Terms of Service

Last updated: August 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between Edward Marran trading as Progress Paws, a company incorporated in the Republic of South Africa ("Progress Paws," "we," "us," or "our"), and the dog training business that registers for the Service ("Tenant," "you," or "your").

By creating an account, clicking "I Agree," or otherwise accessing or using the Service, you confirm that you have read and agree to these Terms, and that you're authorized to bind the business on whose behalf you're registering. If you don't agree, please don't access or use the Service.

We've written these Terms in plain English wherever the law lets us, in keeping with how Progress Paws itself works. Where a legal term is unavoidable, we've tried to explain it.

1. Definitions

"Agreement"

means these Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, any Order Form, and any other policy we reference here, each as updated from time to time.

"Authorized User"

means anyone a Tenant allows to access the Service under its account, including staff given the Tenant Administrator, Trainer, or Front Desk role.

"Client"

means an individual pet owner who uses the Service to enroll a dog, upload records, or book and pay for a Tenant's classes or services.

"Fees"

means the subscription and other charges payable for the Service, described in Section 6.

"Order Form"

means an online sign-up flow, order page, or written order confirming a Tenant's chosen Subscription Plan.

"Personal Information"

means personal information as defined in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 ("POPIA").

"Service"

means the Progress Paws software-as-a-service platform, including all features, updates, and documentation we provide as part of it.

"Subscription Plan"

means one of the tiers of the Service (currently Starter, Growth, and Multi-Location, or their successors), as described at progresspaws.com/pricing.

"Tenant Data"

means data, records, and materials uploaded or generated through the Service by a Tenant, its Authorized Users, or its Clients, including dog and owner profiles, vaccination records, class rosters, progress notes, incident reports, and payment records.

2. About the Service

2.1 What we do. Progress Paws is a cloud-based, multi-tenant platform that helps dog training businesses manage classes, enrollment, scheduling, vaccine compliance, payments, and related administrative work.

2.2 A hosted service, not a software license. The Service is provided on a software-as-a-service basis. These Terms give you a right to access and use the Service as described in this Agreement — no software is sold, licensed for installation, or transferred to you. We and our licensors keep all right, title, and interest in the Service, including its underlying software.

2.3 Changes to the Service. We may add, change, or remove features over time. If a change materially reduces the core functionality of a Subscription Plan you're actively paying for, we'll make reasonable efforts to tell you in advance.

3. Eligibility

3.1 Age and authority. You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to register on behalf of a business.

3.2 Accuracy. By registering, you confirm your registration details are accurate and that you're authorized to bind the Tenant to this Agreement.

3.3 Who it's for. The Service is built for dog training businesses and the people who work with them. Client accounts should only be created by an adult, on behalf of themselves and the dogs in their care.

4. Registration, Accounts, and Authorized Users

4.1 Account security. You're responsible for keeping sign-in credentials confidential for every Authorized User on your account, and for all activity under those credentials, whether or not you authorized it. Staff sign in through Microsoft Entra ID; Clients sign in through a simplified account, or Microsoft or Google sign-in. Tell us straight away at info@progresspaws.com if you suspect unauthorized access.

4.2 Roles and permissions. A Tenant Administrator can invite staff as Trainers or Front Desk users and set their permissions. You're responsible for what your Authorized Users do, and for removing their access promptly when they leave.

4.3 Client accounts. Clients create their own accounts to interact with a specific Tenant. A Client's relationship for training services is with the Tenant, not with Progress Paws — see Section 14.

4.4 Keep your details current. You must keep your account and billing information accurate and up to date.

5. Subscription Plans, Free Trials, and Changes

5.1 Choosing a plan. Current Subscription Plans and their limits (staff seats, locations, active classes, and so on) are described at progresspaws.com/pricing, which forms part of this Agreement.

5.2 Free trials. We may offer a free trial. Unless we say otherwise at sign-up, no payment method is required to start one. Trial access ends automatically at the end of the trial period unless you choose a paid plan; we won't charge you automatically at the end of a trial for which we never collected payment details.

5.3 Upgrades and downgrades. You can change your plan at any time from your account settings. Upgrades take effect immediately; downgrades take effect at your next billing cycle. If a downgrade would put you over the new plan's limits, we may ask you to bring your account within those limits first.

5.4 Promotional pricing. We may offer discounted or promotional pricing (including a "Founding Member" offer) to some Tenants, for a limited time or in limited numbers, on terms we disclose when we offer it. A promotion doesn't change any other part of this Agreement.

6. Fees, Billing, and Payment

6.1 Fees. You agree to pay the Fees for your Subscription Plan, as shown at progresspaws.com/pricing when you subscribe or renew, in United States Dollars unless stated otherwise.

6.2 Billing cycle. Fees are billed in advance, monthly or annually as you choose, and renew automatically for the same length of period unless you cancel before the renewal date.

6.3 How payment is processed. Subscription Fees are processed through PayPal. Subscribing also means you agree to PayPal's own terms for the payment method you use. We never see or store your full card details.

6.4 If a payment fails. We'll try to let you know and may retry the charge. If payment isn't received within the grace period we make available to you, we may restrict your account to read-only access until it's resolved — see Section 16.

6.5 Fee changes. We may change our Fees for your next renewal by giving you at least 30 days' notice. Using the Service after a Fee change takes effect means you accept the new Fees.

6.6 Taxes. Fees exclude VAT or similar taxes unless we say otherwise. You're responsible for those taxes; we're responsible for tax on our own income.

7. Cancellation and Refunds

7.1 Cancelling. You can cancel at any time from your account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current paid period; we don't refund the unused part of a period, except where the law requires it or we agree otherwise in writing.

7.2 Refunds. Because we offer a free trial so you can evaluate the Service before paying, Fees you've already paid are generally non-refundable. Nothing here limits any right you have under South African law that can't lawfully be excluded.

8. Tenant Data and Content

8.1 Who owns it. As between you and us, you (or your Clients, where applicable) own the Tenant Data submitted to the Service.

8.2 The license you give us. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive right to host, copy, transmit, display, and process Tenant Data, solely to provide, secure, support, and improve the Service and to comply with the law.

8.3 Accuracy is your responsibility. You're responsible for the accuracy of what you and your Authorized Users enter, including class eligibility rules, vaccine requirements, and any manual override of an automatic vaccine or age check. We provide the tools; we don't independently verify what's entered, and an automatic check isn't a substitute for your own judgment.

8.4 Backups and export. We keep regular backups as part of running the Service, but you're responsible for exporting or keeping your own copy of anything you can't afford to lose. Export tools are available from your dashboard.

9. Personal Information and Data Protection

9.1 Who's who under POPIA. When the Service processes the Personal Information of your Clients and their dogs' owners on your behalf — names, contact details, enrollment records, and so on — you're the "responsible party" and we act as an "operator," as POPIA defines those terms. When we process Personal Information about you and your own Authorized Users, for account administration and billing, we're the responsible party for that information.

9.2 Your obligations as responsible party. You're responsible for having a lawful basis to collect your Clients' Personal Information, for telling them how it'll be used, and for getting any consent your use of the Service requires. We process it only on your instructions, given through your use of the Service's features, and only to provide the Service.

9.3 How we protect it. We maintain reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect Tenant Data against unauthorized access, loss, or disclosure, including access controls that keep one Tenant's data separate from another's.

9.4 Sub-processors. We may use reputable third parties — our hosting and payment providers, for example — to help provide the Service. We stay responsible for their compliance with this section.

9.5 More detail. Our Privacy Policy at progresspaws.com/privacy sets out more detail on what Personal Information we collect and how it's used, and forms part of this Agreement.

9.6 Cross-border processing. Our infrastructure providers may process data outside South Africa. Where that happens, we take steps intended to meet POPIA's conditions for cross-border transfer, such as confirming the recipient offers a comparable level of protection.

10. Confidentiality

10.1 What's confidential. Each party may see non-public information about the other's business. Tenant Data is your Confidential Information; our non-public product, security, and business information is ours.

10.2 How it's protected. Each party will use the other's Confidential Information only to perform this Agreement, and will protect it with at least the care it uses for its own confidential information, and no less than reasonable care.

10.3 Exceptions. This section doesn't cover information that's public without breach of this Agreement, that a party already knew, or that must be disclosed by law — in which case, where the law allows, we'll give notice first.

11. Acceptable Use

You agree that you, and anyone using the Service through your account, will not:

• break the law, including animal welfare, consumer protection, or data protection law;
• upload content you don't have the right to share, or that's unlawful or infringing;
• try to access another tenant's data, or the Service's underlying infrastructure, without authorization;
• probe, scan, or test the Service's security, or interfere with how it normally runs, without our prior written permission;
• reverse-engineer or try to extract the Service's source code, except where the law gives you that right despite this restriction;
• resell the Service as your own hosted product, or use it to build a competing product; or
• use the Service to send unsolicited bulk messages.

We may investigate a suspected breach of this section and take reasonable action, including suspension under Section 16.

12. Intellectual Property

12.1 Ownership. Apart from Tenant Data, everything about the Service — its software, design, text, graphics, and the Progress Paws name and logo — belongs to us or our licensors, and is protected by South African and international law.

12.2 Our brand. You may not use our name, logo, or trademarks without our prior written consent, beyond what's needed to say you're a customer.

12.3 Feedback. If you send us feedback or suggestions, we may use them freely, without any obligation to you.

13. Third-Party Services

13.1 What we rely on. The Service integrates with and depends on third parties, including PayPal for payments and Microsoft Entra ID / Entra External ID for sign-in, and runs on third-party cloud infrastructure. Using these may mean you're also bound by that provider's own terms.

13.2 Our responsibility. We're not responsible for the acts, omissions, availability, or terms of any third-party service, including delays or failures in payment processing caused by PayPal.

14. Payments Between You and Your Clients

14.1 How it works. The Service lets your Clients pay you, through your own connected PayPal account. We provide the technology; we're not a party to, and don't guarantee, any transaction between you and your Client.

14.2 Your responsibility. You're solely responsible for the pricing, description, delivery, and quality of the training services you offer, for your own tax and regulatory obligations, and for handling any dispute, refund, or chargeback a Client raises, using the Service's tools and your own PayPal account.

14.3 What we're not liable for. We're not liable for any amount you owe a Client, or that a Client fails to pay you.

15. Service Availability, Support, and Changes

15.1 Availability. We aim to keep the Service available and fast, and work toward the availability target in our Documentation, but the Service is provided "as available," without a guarantee of uninterrupted or error-free operation.

15.2 Maintenance. We may carry out scheduled maintenance, and try to schedule and notify affected Tenants in advance where practical.

15.3 Support. Support is provided by email; response times may vary by Subscription Plan, as described at progresspaws.com/pricing.

16. Suspension and Termination

16.1 By you. You can stop using the Service and cancel your subscription at any time, as Section 7 describes.

16.2 By us, for cause. We may suspend or terminate your access — immediately, where reasonably necessary — if: (a) you materially breach this Agreement and don't fix it within 14 days of us telling you (or immediately, if it can't be fixed); (b) payment stays overdue after the grace period in Section 6.4; (c) we reasonably believe your use creates a security risk, legal liability, or risk of harm to us, other Tenants, or their Clients; or (d) the law requires it.

16.3 Read-only first, where we can. Where this Agreement allows, we may move your account to read-only access, so you can still export your data, instead of terminating it outright.

16.4 By us, for convenience. We may end this Agreement for any reason with at least 60 days' notice, or immediately if we discontinue the Service altogether.

17. Effect of Termination

17.1 Your access ends. On termination, your right to use the Service ends. We'll keep Tenant Data available for export for 30 days afterward, then we may delete it permanently, except where the law requires us to keep it longer — financial or tax records, for example.

17.2 What survives. Sections that by their nature should outlive termination — Fees already owed, Confidentiality, Intellectual Property, Disclaimers, Limitation of Liability, Indemnification, and Governing Law — continue to apply.

18. Disclaimers

18.1 Not a substitute for professional judgment. The Service is a business-management tool. It doesn't replace your own professional judgment, veterinary advice, legal advice, or insurance, and using it doesn't by itself make your business compliant with animal welfare, consumer protection, health and safety, or other law — that stays your responsibility.

18.2 Provided "as is." To the fullest extent the law allows, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express, implied, or statutory, including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. We don't warrant that the Service will be error-free or uninterrupted, or that an automatic vaccine, age, or eligibility check will catch every case.

18.3 What this doesn't limit. Nothing here limits a warranty that can't lawfully be excluded under South African law, including the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 where it applies to you.

19. Limitation of Liability

19.1 Indirect damages. To the fullest extent the law allows, neither party is liable to the other for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or lost profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising from this Agreement, even if warned of the possibility.

19.2 Overall cap. To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability under this Agreement won't exceed the Fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

19.3 What's never limited. Nothing in this Agreement limits either party's liability for: (a) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; (b) death or personal injury caused by negligence; (c) gross negligence or willful misconduct; or (d) anything South African law doesn't allow us to limit or exclude.

20. Indemnification

20.1 Your indemnity. You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us harmless against any claim, loss, liability, and expense, including reasonable legal costs, arising from: (a) your breach of this Agreement; (b) Tenant Data or content you, your Authorized Users, or your Clients submit; (c) your use of the Service in breach of the law; or (d) a dispute between you and a Client or Authorized User. We'll give you prompt notice of any such claim, and reasonable cooperation, at your cost, in defending it.

21. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

21.1 Governing law. This Agreement is governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa.

21.2 Talk first. Before starting formal proceedings, the parties will try in good faith to resolve any dispute through negotiation between authorized representatives.

21.3 Arbitration. If a dispute isn't resolved within 30 days of the negotiation in clause 21.2 starting, either party may refer it to final and binding arbitration in Johannesburg, administered by the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA) under its rules then in force, before a single arbitrator, conducted in English. Either party may still ask a court for urgent interim relief.

21.4 Courts. If neither party refers a dispute to arbitration, the parties consent to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Republic of South Africa.

22. Changes to These Terms

22.1 Updates. We may update these Terms from time to time. If a change is material, we'll give you notice — by email or an in-app notice, for example — at least 14 days before it takes effect. Using the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the update; if you don't agree, please stop using the Service and cancel your subscription before the change takes effect.

23. General

23.1 Whole agreement. This Agreement is the entire agreement between you and us about the Service, and replaces any earlier discussion or agreement about it.

23.2 If part of this doesn't hold up. If any part of this Agreement turns out to be unenforceable, the rest stays in effect, and the unenforceable part will be read as closely as possible to what it meant to say while remaining enforceable.

23.3 No waiver by not enforcing. If we don't enforce part of this Agreement on one occasion, that doesn't mean we've given up the right to enforce it later.

23.4 Assignment. You may not transfer this Agreement without our prior written consent. We may transfer it as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of substantially all our assets.

23.5 Not a partnership. Nothing in this Agreement makes you and us partners, joint venturers, agents, or employer and employee.

23.6 Force majeure. Neither party is liable for a delay or failure caused by something reasonably beyond its control, including load-shedding, internet or utility outages, natural disaster, or government action.

23.7 Electronic contracting. This Agreement may be concluded and accepted electronically, and is valid and enforceable in that form under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002.

23.8 Notices. We may notify you by email to your account address, or by an in-app notice. You can notify us at info@progresspaws.com.

23.9 Language. This Agreement is written in English, in keeping with the Service's English-language scope. Where we provide a translation for convenience, the English version controls.

24. Contact Us

If you have a question about these Terms, contact us at:

Progress Paws
Email: info@progresspaws.com