Terms of Service

1.Who we are

iBAS — the Integrated Basic Administration System — is a school management service run by the operator of iBAS, based in Ghana (“we”, “us”). These terms are an agreement between us and the school that subscribes (“the school”, “you”). The person who signs the school up confirms they are authorised to accept them on the school’s behalf.

2.The service

iBAS lets a school manage students, staff, classes, attendance, scores and report cards, fees and payments, and communication with parents by SMS, email and in-app messages. Which parts a school can use depends on its plan, and some parts can be switched on or off for a school by us.

3.Accounts

• The school decides who gets an account — administrators, teachers, secretaries, finance staff, parents and students — and is responsible for what those accounts do.
• Keep passwords private. Tell us straight away if you think an account has been misused.
• Parents and students see only their own children’s or their own records.

4.Plans, billing and renewal

• Current plans and prices are on our pricing page. The amount you pay is always shown at checkout before you pay.
• Plans are billed monthly or yearly, in advance. A payment processing fee is added at checkout and shown before you confirm.
• A plan renews at the end of each period. If you saved a card for automatic renewal, it is charged then; otherwise you renew from your admin portal.
• Each plan has a student limit. A school that goes over it will be asked to move to a larger plan.
• We may change prices. A change never applies to a period you have already paid for, and we tell you before it applies to your next one.
• The Free plan is limited in students and features, and may be changed or withdrawn with notice.

5.SMS messages

Messages to parents — results, attendance alerts, fee reminders and announcements — use one SMS credit each. Sign-in codes and password messages are always free.

Plans where you buy your own SMS

On Free, Starter and Standard, the school buys its own SMS credits from the Buy SMS page. Each of these plans includes a one-off starting allowance when the school joins:

• Free — 200 free SMS on joining
• Starter — 500 free SMS on joining
• Standard — 1,000 free SMS on joining

Premium: SMS provided

• Premium includes 3,000 SMS every calendar month, provided by us.
• The monthly allowance refills on the 1st of each month. Unused SMS do not carry over to the next month.
• The allowance is used before any credits you have bought.
• Once the allowance is used up, you can buy more at the normal rate, or wait for it to refill.
• Premium also includes 2,000 extra SMS on joining, which count as purchased credits.

Credits you buy

• Purchased credits do not expire while the school has an active account.
• They are not refundable and cannot be exchanged for cash, except where the law requires.
• When a school has no credits left, messages that need one are not sent, and the school is told why.

Using SMS responsibly

SMS is for school business with parents and staff. We may pause SMS for a school that sends messages unrelated to the school, messages to people who have not given their number to the school, or volumes that look like spam. Messages are sent under our registered sender name and delivery depends on the mobile networks, which we do not control.

6.Online fee payments

A school can collect fees online through its own Paystack account. That money goes straight to the school; we never hold it. Disputes about fee payments are between the school and the parent, although we will help with records where we can.

7.Your data

• The school owns its data. We process it only to provide iBAS to the school, on the school’s instructions.
• We handle personal data, including children’s, in line with the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) of Ghana.
• We do not sell school data or use it for advertising.
• The school is responsible for having a lawful reason to hold the information it puts into iBAS, and for telling parents how it is used.
• You can ask us for a copy of your school’s data at any time.

8.When a plan ends or a payment is missed

• If a renewal is not paid, the school keeps full access for 10 days.
• After that the portal is locked until the plan is renewed. Nothing is deleted when it locks; renewing restores access immediately.
• You can cancel at any time. Cancelling stops the next renewal; it does not refund a period already paid for.
• After an account has been closed, we keep the school’s data for a reasonable period so it can be restored or exported, and then delete it, unless the law requires us to keep it longer.

9.Things you agree not to do

• Use iBAS for anything unlawful, or to harass anyone.
• Try to reach another school’s data or break the security of the service.
• Resell iBAS or let another organisation use your school’s account.

We may suspend an account that does, after telling the school why, unless it is urgent.

10.Availability

We work to keep iBAS available at all times and back it up regularly, but we cannot promise it will never be interrupted. We try to schedule maintenance outside school hours and to give notice when we can.

11.Liability

We provide iBAS with reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for losses that arise from information a school enters incorrectly, from networks or services outside our control, or from accounts the school has not kept secure. So far as the law allows, our total liability to a school is limited to what that school paid us in the twelve months before the claim.

12.Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. When a change matters, we will tell schools before it takes effect. Continuing to use iBAS after that means the school accepts the updated terms.

13.Law and contact

These terms are governed by the laws of Ghana. Questions about them, or requests about your school’s data, can be sent through our contact page.