BDO PORTAL – BDO USER

BDO User Terms OF USE:

The BDO Portal web site (the “BDO Portal”) is an online collaboration space, available 24/7, designed to assist our clients in meeting the business challenges they face by connecting them with the knowledge and expertise of the BDO professionals and to assist the BDO professionals in serving our clients better.

About BDO

BDO is an international network of independent public accounting, tax and advisory firms (the “BDO Network”), which perform professional services under the name of BDO (each a “Member Firm” or “BDO Member Firm”). BDO International Limited (“BDOI”) is a UK company limited by guarantee. It is the governing entity of the BDO Network.
Each of BDOI and the Member Firms is a separate legal entity and has no liability for another such entity's acts or omissions. Nothing in the arrangements or rules of the BDO Network shall constitute or imply an agency relationship or a partnership between BDOI and the Member Firms.

BDOI provides no client services. Services are provided solely by the BDO Member Firms in their respective geographic areas.

Ownership

The BDO Portal is protected under the copyright laws of all countries which are signatories to the Berne Convention or the Universal Copyright Convention. No part of it may be copied without the prior written consent of Stichting BDO. All rights are reserved.

The BDO Portal is made available to Member Firms by Brussels Worldwide Services BVBA, on behalf of Stichting BDO and the BDO Network (individually or all together referred to hereinafter as “BDO”, “we” or “us” as the context requires).

Scope and License of use

The BDO Portal is intended for the sole use of (i) partners, principals, directors and employees of BDO Member Firms (“BDO Professionals”) and (ii) persons expressly authorised by a BDO Member Firm to use the BDO Portal.  Persons falling in either categories (i) or (ii) are hereinafter referred to together as “BDO Users”.  Further references below to “you”, “yourself”, or “your” shall be applicable to you as a BDO User provided that you fall into one of those two categories. The use of the BDO Portal is governed in all respects by the Member Firm Licence.

For the purposes of these Terms of Use (“MF Terms”), a BDO Member Firm is a firm that has entered into a Member Firm Licence agreement with BDO IP Limited and is at the moment of the use of the  of the BDO Portal by you still bound to the terms of that Member Firm Licence.

By virtue of a Member Firm Licence, BDO Member Firms have been granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free licence to use the BDO Software, which includes the BDO Portal, in their Territory for all purposes associated with the provision of Professional Services by BDO Member Firms in their respective Territory and, subject to limitations contained in the Member Firm Licence, outside of their Territory for all purposes ancillary to the provision of Professional Services in or from their respective Territory, as long as such purposes are in accordance with the obligations and responsibilities of the BDO Member Firms, the Member Firm Licence and the Regulations.

Unless defined in this document, all capitalised words used herein shall have the same meaning as in the Member Firm Licence.

Terms of use

By using this BDO Portal, you are agreeing to these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, then you are not allowed to use this BDO Portal and should immediately terminate such usage.

If you are not a BDO User, you must stop using the BDO Portal immediately.

These MF Terms are different to the terms of use for clients of your Member Firm, which can be found here.

Please read carefully all of these MF Terms and ensure that you do not act in any way which would infringe the obligations of the BDO Member Firm in which you are a BDO Professional or which has authorised you to use the BDO Portal.

The BDO Portal may redirect you to various separate web sites and applications. These MF Terms apply solely to the content on the BDO Portal, and not to each individual web site or application it redirects to. BDO does not bear any responsibility whatsoever for the content, accuracy or security of any web sites or applications that are linked (by way of hyperlink or otherwise) to the BDO Portal.

We may revise these MF Terms of Use at any time in our sole discretion by posting such revised MF Terms at the MF Terms link  (i.e. this page that you are currently viewing) or elsewhere on the BDO Portal. Such revisions shall be effective as to you upon posting, unless explicitly stated by us. It is your responsibility to be aware of any such revised MF Terms by checking this page. Your continued use of the BDO Portal following changes to these MF Terms constitutes your agreement to the revised MF Terms.

Member Firms and BDO Users are wholly responsible for their use of the BDO Portal, and for the user names and passwords allocated (if relevant). Each BDO User shall make use of the BDO Portal only with its own individually allocated user name and password or the user name and password granting access to the BDO Portal. Member Firms and BDO Users shall in no way violate third party intellectual property rights, and shall in no way interfere with or commercially exploit the system of which the BDO Portal forms part except as specifically permitted herein.

BDO and its licensors retain the usage and ownership rights to the BDO Portal and the related technology. You access this BDO Portal using Microsoft SharePoint technology and by using this BDO Portal, you and your Member Firm agree to be bound by their license terms, set out at here, as they may be amended from time to time.

You and your Member Firm will maintain the confidentiality of the content and technology of this BDO Portal using at least the same degree of care as you and your Member Firm use in maintaining your own proprietary and/or confidential information, but in no event using less than a reasonable degree of care.

You and your Member Firm will ensure that all and any copies of this BDO Portal content (printed or electronic) retain and/or reflect any copyright, confidentiality, or other legal notice that appears on or with such material when accessed on this BDO Portal. You and your Member Firm will not copy, download, reproduce, modify or distribute this BDO Portal technology in whole or in part, except as may be expressly permitted elsewhere in writing outside of these MF Terms.

Except as otherwise provided in an applicable agreement with BDO, you and your Member Firm may not engage in any of the following relating to the BDO Portal and/or its contents, nor may you and your Member Firm authorize other parties to do so:

(a) make use of the service for any purpose other than that for which access has been provided,

(b) copy or distribute the BDO Portal or any of its contents,

(c) amend or create an extract of the BDO Portal,

(d) deduce, change or edit source codes relating to the BDO Portal, or

(e) distribute, exploit, transfer or sub-license the BDO Portal or any rights related to it.

If you and/or your Member Firm save information from the BDO Portal on your own computer, server or other storage medium, you and your Member Firm are responsible and accountable for the security, storage and availability of this information.

Access to the BDO Portal

To access the BDO Portal, you may have received from your local Member Firm a user name and a password. The user name and password must be treated confidentially, and they are not transferable.

You and your Member Firm are responsible for the proper usage and security of the Member Firm's hardware and software and of the user certificates giving access to the BDO Portal. You and your Member Firm are prohibited from allowing unauthorized parties access to the BDO Portal. You and your Member Firm are required to use reliable antivirus software before and during use of the BDO Portal. Furthermore, you and your Member Firm may not use the BDO Portal in non-secure environments (such as internet cafés for example).

If you and your Member Firm know or suspect that third parties are, or may become, privy to information concerning the user name or password or that these have been lost, stolen or are missing, you and/or your Member Firm must notify BDO immediately.

If necessary for the proper running of the BDO Portal, your password(s) may be reset from time to time.

Third parties

BDO may engage third parties for the purpose of providing and maintaining the BDO Portal. To the extent that contracted third parties may need to have access to the BDO Portal and also possibly to your or your Member Firm’s information, and with the prior consent of your Member Firm, you and your Member Firm assent to the processing of your and its data. You and your Member Firm hereby authorize BDO and the afore-mentioned third parties contracted by BDO to process all the data provided. Should you or your Member Firm need to obtain authorization from other parties for the processing of any data, you or your Member Firm warrant that you have such authorization.

Liability, indemnification

Although we take commercially reasonable steps to make this BDO Portal useful and secure, this BDO Portal (including all BDO Portal technology, BDO Portal content and other content) is provided as is, without warranty of any kind. Without limiting the foregoing, we do not warrant that this BDO Portal will be secure, error-free, free from viruses or malicious code, or will meet any particular criteria of performance or quality, and we expressly disclaim all implied warranties, including warranties of merchantability, title, and fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security, and accuracy.

BDO is only responsible for damage or costs incurred due to willful intent to cause damage, deception, fraud or willful recklessness on the part of BDO.

Your use of this BDO Portal is at your own risk and you assume full responsibility and risk of loss resulting from your usage, including with respect to loss of service or data. We will not be liable for any damage or costs incurred by you, your Member Firm or by third parties as a result of your use of the BDO Portal, regardless of the reason for such damage or costs, which may include without limitation damage due to: (i) inaccurate or incomplete Client information; (ii) malfunctions, errors, delays or any other deficiencies of the BDO Portal and/or BDO’s means of communication, such as not being able to send, receive, store or change information; (iii) viruses, spyware and other harmful software; (iv) temporary or prolonged denial of access to or shutdown of the BDO Portal for the purposes of maintenance, adjustments or improvements; (v) the alteration, extension or (partial) deletion of the BDO Portal; (vi) any acts or omissions by you, your Member Firm and/or other authorized users in breach of the obligations arising from or in connection with the BDO Portal; or (vii) loss of electricity if you are logged in on the system.

BDO is not responsible or liable for the existence of an operational point-to-point connection between the systems and software owned or used by you and the BDO Portal or the platform on which the BDO Portal runs.

If you use the Single-Sign-On functionality to connect to software applications owned by or licensed to you or the Member Firm, BDO is in no way responsible and/or liable for the content and/or use of the software, software packages or data in question.

Except as stipulated above, BDO is not liable for any loss of turnover, profit or goodwill for any reason whatsoever, even if BDO has been informed of the likelihood of this loss. BDO will endeavour to repair malfunctions reported to BDO by you and/or your Member Firm, except if the cause of the malfunction is attributable to you and/or the Member Firm or to the system and/or software used by you and/or the Member Firm. If you and/or the Member Firm act in breach of the obligations arising from or in connection with the use of the BDO Portal, you and/or the Member Firm will be liable for all the resulting damage and costs incurred by BDO.

The above limitations of liability shall be applicable not only to us but also to each other entity within the BDO Network and to our and their respective personnel.

If any of the above limitations of liability is invalid or unenforceable in any jurisdiction, then (i) in that jurisdiction it shall be re-construed to the maximum effect permitted by law to effect its intent as nearly as possible and the remaining terms shall remain in full force and effect, and (ii) in every other jurisdiction all of these terms shall remain in full force and effect.

Intellectual property

BDO or the third party from which BDO has obtained permits/licences will at all times remain the owner of all the intellectual and other property rights regarding this BDO Portal.

This BDO Portal contains material which is owned by or licensed to your Member Firm. This material includes, but is not limited to, any features developed or provided by your Member Firm, including, but not limited to, analytics, insights, CRM connectivity, as well as users, clients and projects lists.

You may not publish information relating to the BDO Portal or operate or otherwise use the BDO Portal with the aid of third parties or on your own in a manner (including but not limited to storing or reproducing all or part of the BDO Portal on another internet page or inserting links, hyperlinks or deep links between the BDO Portal and any other internet page) for which no prior written permission has been obtained from BDO.

Force majeure

BDO is not obliged to meet any obligation it is unable to meet due to force majeure. Force majeure is understood to include shortcomings by third parties engaged by BDO as well as disruptions to or failures in the electricity supply and/or telecommunications systems.

Property rights

You may link to this BDO Portal provided that such link does not involve unauthorized use of the BDO Portal, or of our logos; any false claims (actual or implied) of endorsement by, or other relationship with BDO; or any other infringement of our trademarks, copyright and/or other intellectual property rights.

This BDO Portal contains material which is owned by or licensed to us. This material includes, but is not limited to, the design, layout, look, appearance and graphics. Reproduction is prohibited other than in accordance with the copyright notice, which forms part of these Terms of Use. You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other web site or other form of electronic retrieval system.

Evidence

Data extracts from BDO’s computer and other systems will provide sufficient evidence of any and all use of the BDO Portal and any and all instructions, guidelines and other communications between BDO and you and/or your Member Firm. Evidence to the contrary may be submitted only in the event of clear errors in the data extracts from BDO’s computer and other systems. The use of login data for the BDO Portal provides sufficient proof of the identity of the authorized user.

Applicable law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Kingdom of Jordan.  The Jordanian courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction to resolve any disputes arising out of these Terms.

For any further information or questions regarding these Terms, please send us an email at it@bdo.com.jo