Terms of Service

1. About these terms

Who we are. QubieCare is a business name of a sole trader based in Townsville QLD, Australia (ABN 71 899 787 840). In these terms “we”, “us” and “our” mean the person trading as QubieCare.

Who you are. These terms are an agreement between us and the organisation that signs up for QubieCare — usually the approved provider of your education and care services. The person who accepts these terms for the organisation promises that they have authority to do so.

Your users. You can invite people to use QubieCare for you — for example your nominated supervisors, educational leaders, educators and external assessors. Each of them is shown these terms when they create their account and must follow sections 4 and 9. You are responsible for what your users do in your account, except to the extent we cause a problem.

How you accept. You accept these terms when a person with authority ticks the box to accept them when registering or when subscribing, or signs an Order Form. We keep a record of who accepted, when, and which version. When someone joins by accepting an invitation, we also record when they agreed to these terms and which version.

Order Forms. If we agree special terms with you in a signed Order Form — for example a held price — the Order Form forms part of this agreement. If it and these terms disagree, the Order Form applies on that point.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information. Our promises to you about your data are in sections 10 to 12 of these terms.

2. What QubieCare is, and isn’t

QubieCare is a self-assessment, quality-improvement and compliance tool that helps approved providers organise their work against the National Quality Standard and keep the records the National Law and Regulations expect — including quality improvement plans, educator compliance, complaints, incidents, room ratios and attendance, and children’s enrolment records.

A tool, not advice. QubieCare is not legal, regulatory or professional advice, and it does not make decisions for you. Your duties under the Education and Care Services National Law and Regulations stay with you. They cannot be handed over to us.

No guaranteed outcome. Using QubieCare does not guarantee any assessment and rating result, compliance outcome or regulatory decision. A rating or score you record in QubieCare is your own self-assessment. It is not a rating given by ACECQA or a regulatory authority.

We are independent. QubieCare is not part of, and is not endorsed or approved by, ACECQA, any state or territory regulatory authority, or the Australian Government.

Keeping content current. We work to keep the regulatory content in QubieCare accurate and up to date. Laws, standards and guidance do change, though. Check the current law and your regulatory authority’s guidance before you rely on it, and please tell us if something looks out of date.

3. Children, safety & your legal duties

QubieCare helps you record and track your work. It does not supervise children, and it does not replace your own judgement, policies, procedures or legal duties.

• Ratios and supervision. The ratio and room tools work from the information your team enters — attendance, sign-in and sign-out times, rosters and qualifications. If that information is late, missing or wrong, the result will be too. Adequate supervision and the educator-to-child ratios the law requires remain your responsibility at all times.
• Notifications and reports. Incident, complaint and notification tools, reminders and countdown clocks are prompts only. QubieCare does not send any notification or report to a regulatory authority, the police, a child protection agency, a reportable conduct scheme or a family for you, unless a feature clearly says that it does. You must make every notification the law requires, within the time the law requires, whether or not QubieCare reminds you. That includes notifications under section 174 of the Education and Care Services National Law and under mandatory reporting laws.
• Children’s health information. Allergy, medical and medication information in QubieCare is only as current as your team’s last update. Always follow your service’s policies and each child’s current medical management plan.
• If QubieCare is unavailable. Make sure your team can still get to the information it needs to keep children safe if QubieCare cannot be reached — for example emergency contacts, medical plans and attendance.
• Images of children. Only take, upload, use and keep images or videos of children in line with your service’s policies, the authorisations families have given, and the devices your policies allow.

4. Your account & users

• Give us accurate information and keep it up to date, including your organisation’s legal name, ABN and billing contact.
• Each person needs their own log-in — please don’t share one, and sign out when you finish on a shared device. Organisation administrators must use two-step sign-in.
• Keep log-ins secure, and remove a person’s access promptly when they leave or no longer need it.
• You decide who can see what through each person’s role. Check the roles match what each person should see — especially children’s health information, complaints and incident records.
• Tell us straight away if you think someone has got into your account without permission. We will help you secure it.
• Before we act on a request about your account — restoring access, changing an administrator or cancelling — we may need to check the identity and authority of the person asking.

5. Plans, fees & GST

Starting. You can start by subscribing, or by asking us for a pilot. We review pilot requests ourselves before we switch a workspace on, and a pilot runs for a set period at no charge. When a pilot ends, your workspace becomes read-only until you subscribe — you can still sign in, view and download your records. Nothing is deleted when a pilot or a subscription ends; section 12 says what happens if a workspace stays read-only for 12 months.

Price. You pay for each approved service you manage in QubieCare. Our current prices are on our pricing page, and the price that applies to you is the one shown when you subscribe, or in your Order Form.

GST. Prices are in Australian dollars and do not include GST. We add GST at the rate in force (currently 10%) and give you an invoice for every payment.

Billed in advance. We charge in advance: monthly plans each month, annual plans each year, starting on the day your subscription starts. You pay by card through our payment provider, Stripe, which handles your card details under its own terms. We never see or store your full card number. Please keep your payment details up to date.

Automatic renewal. Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each month or year, and we charge your payment method for the next period, until you cancel. There is no minimum term and no notice period to cancel.

Adding or removing services. If you add a service, we will tell you what it will cost before we charge you. If you remove one, the change applies from your next renewal.

Discounts. If we give you a discount — for example our not-for-profit discount — it applies for the period we tell you in writing. If we don’t state a period, it applies for as long as you stay eligible. We may ask for evidence of eligibility once a year, and we won’t end a discount without telling you at least 30 days before your next renewal.

6. Renewal reminders & price changes

Renewal reminder. For annual plans, we will email your billing contact at least 30 days before each renewal, with the renewal date, the price and how to cancel.

When prices can change. We may change our prices. For an existing subscription, a new price applies only from your next renewal date that is at least 30 days after we tell you in writing, never during a month or year you have already paid for, and no more than once in any 12 months.

Your choice. If you don’t want to continue at the new price, cancel before it applies. You won’t pay it, and there is no fee for cancelling.

Tax. If the GST rate changes, or a new tax applies to our services, the tax part of your price changes from the date the law says.

Held prices. If your Order Form gives you a held price, we won’t increase it while your subscription continues as the Order Form describes.

7. Cancelling & refunds

You can cancel at any time. One request is enough. We will not ask why, and we will not put you through a retention process.

How to cancel. An administrator can cancel online in Settings › Billing › Manage billing. If we invoice you instead of charging your card, email enquiries@qubiecare.com.au and we will cancel it and confirm by email.

Monthly plans. Cancelling stops the next payment. You keep full access until the end of the month you have paid for. We do not refund part-months unless the law requires it (section 16).

Annual plans. If you cancel within 30 days of the start of your first annual plan, we refund everything you paid for that year. After that — including after a renewal — we refund the unused whole months of your subscription year. A “whole month” is a month of your subscription year that has not started on the day you cancel (Sydney time): if you cancel 45 days into your year, the first two months count as used and we refund 10/12 of what you paid for the year. Anything you paid part-way through the year, for example for an added service, is refunded the same way, for the whole months it paid for that had not started. We never refund more than you paid.

How annual refunds are made. If you pay by card, we refund you automatically when you cancel — you do not need to ask — and your plan ends as soon as the refund has been made, normally straight away. In the final month of your subscription year every month has started, so there is nothing to refund: cancelling then does not end your plan early, and it runs to the end of the year you have paid for. Either way, when your plan ends your workspace becomes read-only (section 12). If we invoice you instead, ask for the refund in the email you send to cancel: we refund you by hand, and your plan ends on the day we do.

How we pay refunds. We refund to the card or account you paid with. A refund usually reaches you within 10 business days of when we make it.

Switching plans. Monthly to annual: you pay the annual price from the day you switch, less a credit for the unused part of your current month. Annual to monthly: the unused part of your year becomes a credit on your account, which pays your monthly invoices until it runs out — or you can ask us to refund the unused whole months instead, by emailing enquiries@qubiecare.com.au.

Nothing in this section limits any refund or other remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law.

8. Late or failed payments

• If a card payment fails, we will email you and our payment provider will try again over about two weeks. Your access carries on as normal while it does. Please update your payment details under Settings › Billing › Update payment method.
• If we still cannot collect the payment, your subscription ends and your workspace becomes read-only. You can still view, print and download everything, but you cannot add or change records. Nothing is deleted. Subscribe again to restore full access straight away.
• If we invoice you and an invoice is still unpaid 14 days after its due date, we will remind you. If it is still unpaid 7 days after that reminder, we may make your workspace read-only until it is paid.
• We do not charge late fees or interest.

9. Acceptable use

Use QubieCare only for your services’ own education and care work, and lawfully. Do not:

• upload child sexual abuse or exploitation material, or anything else that is illegal to possess or share, or anything you have no right to share;
• upload images or videos of children except as section 3 describes;
• record information about children, families or staff that you do not need for running your services or meeting your legal duties, or that you are not allowed to hold;
• use QubieCare to watch or record people in a way that breaches surveillance, privacy, workplace or discrimination laws;
• share log-ins, or let anyone outside your organisation use your account — apart from people you invite through QubieCare’s own features, such as external assessors;
• try to get into another organisation’s data, get around access controls, or test our security without our written permission;
• overload or disrupt QubieCare, use automated tools to copy it or its content in bulk, or upload malicious code;
• copy, resell or reverse-engineer QubieCare, or use it to build a competing product, except as the law allows.

What we can do. If we reasonably believe something breaches this section, we can remove or block access to it and suspend the users involved (section 18). We will tell you what we did and why, unless the law or the police stop us. If we find material we reasonably believe is child abuse material, we will preserve it as the law requires and report it to the police or the eSafety Commissioner.

10. Your data

Your data is yours. “Your data” means everything you and your users put into QubieCare, including uploaded files. You keep ownership of it. You give us permission to host, copy, process, back up, display and send it as needed to run the service for you, and for nothing else — to provide QubieCare to you, keep it secure, support you, fix problems, and comply with the law.

Whose decisions. For the records your organisation keeps in QubieCare — children’s enrolment and attendance records, educator records, complaints, incidents, self-assessments — your organisation decides what is recorded and why. We hold them for you and handle them only to provide the service, as our Privacy Policy describes.

Your responsibilities. You are responsible for handling that information lawfully. That includes having the authority or consent you need to add educators’ details, to record complaint, incident or child-related information, and to upload photos, video or documents that show or name a child — including any consent you need from parents or guardians — and for meeting your own duties under the Privacy Act, the National Law and the Regulations (such as the confidentiality and record-keeping rules for children’s records). You are also responsible for telling the people whose information you add that QubieCare stores it for you.

What we won’t do. We don’t sell your data, use it for advertising, or give it to anyone except the providers who help us run QubieCare (section 11) and where the law requires.

Looking at your records. We look at the content of your records only when you ask us to (for support), when it is needed to keep QubieCare secure or working, or when the law requires it. When we open your organisation, one of your services or one of your people in our operator console, that is written to your organisation’s activity trail.

11. How we protect your data

Security. We protect your data with security measures suited to how sensitive it is, including children’s health information: encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access controls, two-step sign-in for administrators, and an activity trail of important changes and sensitive actions.

Where your data is kept. Your records and files are stored in Australia. Some providers we use work from overseas — for example to deliver email or process payments. Our Privacy Policy lists them and says what they receive. We will tell you at least 30 days before we start storing your records outside Australia. If you object, you can cancel and we will refund the unused whole months of what you have prepaid.

Our providers. We use other companies to run QubieCare — hosting, file storage, email delivery and payments. The Privacy Policy names them and says where they operate. Subject to section 17, we remain responsible to you for how they handle your information on our behalf. We are not responsible for services you choose to use alongside QubieCare, such as your own email, devices or internet connection.

Requests from others. If a court, regulator or the police ask us for your data, we will refer them to you where we can, and tell you about the request unless the law stops us.

If something goes wrong. If we become aware of unauthorised access to, or loss of, your data, we will tell your administrators without undue delay — within 72 hours of becoming aware. We will tell you what we know and keep you updated, help you assess whether it is an eligible data breach under the Privacy Act, and help with any notifications you need to make.

Requests from individuals. If someone asks us to access, correct or delete information in your records, we will, with their agreement, pass the request to you and help you respond. If you no longer use QubieCare or cannot be reached, we will deal with the request ourselves.

12. Leaving QubieCare: your records

When your subscription ends, your workspace becomes read-only. Your records stay yours. At any time, including after you have left, your Approved Provider Admin can download a copy of your organisation’s records from Settings › Your data & privacy — services, staff and their qualifications, self-assessments and element assessments, your Quality Improvement Plan, complaints and incidents, children’s enrolment records with their sign-in and sign-out times, attendance summaries and staff shifts, and the files attached to your self-assessment evidence, complaints and children’s records. If you need a record we hold for you that the download does not yet include — for example educators’ individual sign-in and sign-out records, incident photos and documents, service documents, rooms, and screening-change and regulator records — or if the download is too large to produce in one go, ask us and we will provide it. We do this because the Education and Care Services National Regulations place record-keeping duties on you that continue after you stop using QubieCare.

We keep your data for 1 year after you leave. By “leave” we mean that you have told us you are going, that we have ended this agreement (section 18), or that your workspace has stayed read-only for 12 months and we have treated you as having left, as the next paragraph explains. During that period nothing is destroyed, the download above still works, and if you come back everything is where you left it. We will email your administrators at least 30 days before we destroy your records. After that period we destroy them in line with our Privacy Policy and retention schedule — except where a law requires us to keep something for longer, which we will tell you about if it applies. You can ask us to destroy your data sooner and we will, subject to those same legal limits.

If your workspace stays read-only. When a pilot or a subscription ends, your workspace becomes read-only and nothing is deleted. If it is still read-only 12 months later, we will email your administrators to say that, on a date at least 30 days after that email, we will treat you as having left. If you subscribe before that date, we will not. So from the day your workspace becomes read-only, it is about two years and a month before your records can be destroyed: 12 months read-only, at least 30 days’ notice, then the year after you leave.

13. Availability, support & changes to QubieCare

Availability. We work to keep QubieCare available and reliable, but we do not promise that it will never be interrupted or free of errors. We do not offer a service-level guarantee or service credits. It may occasionally be unavailable for maintenance or for reasons beyond our control; we will give notice of planned maintenance where we can.

Support. We provide support by email at enquiries@qubiecare.com.au and reply as soon as we reasonably can.

Changes to QubieCare. We keep improving QubieCare, so features change. If we make a change that takes away something you rely on and you cancel because of it, we will refund the unused whole months of what you have prepaid. We update QubieCare for changes to the National Quality Framework, but you should not rely on an update arriving by any particular date.

Early-access features. Some features may be marked “beta”, “preview” or “pilot”. They may change or be withdrawn, and may not always work as expected. Do not rely on one alone where a mistake could cause harm — keep using your usual process as well. Your data in an early-access feature gets the same protection as the rest of QubieCare.

14. Intellectual property & other people’s material

We, or our licensors, own QubieCare and everything in it except your data. While you subscribe, you and your users may use QubieCare for your services’ own work. You cannot transfer that right. If you send us ideas or feedback, we can use them freely, without paying or crediting you. We won’t use your name or logo publicly — for example as a customer reference — without your written permission.

Other people’s material. QubieCare refers to the National Quality Standard, the Education and Care Services National Law and Regulations and other government material. The names and descriptions of the National Quality Standard’s quality areas, standards and elements are taken from Schedule 1 of the Education and Care Services National Regulations, as published on the Queensland Legislation website (© State of Queensland, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence). The National Principles for Child Safe Organisations are © Australian Human Rights Commission 2018, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (some wording is abridged). Our Sources page gives the full credits. The official texts are the published legislation and frameworks; apart from that Schedule 1 wording, what QubieCare shows is a summary prepared for its users, and any of it may be abridged or out of date. We do not use government logos or marks.

15. Confidentiality

Each of us will keep the other’s confidential information confidential. We will use it only for this agreement, and share it only with people who need it for that purpose and who are bound to keep it confidential. This does not apply to information that is public (other than through a breach), that we already had, or that we must disclose by law. Your data is always your confidential information.

16. Consumer guarantees

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any guarantee, right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot lawfully be excluded. Where we are permitted to limit our liability, our liability for a failure to comply with a consumer guarantee is limited to re-supplying the service or paying the cost of re-supply.

17. Liability

To the extent permitted by law, and subject to section 16, neither of us is liable to the other for loss of profit, revenue, business opportunity or goodwill, or for indirect or consequential loss. Each of us is liable for a loss only to the extent that we caused or contributed to it — so our liability is reduced to the extent you, your users or your providers caused or contributed to the loss.

You remain responsible for your regulatory compliance. We are not liable for fines or penalties imposed on you, or for your not meeting a legal duty that is yours, except to the extent we caused it by breaching these terms.

None of this limits your obligation to pay fees, liability for fraud or deliberate wrongdoing, or anything else the law says cannot be limited.

18. Suspension & ending access

When we can suspend. We can suspend some or all access only if a payment is overdue as section 8 describes; if we reasonably believe there is a security threat, unlawful use or a serious breach of section 9, and suspension is needed to protect QubieCare, other customers, children or anyone else; or if the law, a court or a regulator requires it. We will tell you why and give you a chance to fix things first, unless the matter is urgent. We will limit any suspension to what is needed and lift it as soon as the reason is resolved. While you are suspended you can still download your records, unless the law stops us allowing that.

When we can end this agreement. If you seriously breach these terms and do not fix the breach within 30 days after we tell you — or straight away if it cannot be fixed, for example child abuse material. Or if we decide to stop offering QubieCare, with at least 90 days’ notice. We will refund the unused whole months of anything you have prepaid for the period after the end date, and section 12 applies.

When you can end it. At any time, under section 7. You can also end it straight away if we seriously breach these terms and do not fix the breach within 30 days after you tell us. We will then refund the unused whole months.

19. Events outside anyone’s control

Neither of us is responsible for a delay or failure caused by events outside our reasonable control — for example natural disasters, pandemics, major internet or power outages, or a failure at a major cloud provider that is not caused by us. The affected party must tell the other promptly and do what it reasonably can to limit the effect. If the event lasts more than 30 days, either of us can end this agreement and we will refund the unused whole months. That does not excuse a payment that is due for a service already supplied.

20. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change could disadvantage you in a material way, we will email your administrators at least 30 days before it takes effect, explaining what is changing. If you do not agree, you can cancel before it takes effect and we will refund the unused whole months of any prepaid period. Changes that do not disadvantage you — or that are needed to comply with the law or to keep QubieCare secure — can take effect sooner, and we will still tell you. Price changes are covered by section 6, not this section. If you keep using QubieCare after a change takes effect, the updated terms apply.

21. Transferring this agreement

We may transfer this agreement to a company or other entity that takes over the QubieCare business — for example when we set up a company to run it, or if we sell the business. We will tell you at least 30 days before. The new entity must take on these terms, including your price and any held price. If you do not want to continue with it, you can cancel before the transfer and we will refund the unused whole months. You agree that the transfer can happen this way, without anything more for you to sign. If the new entity takes payments through a different account, you may need to enter your card details again.

You may transfer this agreement to someone who takes over your services, with our agreement, which we will not unreasonably refuse. If a service approval passes to another approved provider, we can move that service’s records to the new provider’s account on written instructions from both of you.

22. Disputes

If you have a problem with us, please tell us first at enquiries@qubiecare.com.au — most things can be fixed quickly. If we cannot resolve a dispute within 20 business days, either of us may refer it to mediation, and the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (asbfeo.gov.au) can suggest a low-cost service. We will share the mediator’s fees equally. This does not stop either of us going to court for urgent relief, or stop you contacting a regulator such as the ACCC or your state fair trading agency.

23. Governing law

The laws of Queensland, Australia govern this agreement. Either of us may bring proceedings in the courts of Queensland, or in any other Australian court or tribunal that has jurisdiction.

24. Notices & contact

We will send notices to your administrators’ and billing contact’s email addresses. You can send notices to enquiries@qubiecare.com.au. An email notice is received when it reaches the recipient’s email server, unless the sender gets a message that it was not delivered. For anything about personal information, see the Privacy Policy and Privacy & data requests.

25. General

• These terms, together with any Order Form, are the whole agreement about QubieCare. This does not affect any right you have under the Australian Consumer Law, including about anything we told you before you signed up.
• If part of these terms is invalid or unenforceable, it is removed and the rest continues.
• If either of us does not enforce a right straight away, that does not mean we have given it up.
• Neither of us is the other’s agent, partner or employee.
• Sections 10 to 12, 14 to 17, 22 and 23, and anything else that by its nature should, continue after this agreement ends.
• This agreement and any Order Form can be accepted and signed electronically.