free time (your free first month, your first-hundred year, or a referral month), the month you pay for starts when that time ends.
• The subscription renews by itself each month, on the same day of the month, until you stop it. In a month too short for that day, it renews on the month's last day.
• We email a receipt for every payment, and your payments are listed in the app under More, Subscription.
• If a renewal fails, we try your card again three more times over the next seven days and email you each time. Your profile stays visible and leads keep coming during those seven days. You can pay with this card or another one at any point. If it still has not gone through after the last try, the subscription ends and section 5 applies as if you had cancelled. Your profile, portfolio and reviews stay exactly where they are.
• If your card cannot be charged again by itself (some cards cannot), we tell you when a month falls due, and you have the same seven days to pay it.

5. Cancelling

Stop your renewal in the app, under More, Subscription. Stopping it means nothing more is charged.

• You keep full access until the end of the month you have already paid for. We do not cut you off mid-term.
• After that, your profile stops showing to homeowners and new leads stop reaching you. Nothing is deleted: your profile, your portfolio, your quotes, your invoices and your reviews all stay, and they are all back the day you subscribe again.
• A job you were already hired for is not abandoned. You can still message that customer, finish the work, invoice it and be paid through ToolBox, because a homeowner who hired you should never pay for a subscription lapsing.
• You can always sign in to download your quotes and invoices.

Refunds. A month you have paid for is not refunded because you stop part of the way through it; you keep it to the end instead. If we charged you in error, or twice for the same month, tell us at trades@toolbox.africa and we will refund the amount to your card. Your rights under the Consumer Protection Act and section 8 are unaffected.

6. Your free first month, the first 100, promotions and referral months

• Your first month is free. Every tradesperson's first month of the subscription costs nothing, and no card is needed to start it. It begins on the first day leads can reach you, which is once your phone, ID and address are verified and your profile is complete, or on the day billing starts for everyone if that is later.
• When it ends. We remind you at least five days before your free month ends. Nothing is charged unless you choose to subscribe, and it never turns into a paid subscription by itself. If you subscribe during your free month, your first paid month starts the day after your free month ends. If you do not, and no referral month follows it, section 5 applies as if you had cancelled: nothing is deleted, and everything is back the day you subscribe.
• One free month per account. It is given once, and stopping or restarting the subscription does not give it again. If you hold a first-100 place, your free year already includes it. If you have already paid for a month, or a paid month is running when your free month would begin, that paid month was your first month. A referral month running then comes first, and your free month follows it.
• Nothing to pay before it begins. Once billing has started, you cannot subscribe while your free month is still to come: there is nothing to pay before it begins.
• The first 100. The first 100 tradespeople we verify get the subscription free for 12 months. You are verified when your ID check has passed and your profile is complete. Signing up does not hold a place; passing verification does.
• When your year starts. Your 12 months are counted from the day we verify you, or from the day your place opens if that comes later: for example, if you finish your profile after your ID check, or a place is given back and passed to you as the next tradesperson we verified.
• One place per person. A place stays taken if you close your account, and the same ID number cannot take a second one on another account. We keep only the dates and a one-way code made from the ID number to hold that rule, never the number itself. A place is taken back only if the identity check behind it turns out not to be genuine, and it then goes to the next tradesperson we verified.
• Before it ends. We will tell you at least 20 business days before your free year ends, and nothing charges you unless you choose to subscribe. If you do not, section 5 applies as if you had cancelled: nothing is deleted, and everything is back the day you subscribe.
• Promotional pricing lasts for the period stated and then reverts to the standard price. We tell you before it does.
• Months earned under the referral programme are free months of this subscription. Each one covers a month you would otherwise pay for, starting with the first one due once billing applies to you and after your free first month. They do not expire while your account is in good standing, and they are never paid out in cash.

7. Price and feature changes

• We will give you at least 20 business days' notice of a price increase, by email and in the app. It takes effect at your next renewal, never mid-term.
• If you do not want to pay the new price, cancel before it applies. That is your remedy.
• If we remove a significant feature you are paying for, we will tell you, and you may cancel and ask us for a fair proportion of the current period back.
• We tell you about a new feature. We never charge you for one automatically.

8. Fixed terms and your statutory rights

Where you subscribe as a natural person or as a small business within the Consumer Protection Act's thresholds, section 14 of the CPA applies to a fixed-term agreement. Among other things it lets you cancel on 20 business days' written notice, against a reasonable cancellation charge, and it limits the maximum term. Nothing here takes that away.

Our monthly plan is not a fixed term at all. You can stop at the end of any month, and we prefer it that way. Nobody does good work while trying to escape a contract.

9. If your account is suspended or removed

• Suspended while we investigate: billing continues, because the account and everything in it is preserved. If the investigation closes with no finding against you, we credit the period you lost.
• Removed: the subscription is cancelled and you are not billed again. We refund the unused part of the current period, unless the removal was for something in section 7 of the sanctions policy.
• Your data: download your quotes and invoices before your access ends. Retention is set out in the Privacy policy.

10. Tax

You are responsible for your own tax and VAT. We are not your agent for tax, we do not withhold anything, and the invoices you issue to homeowners are yours. Your subscription is a business expense you can claim in the ordinary way: the receipt we email for each payment is your record of it.