Terms of service

1. Who we are and these terms

PWS Payroll ("PWS", "we") is provided by [company legal name], [company number], [registered office address]. These terms are the agreement between us and the business that opens a PWS account ("you"). They include the data processing agreement and the prices shown on our website and in your account. PWS is for businesses, accountants and payroll bureaux, not for consumers. By creating an account you confirm that you are acting for a business and are authorised to accept these terms for it.

2. The service

PWS Payroll is UK payroll software for Windows (the "app") with an online account (the "service"). The app calculates PAYE, National Insurance, statutory payments, pensions and related figures from HMRC's published specifications, keeps your payroll data on your computer, and sends submissions to HMRC from your computer. The service provides your account, billing, signing the app in, optional AI explanations, the optional cloud vault and the calculation API.

3. Your account

• Keep your sign-in details secure; we recommend two-step sign-in. You are responsible for what is done with your account and with each computer you sign in.
• Give us accurate details and keep them up to date.
• Do not misuse the service: no attempts to break or bypass its security, overload it, copy or resell it, or use it unlawfully.

4. Your responsibilities for payroll

You remain responsible for your payroll: the information you enter, checking results before you pay people or submit to HMRC, meeting deadlines, paying amounts due to HMRC and pension schemes, and your obligations as an employer. We build PWS carefully against HMRC's specifications, but software cannot know facts you have not given it. AI explanations are information to help you understand figures; they are not tax, legal or financial advice, and PWS never uses them to calculate anything.

5. Prices, free period and billing

• Prices are shown on our website and in your account. They are per business (employer) and per employee paid in a month, with AI explanations charged after a free monthly allowance. Your account may have prices of its own that we have agreed with you.
• A new account has a free period, shown in your account. During it, the number of businesses shown there, and their employees, are free.
• You add a card when you open your account; nothing is charged then. After the end of each month we bill you for that month, and Stripe charges your card automatically. The app reports which businesses you have (by an anonymous reference, never by name) and how many employees each paid, so that we can bill you.
• Prices exclude VAT, which is added where it applies.
• If a payment fails we will tell you and try again. If it is still unpaid 14 days after we tell you, we may stop new businesses being added and suspend the service until it is paid.
• We may change prices for the months after giving you at least 30 days' notice by email.

6. Your data

Your payroll data belongs to you and stays on your computer unless you turn on the cloud vault, which stores a copy encrypted with a password only you know: we cannot read it, and cannot recover it if you lose both the password and the recovery key. When we process personal data for you (the cloud vault, AI explanations through PWS, support bundles you send us) we do so as your processor under the data processing agreement. How we use information about you and your users is in our privacy notice.

7. Availability and changes

We aim to keep the service available and the app up to date with HMRC's rules, but we do not promise it will be uninterrupted or error-free. Payroll calculations, payslips and reports work in the app without the service. We may change the service; if a change materially reduces what you have paid for we will tell you in advance.

8. Intellectual property

We (and our licensors) own the app and the service. We give you a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use them for your business while your account is open. Open-source components are licensed under their own terms (listed with the app).

9. Liability

• Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited by law.
• We are not liable for loss of profit, revenue, business, goodwill or data that you could have restored from your own copies, or for indirect or consequential loss.
• Apart from that, our total liability in any 12 months is limited to the fees you paid us in those 12 months.
• We are not liable for penalties or interest arising from information you entered, results you did not check, or deadlines you missed.

10. Ending the agreement

You can close your account at any time; the month in progress is billed at the end of it. We may close or suspend an account on 30 days' notice, or at once for serious or repeated breach of these terms or non-payment. When an account closes we delete your cloud vault and your account data as set out in the privacy notice, except records we must keep by law. The app keeps your data on your computer; export it before you uninstall.

11. General

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and its courts have exclusive jurisdiction. If part of them is unenforceable, the rest still applies. We may update these terms; we will tell you of material changes and ask you to accept them at your next sign-in. Contact: [contact email].