Terms of Use

1. Who these terms apply to

Anyone using Bakely — the waitlist, the website, or the dashboard.

These terms apply to anyone who accesses or uses Bakely, including visiting the website, joining the waitlist, or creating an account. Bakely is provided by the Bakely team, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

2. What Bakely is (and isn't)

A bakery management tool — not accounting software, not a payment processor.

Bakely helps you organise your orders, recipes, stock, customer records, reminders, quotations, and invoices. It is not an accounting system, a tax advisor, a legal advisor, or a payment processor. During early access, Bakely is provided free of charge. Features and limits may change as the product develops — we will always give you reasonable notice.

3. Your account

Your account is your responsibility — keep your password safe and your details accurate.

• You must provide accurate and truthful information when registering
• You are responsible for keeping your login credentials secure
• You must be 18 years of age or older to create an account
• One person, one account — accounts may not be transferred
• You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account
• If you believe your account has been compromised, contact hello@bakely.co.za immediately

4. What you can do with Bakely

Use Bakely to manage your own legitimate baking business.

You may use Bakely to manage your own bakery orders, recipes, stock, and customer relationships; generate quotations and invoices for your customers; store and organise your business data; and export your data at any time.

5. What you cannot do

Don't use Bakely for anything unlawful, harmful, or that involves accessing other bakers' data.

You may not:

• Use Bakely for any unlawful purpose under South African law
• Attempt to access, view, or modify another baker's account or data
• Attempt to reverse-engineer, hack, or disrupt the Bakely service
• Use Bakely to spam, harass, or send unsolicited communications to your customers
• Resell, sublicense, or provide third-party access to Bakely
• Use automated tools, bots, or scripts to scrape data from Bakely
• Upload malicious code or content designed to harm the service

6. Your data

Your data belongs to you. We store it securely on your behalf.

All business data you create in Bakely — orders, recipes, stock, customer records, invoices — belongs to you. You grant Bakely a limited licence to store and process your data solely to provide the service. You can export or delete your data at any time. On account deletion, your data is retained for 30 days then permanently deleted. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

7. Your responsibilities for your customers' data under POPIA

When you store your customers' details in Bakely, you are legally responsible for their data — not Bakely.

This section is important. When you use Bakely to store your customers' personal information (names, email addresses, phone numbers), you are the responsible party under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA). Bakely is an operator — it processes this data only on your behalf and on your instruction.

Your obligations as the responsible party:

• Obtain lawful basis. Before storing a customer's personal information in Bakely, you must have a lawful basis to do so under POPIA. For most bakers, this is the legitimate interest of managing an order placed with you by that customer.
• Inform your customers. You must let your customers know their contact details are stored in a third-party system (Bakely) and used to manage their orders and send reminders. A brief verbal confirmation or a note in your order confirmation is sufficient.
• Respond to your customers' POPIA requests. If a customer asks you to delete or correct their information, you are responsible for doing so. Bakely allows you to edit or delete customer records at any time.
• Do not store excessive data. Only store what you actually need to manage the customer's order.

By using Bakely, you confirm that you will:

• Comply with your obligations as a responsible party under POPIA
• Obtain lawful basis before storing your customers' personal information
• Inform your customers that their contact details are stored in Bakely for order management purposes
• Accept full liability for any claims, fines, or penalties arising from your failure to comply with POPIA in respect of your customers' personal data

Bakely's commitment as an operator:

• Bakely will process your customers' data only on your instruction and only to deliver the Bakely service
• Bakely will never contact your customers directly except to send the reminders you have configured
• Bakely will never sell or use your customers' data for advertising or any other purpose
• Bakely will delete all customer data when your account is deleted

8. Free early access

Bakely is free now. Paid plans are coming. Early bakers are protected.

Bakely is currently free during early access with no credit card required. We reserve the right to introduce paid plans in the future. We will give all registered bakers a minimum of 60 days' notice before any free tier limits change. Early bakers will be offered the most favourable terms when paid plans launch.

9. Service availability

We aim for 24/7 uptime — but this is a beta product and we cannot guarantee it.

We aim to keep Bakely available at all times but cannot guarantee it. We may take Bakely offline for maintenance and will try to give advance notice. Bakely is not liable for loss of business or income caused by downtime. Back up important data regularly using the built-in export function — Bakely is not a backup service.

10. Intellectual property

Bakely owns Bakely. You own everything you create.

The Bakely name, logo, design, and software are the intellectual property of the Bakely team. Your data — orders, recipes, photos, customer records, invoices — remains your intellectual property. You grant Bakely a limited licence to store and display your data to provide the service — no broader use is permitted.

11. Termination

You can leave whenever you want. We can remove accounts that violate these terms.

You can close your account at any time using the in-app option or by emailing hello@bakely.co.za. On closure, your data is retained for 30 days then permanently deleted. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms, with or without notice depending on the severity of the violation.

12. Limitation of liability

Bakely is a free beta. We cannot be liable for business losses.

Bakely is provided "as is" during the free early access period. To the maximum extent permitted by South African law, Bakely is not liable for any indirect, consequential, or special damages arising from your use of the service. Bakely is not liable for loss of business, revenue, or data from the service being unavailable. Our total liability to you will not exceed the total amount you have paid Bakely in the 12 months prior to any claim — which during the free beta is zero (R0). Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

13. Governing law

South African law. Gauteng courts.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, Johannesburg.

14. Changes to these terms

We will give you 14 days' notice before anything important changes.

For material changes, we will notify all registered bakers by email at least 14 days before changes take effect and update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of Bakely after the effective date means you accept the updated terms.

15. Contact

Real humans, real answers.

Email: hello@bakely.co.za
Address: Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa