Thanks for using our Services. These are the terms and conditions that apply when you use Clear Books.
Thanks for using our Services.
Clear Books provides online business software to small businesses. The first Service we launched was accounting software. We also provide, among other Services listed on our corporate homepage, payroll software under the trading name Payroll and accountant lead generation services under the trading name Find UK Accountant.
If You browse any of our Websites or use any of our Services You agree to comply with and be bound by these Terms. These Terms are binding on any use of the Service and apply to You from the time that Clear Books provides You with access to the Service.
These Terms are not intended to answer every question or address every issue raised by the use of the Service. It is Your obligation to ensure that You have read, understood and agree to the most recent Terms.
By registering to use the Service you acknowledge that You have read and understood these Terms and have the authority to act on behalf of any person for whom You are using the Service. You are deemed to have agreed to these Terms on behalf of any entity for whom you use the Service.
Clear Books reserves the right to change these Terms at any time without prior notice by updating this page and You agree to be bound by such changes. You should visit this page regularly to check the current terms & conditions applicable to You.
“Clear Books”
means Clear Books Limited, a company registered in England and Wales whose registered office is
Clear Books Limited, 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ with company number
06636109.
“Data”
means any data input or imported by You or with Your authority into the Website.
“Intellectual Property Rights”
means any registered or unregistered design rights, patents, copyright, database rights, data
protection rights, trademarks, service marks, moral rights, know-how and any other intellectual or
industrial property rights, anywhere in the world.
“Invited User”
means any person or entity, other than the Subscriber, that uses the Service with the authorisation
of the Subscriber from time to time.
“Partners”
means any partner as defined in clause 12 of these Terms.
“Service”
means the online business software services made available (as may be changed or updated from time to time by Clear Books) via the Website.
“Subscriber”
means the person who registers to use the Service, and, where the context permits, includes any
entity on whose behalf that person registers to use the Service.
“Subscription Fee”
means the monthly, annual or biennial subscription fee (excluding any taxes and duties) payable by
You in accordance with the pricing set out on the Website (which Clear Books may change from time to
time) in order to access the Service.
“Terms”
means the Terms and Conditions of Use herein.
“Website”
means any of the images, written material, databases, software or other material available at any
website owned or operated by Clear Books.
“You”
means the Subscriber, and where the context permits, an Invited User. “Your” has a corresponding
meaning.
1.1 Your privacy is important to us. Our Privacy Policy forms part of these Terms.
2.1 Clear Books grants You the right to access and use the Website and Services with the user roles according to your Subscription for as long as You continue to pay the Subscription Fee, until the Subscription is terminated or, for an Invited User, until your access is revoked. This right is non-exclusive and non-transferable and is limited by and subject to this agreement. You must only use the Website and Services for your own lawful internal business purposes.
2.2 the Subscriber determines who is an Invited User and what level of user role access to the relevant organisation and Service that Invited User has;
2.3 the Subscriber is responsible for all Invited Users’ use of the Service;
2.4 the Subscriber controls each Invited User’s level of access to the relevant organisation and Service at all times and can revoke or change an Invited User’s access, or level of access, at any time and for any reason, in which case that person or entity will cease to be an Invited User or shall have that different level of access, as the case may be;
2.5 if there is any dispute between a Subscriber and an Invited User regarding access to any organisation or Service, the Subscriber shall decide what access or level of access to the relevant Data or Service that Invited User shall have, if any.
2.6 You will ensure that all usernames and passwords required to access the Website are kept secure and confidential. You will immediately notify Clear Books of any unauthorised use of your passwords or any other breach of security and Clear Books will reset your password.
2.7 When accessing and using the Website You must:
a) not attempt to undermine the security or integrity of Clear Books computing systems or networks or the Website;
b) not use, or misuse, the Website in any way which may impair the functionality of the Website or Services, or impair the ability of any other user to use the Website or Services;
c) not attempt to gain unauthorised access to the computer system on which the Website is hosted or to any materials other than those to which you have been given express permission to access;
d) not attempt to transmit or input into the Website any files that may damage any other person’s computing devices or software; content that may be offensive; or material or Data in violation of any law (including Data or other material protected by copyright or trade secrets which you do not have the right to use);
e) not attempt to modify, copy, adapt, reproduce, disassemble, decompile or reverse engineer the Services, Website or any software applications included in the Website, or as part of the Website;
f) only access the Website manually. The use of automated agents, robots, or automated software, other than search engine spiders, to view the site is forbidden;
g) not attempt to build a copy of our Data.
2.8 By enabling the multi-currency functionality within the Services You confirm that You have read and accept the XE.com terms and conditions for the use of the XE Currency Datafeed service.
2.9 Your use of automated bank account feeds enabled by the Plaid data gathering service (Plaid Service) from within the Service is subject to the Plaid End User Services Agreement (UK). If your bank or credit union connects to Clear Books directly, you may use those feeds instead of Plaid.
3.1 All Intellectual Property Rights in all the material which comprises the Website including, but not limited to, design, structure, layouts, graphical images and underlying source code belongs to Clear Books. All rights are reserved.
3.2 You acknowledge that, except as otherwise agreed between the parties in writing, all Intellectual Property Rights of Clear Books and the Website shall remain with Clear Books.
3.3 If you submit any content to any public area of Clear Books, including blogs, message boards, and forums, You agree only to use such tool for lawful and legitimate purposes and not for posting or disseminating any material unrelated to the use of the Services. You must ensure that such material is not defamatory or offensive, untrue, racially offensive or an incitement to racial hatred or otherwise in breach of an individual’s right to privacy or human rights or actionable in law in any jurisdiction. In the event that you do submit such material to the Website, Clear Books reserves the right to remove it without reference to you and co-operate with any investigation by the authorities or court order relating to it, any and all consequences that may directly or indirectly follow will be entirely your responsibility not the responsibility of Clear Books. You agree to indemnify and hold Clear Books harmless from any action or consequences that may arise in such circumstances, including any claims by third parties.
3.4 By submitting content to any public area of Clear Books, including blogs, message boards, and forums, or in response to any request for feedback made by Clear Books or by a third party service provider acting on behalf of Clear Books, You grant Clear Books a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and licence to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, communicate to the public, perform and display the content (in whole or in part) worldwide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, for the full term of any rights that may exist in such content. You also permit any subscriber to access, display, view, store and reproduce such content for personal use.
3.5 By submitting content You warrant that You are entitled to and have all necessary Intellectual Property Rights over that content.
4.1 ClearBooks.co.uk, Clear Books and the Clear Books logo are trademarks of Clear Books Limited.
5.1 Clear Books may place information concerning You on a database of internal use only. Clear Books will never disclose your details to any third party unless required to by law, unless specifically instructed to the contrary by the User.
6.1 Clear Books provides content from and links to third party websites, products or services that are not affiliated with or endorsed by Clear Books (although Clear Books branding, advertisements or links may appear on these websites) and Clear Books may send e-mail messages to You containing advertisements or promotions including links to third parties. Clear Books has no responsibility for any third party website, product or service and makes no representation as to the quality, suitability, functionality or legality of any third party websites which we link to, or to any goods and services available from such third parties.
6.2 All matters concerning goods and services that you purchase from a third party including all contract terms and privacy notices are solely between You and that third party. Clear Books will not be liable for any costs or damages to You or any third party arising directly or indirectly out of any third party website, product or service. You hereby waive any claim You might have against Clear Books with respect to any such websites, products or services. The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 shall not apply to this agreement.
6.3 Some third-party providers may pay Clear Books a fee or commission that may be related to referrals from Clear Books or revenue made by the provider.
7.1 You acknowledge that:
a) You are authorised to access and use the Website;
b) If You are using the Website on behalf of or for the benefit of any organisation then Clear Books will assume that You have the right to do so. The organisation will be liable for your actions including any breach of these Terms;
c) You warrant that where You have registered to use the Website on behalf of another person You have the authority to agree to these terms on behalf of that person and agree that by registering to use the Website You bind the person on whose behalf you act to the performance of any and all obligations that You become subject to by virtue of these terms without limiting your own personal obligations under these terms.
d) The provision of, access to, and use of, the Website is on an “as is, where is” basis and at your own risk;
e) Clear Books does not guarantee the availability of the Website or services offered on the Website and does not warrant that the use of the Website will be uninterrupted, timely or error free. Among other things, the operation and availability of the systems used for accessing the Website, including public telephone services, computer networks and the Internet, can be unpredictable and may from time to time interfere with or prevent access to the Website. Clear Books is not in any way responsible for any such interference that prevents your access or use of the Website.
f) Any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through the use of the Website is done at Your own discretion and risk and You are solely responsible for any damage to Your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such material. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by You from Clear Books will create any warranty not expressly stated in these terms.
g) Clear Books is not your accountant or legal adviser and use of the Website should not substitute professional accounting or legal advice. If you have any accounting or legal questions, contact an accountant or a lawyer.
h) It is your sole responsibility to determine that the Website meets the needs of your business and Clear Books makes no warranty that it does so.
i) You remain solely responsible for complying with all applicable accounting, tax and other laws. It is your responsibility to check that storage of and access to your Data via the Software and the Website will comply with laws applicable to you (including any laws requiring you to retain records).
j) Clear Books reserves the right to revise, change, modify, delete or suspend the content of any part of the Website and/or any of the services it provides on the Website without notice at any time in its sole discretion.
7.2 Clear Books gives no warranty about the Website or the Services, or of any third party services, including as to its accuracy, reliability, adequacy or completeness, or that any errors in technology will be corrected. Without limiting the foregoing, Clear Books does not warrant that the Website will meet your requirements or expectations or that it will be suitable for your purposes. To avoid doubt, all implied conditions or warranties are excluded in so far as is permitted by law including, without limitation, warranties of merchantability, fitness for purpose, title and non-infringement.
7.3 You warrant and represent that You are acquiring the right to access and use the Website and agreeing to these Terms for the purposes of a business and that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, any statutory consumer guarantees or legislation intended to protect non-business consumers in any jurisdiction does not apply to the supply of the Website or these Terms.
8.1 Clear Books denies all liability for the timely operation of the Website when used within an Internet environment, where You or a third party is providing the computer equipment upon which the product is to reside or depend upon for any part of its functionality.
8.2 By accepting these Terms You confirm your understanding that the timely operation of the Internet and the World Wide Web is governed by constraints beyond the control of Clear Books. You accept that Clear Books is not liable for the perceived slow operation of the Website.
9.1 Clear Books may offer a free trial which will allow You to assess if the Website is satisfactory for your purpose.
9.2 Subscription Fees automatically recur either monthly, annually, or biennially depending on your subscription package. Subscription Fees begin on your first payment date and are payable in advance of each subscription period. Different Subscription Fees may include access to different Services.
9.3 If Subscription Fees or fees for any additional services (clause 9.11) are not paid, Clear Books may suspend or terminate Your and any Invited Users’ use of the Service or Your or any Invited Users’ rights of access to the Service or to all or any Data.
9.4 Your subscription is activated by providing the information required on the subscription page. You will pay Clear Books or Clear Books’ distributor (as directed by Clear Books) the charge for the Subscription Fees by credit/debit card at the time of order.
9.5 No refund will be given for the cancellation or termination of a subscription.
9.6 A subscription can be cancelled at any time by terminating your Service. When a subscription is cancelled no further payment will be taken by Clear Books.
9.7 If a subscription is cancelled for any reason and Subscription Fees or additional fees incurred prior to the cancellation date remain unpaid, You will be liable to pay all outstanding Subscription Fees or additional fees to Clear Books.
9.8 You must cancel Your Service. Clear Books will not accept instructions to do so. This is to ensure against fraudulent requests to terminate Services.
9.9 Once a subscription has been cancelled, any Data will no longer be accessible by You. If You want to retain access to that Data in the same format when you cancel your subscription, please contact support@clearbooks.co.uk who can offer You a low-cost view-only dormant account (a Dormant Account). These Terms of Use will apply to any Dormant Accounts.
9.10 Pricing of Services is advertised on the pricing and subscription pages of each Service Website.
9.11 Clear Books may offer additional services which might incur an additional fee. We will let you know if there are any additional fees, how such fees are calculated, and when the fees are collected, when you sign up for those services. Access to any additional services is conditional on payment of those additional fees.
10.1 Clear Books is entitled to restrict, suspend or terminate your subscription or deny You access to the Website without notice in its sole discretion.
10.2 Clear Books shall be entitled to disclose your user identity and details if required or requested by the courts or other law enforcement authorities and/or agencies or in such other circumstances as Clear Books in its sole discretion considers reasonably necessary or appropriate.
11.1 You indemnify Clear Books against all claims, costs, damage and loss arising from your breach of any of these Terms or any obligation You may have to Clear Books, including but not limited to any costs relating to the recovery of any Subscription Fee that have not been paid by You.
11.2 Your use of any information or materials on this Website is entirely at your own risk, for which Clear Books shall not be liable. It shall be your responsibility to ensure that the Website, its products, services and information, meet your specific requirements.
12.1 Clear Books regularly partners with accountants, bookkeepers and resellers among other professional service providers. Partners are not endorsed or approved by Clear Books and Clear Books is not responsible for the quality of their service. It is Your responsibility to vet Partners for the service you require from them.
13.1 Clear Books may run affiliate schemes for our Services whereby Subscribers can receive a benefit if you refer our Services to a third party who signs up and pays for the Services. We reserve the right to alter or remove the terms of our affiliate schemes at any time.
13.2 Clear Books reserves the right to remove You from the affiliate scheme at any time and refuse payment of any monies owed. Reasons for such action include using spam techniques to promote Your affiliation.
13.3 Partners, such accountants, bookkeepers and resellers, are not eligible to participate in our affiliate schemes.
14.1 Ownership of the underlying data and right to access belongs to the account payer where the account payer is an owner or shareholder of the organisation to which the data relates. If the account payer is not an owner or shareholder of the organisation, for example a Partner, then the data ultimately belongs to the owner or shareholder of the organisation to which the data relates.
14.2. You will indemnify Clearbooks against any claims or loss relating to:
i. Clear Books’ refusal to provide any person access to Your information in accordance to these Terms,
ii. Clear Books’ making available information or Data to any person with your authorisation
14.3 Access to the data is contingent on full payment of the Subscription Fee when due. You grant Clear Books a licence to use, copy, transmit, store and back up Data for the purposes of enabling You to access and use the Website and for any other purpose related to the provision of any services to You.
14.4 Once an account has been closed, any Data will no longer be accessible by You. That Data will be archived after three months, and permanently deleted seven years after your account closure. If there is a need to restore the data to a readily accessible format at your request before it is permanently deleted, charges may apply. If You want to retain that Data in the same format when you cancel your subscription, please contact support@clearbooks.co.uk who can offer You a low-cost view-only dormant account (a Dormant Account). These Terms of Use will apply to any Dormant Accounts.
14.5 You must maintain copies of all data inputted into the Website. Clear Books adheres to its best practice, policies and procedures to prevent data loss, including a daily system data back-up regime but does not make any guarantees that there will be no loss of data. Clear Books expressly excludes liability for any loss of data no matter how caused.
14.6 If You enable third-party applications for use in conjunction with the Website, You acknowledge that Clear Books may allow the providers of those third-party applications to access Your Data as required for the interoperation of such third-party applications with the Website. Clear Books shall not be responsible for any disclosure, modification or deletion of Your Data resulting from any such access by third-party application providers.
15.1. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Clear Books excludes all liability and responsibility to You (or any other person) in contract, tort (including negligence), or otherwise, for any loss (including loss, but not limited to, of information, Data, profits, savings, business or business opportunities, or goodwill) or damage resulting, directly or indirectly, from any use of, or reliance on, the Service or Website even if Clear Books is advised of the possibility of such loss or damage.
15.2. If You suffer loss or damage as a result of Clear Books’ negligence or failure to comply with these Terms that is not excluded by clause 15.1, any claim by You will be limited in respect of any one incident, or series of connected incidents, to the Subscription Fee paid by You in the previous 12 months.
15.3. If any loss is caused by You or by a third party given a right of access to the Website by You, Clear Books shall have no liability for that loss.
15.4. If You are not satisfied with the Service, Your sole and exclusive remedy is to terminate these Terms.
16.1 Clear Books aims to (i) respond to all software support queries within 2 hours of them being raised between Monday and Friday 9am - 5pm, and to (ii) respond to all software support queries within 8 hours of them being raised on weekends and bank holidays between 9am and 5pm but does not warrant that this will be the case.
16.2 Support is not intended to deal with any questions relating to accountancy, taxation or company law. Our support agents will only help You learn how to use our Service.
16.3 The support service is intended to provide timely, informal help and as such any reliance placed upon it is at Your risk. Any opinions or statements made by a support agent should be checked with a relevant professional. To the fullest extent permissible by law Clear Books does not accept any responsibility for the opinions or statements expressed by its support agents. Without this limitation of liability we would not be able to provide this service.
16.4 You agree that Clear Books employees will from time to time be required to access Your Data for legitimate business purposes, such as to assist You with a support query or to investigate or resolve an issue raised by You.
16.5 In order to offer comprehensive support for all our customers, Clear Books reserves the right to
require customers whose usage of the support system is excessive to attend a Clear Books training
session charged at the applicable rates at the relevant time. The meaning of ‘excessive’ is to be
determined at Clear Books’ sole discretion, but may include customers who:
(i) utilise more than four hours of support agent time per month;
(ii) raise multiple support tickets with the same query; or
(iii) repeatedly fail to check Clear Books’ online resources where those resources would have
provided an adequate response to the query.
If You refuse to attend such training, Clear Books reserves the right to withdraw support from
You.
16.6 Clear Books reserves the right to withdraw support from You if You send malicious, offensive or illegal support requests. The meaning of the terms “malicious” and “offensive” is to be determined at Clear Books’ sole discretion.
17.1 By paying for a Custom Accelerated Development project you acknowledge that you are paying for the prioritisation of development work only. You will have no rights to the Intellectual Property Rights created or advanced as a result of your payment.
For clarification, all Intellectual Property Rights as outlined in clause 3 will apply to any and all Custom Accelerated Development work.
17.2 Clear Books will make available to customers any feature or functionality created as a result of a Custom Accelerated Development project for a minimum of 12 months after it is first put live to customers. After this time Clear Books reserves the right to disable any feature or functionality or any element of such feature or functionality at its sole discretion.
17.3 After a period of one month from the estimated completion date You agree that no further development work will be expected of Clear Books. Any further development work required after this period would require re-negotiation for which You would be charged.
18.1 Clear Books Limited is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as an account information service provider under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSRs) (registration number 843585).
18.2 The account information services will make up part of the Services and any references to Data throughout the agreement will be deemed to include references to 'consolidated information' and 'transaction information' (as defined in sub clause 18.10 below).
18.3 As an account information service provider, Clear Books can, with Your express permission, receive or access Your bank transaction information from Your payment account with a payment service provider in order to flow those transactions into Your Clear Books account for clear and simple reconciliation. This is called a bank feed, and we use a third party provider, Plaid, to provide these bank feeds from your payment service provider to Clear Books. If your bank or credit union connects to Clear Books directly, you may use those feeds instead of Plaid.
18.4 If You wish to set up a bank feed You will need to explicitly consent to Clear Books receiving or accessing Your transaction information and, if applicable, accessing Your payment account using the prescribed authorisation/authentication method prescribed. In some situations, You may be required to periodically re-authorise us to access Your payment account on Your behalf.
18.5 Once we have retrieved your transaction information, we will import it into Your Clear Books account and only use it to provide the Services to You in the normal way. The same applies to any consolidated information we create out of that transaction information.
18.6 You can stop using account information services at any time by turning off the bank feed within Clear Books. You may still use the Services without the account information services.
18.7 Any transaction information imported into Your Clear Books account will be a reflection of the transaction information held with Your payment service provider (e.g., the information held in your online banking transactions). Clear Books is not responsible for any inaccuracy or incompleteness of this information.
18.8 For the purposes of these additional terms relating to the account information services, our maximum aggregate liability to You arising out of or in connection with the unauthorised disclosure of Your sensitive payment data, where sensitive payment data is used to commit fraud, shall be limited to two times the fees paid by You to us in the preceding 12 months. Otherwise, the liability limitations in the Agreement will apply to the account information services in the normal way as part of the Services.
18.9 As a technology company, we prefer to communicate with you online. If we are required to communicate with You under the PSRs, we will:
a. Communicate general messages with a notification on the Website; and
b. Communicate messages specific to You, including in the event of actual or suspected fraud, to the email address provided by You during the registration process.
18.10 Definitions:
“Consolidated information” means a form of information created using Your transaction information, as part of the account information service.
“Payment account” means an account that is used for the execution of payment transactions, such as a current account.
“Payment service provider” means an entity which provides payment services as set out in the PSRs (e.g., a bank).
“Sensitive payment data” means Your information that could be reasonably used to carry out fraud, including Your personalised security credentials (but excluding, in relation to Your payment account(s), the name of the account holder and the account number).
“Transaction information” means the information We access from Your payment account(s) concerning Your payment transactions.
19.1 Neither party is liable for delay in meeting its obligations due to any cause outside its reasonable control including acts of god, riot, war, malicious acts of damage, fires, electricity supply failure, Government authority.
20.1 Should any provision of these Terms be held to be void, invalid, unenforceable or illegal by a court, the validity and enforceability of the other provisions shall not be affected thereby. If any provision is determined to be unenforceable, You agree to a modification of such provision to provide for enforcement of the provision’s intent, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
21.1 Any failure or delay by Clear Books to enforce any of the Terms or to exercise any right under the Terms will not be construed as a waiver to any extent of its rights.
22.1 Clear Books may assign its rights and obligations under these Terms and upon such assignment Clear Books shall be relieved of any further obligation under these Terms. You may not assign or transfer any rights or obligations to any other person without Clear Books’ prior written consent.
23.1 These Terms and the Privacy Policy supersede and extinguish all prior agreements, representations (whether oral or written), and understandings and constitute the entire agreement between You and Clear Books.
24.1 Neither party will be liable for any delay or failure in performance of its obligations under these Terms if the delay or failure is due to any cause outside its reasonable control. This clause does not apply to any obligation to pay money.
25.1 Unless the relevant party has the prior written consent of the other or unless required to do so by law each party will preserve the confidentiality of all confidential information of the other obtained in connection with these Terms. Neither party will, without prior consent of the other, disclose or make any confidential information available to any person, or use the same for its own benefit, other than as contemplated by these Terms. Each party’s obligations under this clause will survive termination of these Terms.
25.2. The provisions of clause 25.1 shall not apply to any information which:
a. is or becomes public knowledge other than by a breach of this clause;
b. is received from a third party who lawfully acquired it and who is under no obligation restricting its disclosure;
c. is in the possession of the receiving party without restriction in relation to disclosure before the date of receipt from the disclosing party;
d. is independently developed without access to the Confidential Information; or
e. is required to be disclosed by court order or as a result of a regulatory requirement.
26.1 A person who is not a party to these Terms has no right to benefit under or to enforce any term of these Terms.
27.1 Any notice given under these Terms by either party to the other must be by email and will be deemed to have been given on transmission. Notices to Clear Books must be sent to support@clearbooks.co.uk or to any other email address notified by email to You by Clear Books. Notices to You will be sent to the email address which You provided when setting up Your access to the Service.
28.1 Your use of the Website and Services and any terms governing such use of the Website and Services are subject to the laws of England and Wales and you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
