Terms of Service
In short: Hero Pay Audit checks your paycheck against your contract and shows its math. It is a calculator, not a lawyer, union representative, tax, or financial advisor, and it is in early access and can be wrong, so verify before you act. Paid plans renew automatically until you cancel, and you can cancel online at any time. If you have an account, disputes are decided by individual arbitration unless you opt out within 30 days (section 20). This summary is for convenience; the full Terms below control.
1. Agreement
These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and Hero Audit LLC, a California limited liability company ("we," "us"), which operates Hero Pay Audit. They cover heropayaudit.com, the Hero Pay Audit app, and its free calculators (together, the "Service"). By checking the box to accept these Terms, creating an account, or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
If you have an account, these Terms include a binding arbitration agreement and a class action waiver in section 20. You can opt out of them within 30 days, as section 20 explains.
2. Who can use the Service
You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a binding contract. The Service is for auditing your own pay. You must give accurate information about yourself and your position.
3. What the Service does
You tell the Service about your department and position and provide your paystub. The Service uses artificial intelligence to read contracts and paystubs into structured data, then applies your contract's pay rules with fixed calculations. It produces a report showing which pay lines appear to match the contract, which appear to differ, and which could not be checked.
Reports are drafts for your review. We do not contact your employer or union, file anything, or act on your behalf. The FLSA Overtime Calculator and Promotion Pay Calculator produce estimates only.
4. Not legal, tax, or financial advice
The Service is a calculation tool. We are not a law firm, a union representative, an accountant, or a financial advisor, and using the Service does not create an attorney-client, fiduciary, or representation relationship.
Applying a contract involves judgment. Side letters, past practice, grievance settlements, arbitration awards, contract amendments, and payroll rules can change how a provision applies, and the Service does not know about them unless they appear in the contract text it read. A result such as "Possible underpayment detected" or "worth asking" means the arithmetic suggests a question worth raising. It is not a finding that you are owed money.
The calculations, summaries, and outputs generated by the Service are for informational utility purposes only. They do not constitute formal legal interpretations of labor contracts, official union grievance advice, or certified financial auditing.
4A. Early access
The Service is in an early-access stage. It is still being developed and tested, and it may contain errors, including errors in how artificial intelligence reads contracts and paystubs, errors in calculations, and interruptions or loss of saved settings. Features may change or be removed without notice. Treat every result as preliminary, verify it as described in section 5 before you rely on it, and do not use a result on its own as the basis for a grievance, complaint, or accusation against anyone. Sections 15 (disclaimer of warranties) and 16 (limitation of liability) apply fully to early-access features. We will tell you when the Service leaves early access.
5. You are responsible for verifying results
The accuracy of a report depends on whether your contract was read correctly, whether your department's pay tables are right, whether your answers (such as rank, step, service start date, bonuses, and assignments) are right, and whether your paystub was read correctly. Any of these can be wrong, and AI can misread documents. Some results depend only on your own answers, such as confirming that you qualify for a bonus.
Check every figure against your official records before you rely on it or share it. If you share a report, keep its labels (such as "unverified," "estimate," or "not yet verified") and do not alter it and present it as Hero Pay Audit output.
The Service uses automated text extraction (AI/OCR) to read public-record collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), department policies, and your paystub. Because labor contracts are highly complex and subject to varying interpretations, side agreements, and human errors, we do not guarantee 100% mathematical accuracy.
Not a record-keeping system. The Service is a calculator, not a payroll or wage record system. It does not keep your paystubs or reports, and it is not an official record of your pay. Keep your own copies of your paystubs and of any report you rely on. Your employer's payroll records are the official record of your pay.
6. Deadlines are your responsibility
Contracts and laws set strict deadlines for raising pay disputes. The Service does not track, calculate, or warn you about any deadline, and missing one can end your claim. Contact your union representative or payroll office promptly.
7. Your account: one person per account
You are responsible for keeping your login secure and for activity under your account. Do not share your account.
Each account is for one person's own paychecks. For each department, the first paystub you audit links your account to the name and employee number printed on it. We keep your first initial and last name and coded forms of the name and employee number, not the employee number itself (see our Privacy Policy). A later paystub for that department that matches neither will be refused. An account can audit a limited number of different paychecks each calendar year (currently 60), and document reading is limited per day. Do not try to get around these limits. Each person needs their own subscription unless they are covered by a union or department plan.
8. Subscriptions, free trial, automatic renewal, and cancellation
Plans and prices. The plans, prices, and billing periods are shown on our pricing page and at checkout before you subscribe. Prices do not include any taxes that apply.
Free trial. New members may receive a 14-day free trial. Starting it is free and needs no payment card, and nothing is charged when it ends unless you subscribe. The trial covers up to 3 different paychecks; re-checking the same paycheck does not count. During the trial, each report shows its verdict, the amounts checked and any possible underpayment detected, while the detailed breakdown (line-by-line arithmetic, contract citations, and the FLSA settlement check across paychecks) is available once your paid subscription starts. When the trial ends, your access ends unless you subscribe. If you subscribe during the trial, your card is first charged when the trial would have ended (or that day, if fewer than 72 hours of the trial are left or you choose to start right away), and your subscription then renews automatically until you cancel. You can also subscribe without a trial; your card is then charged that day. One free trial per person; we may decline a trial for a new account we believe belongs to someone who has already had one. A trial you started with a payment card continues as described when you started it: unless you cancel before it ends, your paid subscription starts automatically when it ends and your card is charged the price of the plan you chose, and you can start it early by choosing Unlock now and confirming, in which case your card is charged that day.
Automatic renewal. Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each billing period (every month or every year, depending on your plan), and your payment method is charged the then-current price of your plan, until you cancel.
How to cancel. You can cancel at any time online: sign in, choose Manage or cancel subscription, and cancel. You can also email us at the address below. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current trial or billing period, and you keep access until then (except when you delete your account; see section 18). If you cancel during the free trial, you will not be charged. A free trial with no card on file needs no cancelling: it simply ends.
Refunds. Except as stated in sections 14 and 18, and except where the law requires otherwise, payments are non-refundable and we do not give refunds or credits for partial billing periods. If you were charged after canceling on time, or charged in error, contact us and we will correct it.
Price changes. If we raise the price of your subscription, we will email you at least 7 days and no more than 30 days before the new price takes effect, and tell you how to cancel. The new price applies from your next billing period after that notice. Founding-member price. If you subscribe before January 27, 2027, your price will not increase for as long as your subscription stays active without a lapse. If you cancel and later subscribe again, the price in effect at that time applies.
Reminders. Once a year, we will email you a reminder of your subscription, its price and billing frequency, and how to cancel. For annual plans, this reminder arrives 15 to 45 days before each renewal date and shows the upcoming price and how to cancel before you are charged. We will always tell you by email about any change to your subscription's price or renewal terms.
Payment processing. Payments are processed by Stripe. We do not receive or store your full card number. If a payment fails, we may suspend paid features until it is resolved.
Union and department plans. Memberships paid for by a union or department are governed by a separate agreement with that organization, in addition to these Terms.
9. Department information
Contract rules, pay schedules, rate tables, and paystub label names are stored per department so members do not each have to set them up. This department information is available to users of the Service who have audit access, and the pay schedules and promotion rules of reviewed departments are also used by our free public calculators. A department added by a member is visible only to that member and to us until we review it, and contract text itself is shown only to the department's administrator, the member who added it (while it is unverified), and us. Department information is maintained by department administrators and by us. Do not enter personal information into department information. If personal information is entered into department information, we may remove it, and we may suspend the account that entered it.
Uploading or verifying a contract. If you upload, add, or verify (for example, by confirming that department information matches your contract) a collective bargaining agreement, memorandum of understanding, department policy manual, pay schedule, or other pay-structure rules (together, "Public Labor Documents"), you confirm that you are allowed to share it (union contracts with public employers are generally public records), that it is the correct and current version to the best of your knowledge, and that you have removed any personal information from it. You grant Hero Audit LLC a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully sublicensable, non-exclusive license to host, store, extract, analyze, display, and use those Public Labor Documents, including their full text, and the structural formulas, pay scales, overtime rules, and text parameters contained in them, including through our AI provider, to power, update, and maintain the Service, including our public calculators and the department information shown to other users. This license applies only to the Public Labor Documents and the rules and pay schedules taken from them. It does not apply to your personal or identifiable payroll information, which stays confidential and is handled under our Privacy Policy, including its data minimization terms. This license survives the cancellation of your subscription and the closing of your account. Departments added by members are marked "Not yet verified" until we review them; results for those departments are more cautious, and they are not shown in our public calculators until reviewed.
10. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- upload another person's paystub or pay information;
- use the Service to harass anyone, commit fraud, or make claims you know are false;
- alter a report to remove labels or warnings and present it as Hero Pay Audit output;
- upload malicious files, corrupted data, or documents embedded with viruses designed to disrupt our backend servers;
- access or try to access other users' data, or get around access controls, security, or usage limits;
- submit content designed to interfere with how the Service reads documents;
- copy, scrape, harvest, or reverse engineer the Service, its parsed contract rules and pay schedules, or its calculator results, including from our free calculators, except as the law allows, or use them to build a competing product or dataset; or
- resell the Service or its output commercially without our written permission.
11. Your content
You keep ownership of your paystubs, contracts, and other information you provide ("your content"). You give us permission to process your content to provide the Service, as described in our Privacy Policy and in section 9. Reports generated for you are yours to use. If you send us feedback or suggestions, we may use them without any obligation to you.
Your promises about what you upload. By uploading any document, you represent and warrant that you are its rightful owner or otherwise have the legal right to possess and upload it, and that uploading it does not violate any employment agreement, employer policy, confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement, or anyone else's rights.
Reviewing what we read. Each report's "How we read your paystub" section lists every paystub line as it was read, and you can correct how a line is classified. You can see, change, or remove your saved position at any time.
Test cases. Only with your separate, express permission, we keep a copy of your paystub's pay lines, without your name, Social Security number, address, bank details, employee number, deductions, taxes, or net pay, as a test case to check the Service's accuracy for your department. You can withdraw that permission at any time, and we will delete the test case.
12. Our intellectual property
The Service, including its software, calculation engine, interface, name, logo, features, and the integrations we build, belongs to us and is protected by law. We give you a limited, personal, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Service for your own pay, subject to these Terms.
13. Independence
Hero Pay Audit is independent. It is a private software utility developed by Hero Audit LLC. Hero Audit LLC is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any employer, government agency, fire or police department, union, or association. Names of employers, departments, and unions appear only to identify the contract a member selects. The pay rules and pay schedules in the Service are derived from publicly available, published memorandums of understanding and other public labor documents, and the Service is independently developed and is not officially endorsed by, or partnered with, any employer, union, or agency.
14. Changes to the Service
We may add, change, or remove features, and the Service may sometimes be unavailable. If we discontinue the Service entirely, we will refund the unused portion of any prepaid subscription.
15. Disclaimer of warranties
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SERVICE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE APP, AND ALL CALCULATIONS, ESTIMATES, ALERTS, AND OTHER RESULTS, IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE ERROR-FREE, COMPLETE, RELIABLE, OR UNINTERRUPTED OR THAT ITS CALCULATIONS WILL BE CORRECT, OR THAT IT REFLECTS YOUR CONTRACT OR CURRENT LAW.
16. Limitation of liability
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW: (A) IN NO EVENT SHALL HERO AUDIT LLC, ITS FOUNDERS, MEMBERS, MANAGERS, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS AND AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA, LOST PROFITS, LOSS OF GOODWILL, WORK STOPPAGE, INACCURATE CALCULATIONS, OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, LOSS OF EMPLOYMENT, DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS, PAUSED PROMOTIONS, OR PAYROLL DISPUTES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, OR FOR EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, LOST WAGES, LOST BENEFITS, MISSED DEADLINES, OR OTHER EMPLOYMENT-RELATED HARM, INCLUDING FROM AN INCORRECT REPORT, A MISSED UNDERPAYMENT, A FALSE FINDING, OR ANY ACTION TAKEN OR NOT TAKEN BASED ON ITS OUTPUT; AND (B) THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF HERO AUDIT LLC AND THE PERSONS LISTED IN PART (A) FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE OR $100.
Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for our own fraud, gross negligence, willful misconduct, or violation of law, and nothing in these Terms waives any right you have under a law that cannot be waived by contract.
17. Indemnity
To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify us against claims brought by third parties, and the resulting losses and reasonable attorneys' fees, caused by your violation of these Terms or your misuse of the Service, such as uploading another person's information or presenting an altered report as Hero Pay Audit output.
18. Suspension and termination
You may stop using the Service and cancel your subscription at any time, and you may delete your account in the app or ask us to delete it. When an account is deleted, any active subscription is canceled immediately, and unused time is not refunded. We may suspend or close your account if you violate these Terms, if we reasonably suspect fraud or abuse, if the law requires it, or if payment fails. If we close your account without cause, we will refund the unused portion of any prepaid subscription. These sections survive the end of these Terms: 4, 4A, 5, 6, 8 (amounts owed and refunds), 9 (the license you give us), 10, 11, 12 (our ownership), 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, and 22.
19. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms. For material changes, we will email you at least 14 days before they take effect, unless a change is required by law, and we may ask you to accept the updated Terms before you continue using the Service. If you do not agree, you may cancel before the effective date. We record which version you accepted, when, and the IP address and device or browser information it was accepted from. If we change section 20 after you have accepted it, the change will not apply to a claim that had already arisen, or that either of us knew about, before the change took effect. If we make a material change to section 20, we will tell you in the Service and by email, and you may opt out of the changed section 20 within 30 days after you accept the updated Terms, in the way described in section 20(h), and you may continue to use the Service during those 30 days. If you opt out of a changed section 20, the version of section 20 you accepted before continues to apply. If you have already opted out, your opt-out stays in effect and you do not need to opt out again.
20. Disputes: binding individual arbitration and class action waiver
Please read this section carefully. It affects your legal rights, including your right to go to court and to a jury trial. You can opt out of it within 30 days, as explained in paragraph (h).
(a) Who this section covers. This section applies if you have created an account. If you use only the free calculators without an account, this section does not apply to you, and any dispute will be decided in court as described in paragraph (e).
(b) Informal resolution first. If you have a dispute with us, please email us first at legal@heropayaudit.com; we will try to mutually resolve it informally within 30 days.
(c) Agreement to arbitrate. You and Hero Audit LLC agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms, the Service, or your document uploads will be settled by binding, individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in a court of law. You acknowledge that you are voluntarily waiving your right to a trial by jury. Except as provided in this section 20, the arbitrator shall have exclusive authority to resolve all disputes, including requests for temporary, preliminary, or permanent injunctive relief.
(d) Exceptions. Either of us may instead bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies. Either of us may also ask a court for injunctive relief to stop infringement or misuse of intellectual property, including scraping. Claims for public injunctive relief are handled as described in paragraph (g).
(e) Governing law and place. The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) governs the interpretation and enforcement of this section 20. Otherwise, these Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. The exclusive venue for any arbitration proceeding, and for any court proceeding these Terms allow, is Los Angeles County, California, except where the law gives you the right to bring a claim in a different place.
(f) CLASS ACTION WAIVER. YOU AND HERO AUDIT LLC AGREE THAT EACH PARTY MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, COLLECTIVE, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. THE ARBITRATOR MAY NOT CONSOLIDATE MORE THAN ONE PERSON'S CLAIMS OR PRESIDE OVER ANY FORM OF A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING.
(g) Public injunctive relief. Notwithstanding the above, if you are a California resident and seek public injunctive relief under the California Consumer Privacy Act, the False Advertising Law, the Unfair Competition Law, or the Consumers Legal Remedies Act:
- you and Hero Audit LLC agree that any claim for public injunctive relief will be severed from the arbitration of individual claims for money, damages, or other private remedies;
- the arbitration of all individual claims must be fully completed and resolved before any severed claim for public injunctive relief may be litigated; and
- any severed claim for public injunctive relief will be stayed (paused) until the individual arbitration is finally resolved and will then be heard only by a court of competent jurisdiction in Los Angeles County, California (subject to the exception in paragraph (e)), not by an arbitrator.
(h) Your right to opt out. You have the right to opt out of, and not be bound by, the arbitration agreement and class action waiver in this section. To opt out, email legal@heropayaudit.com with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out" within 30 days after you first accept a version of these Terms that includes this section. Send it from the email address on your account, and include your full name, a clear and explicit statement of your intent to opt out of the arbitration agreement and class action waiver, and your signature (typing your full name at the end of the email counts as your signature). We will confirm, process, and honor your opt-out by reply email within 15 business days of receipt, and we will keep a record of it. An opt-out stays in effect for later versions of these Terms. If you opt out, both you and Hero Audit LLC may pursue disputes in a court of competent jurisdiction in Los Angeles County, California, subject to the exception in paragraph (e). Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms.
(i) Mass filings. If 25 or more similar arbitration demands are filed against Hero Audit LLC by or with the assistance of the same law firm, organization, or group of coordinated attorneys, the AAA Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules apply. The statute of limitations for each of those claims is paused from the date its demand is filed until the AAA assigns it to an arbitrator under those rules.
(j) Rights that cannot be waived. This section does not waive any rights guaranteed under California workers' compensation laws or California laws protecting public-safety employees.
(k) If part of this section is unenforceable. Notwithstanding section 21, if the class action waiver is found unenforceable as to a claim, that claim will be decided by a court in Los Angeles County, California (subject to the exception in paragraph (e)), not in arbitration. If any other part of this section is found unenforceable, the rest of it still applies.
21. General terms
These Terms, our Privacy Policy, any plan terms that apply to you, and any separate consents or permissions you give us in the Service or in writing (such as your automatic-renewal consent, a test-case permission, or the contract-upload confirmation) are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service. If any part is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. Our failure to enforce a term is not a waiver. You may not transfer these Terms; we may transfer them as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of the Service. We are not responsible for delays caused by events beyond our reasonable control. You agree that we may provide agreements, notices, and other communications to you electronically, including by email to your account address.
22. Notice to California users
Under California Civil Code section 1789.3, California users are entitled to the following notice: the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs may be contacted in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210.
23. Contact
Hero Audit LLC · 2108 N St, Ste N, Sacramento, CA 95816 · info@heropayaudit.com · Arbitration opt-out and legal notices: legal@heropayaudit.com