Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By downloading, installing, accessing, or using Practice Pad, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy, incorporated here by reference. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not download or use the application.

These Terms constitute a binding legal agreement between you and Practice Pad Technologies LLC, an Arizona limited liability company. "Practice Pad," "we," "our," and "us" refer to Practice Pad Technologies LLC. "You" refers to the licensed clinical professional using the app.

2. Eligibility & Account Requirements

Practice Pad is designed for, and may only be used by, licensed or provisionally licensed mental health professionals (including Licensed Professional Counselors, Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, Licensed Psychologists, and similar credential holders in other jurisdictions) and licensed clinical supervisors overseeing such professionals.

• Age Requirement: You must be at least 18 years of age to use Practice Pad.
• Professional Credential: By using Practice Pad with client PHI, you represent that you hold an active professional license (or provisional license under active supervision) and that your use of the app complies with your licensing board's rules regarding electronic records and technology use.
• Google Workspace Account: Cloud and Pro tier features require an active paid Google Workspace account (Business Starter, Business Standard, or higher). You are responsible for maintaining that account and ensuring it is configured appropriately for HIPAA compliance before enabling sync features. Syncing PHI to a personal @gmail.com account constitutes a violation of HIPAA and of this Agreement. Personal Gmail accounts are not covered by Google's HIPAA Business Associate Agreement and do not provide a HIPAA-compliant storage environment for PHI. Practice Pad reserves the right to suspend sync functionality for any account where the sync destination has been identified as a non-commercial personal Gmail account, without prior notice, until the account is migrated to a compliant Google Workspace paid account.
• No Client Access: Practice Pad is a clinician-facing tool only. Client accounts, client portals, and direct client access to the app are not provided and are not a permitted use.

3. Nature of the Service (NOT an EHR)

Practice Pad is a digital clinical workflow utility — a note-taking and documentation tool that integrates with Google Workspace. Practice Pad is NOT an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, a practice management system, or the legally designated primary repository for medical, psychiatric, or psychological records.

Practice Pad does not provide: scheduling or appointment booking, telehealth or video sessions, insurance billing or claim submission, superbill generation, client portals, or direct EHR integrations. It is designed to serve as the clinical documentation layer within a Google Workspace-based practice management setup.

You are solely responsible for maintaining your official client records in compliance with your licensing board rules, applicable state law, and federal regulations — including any requirement to maintain records in a designated primary records system. Practice Pad is not a substitute for that obligation.

4. Subscription Tiers, Pricing & Billing

Practice Pad operates on a tiered subscription model. All payments are processed through the Apple App Store. Practice Pad Technologies LLC does not store payment information.

• Secure Tier — $15/month: Local-only, offline note-taking with AES-256 encryption, biometric security, manual PDF export, and Apple Pencil handwriting with on-device OCR. No Google Workspace integration. No PHI leaves your device.
• Cloud Tier — $22/month: All Secure features plus automatic "Store & Forward" sync to your Google Workspace Drive, Google Sheets session logging, Google Calendar appointment pre-population, and read access to the Community Template Library (browsing only). A Business Associate Agreement with Practice Pad is required before enabling sync features.
• Pro Tier — $32/month: All Cloud features plus intake automation (Force Copy forms to client Drive folder), on-device assessment auto-scoring (PHQ-9, GAD-7, PCL-5, ACE, C-SSRS), longitudinal assessment scoring timeline, and community template contribution rights. AI-powered note refinement is planned for a future version (V2) of the Pro tier and is not available in the current release.
• Starter Kit — Free with any paid tier: Includes three pre-built templates: adult intake form, informed consent, and session tracking sheet.
• Premium Template Library — $39 one-time: Full intake, consent, and treatment plan template library.
• Specialty Template Packs — $9–$15 each: Specialty-specific template collections (EMDR, DBT, Substance Use, Child/Adolescent, Couples). Availability subject to change.

Billing & Cancellation: Subscriptions are billed monthly through the Apple App Store and renew automatically unless cancelled. You may cancel at any time through your Apple App Store subscription settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; no partial-month refunds are issued by Practice Pad. All refund requests for App Store purchases are governed by Apple's refund policy.

Subscription Changes: If you downgrade from Cloud or Pro to Secure, your Google Workspace sync features will be disabled at the end of the billing period. Data already synced to your Google Drive will remain in your Drive, as you own and control that data. No data is deleted from your Google Drive as a result of a downgrade. Local app data is unaffected by subscription changes.

Price Changes: We reserve the right to change subscription pricing. We will provide at least 30 days' advance notice of price changes, via email and/or in-app notification, before any change takes effect for existing subscribers.

5. HIPAA Compliance & Business Associate Agreement

Protecting your clients' Protected Health Information (PHI) is a shared legal responsibility. By using Practice Pad's Cloud or Pro tier features, you acknowledge and agree to the following:

• You Are the Covered Entity: As a licensed mental health professional, you are the HIPAA Covered Entity responsible for your clients' PHI. Practice Pad Technologies LLC is your Business Associate with respect to PHI that passes through our systems.
• Google Workspace BAA: You are solely responsible for executing and maintaining a valid Business Associate Agreement with Google LLC for your Google Workspace account before syncing any PHI. Practice Pad cannot make your Google Workspace HIPAA-compliant on your behalf. Guidance on obtaining a Google Workspace BAA is provided in the app onboarding materials.
• Practice Pad BAA: You must execute a Business Associate Agreement directly with Practice Pad Technologies LLC before enabling Cloud or Pro tier features with live client PHI. The BAA is presented and must be accepted within the HIPAA Onboarding Wizard — a required step that runs at first launch for Cloud and Pro tier users before any sync functionality is activated. You may not bypass or skip the onboarding wizard. If you require a countersigned paper BAA for your records in addition to the click-through acceptance, contact support@practicepadapp.com with the subject line "BAA Request" and we will respond within 5 business days.
• Secure Tier & the BAA: The Secure tier stores data exclusively on your device and does not transmit PHI to Practice Pad's systems or Google's systems. A BAA with Practice Pad is not required for Secure tier use, though we recommend documenting your technology vendors as part of your HIPAA risk analysis regardless of tier.
• Your Compliance Obligations: Practice Pad provides technical safeguards — encryption, biometric access, audit logging, and HIPAA-compliant data flows — but cannot guarantee your compliance with HIPAA. You remain responsible for: conducting your own HIPAA risk analysis, obtaining appropriate client consent for electronic records, maintaining a compliant Notice of Privacy Practices, and ensuring your overall practice operations comply with HIPAA requirements.

6. User Responsibilities & Offline Data Liability

Practice Pad uses an offline-first, "Store & Forward" model. Understanding this architecture is critical to safe clinical use.

• Sync Responsibility: Session notes are captured and encrypted locally on your iPad. They are not automatically uploaded. You are responsible for initiating a sync over a secure Wi-Fi connection to archive your notes to Google Drive. Practice Pad recommends syncing at the end of each clinical day.
• Physical Device Security: Until a successful sync occurs, PHI exists only on your device. You are responsible for maintaining strict physical security over your iPad, including using a strong device passcode and enabling biometric lock. We strongly recommend enabling Find My iPad and configuring remote wipe capability through your Apple ID.
• Data Loss Before Sync: If you lose your device, forget your device passcode, or delete the app before successfully syncing to Google Drive, your unsynced local data is permanently unrecoverable. Practice Pad cannot recover locally stored data. This is an inherent limitation of the offline-first architecture designed to keep PHI off external servers.
• Parallel Record-Keeping: You should maintain parallel documentation (paper records or a separate EHR system) as required by your licensing board, your malpractice insurer, and applicable state law. Practice Pad is a workflow tool, not a records system, and data loss — however unlikely — does not relieve you of your professional record-keeping obligations.
• Sync Queue Monitoring: The app's Sync Status screen displays the number of notes in your offline queue and the timestamp of your last successful sync. You are responsible for monitoring this screen and ensuring notes are successfully archived.

7. Acceptable Use

You agree to use Practice Pad only for lawful, clinically appropriate purposes consistent with your professional licensure. You agree not to:

• Use Practice Pad to document client encounters for which you are not the licensed or supervised clinician of record.
• Allow any person other than yourself (or a supervised clinician for whom you are the licensed supervisor of record) to access your Practice Pad account or create session notes.
• Represent Practice Pad to clients, colleagues, or licensing boards as an EHR system or HIPAA-compliant primary records system without first completing the required BAAs and understanding the limitations described in these Terms.
• Attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, or extract the source code of Practice Pad, or use the app in any manner that violates Apple's App Store guidelines or Google's terms of service.
• Submit fraudulent, fabricated, or non-clinical content to the community template library.
• Share your account credentials with any other person.

Violation of these acceptable use provisions may result in suspension or termination of your account.

8. Early Access & Beta Software Acknowledgment

Practice Pad is currently distributed as version 1.0.0-beta (build 1) via Apple TestFlight. While all V1 development sprints are complete, 77 automated tests are passing, and the app has passed a full beta smoke test, it remains pre-release software undergoing structured evaluation by a limited group of licensed clinicians. You acknowledge the following by participating in the beta program:

• No Live PHI Before BAA: Beta participants may not use Practice Pad with live client PHI until they have completed the HIPAA Onboarding Wizard and the Practice Pad BAA is fully executed. Beta testing with real client data without a completed BAA is a violation of these Terms and may constitute a HIPAA breach for which you, as the Covered Entity, bear responsibility.
• Feedback Obligation: Beta participants agree to provide structured feedback on app functionality, bugs, and usability issues using the designated feedback form distributed with the beta testing protocol, and to participate in scheduled weekly check-ins during the beta period.
• Parallel Records Required: You agree to maintain parallel records of all clinical content documented in Practice Pad during the beta period — via paper records or a separate EHR system — so that no clinical information is at risk of permanent loss if a beta-related failure occurs.
• Our Responsibility During Beta: We will exercise reasonable care to maintain data integrity and will notify you promptly if we discover a bug that places data at risk. Practice Pad Technologies LLC is not liable for data loss arising from bugs, crashes, or failures in pre-release software, provided we have met our breach notification obligations described in the Privacy Policy. This limitation does not apply to losses caused by our own willful misconduct or gross negligence.

9. Termination & Suspension

• Termination by You: You may terminate your Practice Pad subscription at any time through the Apple App Store. Upon cancellation, your access to subscription-tier features will continue through the end of the paid period. Local app data remains accessible on your device until you delete the app. Synced data in your Google Drive is unaffected and remains in your control.
• Termination by Us: We may suspend or terminate your access to Practice Pad — with notice where reasonably possible — if you materially breach these Terms, including by using the app without a required BAA, violating the acceptable use provisions, or engaging in conduct that creates legal or regulatory risk for Practice Pad Technologies LLC.
• Effect of Termination: Upon termination of your account, your email address and account data held by Practice Pad will be deleted within 90 days, subject to any legal hold or regulatory requirement that applies. Your data in Google Drive is unaffected — you own and control it independently of your Practice Pad account.
• Service Discontinuation: In the unlikely event that we discontinue Practice Pad as a service, we will provide at least 60 days' advance notice and will take reasonable steps to ensure you have an opportunity to export or access your account data before service ends. Data in your Google Drive is yours and is not affected by service discontinuation.
• Post-Termination BAA Obligations: Termination of your Practice Pad subscription does not terminate the obligations of either party under any executed Business Associate Agreement. Upon termination, Practice Pad Technologies LLC will, within 90 days of the termination date, either return or destroy any PHI held in our possession as your Business Associate — including any retained application logs — in accordance with 45 CFR § 164.504(e)(2)(ii)(J) and the terms of the executed BAA. If return or destruction is not feasible, we will notify you in writing, extend our BA safeguards to any such PHI for as long as we retain it, and use or disclose that PHI only as permitted under 45 CFR § 164.504(e)(2)(ii)(J). You may request written confirmation of destruction by contacting support@practicepadapp.com with the subject line "BAA Data Destruction Request."

10. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Practice Pad Technologies LLC, its members, officers, employees, and agents from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) arising from:

• Your use of the app in violation of these Terms, your professional licensing board's rules, or applicable law;
• Any misrepresentation to clients, colleagues, or regulators that Practice Pad constitutes an EHR or primary records system;
• Your failure to execute required Business Associate Agreements with Google LLC or Practice Pad Technologies LLC prior to syncing PHI; or
• Any HIPAA violation or data breach resulting from your own physical device security failures, your misuse of the app, or your failure to comply with your obligations as a Covered Entity.

This indemnification does not extend to claims arising from Practice Pad Technologies LLC's own HIPAA violations, security failures, or breach of our Business Associate Agreement obligations.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties & Limitation of Liability

For clarity: the liability limitation above does not apply to, and does not limit, Practice Pad Technologies LLC's obligations as a Business Associate under an executed BAA, including our breach notification obligations. If Practice Pad causes a breach of PHI through our own negligence or security failure, our BA obligations remain in full force regardless of the general liability cap above.

12. Governing Law, Arbitration & Dispute Resolution

These Terms shall be governed by the laws of the State of Arizona without regard to conflict-of-laws principles.

Informal Resolution First: Before initiating any formal dispute, you agree to contact us at support@practicepadapp.com and give us a reasonable opportunity (at least 30 days) to resolve the issue informally.

Binding Arbitration: If informal resolution fails, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the breach thereof shall be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, or by JAMS. The arbitration shall take place in Maricopa County, Arizona, or remotely if both parties agree.

Class Action Waiver: To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to waive any right to participate in a class action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration. Where state law prohibits class action waivers (including in certain circumstances under California law), this waiver will not apply to residents of those states, and you retain your right to participate in class proceedings as permitted by applicable law.

Small Claims Exception: Either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court in Maricopa County, Arizona, if the claim qualifies under that court's jurisdictional limits, as an alternative to arbitration.

13. Third-Party Links & External Services

The Practice Pad app and the practicepadapp.com website may contain links to external websites, services, or resources — including Google Workspace documentation, Apple App Store pages, professional licensing board resources, and HIPAA compliance guidance published by HHS. These links are provided for informational convenience only.

• No Endorsement: The presence of a link to a third-party website does not constitute an endorsement by Practice Pad Technologies LLC of that website, its content, its products or services, or its privacy or security practices.
• No Control: Practice Pad Technologies LLC has no control over the content, availability, or privacy practices of third-party websites and is not responsible for any loss or damage arising from your use of them. We encourage you to review the privacy policies and terms of service of any third-party websites you visit.
• Google Workspace: Practice Pad integrates with Google Workspace APIs (Drive, Sheets, Calendar, Forms). Your use of Google's services is governed by Google's own Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your relationship with Google LLC — including the Business Associate Agreement required for HIPAA compliance — is independent of and separate from your relationship with Practice Pad Technologies LLC.
• Apple App Store: Practice Pad is distributed through the Apple App Store. Your relationship with Apple Inc. regarding the App Store and in-app purchases is governed by Apple's Media Services Terms and Conditions. Subscription payments processed through the App Store are subject to Apple's refund and billing policies, not Practice Pad's.

14. Intellectual Property & DMCA

Practice Pad Technologies LLC respects intellectual property rights and expects users to do the same, particularly with respect to content contributed to the Community Template Library.

• Practice Pad IP: The Practice Pad name, logo, application code, design, features, and all associated branding are the exclusive intellectual property of Practice Pad Technologies LLC, protected by copyright, trademark, and other applicable law. You may not reproduce, distribute, modify, or create derivative works from any Practice Pad materials without express written permission.
• Your Clinical Content: You own the clinical notes, handwritten content, assessment records, and documents you generate using Practice Pad. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of your clinical content to Practice Pad Technologies LLC. You grant Practice Pad Technologies LLC only the limited right to process and store that content as necessary to deliver the Services.
• Community Template Contributions: If you contribute templates to the Practice Pad Community Template Library (Pro tier), you represent and warrant that: (a) you own or have the right to contribute the template; (b) the template does not infringe any third-party copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property right; (c) the template does not contain client PHI or any individually identifiable health information; and (d) the template complies with your licensing board's guidelines on clinical documentation. By contributing a template, you grant Practice Pad Technologies LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to display, distribute, and make that template available to other Practice Pad users.
• DMCA Notice and Takedown: If you believe that content available through Practice Pad (including Community Template Library content) infringes your copyright, please send a DMCA-compliant notice to support@practicepadapp.com with the subject line "DMCA Notice." Your notice must include: (a) a description of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed; (b) a description of the allegedly infringing material and where it appears; (c) your contact information; (d) a statement that you have a good faith belief that the use is not authorized; (e) a statement under penalty of perjury that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the owner's behalf; and (f) your physical or electronic signature. Upon receiving a valid DMCA notice, we will respond expeditiously to remove or disable access to the allegedly infringing material.

Clinical Outcomes Disclaimer: Assessment scores generated by Practice Pad (PHQ-9, GAD-7, PCL-5, ACE, C-SSRS) are computational outputs based on client-provided responses and established scoring algorithms. Practice Pad does not provide clinical advice, diagnoses, treatment recommendations, or clinical supervision. All clinical decisions — including interpretations of assessment scores and determinations of appropriate care — remain entirely within your professional judgment as the licensed clinician of record. Practice Pad Technologies LLC expressly disclaims any liability arising from clinical decisions made in reliance on assessment scores or other outputs generated by the app.

15. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms of Service as Practice Pad evolves. For material changes — those that meaningfully affect your rights or obligations — we will provide at least 30 days' advance notice before the change takes effect. Notice will be delivered via the email address associated with your account and/or via a notice within the app.

Material changes include, but are not limited to: changes to pricing, changes to BAA requirements, changes to data handling practices, or changes to the dispute resolution process. Non-material changes (such as clarifications or formatting corrections) may be made without advance notice. The "Effective Date" at the top of this page will always reflect the date of the most recent update. Continued use of Practice Pad after the effective date of a material change constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms.

16. Force Majeure & Third-Party Service Dependency

Practice Pad integrates with Google Workspace APIs (Drive, Sheets, Calendar, Forms) to deliver Cloud and Pro tier functionality. As a result, certain features of the app depend on the availability, reliability, and continuity of Google's third-party services, which are outside of Practice Pad's control.

Practice Pad Technologies LLC shall not be liable for any delay, failure, or degradation of service arising from: Google API outages, deprecation of Google Workspace features or API versions, changes to Google's terms of service or OAuth policies, acts of God, natural disasters, governmental actions, internet infrastructure failures, cyberattacks on third-party infrastructure, or any other cause beyond our reasonable control.

In the event of a prolonged Google API outage or material change to Google Workspace services that impairs Practice Pad functionality, we will communicate the situation to users via email and/or in-app notification and take reasonable steps to restore service or provide guidance on alternative workflows. Your offline-first data — encrypted locally on your device — is unaffected by Google API outages, and notes captured during any such outage will sync when connectivity is restored. Subscription fees will not be prorated or refunded for outages caused by force majeure events or third-party service disruptions, except where required by applicable law.

17. General Provisions

• Your Content & Intellectual Property: You own the clinical notes, handwritten content, and documents you generate using Practice Pad. Practice Pad Technologies LLC owns the exclusive rights to the app's code, design, features, name, and branding. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of your clinical content to us, nor does it transfer our intellectual property to you.
• Community Templates: If you contribute templates to the Practice Pad Community Template Library (Pro tier), you grant Practice Pad Technologies LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to display and distribute those templates to other Practice Pad users. You retain ownership of contributed content. You represent that any templates you contribute do not contain client PHI and comply with your licensing board's guidelines.
• No Clinical Advice: Practice Pad does not provide clinical advice, supervision, or consultation. Clinical decisions — including those informed by assessment scores generated by the app — remain entirely within your professional judgment as the licensed clinician of record.
• Severability & Waiver: If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect. Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be considered a waiver of those rights.
• Entire Agreement: These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any executed Business Associate Agreement, constitute the entire agreement between you and Practice Pad Technologies LLC regarding the Service and supersede all prior agreements or understandings on these subjects.
• Assignment: You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign our rights and obligations (including in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets) with 30 days' notice to you. Any assignment by Practice Pad Technologies LLC — including to an acquirer or successor entity — is conditioned on the assignee assuming all Business Associate obligations under any executed BAA in accordance with 45 CFR § 164.504(e). An assignment that would result in a successor entity that cannot or will not honor existing BAA obligations is not permitted. In the event of an acquisition or asset sale, we will notify you of the successor entity's identity and HIPAA compliance status as part of the required 30-day notice.