Shap terms of use

Version 2026-11-09, effective 9 November 2026.

These terms apply to Shap and Shap Pocket (together, “Shap”), made available free of charge by OpenWorks IT (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2024/733128/07), Gqeberha (“OpenWorks”, “we”, “us”). “You” means the person who installs or uses Shap, and the business on whose behalf they use it.

Shap shows the key points of these terms at the end of setup, and again whenever these terms change. By accepting them in the app, or by using Shap, you agree to these terms. Each copy of Shap records, in its own books and audit log, which version was accepted and when. If you do not agree, do not use Shap.

The clauses printed in bold limit OpenWorks’ responsibility and place responsibilities on you. Please read them carefully.

1. What Shap is

1.1 Shap is software for capturing and keeping business records: quotes, invoices, credit notes, costs, payroll, and the related books and reports. It is free, open-source software licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 (with an app store exception for Shap Pocket). Nothing in these terms limits the rights that licence gives you in the source code.

1.2 Shap runs on equipment you control: Shap Pocket on your phone, tablet or computer, and Shap on a computer or server you or someone on your behalf runs. OpenWorks does not host your books.

2. Not accounting, tax or legal advice

2.1 OpenWorks is not an accountant, auditor, registered tax practitioner or legal adviser, and does not provide accounting, tax, payroll or legal advice through Shap. Shap is a tool for capturing and collating your records for you and for your accountant or tax practitioner.

2.2 The tax, VAT, payroll, provisional tax, dividends tax, turnover tax and other figures, reports, estimates, reminders, due dates and guides in Shap are aids only. They are based on information you capture and on published rules as OpenWorks understood them at the time of each version. They may be incomplete, out of date or wrong for your circumstances. You must check them, or have them checked by a suitably qualified person, before you file, pay or rely on them.

2.3 Any review of Shap’s accounting by an independent accountant is a review of how the software works in general. It is not an audit, review or opinion on your books.

3. Your responsibilities

You are responsible for:

3.1 the accuracy and completeness of everything you capture in Shap, and for the records it produces from that information;

3.2 your registrations with, and your returns, declarations and payments to, the South African Revenue Service, the Department of Employment and Labour, the Unemployment Insurance Fund, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission and any other authority (including, where they apply to you, VAT, PAYE, UIF, SDL, provisional tax, income tax, turnover tax and dividends tax), and for meeting their deadlines;

3.3 issuing tax invoices, credit notes and other documents that meet the requirements of the Value-Added Tax Act and other laws, and checking each document before you send it;

3.4 keeping your records for the periods the law requires (generally at least five years under the Tax Administration Act), including before deleting anything from Shap;

3.5 making and keeping backups of your books, regularly and somewhere other than the device or server on which Shap runs, and testing that they can be restored;

3.6 installing updates to Shap, which requires an internet connection. Updates carry security fixes and changes to tax tables, VAT, payroll and accounting rules. A copy that is not kept up to date may work out figures on rules that no longer apply;

3.7 the security of the devices and servers on which Shap runs, and of your passwords and backups; and

3.8 complying with the law in your use of Shap, including the Protection of Personal Information Act in respect of the personal information of your clients, employees and others that you capture.

4. Your data

4.1 Your books belong to you. OpenWorks does not hold, see, back up or restore your books, and cannot recover them if they are lost, deleted, corrupted or locked away from you, including through loss, theft or failure of a device, clearing a browser’s storage, or failure of a server.

4.2 The only information that reaches OpenWorks is described in the privacy policy: feedback you choose to send, an anonymous usage note if you agree to it, and anonymous price totals unless you switch them off.

5. No warranty

5.1 Shap is provided free of charge, “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent the law allows, OpenWorks gives no warranty of any kind, express or implied, including any warranty that Shap is accurate, complete, error-free, secure, uninterrupted, fit for a particular purpose, or that it complies with any law or the requirements of any authority.

6. Limitation of liability

6.1 To the fullest extent the law allows, OpenWorks, its directors, employees and contributors are not liable to you or anyone else for any loss, damage, cost or expense of any kind arising from or connected with Shap or these terms, whether in contract, delict or otherwise, including:

• (a) tax, penalties, interest, fines or administrative penalties imposed by any authority;
• (b) loss or corruption of data or records;
• (c) loss of profit, income, business, goodwill or opportunity; and
• (d) indirect, consequential or special loss.

6.2 Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that South African law does not allow to be excluded or limited, including liability for gross negligence or fraud, or any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act that cannot be waived.

7. Updates, changes and the end of support

7.1 OpenWorks may change Shap, and stop developing or supporting it, at any time.

7.2 If OpenWorks decides to stop supporting Shap, it will give notice in the app, through the public notice file in Shap’s source repository that every copy reads when it has an internet connection, with the date support ends, and will aim to give at least six months’ notice. After that date Shap keeps working on your equipment, but there will be no further updates from OpenWorks, including tax table updates. The source code remains published so that anyone may continue it. The plan is set out in SUNSET.md.

7.3 OpenWorks may change these terms. The current version is always published at this address. When a change requires your agreement, Shap asks you to accept the new version before you carry on.

8. General

8.1 These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa, and the courts of South Africa have jurisdiction.

8.2 If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest remains in force, and the unenforceable part applies to the fullest extent the law allows.

8.3 These terms, together with the privacy policy, the disclaimer and the software licence, are the whole agreement between you and OpenWorks about Shap.

8.4 Notices to OpenWorks about these terms go to info@openworks.co.za.