These are the terms that apply to the Slice application and service (Slice). These terms are between us, Slice Technologies Limited (“Slice”, "Slice Limited", “us”, “we” or “our”), and you, the Slice customer and or partner using our application. You agree that by registering with Slice you’ll comply with these terms. We may change these terms at any time by updating them in our application.
Slice's Partner Terms of Use are our contract with you. They include our commitment as a service provider and your obligations as a customer and or partner.
Welcome to Slice! We’re excited to have you here but before you start using Slice, we need you to look through and accept these terms.
These are your legal rights and obligations, so please read everything. If you can’t agree to our terms, then you can’t use our services.
If you still have questions or comments after you’ve read these terms, please get in touch.
In this section we explain how to subscribe to Slice and use our services. When you see a word in bold, it will have the same corresponding meaning every time it’s used within these terms.
You and Slice: When we say you or your, we mean both you and any entity or firm you’re authorized to represent. When we say Slice, we, our or us, we’re talking about the Slice entity you contract with and pay fees to based on the edition of the Slice product you’re using. Section 59 shows which Slice entity you contract with.
Our services: Our services consist of all the services we provide now or in the future, including our online financial and legal services.
Creating a subscription: When you create a subscription to use our services, you acknowledge your subscription has a minimum term of 6 months. Upon accepting these terms, you become a subscriber. If you’re the subscriber, you’re the one responsible for paying for your subscription.
People invited to use Slice: An invited user is a person other than the subscriber who has been invited to use our services through a subscription. If you’re an invited user, you must also accept these terms to use our services.
User roles and access: As a subscriber inviting others into a subscription, you should understand the permissions you’re granting to invited users.
The right to use our services: Whether you’re a subscriber or an invited user, we grant you the right to use our services (based on your subscription type, your user role and the level of access you’ve been granted) for as long as the subscriber continues to pay for the subscription, until the subscription is terminated, or – if you’re an invited user – until your access is revoked.
Rules: Whatever your role, when you use Slice you agree to follow the rules in section 40. Please read them and make sure you understand what you should and shouldn’t do.
Your responsibilities: You promise that you'll keep your information (including a current email address) up to date. You’re responsible for providing true, accurate and complete information and for verifying the accuracy of any information that you use from our services for your legal, tax and compliance obligations. You’re also responsible for protecting your username and password from getting stolen or misused. Our service has minimum password standards but you will ensure that passwords are very strong and not easily guessable. The stronger the password the better! For more on security generally, check out the security section below.
When we introduce new or revised services: Since we’re always thinking about how to make Slice the best it can be – we regularly expand our services. For new or updated services, there might be additional terms. We’ll let you know what those terms are before you start using those services.
What we own: We own everything we’ve put into our services unless otherwise stated and excluding content owned by others. This includes rights in the design, compilation, and look and feel of our services. It also includes rights in all copyrighted works, trademarks, designs, inventions, and other intellectual property. You agree not to copy, distribute, modify or make derivative works of any of our content or use any of our intellectual property rights in any way not expressly permitted by us.
Unless otherwise agreed you will be invoiced monthly or annually in advance for your individual or company subscription.
Slice pricing plans: Your use of our services generally requires you to pay a subscription fee based on your subscription type (the subscription fee). The pricing plan consists of the subscription and subscription fees we offered you, including invoicing, payment, auto-renewal and cancellation terms. The pricing plan may vary and includes information set out to you via email. We may update or amend the pricing plan from time to time. The terms of the pricing plan form part of these terms. As with any other changes to our terms, changes to the pricing plan won’t apply retrospectively and, if we make changes and you’re a subscriber, we’ll make every effort to let you know (take a look at section 56 to see how and when we’ll notify you). Subscription fees will be exclusive of transactional taxes where relevant (like GST).
Taxes for your use of our services: You’re responsible for paying all other external fees and taxes associated with your use of our services wherever levied. Your responsibility includes withholding tax if it applies, unless we already process that withholding tax. We may collect geographical location information to determine your location, which may be used for tax purposes. This means location information you give us must be accurate for tax residency purposes.
Additional services: Depending on where you’re based and how you use our services, you may be able to take advantage of additional services that Slice offers – like prepopulated term sheets. These might incur an additional fee that we’ll let you know about when you sign up for those services.
Importance of timely payments: In order to continue accessing our services, you need to make timely payments based on the pricing plan you selected. To avoid delayed or missed payments, please pay your invoice before the due date. If we don’t receive timely payments, we may suspend access to your subscription until the payment is made. This is less than ideal when you have customers requiring your support.
Slice uses your data to provide our services to you. Our privacy notice is an important part of these terms and describes in more detail how we deal with personal data, like your name and email address.
Use of data: When you enter or upload your data into our services, we don’t own that data but you grant us a license to use, copy, transmit, store, analyze, and back up all data you submit to us through our services, including personal data of yourself and others, to: enable you to use our services; allow us to improve, develop and protect our services; create new services; communicate with you about your subscription; send you information we think may be of interest to you based on your marketing preferences; and disclose to third party service providers and partners to enable and support such purposes.
Use of your own personal data: We respect your privacy and take data protection seriously. In addition to these terms, our privacy notice sets out in detail how we process your own personal data that you enter into Slice, like your name and email address.
Use of personal data you enter about others: Depending on where your contacts are based, our data terms may also apply to the personal data of others (such as your customers, suppliers and employees) that you enter into Slice.
Anonymized statistical data: When you use our services, we may create anonymized statistical data from your data and usage of our services, including through aggregation. Once anonymized, we may use it for our own purposes, such as to provide and improve our services, to develop new services or product offerings, to identify business trends, and for other uses we communicate to you.
Data breach notifications: Where there has been unauthorized access to personal data that you’ve entered into Slice, we’ll let you know and, where possible, give you information about what has happened. Depending on the nature of the unauthorized access, and the location of your affected contacts, you may be required to assess whether the unauthorized access must be reported to the contact and/or a relevant authority. We think you’re best placed to make this decision, because you’ll have the most knowledge about the personal data you have entered in your Slice subscription.
We take reasonable precautions to protect your confidential information and expect that you’ll do the same for ours.
Keeping it confidential: While using our services, you may share confidential information with us, and you may become aware of confidential information about us. You and we both agree to take reasonable steps to protect the other party’s confidential information from being accessed by unauthorized individuals. You or we may share each other’s confidential information with legal or regulatory authorities if required to do so.
Security safeguards: We’ve invested in technical, physical and administrative safeguards to do our part to help keep your data safe and secure. While we’ve taken steps to help protect your data, no method of electronic storage is completely secure and we cannot guarantee absolute security. We may notify you if we have reason to believe that someone has accessed (or may be able to access) your account without authorization and we may also restrict access to certain parts of our services until you verify that access was by an authorized user.
Account security features: We may introduce security features to make your account more secure, such as multi-factor authentication. Depending on where you are in the world or what services you’re using, we may require you to adopt some of these features. Where we make the use of security features optional, you’re responsible (meaning we’re not liable) for any consequences of not using those features. We strongly encourage you to use all optional security features.
Playing your part to secure your data: You have an important part to play by keeping your login details secure, not letting any other person use them, and by making sure you have strong security on your own systems. If you realize there’s been any unauthorized use of your password or any breach of security to your account or email address linked to your account, you need to let us know immediately. You also agree not to use free-form fields in any of Slice’s systems or services to store personal data (unless it’s a field explicitly asking for personal data - like a first name or a last name), credit card details, tax identifiers or bank account details.
To help make your Slice experience even better, the Slice ecosystem includes a variety of trusted partners.
Third-party terms and descriptions: Third-party relationships are subject to terms and conditions and privacy notices set by their providers. These include important things like pricing, refund policies, and how the provider will use your data that you make available to them. Be sure to read and make sure you agree to their terms and conditions and understand their approach before you connect to them. The descriptions of third-party products that we publish, and any associated links, have been provided to us by the providers. While we make reasonable efforts to check the accuracy of the descriptions, the providers are solely responsible for any representations contained in those descriptions. We don’t endorse or assume any responsibility for third-party products.
Use of your data to connect you to third party products: you agree to connect your account to third-parties you collaborate with on the Slice platform. Your personal information will not be readily available to those third parties until you engage with them. No other private information will be shared with those third parties unless you elect to share this as part of the workflow tool i.e. by entering information in the collaborative project management tool. Where we receive data as a result of that connection, we will use that data in line with our privacy notice and these terms. If that third-party product is the Gmail app, our use of any data received from Gmail APIs will also comply with Google’s Limited Use Requirements.
Payments to Slice: Just so you know, some third-party providers may pay Slice a fee that may be related to: referrals from Slice; revenue made by the provider; or data that the providers access about you through our services with your consent. One example would be you referring a client through to one of Slice’s other third parties i.e. a lawyer referring to a broker.
We really try to minimise any downtime, but sometimes it’s necessary so we can keep our services updated and secure. You also may have occasional access issues and may experience data loss, so backing up your data is important.
Availability: We strive to maintain the availability of our services, and provide online support, 24 hours a day. On occasion, we need to perform maintenance on our services, and this may require a period of downtime. We try to minimize any such downtime. Where planned maintenance is being undertaken, we’ll attempt to notify you in advance but can’t guarantee it.
Access issues: You know how the internet works – occasionally you might not be able to access our services and your data. This might happen for any number of reasons, at any time.
Data loss: Data loss is an unavoidable risk when using any technology. You’re responsible for maintaining copies of your data entered into our services. You can do this by exporting relevant documentation directly from your dashboard.
No compensation: Whatever the cause of any downtime, access issues or data loss, your only recourse is to discontinue using our services.
Problems and support: If you have a problem, you can call us direct at 0276347039.
Modifications: We frequently release new updates, modifications and enhancements to our services, and in some cases discontinue features. Where this occurs, we’ll endeavor to notify you where practical (for example, by email, on our blog, or within our services when you log in).
This section is super important because it outlines how you can (and can’t) use our services. Much of it will be common sense.
Slice services do not constitute legal advice: any pre-populated documents, terms sheets, contracts or other materials published by Slice do not constitute legal advice. These materials should only be used by lawyers to aid them in the delivery of their work. Please read our specific terms as to contracts here.
You agree to offer certain services for a fixed price: please read the attached fee structure that you agree to charge Slice customers. You agree you will not offer the pre-agreed services to Slice customers outside of the platform and Slice’s related pricing structure without providing reasonable cause to Slice and the customer as to why you must do so (i.e. particular use case requires additional advice or a pre-agreed exemption).
Feedback: We love your feedback and may use it without restriction.
Help using our services: We provide a lot of guidance and support to help you use our services. You agree to use our services only for lawful business purposes and in line with the instructions and guidance we provide.
Limitations: Some of our services may be subject to limits such as a cap on the number of monthly transactions.
No-charge or beta services: Occasionally we may offer a service at no charge – for example a beta service, or a time-limited trial account. Because of the nature of these services, you use them at your own risk.
While we can’t cover everything here, we do want to highlight a few more examples of things you must not do:
You can easily terminate your subscription with one month’s written notice though payment remains due for the minimum term of your subscription. We may terminate your subscription with the same notice. If you violate these terms, we may terminate your subscription immediately.
Subscription period: Your subscription continues for the period covered by the subscription fee paid or payable. At the end of each subscription period, these terms automatically continue for a further period of the same duration as the previous one, provided you continue to pay the subscription fee in accordance with the pricing plan. You may choose to terminate your subscription at any time by providing one month’s written notice in advance. If you chose to do so, you will still need to pay all relevant subscription fees due for the minimum term of your subscription.
Termination by Slice: Slice may choose to terminate your subscription at any time by providing you with one month’s written notice in advance. Slice may also terminate or suspend your subscription or access to all or any data immediately if:
No refunds: No refund is due to you if you terminate your subscription or Slice terminates it in accordance with these terms.
Retention of your data: Once a subscription is terminated by you or us, it is archived and the data submitted or created by you is no longer available to you. We retain it for a period of time consistent with our data retention policy, during which, as a subscriber, you can reactivate your subscription and once again access your data by paying the subscription fees. We retain data in case you need it as part of your record retention obligations, but you can get in touch with us to have your data removed completely if you wish.
This section is important as it outlines liability terms between us and both subscribers and invited users, so we urge you to read it closely and in full.
You indemnify us: You indemnify us against all losses, costs (including legal costs), expenses, demands or liability that we incur arising out of, or in connection with, a third-party claim against us relating to your use of our services or any third-party product.
Disclaimer of warranties: Our services and all third-party products are made available to you on an “as is” basis. Subject to the exclusion in section 52, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including any implied warranties of non-infringement, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
Limitation of liability: Other than liability that we can’t exclude or limit by law, our liability to you in connection with our services or these terms, in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, is limited as follows:
This section outlines how disputes may be resolved.
Dispute resolution: Most of your concerns can be resolved quickly and to everyone’s satisfaction by contacting our support team. If we’re unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction (or if we haven’t been able to resolve a dispute we have with you after attempting to do so informally), you and we agree to resolve those disputes through binding arbitration or small claims court instead of in courts of general jurisdiction. You and we agree that any dispute must be brought in the parties’ individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class or representative proceeding.
Here we set out some additional terms. Take a read as they cover important issues.
No professional advice: Just to be clear, Slice isn’t a professional services firm of any sort, and isn’t in the business of giving any kind of professional advice. We may provide you with information we think might be useful in providing your professional services (financial or legal), but this should not be seen as a substitute for professional advice and we aren’t liable for your use of the information in that way.
Events outside our control: We do our best to control the controllable. We aren’t liable to you for any failure or delay in performance of any of our obligations under these terms arising out of any event or circumstance beyond our reasonable control.
Notices: Any notice you send to Slice must be sent to [email protected]. Any notices we send to you will be sent to the email address you’ve provided us through your subscription.
Exclusion: In some places, there may be non-excludable warranties, guarantees or other rights provided by law (non-excludable guarantees). They still apply – these terms do not exclude, restrict or modify them. Except for non-excludable guarantees and other rights you have that we cannot exclude, we’re bound only by the express promises made in these terms. Our liability for breach of a non-excludable guarantee is limited, at our option, to either replacing or paying the cost of replacing the relevant service (unless the non-excludable guarantee says otherwise).
Export limitations: You must not use our services in violation of any export or trade embargo laws that apply to you.
Excluded terms: The terms of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the Sale of Goods and the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) do not apply to these terms.
Relationship between the parties; assignment: Nothing in these terms is to be construed as constituting a partnership, joint venture, employment or agency relationship between you and us, or between you and any other subscriber or invited user. You’re solely responsible for resolving disputes between you and any other subscriber or invited user. Slice may assign these terms - or any of our rights or obligations in these terms - to another Slice entity as it deems appropriate. Slice entities are the companies controlled by or under common control with Slice Technologies Limited (a New Zealand company with NZBN Registration: 9429050648870).
Changes to these terms: We may change these terms of use from time to time. But don’t worry, changes won’t apply retrospectively and, if we make changes, we’ll make every effort to let you know. You can keep track of changes to our terms by referring to the version and the date last updated at the top of the terms. Generally, we endeavour to provide you with 30 days’ notice of material changes before they become effective, unless we need to make immediate changes for reasons we don’t have control over. When we notify you, we’ll do it by email or by posting a visible notice through our services. If a change isn’t material, we may not notify you. If you find a modified term unacceptable, you may terminate your subscription by giving the standard advance notice to Slice.
Enforcement of terms: If there’s any part of these terms that either one of us is unable to enforce, we’ll ignore that part but everything else will remain enforceable.
Interpretation: Words like ‘include’ and ‘including’ are not words of limitation and where anything is within our discretion we mean our sole discretion.
Slice contracting entities; law and venue: Our contracting entities are listed below along with what law and venue apply in any dispute between you and us:
If you are a broker, lawyer, accountant or other provider of professional advisory services approved by Slice Technologies Limited and its affiliates (Slice) then you can become a recognized Slice Partner and receive the benefits of the Slice Partner Program (the Program). By applying for registration into the Program you are accepting and agreeing to the terms and conditions set out in this Partner Agreement (Partner Agreement), as well as Slice’s Terms of Use, as updated or amended from time to time in Slice’s discretion (Slice’s Terms of Use), which are incorporated into this Partner Agreement by reference.
If you are agreeing to this Partner Agreement not as an individual but on behalf of your company, organization, firm, partnership or other corporate entity, then you agree and acknowledge that you are binding such entity to this Partner Agreement, and that you are fully authorized to do so.
Slice may update or modify this Partner Agreement from time to time in its sole discretion. All updates and modifications to this Partner Agreement will be published on Slice’s website, and notice of relevant material updates and modifications to this Partner Agreement will be communicated to you via email, at the email address on record.
Prior to being accepted to the Program, you must:
Slice will determine whether you are accepted to the Program once the partnership prerequisites above have been completed. Slice reserves the right to accept or decline any organisation or individual as a Slice Partner regardless of whether the partnership prerequisites have been met, for example if Slice determines that you are likely to be unable to meet the ongoing requirements set out below.
Once you have been accepted to, and as long as you remain part of, the Program, you will receive access to the applicable benefits of the Program, as modified or updated by Slice from time to time, at the specified status level, including:
To maintain status as a Slice Partner, you agree to:
This Partner Agreement is effective immediately upon you being accepted into the Program by Slice, and remains in force until:
If this Partner Agreement is terminated for any reason, you will no longer be able to participate in, or receive the benefits of, the Program.
For the avoidance of doubt, notwithstanding the termination of this Partner Agreement, Slice’s Terms of Use will continue to apply to your use of the Services (as defined in Slice’s Terms of Use) that Slice may make available to you as a non-partner, and the following sections of this Partner Agreement will survive any such termination: “Applicability of Slice’s Terms of Use”, “Relationship of Parties” and “Indemnity”.
This Partner Agreement applies in addition to, and should be read in conjunction with, Slice’s Terms of Use, which are incorporated in this Partner Agreement by reference to the extent applicable and which govern matters in relation to your dealings with Slice, including limitations on liability, indemnification, intellectual property, and governing law.
You acknowledge and agree that all access (including by Invited Users, as defined in Slice’s Terms of Use) to Slice’s services will be subject to Slice’s then current Terms of Use.
In the event of any inconsistency between this Partner Agreement and Slice’s Terms of Use Slice’s Terms of Use will take priority.
No agency, partnership, joint venture or employment is created between Slice and you as a result of this Partner Agreement. You are not authorized to create any obligation, express or implied, on behalf of Slice.
You agree to indemnify Slice against any and all claims, costs, damages and/or loss that Slice may sustain or incur, as a result of any claim by a third party, including your clients and any Slice users, arising from: (a) your acts or omissions including, but not limited to, your provision of professional services, implementation support, or other products or services, (b) your breach of this Partner Agreement.
1.1 You may access and use a contract provided for your own personal or professional purposes in accordance with these Terms. These Terms apply whenever you accessor use a contract provided.
1.2 If you access or use a contract:
1.3 If you do not agree to these Terms, you are not authorized to access and use a contract, and you must immediately stop doing so.
2.1 In these Terms, Derived Document includes:
Contact us at [email protected] where you are uncertain.
3.1 The charge for use of the Contracts may be amended from time to time. Any change in price will be outlined via our Website or via Email correspondence. All charges are exclusive of GST. You will pay GST on the charges if applicable.
3.2 You must use the Contracts or Derived Documents solely for lawful purposes and:
3.3 You:
3.4 You must not:
4.1 Slice is a beta tool made available “AS IS”. We do not make any warranty that Slice or any Contractual Document meets your particular requirements, is fit for purpose or that use of Slice will be uninterrupted or error free. All warranties under the Sale of Goods Act 1908 are excluded.
4.2 The Contracts are provided for guidance purposes only. The Contracts:
4.3 By making the Contracts available to you:
4.4 we can provide you with a partner lawyer to support you with Contracts to suit your needs.
5.1 You must provide true, current and complete information in your dealings with us, and must promptly update that information as required so that the information remains true, current and complete.
5.2 Except as is permitted on the Website, you must obtain our written permission to establish a link to our Contracts. If you wish to do so, email your request to [email protected].
5.3 You acknowledge that failure to comply strictly with these Terms will, despite any Contract or Derived Document being made available to you, cause us Loss, including Loss by way of irreparable harm for which damages would be an inadequate remedy.
4.1 Slice is a beta tool made available “AS IS”. We do not make any warranty that Slice or any Contractual Document meets your particular requirements, is fit for purpose or that use of Slice will be uninterrupted or error free. All warranties under the Sale of Goods Act 1908 are excluded.
7.1 To the extent permitted by law, we and our licensors have no liability or responsibility to you or any other person for any Loss in connection with:
7.2 The Contracts are based on New Zealand law. We make no representation or warranty that the Contracts are appropriate or available for use in other countries or that the content satisfies the laws of other countries. You are responsible for ensuring that your access to and use of the Contracts is not illegal or prohibited, and for your compliance with applicable local laws.
4.1 Slice is a beta tool made available “AS IS”. We do not make any warranty that Slice or any Contractual Document meets your particular requirements, is fit for purpose or that use of Slice will be uninterrupted or error free. All warranties under the Sale of Goods Act 1908 are excluded.
8.1 To the maximum extent permitted by law:
8.2 You indemnify us against all Loss we suffer or incur as a direct or indirect result of:
8.3 Where legislation or rule of law implies a condition or warranty that cannot be excluded or modified by contract, the condition or warranty is deemed to be included in these Terms. However, our liability for any breach of that condition or warranty is limited, at our option, to:
9.1 We will require personal information from you in order to make the Contract available to you including but not limited to your personal details such as name and email, property details, loan details, deposit details, repayment details, bank account details and the like.
9.2 If you provide us with your LinkedIn (or other social media) account login details, we may, and you authorise us to, access and collect information available on your social media account profile page, in accordance with any privacy settings you have set for that social media account.
9.3 You authorize us to share your personal information with your co-owners, third party legal providers, governmental, judicial or regulatory bodies, our partners, suppliers and sub-contractors including but not limited to payment service providers, advertising networks, electronic verification and credit reference agencies.
9.4 When you provide personal information to us, we will comply with the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993 and our privacy policy.
10.1 Your rights under these Terms will terminate automatically on any breach by you of these Terms.
10.2 Without prejudice to any other right or remedy available to us, if we consider that you have breached these Terms or we otherwise consider it appropriate, we may immediately, and without notice, suspend or terminate your access to and use of the Contracts and Derived Documents.
10.3 On suspension or termination, you must immediately cease using the Contracts and Derived Documents and must not attempt to gain further access.
11.1 We may change these Terms at any time by updating them on the Website. Unless stated otherwise, any change takes effect immediately. You are responsible for ensuring you are familiar with the latest Terms. By accessing the Contracts at the Website at any time following the change to these Terms, you agree to be bound by the changed Terms.
11.2 We may suspend, discontinue or restrict access to the Contracts at any time without notice or liability to you.
11.3 We may change, modify or remove the Contracts at any time without notice or liability to you. Some changes may be to reflect matters of law. Therefore, we encourage you to check back regularly to confirm that your Contract is up to date.
11.4 These Terms were last updated on 01 January 2023.
12.1 If we need to contact you, we may do so by email or by posting a notice on the Website. You agree that this satisfies all legal requirements in relation to written communications.
12.2 These Terms, and any dispute relating to these Terms, the Contracts or Derived Documents, are governed by and must be interpreted in accordance with the laws of New Zealand. Each party submits to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of New Zealand in relation to any dispute connected with these Terms, the Contracts or Derived Documents.
12.3 For us to waive a right under these Terms, the waiver must be in writing.
12.4 Clauses which, by their nature, are intended to survive termination of these Terms, including clauses 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.3, 12.2, and 12.6, continue in force.
12.5 If any part or provision of these Terms is or becomes illegal, unenforceable, or invalid, that part or provision is deemed to be modified to the extent required to remedy the illegality, unenforceability or invalidity. If a modification is not possible, the part or provision must be treated for all purposes as severed from these Terms. The remainder of these Terms will be binding on you.
12.6 These Terms set out everything agreed between us relating to your use of the Contracts and Derived Documents and supersede and cancel anything discussed, exchanged or agreed prior to you agreeing to these Terms. You have not relied on any representation, warranty or agreement relating to the subject matter of the Terms that is not expressly set out in the Terms, and no such representation, warranty or agreement has any effect from the date you agreed to these Terms. Without limiting the previous sentence, we agree to contract out of sections 9, 12A and 13 of the New Zealand Fair Trading Act 1986.
You agree to charge customers the fees set out on our Partner Pricing Page. Where the work required is beyond a standard use case you agree to raise this with Slice and the Customer before proceeding with any services or charging any fee.