How to read this agreement
This agreement is written in plain English on purpose. Each numbered clause says one thing. Where a word has a special meaning it is explained the first time it is used. If anything is unclear, ask before signing. You can take this document to your own adviser.
The short version:
- You are the seller of your food. The customer is buying from you.
- HalalHQ works on your behalf. We list your kitchen on HalalHQ, take the orders, collect the payment from the customer on your behalf, and pass the money to you every week.
- Our fee is 5% of each sale. While HalalHQ is registered for GST, that 5% already includes the GST. The only other cost is the card payment fee Stripe charges on card orders (clause 7.4), shown on your weekly statement.
- You are responsible for the food. We are responsible for the website, the app and the payments.
Parties
The Kitchen (you):
The person or business named in Schedule A (the details you fill in with this agreement).
HalalHQ (us):
HALALHQ PTY LTD, ACN 690 594 560, ABN 19 690 594 560, VIC 3064, phone 0478 933 996. HalalHQ's GST registration status is shown on your weekly statement.
The details in Schedule A must be completed before this agreement starts.
1. What this agreement is about
1.1 HalalHQ runs a website and an app where customers can find your kitchen and order your food.
1.2 This agreement sets out what HalalHQ does for you, what you do, what our fee is, how and when you are paid, and how the two of us end the arrangement if either of us wants to.
1.3 It applies to every order a customer places for your food through HalalHQ, and to the direct orders described in clause 8.
1.4 This is not an exclusive arrangement. You may keep taking orders yourself, by phone or message, and you may sell through other platforms. Nothing here stops that.
2. You are the seller of the food
2.1 Every meal ordered through HalalHQ is sold by you to the customer. You are the supplier of the food. HalalHQ does not buy your food and does not resell it.
2.2 The contract for the food is between you and the customer. HalalHQ arranges that sale for you and handles the money for you, as set out in clause 3.
2.3 You own the food until it is handed to the customer or to the person delivering it.
2.4 You decide what you cook, how much of it, and on which days and times. You can mark a service as sold out, close a day, and change your order cut-off time yourself in your HalalHQ kitchen portal.
3. What HalalHQ does for you
3.1 You appoint HalalHQ to do the following things on your behalf, and HalalHQ agrees to do them:
- (a) list your kitchen and menu on the HalalHQ website and app and show it to customers there. Posts about your kitchen on HalalHQ's social media are not included unless we agree them separately;
- (b) take orders from customers for your food;
- (c) collect payment from customers for your food, on your behalf, through HalalHQ's payment provider;
- (d) send the customer an order confirmation and receipt for your food, on your behalf;
- (e) pass each order to you promptly, with everything you need to cook it and hand it over;
- (f) keep a record of every order and every payment, and give you a weekly payout statement;
- (g) pay you what you are owed every week, as set out in clause 7.
3.2 HalalHQ acts for you when doing the things in clause 3.1. When HalalHQ takes a customer's money for your food, it is collecting your money for you. HalalHQ's own earnings from the sale are only the fee in clause 5.
3.3 HalalHQ also builds and hosts a simple website for your kitchen on a HalalHQ web address, at no charge. That website is part of the promotion in clause 3.1(a).
3.4 HalalHQ does not cook, does not handle your food, and does not decide your recipes, portions or menu.
4. Your prices
4.1 You set the price of every item on your menu. HalalHQ does not add anything on top of your price. The price the customer sees is your price.
4.2 You can change your prices in your kitchen portal. A price change applies to new orders only, never to an order already placed.
4.3 If you are registered for GST, your prices must include any GST you have to pay on the food. Reporting and paying that GST is your responsibility. If you are not registered for GST, there is no GST on your food and nothing for you to report on it.
5. HalalHQ's fee
5.1 For each sale HalalHQ arranges and processes for you, HalalHQ's fee is 5% of the amount the customer pays for the sale (the food, plus the delivery fee when you deliver it yourself, see clause 6).
5.2 The 5% is HalalHQ's commission for arranging and processing the sale. The fee is 5%, never 5% plus GST. While HalalHQ is registered for GST, that 5% already includes the GST, which HalalHQ accounts for itself. If HalalHQ's GST registration changes, the fee stays 5% and HalalHQ will tell you.
5.3 Worked example: a customer pays $100 for food you deliver yourself. HalalHQ's fee is $5.00 (while HalalHQ is registered for GST, about 45 cents of that is GST that HalalHQ reports and pays). You receive $95.00, less the card processing cost in clause 7.4 if the customer paid by card.
5.4 The fee is worked out to the cent and always rounded down, never up. 5% of $36.98 is 184.9 cents, and HalalHQ takes $1.84.
5.5 HalalHQ shows its fee on its own line on every weekly payout statement (clause 7), so you can always see exactly what was charged. If you are registered for GST and ask for one, HalalHQ will give you a tax invoice for its fee within 28 days.
5.6 No fee is charged on an order that was cancelled before you cooked anything, and no fee is charged on an order that was fully refunded to the customer (clause 9).
6. Delivery and pickup
6.1 Customers can choose pickup from your kitchen or delivery, within the delivery area and the days and times set for your kitchen.
6.2 Who delivers is agreed with you and shown in your kitchen settings. It is either you (or someone you arrange) or HalalHQ, and it can change by agreement between us.
6.3 The delivery fee belongs to whoever delivers.
- (a) If you deliver, the delivery fee the customer pays is part of your sale, and the 5% fee in clause 5 applies to it like the rest of the sale.
- (b) If HalalHQ delivers, the delivery fee is HalalHQ's own charge to the customer for the delivery service. HalalHQ keeps all of it and takes no 5% on it.
6.4 The delivery fee is set by distance from your kitchen using a fee table HalalHQ maintains. The current table is shown in your kitchen settings. HalalHQ gives you notice before it changes (clause 15.2).
6.5 A customer may be asked to pay in cash at handover on smaller orders, up to the cash limit shown in your kitchen settings. If you receive cash for a HalalHQ order, that cash is settled as in clause 8.3.
7. How and when you are paid
7.1 HalalHQ collects card payments for your food through its payment provider and holds them for you until the weekly payout.
7.2 Every week is settled on the Monday after it ends (a week runs Monday to Sunday). On that Monday HalalHQ:
- (a) sends you a payout statement listing every order of the week, what the customer paid, HalalHQ's 5% fee on its own line, the card processing cost on its own line, any refund and how it was treated, and the net amount paid to you. The statement carries HalalHQ's ABN and, while HalalHQ is registered for GST, the words "Total price includes GST" against the fee; and
- (b) transfers the net amount to the bank account in Schedule A, in one payment, with the week's date as the reference.
7.3 A week is only settled once every order in it is closed. An order still open on the Monday is carried into the next week's statement.
7.4 Card processing cost. HalalHQ's payment provider charges a small fee on every card payment (currently about 1.7% plus 30 cents on an Australian card, more on an overseas card). That cost is taken off the sale in proportion to your share of it: when you delivered, the whole sale is yours, so the whole card cost is yours. HalalHQ uses the exact amount the provider actually charged, never an estimate, and shows it on the statement.
7.5 If the week's statement shows that you owe HalalHQ money (for example the 5% on a cash order under clause 8.4), that amount is taken off your payout for the same week. If it is more than your payout, the remainder simply carries to the next week's statement and comes off that payout instead. HalalHQ will not send you a bill for it. If you stop trading on HalalHQ while an amount is still carried, it becomes payable within 30 days.
7.6 HalalHQ does not charge you anything for the payout transfer.
8. Cash orders and orders you take directly
8.1 Some customers will find you through HalalHQ and then phone or message you directly, and you are free to take those orders (clause 1.4). You agree to ask them to place the order on HalalHQ where you can, so the order is recorded and you are covered by this agreement.
8.2 An order you take directly is yours, and HalalHQ charges nothing on it. If a customer phones or messages you and you take the order yourself, HalalHQ has no fee on it. You are not required to report it and nothing is owed.
8.3 You may choose to pay the 5% on a direct order from a customer HalalHQ sent you. If a customer first found you through HalalHQ and then ordered from you directly, you can put that order on your weekly statement, and HalalHQ will charge its usual 5% of what the customer paid, with no card processing cost, because no card went through HalalHQ. This is your choice, order by order. Nothing in this agreement requires it, and choosing not to on one order does not affect anything else.
8.4 A HalalHQ order paid in cash is different, and the 5% is owed. The order was placed on HalalHQ, so the fee applies as it would on any other HalalHQ order. You keep the cash and the 5% is owed to HalalHQ.
8.5 You tell HalalHQ each cash order, and each direct order you have chosen to declare under clause 8.3, with the amount, by the Sunday of the week it happened, so it goes on that week's statement. HalalHQ records it as an order in your kitchen portal so your own earnings screen shows it, and the 5% is netted off that week's payout (clause 7.5).
8.6 This clause is deliberately different from how HalalHQ's Souq marketplace treats an offline sale. Anything placed through HalalHQ carries the fee whatever way it was paid; an order you took yourself does not, unless you decide it should.
9. Refunds, cancellations and complaints
Who deals with what
9.1 You are responsible for the food. That means its quality, its halal status, its ingredients and allergens, whether the order was cooked as the customer asked, and whether the right items went in the bag. A complaint about any of those things is yours to answer, and HalalHQ will put the customer in touch with you.
9.2 HalalHQ is responsible for the platform and the payment. That means the website, the app, the ordering process, the card payment, a payment charged twice, and a delivery HalalHQ itself carried out. A complaint about any of those things is HalalHQ's to answer.
9.3 On a food complaint the decision is yours, and so is the cost. HalalHQ will not refund a customer for a food complaint unless you have decided to refund. HalalHQ processes the refund because it holds the money, and the amount comes off that week's payout.
9.3a If HalalHQ refunds a food complaint without your agreement (for example because you could not be reached within 24 hours, or because HalalHQ chose to keep the customer happy), HalalHQ carries that refund itself and you are still paid in full for the order. Whoever makes the decision pays for it.
How refunds are settled between us
9.4 An order cancelled before you cooked anything: the customer is refunded in full. Nothing is owed to you and HalalHQ takes no fee. HalalHQ wears the card processing cost alone, because the payment provider does not return it.
9.5 A full refund on an order the customer kept, after a food complaint you decided to refund (clause 9.3): you carry the refund and the card processing cost on that order, and HalalHQ takes no fee on it. There is no standing split. If HalalHQ made the call instead, clause 9.3a applies and the refund is HalalHQ's.
9.6 A partial refund: there is no standing rule. Before any partial refund is given, you and HalalHQ agree the split in writing (a message is enough) and it is recorded on that week's statement.
9.7 A card dispute (chargeback): if the customer's bank reverses a payment, HalalHQ will contest it with the evidence held (the order, the delivery record, any handover photo) and will tell you about it. This follows the same rule as clause 9.3. If the dispute is lost because of a payment or platform problem, HalalHQ wears the loss. If it is lost because the food was not supplied as ordered, the loss is yours, and it goes on your statement the way a refund does. Neither of us charges the other a fee on a lost dispute.
10. Food safety, registration and the law
10.1 You must hold, and keep holding, every registration and approval the law requires for a food business run from your kitchen, including registration with your local council and any approval required for a home kitchen. It is your responsibility to check what applies to you and that you are allowed by law to sell food from your kitchen. By accepting this agreement you confirm that you are. HalalHQ does not check your registration. You may give us your registration number and a copy; if you do, please tell us when it is renewed.
10.2 You are responsible for food safety, hygiene, safe storage and safe transport of your food, and for complying with the Food Act and food standards that apply to you.
10.3 You are responsible for the accuracy of your menu, including ingredient and allergen information, and for telling HalalHQ straight away if any of it changes.
10.4 Halal claims are yours. Any statement about where your meat comes from, who certifies it or how it is slaughtered is your statement. HalalHQ will only publish a halal claim you have made yourself, in your words, and will ask you before publishing anything that goes beyond what your own menu says.
10.5 HalalHQ may ask to see proof of your registration, inspection reports or licences at any time, and may pause your listing if you cannot show them or if a genuine food safety concern is raised, until it is sorted out.
10.6 Tax is your own responsibility. HalalHQ does not withhold tax from your payouts and does not give tax advice. If you are unsure whether you should be registered for GST, ask an accountant or the ATO.
10.7 HalalHQ does not require you to hold insurance, and does not insure your food or your premises. Whether to insure your kitchen is your own decision.
11. Customer details and privacy
11.1 HalalHQ gives you a customer's name, order, and where needed for delivery, their address and phone number, so that you can fulfil the order.
11.2 You use those details only to prepare and hand over that order and to deal with any problem with it. You keep them safe and do not pass them to anyone else.
11.2a HalalHQ does not stop you from serving a customer directly. If a customer chooses to contact you and order from you, you are free to take that order (clause 1.4 and clause 8), now or after this agreement ends. What clause 11.2 does stop is using a phone number, email address or address that HalalHQ gave you for a delivery to send that person marketing they did not ask you for. That is Australian law on unsolicited messages, not a HalalHQ restriction. If a customer gives you their details themselves, they are theirs to give and this clause does not apply.
11.3 HalalHQ handles customer data under its own privacy policy, which is published on the HalalHQ website.
12. Your name, photos and menu
12.1 You give HalalHQ permission to use your kitchen's name, logo, photos, menu and story on the HalalHQ website and app, on the website HalalHQ builds for you, and in HalalHQ's social media and marketing, for as long as this agreement lasts.
12.2 You keep ownership of all of it. When this agreement ends HalalHQ stops using it, apart from records it has to keep and content already published that cannot reasonably be recalled.
12.3 You may tell your customers that they can order from you on HalalHQ, and may link to your HalalHQ page from anywhere you like.
13. Loyalty programme (optional)
13.1 If you choose to run a loyalty programme through HalalHQ, the rewards are yours to decide and yours to provide. HalalHQ tracks the points and shows them to customers.
13.2 You can change or end the programme with reasonable notice to customers through HalalHQ. A reward already earned before the change is honoured.
14. Ending this agreement
14.1 Either of us can end this agreement at any time by giving the other 14 days' written notice (an email or message is enough).
14.2 HalalHQ can end it, or pause your listing, immediately if:
- (a) you lose a registration or approval required by clause 10.1;
- (b) there is a genuine food safety risk that is not fixed promptly;
- (c) you repeatedly fail to fulfil orders that customers have paid for; or
- (d) an amount carried under clause 7.5 has been outstanding for more than 14 days and no payout has cleared it.
14.3 You can end it immediately if HalalHQ fails to pay you a weekly payout and does not fix that within 7 days of you telling us.
14.4 When the agreement ends, every order already placed and paid for is still cooked and handed over, and the final week is settled under clause 7 in the usual way.
15. General
15.1 Each of us is an independent business. This agreement does not make either of us an employee, partner or joint venturer of the other. HalalHQ acts for you only in the ways set out in clause 3.
15.2 Changes to this agreement must be in writing and agreed by both of us. HalalHQ will give you at least 14 days' notice of any change to its fee, the delivery fee table, the minimum order or the cash limit, and you may end the agreement under clause 14.1 if you do not accept the change.
15.3 This agreement is governed by the law of Victoria, Australia.
15.4 If one clause turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still applies.
Schedule A: your details (to be completed before going live)
Schedule B: commercial terms for this kitchen
Everything else about how your kitchen runs is a setting shown in your kitchen dashboard, not a term of this agreement: who delivers, the delivery area and fee table, minimum order, cash limit, order cut-off, the days and times you cook, and the loyalty programme. You change the ones that are yours (days, times, cut-off, sold-outs, loyalty) whenever you like; HalalHQ gives you 14 days' notice before changing the fee table, minimum order or cash limit (clause 15.2).