Terms of Service

1. About these Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a legally binding agreement between you ("you" or "Client") and KJ Hoare, trading as Expanding Insights ("we", "us", or "Expanding Insights"), a sole proprietorship registered in the Republic of South Africa. They govern your access to and use of our website at expandinginsights.com (the "Website"), our client portal at portal.expandinginsights.com (the "Portal"), and all products, software, and services we provide through them (together, the "Services").

By creating an Account, purchasing a subscription, or otherwise accessing the Services, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and our Refund Policy, which together form the entire agreement between us. If you do not agree, you must not use the Services.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, including the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 ("CPA"), the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 ("ECT Act"), and the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 ("POPIA").

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes any right you have under the CPA, POPIA, or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded by agreement. If any clause in these Terms conflicts with such a right, the statutory right prevails to the extent of the conflict.

2. Definitions

In these Terms, capitalised words have the meanings given below:

• Account — the login credentials and profile you create on the Portal.
• Billing Period — the recurring interval (monthly, annual, or other) over which Subscription Fees are charged.
• Client Data — any content, files, records, credentials, or information you upload, submit, or connect to the Services.
• Fees — the amounts payable for the Services, as quoted on the Website, in a proposal, or in a separate service agreement.
• Stitch — Stitch Money (Pty) Ltd, the South African payment gateway we use to process card transactions on our behalf.
• Subscription — any Service billed on a recurring basis.

3. Eligibility

To use the Services you must be at least 18 years old and have the legal capacity to enter into a binding agreement. If you are using the Services on behalf of a company, partnership, trust, or other legal entity, you warrant that you are authorised to bind that entity, and references to "you" in these Terms apply jointly to you personally and to that entity.

4. Your Account

Certain Services require you to register an Account on the Portal. You agree to:

• Provide accurate, current, and complete information when registering and keep it up to date.
• Keep your login credentials confidential and not share them with any third party.
• Be responsible for all activity that takes place under your Account, whether authorised by you or not.
• Notify us immediately at info@insightsxp.com if you suspect unauthorised access to your Account.

We may suspend or terminate any Account that we reasonably believe has been compromised, is being used fraudulently, or is otherwise in breach of these Terms.

5. The Services

Expanding Insights provides technology consulting and software services to business clients, including:

• AI solutions — custom AI integrations, chatbots, and intelligent automation.
• Process automation — workflow automation, RPA, and system integrations.
• Business intelligence — dashboards, data pipelines, reporting tools, and analytics platforms.

We may update, add to, or remove features from the Services from time to time. Where a change materially reduces the core functionality of a Service you are subscribed to, we will give you reasonable notice and, where appropriate, a pro-rata refund or alternative.

Individual engagements may be subject to a separate proposal, statement of work, or product-specific terms. Where such an agreement conflicts with these Terms, the specific agreement prevails to the extent of the conflict.

6. Fees, Billing, and Taxes

6.1 Pricing

All prices on the Website are displayed in South African Rand (ZAR) and are the total amount payable at checkout, inclusive of Value Added Tax where applicable. Where we are not registered for VAT, no VAT is charged. Fees for bespoke engagements will be quoted separately and may be expressed in a different currency if agreed in writing.

6.2 Billing

Subscription Fees are charged in advance at the start of each Billing Period. One-off Fees are charged at the time of purchase. Invoices for bespoke engagements are due within 14 days of issue, unless otherwise agreed.

6.3 Late payments

If an invoice remains unpaid for more than 14 days after the due date, we may suspend your access to the affected Service until payment is received. Overdue amounts may attract interest at the rate set out in the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act 55 of 1975.

6.4 Taxes

You are responsible for any taxes, duties, or levies (other than our income tax) that apply to your purchase in your jurisdiction, including any withholding tax required by local law.

7. Payment Processing

Expanding Insights is the merchant of record for all purchases made through the Website. Card payments are processed on our behalf by our payment gateway, Stitch Money (Pty) Ltd ("Stitch"), a South African PCI DSS Level 1 certified payment provider. By completing a purchase, you authorise us (through Stitch) to charge your chosen payment method for the applicable Fees, including any recurring Subscription Fees until you cancel.

We do not see or store your full payment card number. Card details are captured directly by Stitch on a secure hosted page protected by 3-D Secure authentication. Stitch retains a tokenised reference to your card so that recurring charges can be processed automatically for Subscriptions.

If a recurring charge fails, we (or Stitch on our behalf) may retry the charge in accordance with the gateway's retry policy. If all retries fail, we may suspend or cancel the Subscription until payment is resolved.

8. Subscriptions, Auto-renewal, and Cancellation

8.1 Automatic renewal

Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each Billing Period at the then-current price until you cancel. By purchasing a Subscription, you expressly authorise recurring charges.

8.2 Cancellation

You may cancel your Subscription at any time through the Portal or by emailing info@insightsxp.com. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current Billing Period. You will retain access to the Service until the end of that period, and you will not be charged again after that, unless a refund is agreed.

8.3 Price changes

We may change Subscription prices from time to time. We will give you at least 30 days' advance notice of any price change by email before it takes effect. If you do not accept the new price, you may cancel your Subscription before the new price applies and the change will not be charged to you. Continued use of the Service after the effective date of a notified price change constitutes acceptance.

9. Refunds

Refunds are governed by our Refund Policy, which forms part of these Terms. All subscriptions are month to month with no long-term contracts. Cancellations take effect at the end of the current Billing Period with no further charges. Statutory withdrawal rights apply for consumers in South Africa, the EU, EEA, and UK. Specific product guarantees are described on their pricing pages.

10. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Use the Services for any unlawful purpose or in breach of any applicable law, regulation, or third-party right.
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of our systems, networks, or data belonging to other users.
• Interfere with, disrupt, or overload the Services, including through denial-of-service attacks or excessive automated requests.
• Upload or transmit malware, viruses, ransomware, or any other harmful code.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code of any of our software, except to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law.
• Scrape, harvest, or collect data from the Website or Services by automated means without our prior written consent.
• Resell, sublicense, or redistribute the Services without our written authorisation.
• Use the Services to generate, store, or transmit content that is unlawful, defamatory, infringing, or harmful to others.

We may suspend access to the Services immediately if we reasonably believe you are in breach of this clause.

11. Intellectual Property

11.1 Our intellectual property

All content, software, source code, designs, trademarks, logos, documentation, and other materials made available through the Services are owned by or licensed to Expanding Insights and are protected by South African and international intellectual property laws. Except as expressly permitted, you may not copy, modify, distribute, publicly display, create derivative works from, or otherwise exploit any of our materials.

11.2 Client deliverables

Unless a separate service agreement says otherwise, ownership of bespoke deliverables (such as custom code, dashboards, or automations built specifically for you) transfers to you upon full payment of the relevant Fees. We retain all rights in general-purpose tools, frameworks, libraries, and methodologies we develop or use in the course of providing the Services, provided these do not contain your Confidential Information.

11.3 Client Data

You retain ownership of your Client Data. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, process, transmit, and display your Client Data solely for the purpose of providing, maintaining, and improving the Services.

11.4 Feedback

If you provide feedback, suggestions, or ideas about the Services, we may use them without obligation or compensation to you.

12. Confidentiality

Each party agrees to keep confidential any non-public information disclosed by the other in connection with the Services, including business plans, technical specifications, pricing, customer lists, and strategies ("Confidential Information"). Confidential Information may be used only for the purpose of performing under these Terms and may only be disclosed to employees, contractors, and advisers who need to know it and who are bound by equivalent confidentiality obligations. This clause survives termination for a period of two years, except that trade secrets remain protected for as long as they qualify as such under law, and except where disclosure is required by law or a competent authority.

13. Privacy and Data Protection

Our handling of your personal information is described in our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. Where we process personal information relating to your customers or employees on your behalf (for example, where we operate a chatbot or BI dashboard on your behalf), we do so as an operator under POPIA and will follow your reasonable instructions regarding that information.

14. Warranties and Disclaimers

We will provide the Services with reasonable care and skill and in accordance with generally accepted industry practice. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Services are otherwise provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We do not warrant that the Services will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free from vulnerabilities, or that they will meet every specific need you may have.

Nothing in this clause excludes or limits any implied warranty or statutory right under the CPA or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded.

15. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by South African law (including the CPA):

• Our total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with these Terms or your use of the Services, whether in contract, delict, or otherwise, shall not exceed the total Fees actually paid by you to us in the 12 months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
• We shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including loss of profits, loss of revenue, loss of data, business interruption, or loss of goodwill, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including liability for fraud, gross negligence, intentional misconduct, or death or personal injury caused by our negligence.

16. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Expanding Insights, its owner, contractors, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with (a) your breach of these Terms, (b) your misuse of the Services, (c) your violation of any applicable law or third-party right, or (d) the content of any Client Data you upload to the Services.

17. Suspension and Termination

Either party may terminate these Terms for convenience by giving written notice to the other. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Services immediately and without prior notice if:

• You materially breach any provision of these Terms.
• You fail to pay any Fees on the due date and do not remedy that failure within 14 days of written notice.
• We reasonably believe your Account has been compromised or is being used fraudulently.
• We are required to do so by law, a regulator, or a court order.

On termination, your right to access the Services ends immediately, and we may delete or return Client Data in accordance with our data retention practices described in the Privacy Policy. Clauses which by their nature are intended to survive termination (including clauses 11, 12, 15, 16, and 20) remain in force.

18. Force Majeure

Neither party is liable for any failure or delay in performing its obligations under these Terms (other than an obligation to pay money) caused by an event beyond its reasonable control, including natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, pandemics, government actions, power failures, internet outages, and third-party service disruptions.

19. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be posted on this page with a revised "Last updated" date, and for changes that materially affect your rights we will make reasonable efforts to notify you at least 14 days in advance (for example, by email or an in-app notice). Your continued use of the Services after the effective date of a change constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

20. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

Before starting any formal proceedings, you agree to contact us at info@insightsxp.com and attempt to resolve the dispute in good faith. If the dispute is not resolved within 30 days, it shall be referred to mediation under the rules of the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA). If mediation does not resolve the dispute, either party may refer the matter to the courts of the Republic of South Africa, which shall have exclusive jurisdiction.

Nothing in this clause prevents you from exercising any statutory right to complain to a regulator, ombud, or small claims forum.

21. General Provisions

21.1 Notices

We may give notice to you by email to the address associated with your Account or by posting a notice on the Website or Portal. You may give notice to us by email to info@insightsxp.com.

21.2 Assignment

You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms to a successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, corporate reorganisation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets.

21.3 Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, that provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, or if that is not possible, severed from these Terms, without affecting the validity of the remaining provisions.

21.4 Waiver

A failure or delay by either party in exercising any right under these Terms does not waive that right.

21.5 Entire agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, Refund Policy, and any applicable product-specific agreement, form the entire agreement between you and Expanding Insights regarding the Services and supersede all prior or contemporaneous communications, proposals, and agreements.

22. Contact

For any questions about these Terms, please contact us:

• Email: info@insightsxp.com
• Entity: KJ Hoare t/a Expanding Insights
• Location: South Africa