Every private business in South Africa needs a PAIA manual, and most of your clients probably do not have one. If you build websites for South African businesses, that is both a service gap and a chance to earn extra income. Here is how it works.
What is a PAIA manual?
PAIA is the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000. Section 51 requires a private business to compile a manual that explains what records it holds and how a member of the public can ask for them. Since POPIA came into force, the manual must also describe how the business processes personal information.
The manual is not sent to the Information Regulator automatically. It must be available on request and, if the business has a website, it should be published there, usually on a page linked from the footer next to the privacy policy.
Who needs one?
Companies, close corporations, partnerships and sole proprietors, whatever their size. The temporary exemption that covered many small businesses ended on 31 December 2021. If a business holds records of any kind, assume it needs a manual unless an attorney advises otherwise.
How to produce one in an afternoon
- Send your client a questionnaire that collects the business details, the Information Officer, the records held and the personal information it processes. Allow 30 to 45 minutes.
- Check the answers for gaps and get the owner’s input on anything marked “Not sure”.
- Give the completed answers to an AI assistant with a drafting prompt that flags every gap instead of guessing.
- Review the draft, fix the open items and repeat until none are left.
- Ask the owner to read and approve it, ideally with an attorney review.
- Publish it on the client’s website and diarise a yearly review.
What to charge
These are the fees we suggest, and you can adjust them for your own clients:
| Service | Suggested fee |
|---|---|
| Basic manual (sole trader or small company, no employees, few systems) | R1 500 to R3 000 |
| Standard manual (employees, several cloud tools, or cross-border storage) | R3 000 to R5 000 |
| Annual review with no changes | R750 to R1 200 |
| Annual review with updates | R1 200 to R2 000 |
The yearly review is the part that builds recurring income. A manual should be reviewed at least once a year and whenever something material changes, such as a new Information Officer, a new address, a new cloud tool or a new country where data is stored.
A note on legal advice
A PAIA manual drafted this way is a template based on the client’s own answers. It is not legal advice, and the client remains responsible for its accuracy. For businesses that handle sensitive information or have employees, we recommend an attorney review.
Get the free toolkit
We built the process above for our own client work, and we have packaged it for other web designers. The free PAIA manual toolkit includes the step-by-step guide, an eight-section client questionnaire in PDF and Word, and three AI prompts that draft, review and fix the manual.
Get the free PAIA manual toolkit
If you are a business owner and would rather have someone prepare your PAIA manual for you, get in touch. You can also read our earlier guide, How to Get a PAIA Manual for Your Website.