This Service Level Agreement ("SLA") describes the performance standards and support commitments that Zimela Stocktake System provides to its subscribers. This SLA forms part of your agreement with us and should be read together with our Terms of Service.
1. Scope & Applicability
This SLA applies to all paid subscription tiers of the Zimela Stocktake System Platform. Free-tier and demo accounts are provided on a best-effort basis and are not covered by this SLA.
The commitments outlined here apply to the production environment only. Staging, sandbox, and development environments are excluded.
2. Uptime & Availability
We target the following monthly uptime percentages per subscription tier:
Plan
Monthly Uptime Target
Max Allowable Downtime / Month
Basic (Paid)
99.5%
~3 hours 39 minutes
Pro
99.7%
~1 hour 19 minutes
Business
99.9%
~43 minutes
Enterprise
99.95%
~22 minutes
Uptime is calculated as: ((Total minutes − Downtime minutes) / Total minutes) × 100
Downtime is defined as the Platform being completely inaccessible or returning errors on all requests for more than five consecutive minutes. Partial degradation of non-critical features does not count as downtime.
3. Support Services
Support channels vary by plan:
Basic — Community & Email Support
Access to the online knowledge base and community forum. Email support with best-effort response.
Pro — Email Support (Business Hours)
Email support Monday–Friday, 08:00–17:00 SAST (excluding South African public holidays).
Business — Priority Email & Chat
Priority email and in-app chat support during extended business hours (07:00–20:00 SAST, Monday–Saturday).
Enterprise — Dedicated Support Manager
Dedicated account manager, 24/7 critical-issue support, on-site assistance (subject to location), quarterly business reviews.
4. Response & Resolution Times
Incidents are classified by severity:
Severity
Definition
Initial Response
Target Resolution
P1 — Critical
Platform completely unavailable; data loss or security breach
1 hour
4 hours
P2 — High
Core feature non-functional; significant business impact
4 hours
1 business day
P3 — Medium
Feature degraded; workaround available
1 business day
3 business days
P4 — Low
Minor issue; cosmetic or informational
3 business days
Next release
Response times for Basic and Pro plans apply during business hours only. Enterprise response times apply 24/7 for P1 incidents.
5. Scheduled Maintenance
We perform scheduled maintenance during low-traffic windows, typically between 01:00–04:00 SAST on Sundays. Subscribers will receive at least:
72 hours' notice for routine maintenance expected to cause any service interruption.
14 days' notice for major infrastructure upgrades.
Notification via the in-app status banner and email to the registered Tenant Administrator.
Scheduled maintenance windows do not count against the uptime calculation provided notice is given as above.
6. Exclusions
The uptime guarantee and response-time commitments do not apply to downtime or degradation caused by:
Events beyond our reasonable control, including force majeure, widespread internet outages, or load-shedding affecting data-centre power.
Your own infrastructure, network, or third-party services (e.g., POS systems, ERP integrations).
Actions taken by you or your users, including misuse or breach of the Terms of Service.
Third-party attacks (e.g., DDoS) that we are actively mitigating.
Free, demo, or trial accounts.
Beta or early-access features explicitly labelled as such.
7. Service Credits
If we fail to meet the uptime commitment in a given calendar month, eligible subscribers may claim service credits as follows:
Actual Monthly Uptime
Credit (% of Monthly Fee)
Below commitment but ≥ 99.0%
10%
Below 99.0% but ≥ 95.0%
25%
Below 95.0%
50%
Credits must be claimed within 30 days of the month in which the outage occurred by emailing support@zimelastocktake.co.za with the subject line "SLA Credit Request". Credits are applied to future invoices and are not redeemable for cash.
8. Data Backup & Recovery
Backup frequency: Daily automated backups of all Tenant data.
Retention: Backups are retained for 30 days (Business plan) or 90 days (Enterprise plan).
Recovery point objective (RPO): 24 hours for all paid plans.
Recovery time objective (RTO): 4 hours for Business and Enterprise plans; best-effort for Basic and Pro.
Data exports are available on request at any time through the platform's export feature.
9. Security Standards
We implement the following security measures:
HTTPS / TLS 1.2+ encryption for all data in transit.
AES-256 encryption for data at rest.
Role-based access control (RBAC) and multi-tenant data isolation.
Regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing.
Incident response plan aligned with POPIA notification requirements (72-hour reporting to the Information Regulator for qualifying breaches).
Logical access controls and privileged access management for our staff.
10. Reporting & Transparency
We publish a public status page at status.zimelastocktake.co.za (when available) showing real-time and historical uptime information. Business and Enterprise subscribers may request a monthly SLA performance report via email.
11. Escalation & Contact
To report an incident or escalate a support issue, use the following channels in order:
In-app support chat (Business and Enterprise plans).