CostAware Platform Terms

These are the terms that apply when your organisation subscribes to, and your people use, the CostAware platform (the "Platform"). They are written in plain English on purpose. If anything here is unclear, ask us before you rely on it. The separate Website Terms of Service cover the public website; these Platform Terms cover the software you log in to.

"We", "us" and "CostAware" mean CostAware Pty Ltd. "You" and "your organisation" mean the business that holds the subscription. "User" means any person your organisation allows to log in.

1. Your subscription

• We provide your organisation with its own installation of the Platform, at your own address, holding only your data. No other organisation can see it.
• Your subscription has a tier (Core, Professional or AI), a number of licensed sites, and, on the AI tier, a monthly allowance of Margo credits. These are shown in your System Settings and on your invoices.
• Fees are as agreed in your accepted quote or order, invoiced monthly or annually in advance, exclusive of GST. Implementation and training is a one-off fee as quoted.
• You may add sites or change tier at any time; the change takes effect from the next invoice.

2. Accounts, people and automation

This section matters more than it looks. CostAware holds your pricing methodology, and the controls that protect it depend on every action being taken by an identified person.

• Accounts are personal. Each user gets their own login and must keep it to themselves. Sharing a login, or using someone else's, is not allowed. Every change in the Platform is recorded against the user who made it, and that record only means something if logins are not shared.
• Two-step verification is required for administrators and strongly recommended for everyone. We may make it mandatory for all users on notice.
• No agents on human logins. You must not allow any automated tool — a script, a browser-automation tool, a robotic process automation product, or an AI agent or assistant that operates the screen — to log in or act in the Platform using a human user's login or two-step code, whether or not the person is present. This applies even if the user has given their permission.
• Automation is welcome through the right door. If your organisation wants to automate work in the Platform, we will issue a service account or API access for the purpose. A service account has its own key, its own narrower permissions, and its own entry in the change log, so automated work stays visible and controllable. Ask us and we will set it up.
• If we see automation on a human login we may end the session, require the user to reset their password and two-step verification, and in repeated or serious cases suspend the account. We will tell you when we do.
• Your administrators are responsible for creating and removing users promptly — in particular, removing access the day a person leaves.

3. Your data

• Your data is yours. We do not sell it, and we do not use it to price anyone else's contracts.
• Your data is stored in Australia on Australian cloud infrastructure, backed up nightly, with the ability to restore to a point in time. Our sub-processor list and residency statement is available on request.
• We access your installation only to support you, to keep it running, or when you ask us to — and we record when we do.
• Documents you upload (tenders, spreadsheets, agreements) are stored in your own file storage, encrypted, and are only readable by your users.
• Margo, the Platform's AI assistant, reads your documents and data to help you. Margo never changes anything without a user clicking to accept, and never acts on a live contract. Content inside documents is treated as data to be read, never as instructions to be followed.

4. Industry benchmarking

What we do. CostAware builds industry benchmarks — typical productivity and cost ranges for warehouse activities — so that every customer prices with better information than any one operator could assemble alone.

What leaves your database. Only derived statistics: averages, ranges and percentiles, computed inside your own CostAware database. We never take your data rows, your customers' names, your charged rates, your revenue or your actual volumes. Nothing in the benchmark pool identifies you or a customer of yours, and nothing in it can be worked back into your pricing.

When a benchmark shows. A benchmark figure is only displayed when at least five organisations (and around eight sites) stand behind it, and no single organisation dominates it — a figure that would be too thin, or too traceable to one contributor, is widened or not shown at all. Benchmarks are always presented as ranges and percentiles, never as any one organisation's number.

Your choice. Participation is on by default, and it works both ways: organisations that contribute receive the benchmark-powered features. You can opt out at any time — in System Settings, or by writing to us. Opting out stops any further contribution from your data and also switches off benchmark-powered features for your organisation. You can opt back in the same way, at any time.

5. What you can expect from us

• We aim for the Platform to be available at all times outside announced maintenance, and we monitor it continuously. We will tell you about planned maintenance in advance.
• We release improvements regularly. Changes that alter how a figure is calculated are described in the release notes, and a release never recalculates your signed contracts — a signed baseline stays as it was signed.
• If we become aware of a security incident affecting your data we will notify your nominated contact within 24 hours of confirming it.
• Support is by email to the address below during Australian business hours.

6. What we expect from you

• Use the Platform for your own business, lawfully, and in line with these terms.
• Do not copy, reverse engineer, extract or scrape the Platform, its calculation methods or its reference data, or let anyone else do so.
• Do not try to access another organisation's installation, or any part of ours you have not been given access to.
• The Platform calculates from what you enter, and the result is only as good as the inputs and the judgement applied to them. Quotes and contracts you issue to your own customers are yours.

7. If you stop paying, or want to leave

• If an invoice is more than 30 days overdue we will contact you. If it stays unpaid we may set your installation to read-only — you can still view and export, but not change anything — until it is settled. We will tell you before we do this.
• You can cancel at any time by giving us notice. Annual pre-paid fees are not refunded for the unused period unless we agree otherwise.
• After cancellation your installation stays read-only for 90 days so you can export everything you need. After that we delete it, including backups, and confirm in writing.
• Founding-customer pricing and any negotiated discount apply for the period agreed in your quote and end on cancellation.

8. Liability

The Platform is a modelling tool. You remain responsible for the commercial decisions you make with it and for the quotes and contracts you give your customers. To the maximum extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, data or business opportunity, arising from the Platform. Where liability cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law, our total liability for all claims in any 12-month period is limited to the subscription fees you paid us in that period. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot be excluded.

9. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. We will give you at least 30 days' notice by email before a change takes effect, except where a change is needed to comply with the law. If you continue to use the Platform after the change takes effect, the new terms apply. The current version is always at costaware.com.au/platform-terms.

10. Governing law and contact

These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia, and the courts of New South Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, consistent with our Website Terms of Service.

Questions about these terms: info@costaware.com.au.