Terms of Service

1. About us

Mona Collects (ABN 78 366 840 023) provides software as a service that helps businesses collect their overdue invoices: escalating reminder letters sent on the customer's behalf, payment detection, reporting and related features (the Service), available at monacollects.com.au (the Platform). Questions about these terms are welcome at support@monacollects.com.au.

2. Accepting these terms

By creating an account, subscribing, connecting an accounting system, uploading data or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these terms on behalf of yourself and the business you represent. If you accept on behalf of a company or other entity, you confirm you have authority to bind that entity.

You may not use the Service if you lack that authority, are not of legal age to form a binding contract, or are prohibited from receiving services like ours under applicable law.

We may update these terms from time to time. We will make reasonable efforts to notify you of material changes, and continued use of the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated terms. If you do not accept a change, you may cancel at any time as set out below.

3. What the Service is, and is not

The Service sends payment reminders and formal letters, including letters of demand, in your business's name, on the schedule you configure. It also detects payments from the data you provide or connect, and reports activity to you.

The Service is a software tool. We are not a debt collection agency, law firm, accountant or credit reporting body, and nothing in the Service is legal, financial, tax or professional advice. Whether and when to send any letter, and what steps to take when a debtor does not pay, are always your decisions.

The Service is built to give every invoice its best chance of being paid. Some debtors, though, cannot or will not pay no matter who asks, so we cannot guarantee that any particular debtor will pay or that any particular letter or sequence will succeed.

4. Your account

You agree that the information you give us, including your business details shown on letters, is accurate, current and kept up to date. You are responsible for keeping your login credentials secure and for all activity under your account. Access is for your business's internal use; logins must not be shared outside the people authorised to act for your business.

5. Fees and billing

Paid plans are billed monthly in advance at the price shown at checkout, in Australian dollars, through our payment provider Stripe. New subscriptions begin with the free trial period stated at signup; your card is charged when the trial ends unless you cancel first.

We may change plan pricing with at least 30 days' notice. Founding-rate subscriptions keep their rate for as long as the subscription remains continuously active, as described at signup.

If a payment fails, we will retry and notify you. If payment remains outstanding, we may suspend the Service until the account is brought up to date.

6. Cancelling, and refunds

There is no minimum term and no lock-in contract. You may cancel at any time, and cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, with access continuing until then. Fees already paid are not refunded for partial or unused periods, except where the law requires otherwise.

7. Your responsibilities

Because letters are sent in your business's name, you are responsible for what they claim. You warrant that the debts in the data you upload or connect are genuine, owed to your business, and stated accurately, and that you have the right to pursue them and to provide the related debtor information to us for that purpose.

You agree to use the Service lawfully, including in line with applicable debt collection conduct requirements such as the ACCC and ASIC debt collection guideline. You must not use the Service to harass, to pursue debts you know are false or disputed without disclosure, or for debts regulated in ways the Service does not support.

You must not resell, copy, reverse engineer, scrape or interfere with the Service, introduce malicious code, or use the Service to build a competing product.

8. Letters sent on your behalf

Every account starts in preview mode, in which letters are redirected to you rather than your customers. Moving your account to live sending is your instruction to send letters to your debtors in your name on the configured schedule. You are responsible for reviewing the letter content, your business details and your payment details before going live and when they change.

9. Accounting connections

Where you connect an accounting system such as Xero, you authorise us to read the data needed to run the Service, such as unpaid invoices and contact details. Connections are read-only: the Service does not modify your accounting records. You may disconnect at any time from your settings or from the accounting platform.

10. Text message (SMS) sending

Where SMS sending is available on your plan or as an add-on and you enable it, this clause applies in addition to the rest of these terms. SMS messages are sent in your business's name on your configured schedule as a companion to email letters, and enabling SMS is your instruction to send them, on the same basis as clause 8.

You warrant that the debtor phone numbers you provide were collected lawfully, relate to business or account contacts for the debts concerned, and may lawfully be used for payment and account communications. You must not use SMS to contact any number you know to be wrong, disconnected or unconnected with the debt.

You are responsible for using SMS in accordance with applicable law, including the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) and applicable debt collection conduct guidance, including as to contact frequency and contact hours. The Service provides sending controls to assist with this; their configuration and use remain your responsibility.

SMS messages are carried by third-party telecommunications providers and billed per message or in bundles as described at purchase. Delivery to any particular handset cannot be guaranteed.

11. Escalations and Ask for help

When a debtor ignores a Letter of Demand, the Service presents escalation options. Choosing to refer a matter to a collection agency, lodge a payment default, commence proceedings or take any other recovery step is always your decision, made by you and any providers you engage.

If you use the Ask for help feature, you instruct us to review the relevant case and, where appropriate, introduce you to a third-party provider such as a licensed collection agency or a law practice, and you consent to us sharing with that provider the information reasonably needed for that purpose, including the debtor's details, the relevant invoices and the communication history.

Any engagement with an introduced provider is a contract directly between you and that provider, on that provider's terms and fees. We are not a debt collection agency or a law practice, we do not supervise introduced providers, and to the maximum extent permitted by law, and subject to clause 15, we are not liable for their acts, omissions or services.

We may pay or receive a referral fee or commission in connection with an introduction, and we will tell you when an arrangement of that kind applies to an introduction we make to you.

12. Your data

Your data remains yours. We host it in Australia, isolate it from other customers' data, and use it to provide and improve the Service, as described in our Privacy Policy. We will not sell your data or your debtors' data.

We will only use your name, logo or feedback in our marketing with your permission.

On written request within 30 days of cancellation, we will provide an export of your key data in a common format.

13. Our intellectual property

The Platform, the Service and all related material, including software, design, text and artwork, are owned by or licensed to us. While you hold an active subscription we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Service for your business's internal purposes. No other rights are granted.

14. Availability

We aim to keep the Service available and reliable, but it is provided on an as-is and as-available basis and depends in part on third-party providers. We may perform maintenance, during which the Service may be briefly unavailable. We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability.

15. Liability

Nothing in these terms excludes rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law or other laws that cannot be excluded. Where the law allows liability for breach of a non-excludable guarantee to be limited, our liability is limited to resupplying the Service or paying the cost of resupply.

Subject to the above, and to the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability arising out of or in connection with the Service is limited to the fees you paid us in the three months before the event giving rise to the claim, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including loss of profit, revenue, goodwill or data.

You remain responsible for the decisions you make using the Service, including decisions about pursuing, escalating or writing off any debt.

16. Indemnity

You indemnify us against claims, losses and expenses arising from inaccurate or misleading information you provide, from letters sent at your instruction containing information you supplied, or from your breach of these terms or applicable law. This clause survives termination.

17. Suspension and termination by us

We may suspend or terminate your access if you materially breach these terms, fail to pay, use the Service unlawfully or in a way that risks harm to debtors, other customers or our reputation, or if we are required to by law. Where reasonable we will give you notice and a chance to fix the problem first. Clauses which by their nature should survive termination, including those dealing with liability, indemnity and data, survive it.

18. Resolving disputes

If a problem arises, contact support@monacollects.com.au first and we will genuinely try to sort it out. Both parties agree to attempt good-faith resolution for 21 days before starting court proceedings, except where urgent relief is needed.

19. General

These terms are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia, and the parties submit to the jurisdiction of its courts. If part of these terms is unenforceable, the rest still stands. A failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of it. We may assign our rights and obligations as part of a business sale or restructure; you may not assign yours without our written consent.

We may give you notices by email to your account address. You may give us notice at support@monacollects.com.au.