Terms
The terms for using Textbook Accounting
Last updated 29 October 2026
These terms are between you, the business that uses Textbook Accounting, and Textbook Accounting. They cover the program, its licence and our support. Using the program, or paying for it, means you accept them. They are written to be read: if anything is unclear, write to support@pencilbooks.co.za and ask.
1. What you get
A licence to install and use Textbook Accounting in your business: the host on one computer in your office, and the app on the computers that connect to it. The licence says how many users and companies you may have and which add-ons are switched on. You do not own the program itself: it stays ours, and you may not copy it for others, resell it, or take it apart to make your own.
2. The free trial
The program runs for 30 days from the first time it starts, with everything switched on, for up to 5 users and 3 companies. No card or sign-up is needed. At the end of the trial it follows section 5, as any licence does when it ends.
3. Plans and prices
- Yearly plan: R 6 900 a year for 5 users and 1 company, with updates and email support. It runs for a year from the day it starts.
- Outright licence: R 19 900 once. It never expires. Support and updates are included for the first year, and after that cost R 1 900 a year if you want them.
- Users are the active user accounts on your host, and come in packs of 5: R 3 300 a year on the yearly plan, or R 9 900 once with an outright licence.
- Add-ons: payroll for up to 25 employees (R 1 490 a year, or R 3 490 once plus R 990 a year for the tax tables) and stock (R 1 200 a year; with an outright licence, ask us).
Prices include VAT where applicable. Prices are the ones on our website on the day you buy. Until the paid launch they are proposed and may change; once you have paid, the price of what you bought does not change for that year.
4. Paying, and refunds
You pay before a licence starts, for the year or once, as the invoice we send says. The free trial is there so that you can decide before you pay, so payments are not refunded, except where the law gives you a right to one (for example a cooling-off right under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act or the Consumer Protection Act). You can stop a yearly plan at any time; it then keeps working until the end of the year you paid for, and is not renewed.
5. When a licence ends
When a trial ends or a yearly plan is not renewed, everything keeps working for 30 more days, with a notice at the top of the screen. After that the program becomes read-only: nothing new can be posted, but you can still open your books, print and export every report, back everything up, and add a licence. Nobody is ever locked out of their own books.
An outright licence does not end. If its support lapses, the version you have keeps working; you just do not get new versions until you renew support.
6. Your books and your data
Your company's books are yours and stay on your own computer. We do not hold them. Because they are in your office, keeping them safe is your job: the host makes a backup every night and before every update, and you choose a second place for it (a USB drive or a shared folder). Check now and then that the backups are happening.
What the program sends us, and what we do with it, is in the privacy notice. Where we help move your books across, we handle that information only for you and on your instructions.
7. Tax figures and returns
Textbook Accounting prepares figures for you: the VAT201, PAYE, UIF and SDL, payslips and the EMP201. It does not file anything with SARS; you or your accountant check the figures and file them on eFiling. The figures are only as right as what was entered, and the tax rules can change. You remain responsible for your returns, so check them before you file. If you find a figure you think the program got wrong, tell us: we look into every one, and fix the program where it is at fault.
8. Using the licence
A licence belongs to one business and runs on one host at a time. To move to a new computer, write to us and we will free the licence so you can activate it there. The host checks its licence with us once a day when it can; if it cannot reach us, it keeps working until the licence's own end date. Please do not share your licence key, or try to get around the licence checks.
9. Support and updates
Support is by email at support@pencilbooks.co.za, and a person answers. While you have support, you get new versions. Payroll's yearly tax tables are part of the payroll add-on: included on the yearly plan, and the tax-table fee with an outright licence. Updates are installed overnight, after a backup; if an update fails, the program puts the old version back by itself.
10. Liability
We build Textbook Accounting carefully and test it, but no program is free of mistakes, and we cannot promise it will never stop or never be wrong. As far as the law allows, we are not responsible for indirect losses (such as lost profit, or penalties for a late or wrong return), and our total responsibility for any claim is limited to what you paid us in the twelve months before it. Nothing here takes away a right you have under the Consumer Protection Act or any other law that cannot be signed away.
11. Changes, and the law
When we change these terms, we change the date at the top and list the main changes at the end of this page. A change applies to a yearly plan from its next renewal, and never takes away what an outright licence already gives you. These terms are governed by South African law.
Questions about these terms: support@pencilbooks.co.za. Beta companies also have the beta terms.