Business support team NZ
General Terms & Conditions
Definitions
“GPA” shall mean The Good P.A Limited trading as Varntige. “You” shall mean any person or entity purchasing services from the Company and/or any person acting on behalf of and with the authority of the Customer. “Services” shall mean the services provided by the GPA.
1. Contract
These are the general terms and conditions (“General Terms”) and govern the Services we will provide to you. You will also be provided with additional terms and conditions specific to the Services you engage us to provide to you, including Proposal Service Terms. You agree by sighting this document and proceeding to engage us to provide the Services that you are bound by the General Terms. Noting that any provisions in the Specific Terms in a Proposal, where inconsistent with the General Terms, prevail over the Specific Terms.
2. Our Services
GPA will provide the Services as required. GPA will use all reasonable commercial efforts to provide the Services in an efficient and timely manner and maintain the appropriate professional standard, using reasonable care, skill and expertise. GPA will always work within New Zealand law.
3. Hours of Work
Our office hours are Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.00pm. GPA are not open on weekends and public holidays. We close over the Christmas period for up to three weeks. GPA are occasionally out of the office for lunches, team meetings or other events. If this will be for a prolonged period, you will be notified by email. If you require any work to be completed on any days that we are closed, this will need to be discussed with us prior. We charge as standard 1.5 times our standard hourly rates, outlined in point 7. For work completed outside of our office hours.
4. Communication
During our performance of the Services GPA may wish to send messages and documents electronically. You acknowledge that electronic communication carries with it the possibility of inadvertent misdirection, interception or non-delivery of confidential material.
If you do not consent to the use of electronic communication in the course of providing the Services, you should notify us in writing. GPA do not accept responsibility and will not be liable for any damage or loss caused in connection with the interception or corruption of an electronic communication or if it contains a virus. GPA will not be liable for any damage or loss arising as a result of any unauthorised copying, recording, reading or interference with that document, for any delay or non-delivery of any document and for any damage caused to your system or any files by that message or document.
GPA produces electronic newsletters. GPA may add you to our database so that you will receive newsletters and invitations to seminars that GPA consider will be useful to you. However, please let us know if you do not want to receive any such correspondence.
5. Confidentiality
All of our discussions, meetings and material (written and electronic) are confidential, and GPA agree to keep this information confidential. GPA will not give this information to anyone outside of our organisation without your express consent. All computers and laptops are locked when not attended and a password is required when logging in. All passwords are kept secure in password protection software.
6. Proposal Documents
Any Proposal documents, quotation or indication of pricing are only valid until their expiry date, or where no date is specified, are valid for 60 days following the provision of the indicative price. Our Proposal documents are confidential and are provided only for the intended recipient and must not be published, shared, or distributed without our consent.
7. Pricing
Our prices are in New Zealand dollars and are exclusive of GST unless otherwise stated. The Services GPA provide may be based on set prices for specific packages and/or Services. The set prices are clearly displayed in the Proposal provided at the time of purchase.
Where no price is stated in writing the Services will be charged to you on a time basis. Time is billed in minute increments per hour at the following rates:
Tier | Ad Hoc | Package | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
Intermediate Bookkeeping | $110 + gst | $99 + gst | Day-to-day processing |
Advanced Bookkeeping | $140 + gst | $129 + gst | Cashflow management |
Software Training | $199 + gst | $179 + gst | All software set-up, research & training |
Business Consulting | $250 + gst | Scoped from $250 + gst/hr | Advice on running your business |
Clients already on an active package are charged their package rate for ad hoc or project work in addition to their existing package. Clients not on packages are charged the applicable ad hoc rate.
No matter what package or Service you are using, you will be charged for a minimum of 1 hour per month in each month you use our Services.
Travel Charges
When work requires travel away from our Te Awamutu office, the following charges apply:
Mileage is charged at $1.70 per km, calculated from our Te Awamutu office to the destination and return.
Travel time is billed from the time we depart our Te Awamutu office until we return, excluding any non-work-related breaks, charged at the hourly rate applicable to the service being provided. This applies to overnight stays too.
For any overnight stays, the accommodation cost, rental cars and a fixed overnight allowance of $100 + GST per night will also be charged.
GPA often on-charge consumables such as printing and postage, and anything else we require to complete the services required. GPA will endeavour to inform you of these charges ahead of time, however these will be on-charged at the price GPA pay for them plus a potential mark-up.
8. Payment
If it has been agreed that you will not pay for the Services at the time of engagement, all invoices will be sent to you at the end of each month and are due 7 days from the date of the invoice (“the Due Date”).
If the invoice remains unpaid 30 days from the Due Date the outstanding balance will incur 2.5% interest added per month from the Due Date until the total invoice amount is paid. If the debt remains unpaid for longer than 60 days GPA reserves the right to place your outstanding debt in debt collection.
Any expenses, disbursements and legal costs incurred by GPA in the enforcement of any of its rights shall be paid by You including all solicitor’s fees on a solicitor-client indemnity basis, and/or debt collection agency fees.
9. Termination
GPA shall without any liability and without prejudice to any other right it has in law or equity have the right by notice to suspend or cancel the contract in whole or in part if you fail to pay any money owing after the Due Date or breach any of your obligations to us.
Any cancellation or suspension of this contract shall not affect our claim for money due at the time of cancellation or suspension or for damages for any breach of any terms of this contract or your obligations to GPA under this contract. These Terms and the Specific Terms shall apply to all Services provided by GPA to you and shall take precedence over any terms (either written or oral) which may be offered or conveyed to you.
If you wish to cancel the Service that GPA are providing you, we require one months written notice of your intention to cancel. In the event you cancel your Service, you will still be required to pay the invoice for the month in which you cancelled, and the cost of all services provided by us to you up to the effective date of cancellation.
10. Liability
In providing the Services in accordance with these terms and conditions, GPA shall take reasonable skill and care. GPA rely on the accuracy of the information provided by you in completing the Service.
Where you obtain our services for business purposes, the warranties implied under the Consumer Gurantees Act 1993 are excluded and do not apply. All warranties implied under the Fair Trading Act 1986, where permitted by law, are expressly excluded.
Except as otherwise provided by law GPA shall not be liable for:
a. Any loss or damage of any kind whatsoever including consequential loss whether suffered or incurred by You or any other person and whether in contract or tort (including negligence) or otherwise and irrespective of whether such loss or damage arises directly or indirectly from Work provided by GPA to You; and
b. You shall indemnify GPA against all claims and loss of any kind whatsoever however caused or arising and without limiting the generality of the foregoing whether caused or arising as a result of the negligence of GPA or otherwise brought by any person in connection with any matter, act, emission or error by GPA its agents or employees in connection with the Services.
11. Disputes
In the event of a dispute arising out of the contract between GPA and You, either party may give written notice (“the Notice”) no later than 14 days following the event/s giving rise to the dispute, to the other party specifying the nature of the dispute or disagreement, the remedy sought and requiring that the dispute be settled in accordance with this clause.
Each party shall appoint a representative who has authority to determine the dispute and advise the name of that representative to the other party in writing. If a party does not advise the name of their representative within fourteen days of the date of the Notice, either party may refer the dispute to mediation or file proceedings in Court.
The representatives shall act in good faith to see if they can resolve the dispute. All discussions, meetings and correspondence between the two representatives shall be deemed without prejudice and without concession of liability and shall not be used by either party in any later proceedings unless both parties agree, or agreement is reached but one party fails to honour the agreement.
If the two representatives cannot reach agreement within 45 days of the date of the Notice, either party may refer the dispute to mediation or file proceedings in Court or the Disputes Tribunal.
12. Defects
Any dispute as to the quality of the Services delivered must be notified to GPA in writing within seven (7) days of the date of provision of the Service. We shall, at our own cost, where able, rectify any issues caused by GPA which are notified within that timeframe.
13. Privacy Act 2020
GPA may collect Personal Information about you, your representatives, your clients and others when we provide Services to you. If we do, you agree to work with us to ensure that we both meet the obligations that we each may have under the Privacy Act 2020 NZ (as amended). The obligations may include notifying the relevant person to whom the personal information relates who we are and how we propose to use their personal information. Where you have collected personal information, you confirm that you have collected the personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act, that you are entitled to provide this personal information to us and that we may use and disclose the personal information for the purpose/s we provide our Services to you. We will handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act.
14. Intellectual Property
You acknowledge that you will not acquire any right, title or interest in GPA’s intellectual property (including any intellectual property in the Services), and neither these terms nor your use of GPA’s intellectual property transfers any title or ownership in any of the same to you.
15. AI Technology and AI assisted tools
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools and technology to assist in providing the Services. We will ensure that any such technology is used responsibly and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, to ensure that your personal information and data is protected. We will ensure that where your date is stored off site, we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that it will be protected to a standard consistent with New Zealand privacy requirements. A current list of AI tools and technology used by us is available to you on request.
16. Subcontracting
In order to be able to provide the best possible and timely services to you, we shall be entitled to at any time, to subcontract some of our services to separate or independent contractors.
17. Health and Safety
Where we are required to perform any of the Services at your premises, you are required to ensure that such premises comply with all requirements under the Health and Safety Work Act 2015, and that our staff are provided with safe and clear access to such premises and to any equipment required to be used as part of performing the Services.
18. Systems and Licenses
To enable us to be able to provide the Services to you, we may require that you hold suitable computer hardware, internet connection and software programs or licenses, and have suitable systems and virus protection to prevent the introduction or conveyance of any virus, spyware or any other harmful element into your, or our systems. Where you are unable to comply with any such requirements, then we shall be entitled to immediately terminate any contract with you, and where we have suffered financial loss or cost as a result of breach by you, we shall be entitled to recover the full amount of such financial loss or cost.
19. Client Due Diligence
In order for GPA to comply with the requirements of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act), GPA may be obliged to obtain certain personal information from you. This information includes your full name, your date of birth, your place of birth, and your address, and evidence to verify this information.
The information GPA may require from you to complete customer due diligence in accordance with the AML/CFT Act will differ depending on the nature of your entity (for example, individuals, companies, and trusts are subject to different requirements) and the level of assessed risk, which determines if standard, simplified, or enhanced due diligence is required. Information required may include (without limitation) passports, address verification by way of recent utility bill, bank statement, or government agency letter, Certificates of Incorporation or Registration, Trust Deed or Partnership Agreement, proof of authority of instructing person, and proof of source of funds.
20. Updates to Terms & Conditions
GPA reserves the right to update these General Terms at any time as necessary. Any updates will be communicated to you via email. The updated General Terms will come into effect on the date of the email. By continuing to use our services after the updated Terms & Conditions have come into effect, you agree to be bound by the revised Terms. If you do not agree with the updated Terms, you must notify us in writing within 7 days of receiving the update notification. We will then discuss your concerns and work together to find a resolution. If an agreement cannot be reached, our services will be terminated at the end of the following month as this will allow for the 30 days’ notice required to end services. The most current version of our General Terms will always be available on our website. We encourage you to review the Terms periodically to stay informed about any changes.
21. Miscellaneous
GPA shall not be liable for delay or failure to perform its obligations if the cause of the delay or failure is beyond its control. Failure by GPA to enforce any of the terms and conditions contained in this contract shall not be deemed to be a waiver of any of the rights or obligations of GPA under this contract.
If any provision of this contract is found to be invalid, void or illegal or unenforceable, the validity existence legality and enforceability of the remaining provisions shall not be affected prejudiced or impaired.
This contract shall be governed in accordance with the applicable laws of New Zealand.
Your New Zealand Virtual Assistant firm
Our mission: to help business owners be happier and less stressed while running their growing businesses. Every single service we offer, from bookkeeping and administration to graphic and website design, has been designed to serve this mission.
