This policy explains how FicMe subscriptions are billed and renewed, how you cancel, what happens to your data afterwards, and the limited circumstances in which we refund a payment. It forms part of our Terms of Service.

1. Free to start

Creating a FicMe account is free and stays free. You only pay when you upgrade to a paid plan, add extra entity slots, or add additional linked-client packs. Every paid plan is billed in advance, in South African Rand, for the billing period shown at checkout.

2. Automatic renewal

Paid subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period for a further period of the same length, unless you cancel first. On each renewal we charge the subscription fee to the payment method linked to your account.

If you cancel before the renewal date, the next renewal simply does not happen. Cancelling does not trigger a refund for the period you have already paid for — except in the specific situations described under When we do refund.

3. Cancel at any time

You can cancel a paid plan at any time from the Billing page in your dashboard. Cancelling stops the next charge. Your plan and its features stay active until the end of the billing period you have already paid for, after which the account moves to the free plan.

4. Your data after cancellation

Cancelling a paid subscription does not immediately delete anything. The lifecycle works like this:

1. Cancellation. Your paid features stay active until the end of the paid billing period.
2. Free plan. The account then moves to the free plan. Your documents, entities, members, requests and audit history all remain in your vault, now subject to the free plan's storage, entity and feature limits.
3. If you are over the free-plan limits — for example more entities than the free plan allows — nothing is deleted, but the affected items become read-only or unavailable until you upgrade again or reduce usage below the limits.
4. Eventual deletion. If an account stays inactive on the free plan for an extended period, we may permanently delete its data where the law permits. Any deletion is carried out in line with our Privacy Statement and our legal data-retention obligations (including FICA record-keeping duties), which may require us to keep certain records for a minimum period.

Paying again from the Billing page at any point restores your plan and full access to everything that was retained.

5. No refunds for unused time

Because access is granted immediately for the full billing period, we do not refund the unused portion of a period when you cancel or downgrade. This includes:

• Monthly subscription fees already charged;
• Additional entity or trust slots added to a plan;
• Additional packs of linked clients on an Institution plan; and
• Pro-rated upgrade amounts paid mid-cycle.

Downgrades take effect at the end of the current billing cycle rather than immediately, so you keep the value of what you paid for.

6. When we do refund

We will refund the affected amount where:

• You were charged more than once for the same billing period (a duplicate charge);
• You were charged after validly cancelling your plan;
• You were charged the wrong amount because of a billing or pricing error on our side; or
• A refund is required of us by South African law.

Where only part of a charge was incorrect, we refund the incorrect portion. Approved refunds are returned through our payment provider to the original card or account used for the payment. We cannot refund to a different payment method.

7. Failed payments and outstanding amounts

If a scheduled payment fails, your plan continues during a 48-hour grace period while we retry the charge. You can also retry the payment yourself from the Billing page.

A failed payment does not cancel your subscription or remove your obligation to pay — amounts already due remain payable, and cancelling the subscription does not wipe out amounts already owed to FicMe. If payment remains unsuccessful after the grace period, we may restrict, suspend or downgrade paid functionality: the account moves to the free plan, where the limits described above apply.

Nothing is deleted when this happens. As soon as the outstanding amount is successfully paid from the Billing page, your plan and full access resume immediately where applicable.

8. Who may manage the subscription

Because FicMe supports organisations and institutions with multiple users, only an authorised person on the account — such as the account owner, a billing administrator or a designated subscription administrator — may:

• Cancel or change the subscription;
• Change the billing details or payment method; and
• Add or remove paid subscription components such as entity slots or client packs.

This does not affect ordinary users, who can continue using the application as usual.

9. Price changes

We may change our subscription prices from time to time. If we do:

• The new price applies from your next renewal or billing period — never to a period you have already paid for;
• We give you reasonable advance notice of material price increases; and
• If you do not agree with the new price, you may cancel before it takes effect and your plan simply ends at the close of the current paid period.

10. Chargebacks and payment disputes

If you believe you were charged incorrectly, please contact us first via a support ticket (Billing category) or accounts@ficme.app. We will investigate and process a refund wherever this policy requires one.

Please note that lodging a chargeback with your bank does not by itself create an entitlement to a refund, and we may provide the relevant transaction and subscription information to our payment provider when responding to a disputed transaction. Nothing in this section limits any rights you have under applicable South African law.

11. How to cancel

1. Sign in and open Billing in your dashboard.
2. Choose Cancel plan at period end.
3. Confirm. The Billing page will then show the date on which your plan ends. You can undo the cancellation from the same page at any time before that date.

12. How to request a refund

Refunds are handled by our accounts team and are not automatic. To request one, submit a support ticket using the Billing category from the support page or the Help & manual section of your dashboard, or email accounts@ficme.app.

Please include:

• The invoice number or payment reference;
• The email address on the FicMe account; and
• The reason for the refund request.

We acknowledge refund requests within 2 business days and aim to resolve them within 10 business days. Once approved, your bank may take a further 5 to 10 business days to reflect the refund.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be notified in-app and the "last updated" date above will change. The version in force is the one published when your payment was made.

14. Contact

Billing and refund queries: accounts@ficme.app. General support: submit a support ticket.