1. About these Terms
These Terms of Service (Terms) form a binding agreement between you and Beeswax STP Pty Ltd (ABN to be issued) (Beeswax STP, we, us, our) governing your use of the Beeswax STP single touch payroll service (the Service), available at beeswax-stp.au and via our application programming interface (the API).
If you are using the Service on behalf of an organisation, you confirm that you have authority to bind that organisation, and references to you include both you personally and that organisation.
2. Acceptance of these Terms
By creating an account, accessing the Service, or using the API, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you must not use the Service.
These Terms may be updated from time to time as set out in clause 19.
3. The Service
Beeswax STP is a software-as-a-service platform that helps Australian businesses and their advisors prepare and lodge Single Touch Payroll (STP) reports with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) under Australia's STP Phase 2 (PAYEVNT.0004) reporting regime. The Service includes:
- Employer and employee record management;
- Pay event creation, validation, and review;
- Generation, signing, and lodgement of PAYEVNT.0004 messages with the ATO via accredited gateways;
- Year-to-date tracking and end-of-financial-year (EOFY) finalisation;
- API access for integrators and payroll software providers; and
- Audit logs, reports, and other administrative features.
The Service is intended for Australian taxpayers reporting under Australian payroll and tax law. It is not designed for non-Australian payroll regimes.
4. Eligibility
You may use the Service only if you:
- are at least 18 years of age;
- are legally capable of entering into a binding contract;
- have a current Australian Business Number (ABN) for any employer you register; and
- are not prohibited from using the Service under any applicable law.
5. Your account and credentials
You must provide accurate, current, and complete information when creating your account, and keep that information up to date.
You are responsible for:
- maintaining the confidentiality of your password and any API tokens we issue;
- enabling and maintaining multi-factor authentication (MFA), which is mandatory for all accounts under the ATO Operational Security Framework;
- all activity that occurs under your account, whether or not authorised by you; and
- notifying us immediately at the contact details in clause 21 if you suspect any unauthorised access.
6. Your responsibilities for data and accuracy
You acknowledge and agree that:
- you are solely responsible for the accuracy, completeness, and lawfulness of all data you upload to or enter into the Service, including employee details, tax file numbers (TFNs), pay amounts, withholding, superannuation, and allowances;
- you remain the legally responsible reporting party for STP submissions made through the Service to the ATO — the Service is a tool that helps you meet your obligations, not a substitute for them;
- you must obtain employees' consent or provide notice as required by law before uploading their personal information (including TFNs) into the Service; and
- you must keep your own copies of source records as required by Australian record-keeping rules under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth) and the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).
7. ATO submissions
When you submit a pay event, finalisation, or update event through the Service, you authorise us to lodge the corresponding PAYEVNT message with the ATO on your behalf using the credentials and software identifier (Software ID) registered to you.
You acknowledge that:
- the ATO may accept, reject, or place into review any submission, in its sole discretion;
- we cannot guarantee any particular response time from the ATO;
- any errors, rejections, penalties, or interest charges arising from incorrect data you submitted are your responsibility; and
- you remain responsible for meeting all statutory deadlines, including the EOFY finalisation deadline of 14 July (or any later date allowed by the ATO for closely held payees).
8. Fees and payment
Pricing for the Service is published on our website. During any free or early-access period, no fees apply, but we may introduce fees with at least 30 days' written notice.
If you subscribe to a paid plan:
- fees are payable in advance on a monthly or annual basis as selected;
- all fees are in Australian dollars and inclusive of GST unless stated otherwise;
- we may suspend access if fees are more than 14 days overdue, after first giving you notice and a reasonable opportunity to pay; and
- refunds are not provided for partial billing periods, except where required by the Australian Consumer Law (see clause 15).
9. Acceptable use
You must not, and must not allow any third party to:
- use the Service in breach of any law (including Australian tax, privacy, anti-money laundering, or workplace relations laws);
- upload, lodge, or transmit any data you know or reasonably ought to know is false or misleading;
- attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the Service, its underlying infrastructure, or another customer's data;
- reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source code of the Service except to the extent permitted by law;
- use the Service to send spam, malware, or unsolicited communications;
- use the Service to test, probe, or scan for vulnerabilities without our prior written consent; or
- resell, sublicence, or commercially exploit access to the Service except under a written reseller arrangement with us.
10. Intellectual property
All intellectual property rights in the Service, the API, our website, and our documentation (including software, design, content, and trademarks) are owned by Beeswax STP or our licensors. We grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Service in accordance with these Terms for the duration of your subscription.
You retain all intellectual property rights in the data you upload to the Service. By uploading data, you grant us a limited licence to host, process, and transmit that data solely as needed to provide the Service to you (including lodging it with the ATO at your direction).
11. Your data
We treat your data — and the personal information of your employees that you upload — as confidential. We will not sell, rent, or use your data for any purpose other than providing the Service to you and meeting our legal obligations.
Specific commitments:
- Hosting: all customer data is stored in the AWS Sydney region (ap-southeast-2) and does not leave Australia in the ordinary course of providing the Service.
- Encryption: data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2 or higher) and at rest (database-level encryption plus application-level encryption for tax file numbers).
- Retention: we retain your data for the duration of your subscription and for the periods required by Australian tax and audit law (audit logs are retained for at least 12 months under the ATO Operational Security Framework).
- Deletion: on closure of your account, you may request export and deletion of your data, subject to our legal record-keeping obligations.
See our Privacy Policy for full details on how we handle personal information.
12. Privacy
We collect, hold, use, and disclose personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles, and the Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule 2015. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information and what your rights are.
13. Service availability
We aim to make the Service available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted availability. The Service may be unavailable due to:
- scheduled maintenance, for which we will give reasonable advance notice where practicable;
- emergency maintenance to address security or stability issues;
- unavailability or planned maintenance of the ATO STP gateways or related services;
- third-party service outages (for example, AWS); or
- events beyond our reasonable control (force majeure).
14. Third-party services
The Service relies on third-party providers, including the Australian Taxation Office, accredited STP gateway providers, Amazon Web Services (Sydney region), and email delivery providers. We are not responsible for the availability, content, or practices of these third parties beyond what we contract them to do, but we will use reasonable efforts to select reputable providers and to act on your behalf when issues arise.
15. Warranties and the Australian Consumer Law
To the extent permitted by law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied.
Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts, or modifies any guarantee, right, or remedy you may have under the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)) or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded. Where the Australian Consumer Law applies, our liability for failure to comply with a consumer guarantee is limited (at our option) to:
- resupplying the Service; or
- paying the cost of having the Service resupplied.
16. Limitation of liability
Subject to clause 15 and to the extent permitted by law:
- neither party is liable to the other for any indirect, consequential, special, incidental, exemplary, or punitive loss or damage, including loss of profits, loss of revenue, loss of business opportunity, loss of goodwill, or loss of data;
- our total aggregate liability to you arising out of or in connection with the Service or these Terms in any 12 month period is limited to the total fees paid by you to us for the Service in that period (or, if no fees have been paid, AUD $100); and
- each party's liability is reduced to the extent that the loss was caused or contributed to by the other party.
17. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify us against any losses, costs (including reasonable legal costs), damages, or claims suffered or incurred by us arising from:
- your breach of these Terms;
- your unlawful or negligent use of the Service;
- any inaccurate, incomplete, or unlawful data you upload to the Service; or
- any third-party claim that data you uploaded infringes their rights.
18. Termination
You may close your account at any time from your account settings or by contacting us.
We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service if:
- you materially breach these Terms and (if capable of remedy) do not remedy the breach within 14 days of written notice;
- you fail to pay fees when due;
- we are required to do so by law or by the ATO;
- we reasonably believe your use of the Service poses a security risk to us or other customers; or
- you become insolvent or bankrupt.
On termination, you will be given a reasonable opportunity (at least 30 days) to export your data. After that period, we may delete your data subject to our legal retention obligations.
19. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time to reflect changes to the Service, our business, the law, or our practices. We will give you at least 30 days' notice of material changes by email or through the Service. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of the updated Terms constitutes your acceptance of them.
20. Governing law and jurisdiction
These Terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. You and we submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales and the courts competent to hear appeals from those courts.
Before commencing any legal proceedings, the parties agree to attempt in good faith to resolve any dispute through direct negotiation and, if that fails, through mediation administered by an accredited mediator in Sydney.
21. Contact us
Questions about these Terms should be directed to:
Beeswax STP Pty Ltd
Email: legal@beeswax-stp.au
Postal address: to be advised