Version 1.0. Effective October 19, 2026.

Authority All Access (AAA) Terms and Conditions

Version 1.0. Effective Monday, October 19, 2026.

Authority All Access ("AAA") is a system owned and operated by Fireplace and Chimney Authority, Inc., an Illinois corporation ("FPCA"). These Terms and Conditions (these "Terms") apply to everyone who uses AAA. The current version is always available at https://timeclock.fpcail.com/terms, and this version is kept at https://timeclock.fpcail.com/terms/v1.0.

The Short Version

This summary is here to help you read the Terms. The full Terms below control.

1. Who These Terms Cover and What AAA Includes

1.1 Owner and operator. AAA is owned and operated by FPCA. AAA is a product of FPCA. It is not a separate company.

1.2 Your Employer. In these Terms, "Employer" means the company that employs you. That is FPCA or one of the affiliated companies of Fireplace and Chimney Authority. Your Employer is responsible for your pay, your timekeeping records, and your personnel records. FPCA operates the AAA system on your Employer's behalf.

1.3 Who may use AAA. AAA is available only to current employees of FPCA and of the affiliated companies of Fireplace and Chimney Authority who have been given access. It is not available to contractors, temporary workers, staffing agency workers, interns, or customers.

1.4 What AAA includes. These Terms apply to every part of AAA, including:

The Operations Center is run on a separate platform. When you reach it through AAA, these Terms apply to your use of it, together with any additional rules that system shows you.

1.5 Employees of affiliated companies. If your Employer is one of the affiliated companies of Fireplace and Chimney Authority, you use only the AAA time clock. Your time clock records are kept separate from FPCA's records. Payroll reports for your Employer go only to the people who handle your Employer's payroll, and they never include another company's employee data.

1.6 Where AAA is used. AAA users work in Illinois, and time clock punches are accepted only at approved Company locations in Illinois. "Approved Company locations" means the work locations your Employer has approved for time clock punches.

1.7 Privacy Notice. The Authority All Access (AAA) Privacy Notice, available at https://timeclock.fpcail.com/privacy, explains in more detail what information AAA collects, why it is collected, who can see it, how long it is kept, and how it is protected.

2. Not a Contract of Employment

2.1 These Terms are rules for using AAA. They are not a contract of employment and do not promise employment for any period of time. Unless you have a separate written employment agreement signed by you and an authorized officer of your Employer that says otherwise, your employment is at-will. This means you or your Employer may end the employment relationship at any time, with or without cause or notice.

2.2 These Terms do not create any contractual right to a particular job, schedule, pay rate, benefit, or disciplinary process. Statements in these Terms about how AAA works and how data is handled describe the Employer's current practices and are accurate as of the effective date. The Employer may change them only as described in Section 18.

3. Order of Precedence

3.1 If these Terms conflict with another source, the following order controls, from highest to lowest:

3.2 These Terms are not an "entire agreement." They do not replace or cancel any other agreement, offer letter, handbook, or written policy. They cover only the use of AAA.

3.3 "Employee Handbook and Workplace Policies" means your Employer's written handbook of employment policies and the related written policies your Employer issues and makes available to you, as each is in effect from time to time. Until your Employer issues its Employee Handbook and Workplace Policies, the timekeeping and pay rules that apply to you are those your Employer has given you in writing or posted at your work location.

4. Accepting These Terms

4.1 Portal and administrator users. The first time you sign in to AAA, and after any material change to these Terms, the full Terms are shown to you before you can reach any other page. To continue, you must check the box confirming that you have read and agree to these Terms and then select "Accept and continue." The box is never checked for you. You can download or print a copy from that screen, and a "Terms" link is available at the bottom of AAA pages at all times.

4.2 Time clock kiosk users. The first time you enter your PIN at the kiosk, and after any material change to these Terms, the kiosk shows the Time Clock Terms summary (Section 22) with a link to these full Terms. To accept, you select the agreement option on that screen.

4.3 One grace punch at the kiosk. If you do not accept at the kiosk when asked, the kiosk will still record that one punch so your time is not lost, and an administrator will be notified. The kiosk will not accept your next punch until you accept the current Terms.

4.4 If you decline. If you decline these Terms or cannot accept them, contact Adam McMahon right away at adam@authorityhearth.com or 630-279-8500. All time you actually work will be recorded and paid, and Adam McMahon will work with you to resolve the issue. You will not be penalized for asking questions about these Terms.

4.5 Electronic signature and records. Checking the box and selecting "Accept and continue," or selecting the agreement option at the kiosk, is your electronic signature. It has the same effect as signing a paper copy. The Employer keeps a record of each acceptance and each decline, including your name or employee ID, the version you were shown, a digital checksum that identifies the exact text of that version, the date and time, where you accepted (portal, scheduler, administrator dashboard, or kiosk), and the device and network information of the device used.

5. Your Account, PIN, and Security

5.1 Use only your own credentials. Use only your own account, password, and PIN. Do not share, lend, write down where others can see, or post your PIN or password. Do not use anyone else's account or PIN.

5.2 Never punch for someone else. Do not punch in, out, or for lunch for another person, and do not ask or allow anyone to punch for you. This is often called "buddy punching."

5.3 Report problems right away. Tell Adam McMahon right away if you think someone else knows your PIN or password, if a device you use for work is lost or stolen, or if you see anything that looks like unauthorized access to AAA or to customer or employee information.

5.4 Personal accounts. The Employer will never ask you for the username, password, or other access to your personal online accounts, such as personal email or social media. Do not provide that information if anyone asks for it in the Employer's name.

5.5 Security protections. AAA uses security measures such as temporary lockouts after repeated wrong PINs or passwords and automatic sign-out after inactivity. Do not try to get around them.

5.6 Data security. The Employer uses reasonable security measures to protect personal information in AAA. If a security breach involves your personal information, the Employer will notify you as required by the Illinois Personal Information Protection Act.

6. Recording Your Time

6.1 Rules come from the Employee Handbook and Workplace Policies. Your schedule, pay rules, meal and rest periods, overtime, and the process for fixing punches are set by your Employer's Employee Handbook and Workplace Policies and other written policies. They are not set by these Terms.

6.2 Record all time worked. You must accurately record all time you work using the time clock, at an approved Company location, yourself.

6.3 No off-the-clock work. Do not work off the clock. This includes answering work calls or messages, using AAA, or uploading job photos or documents after you have punched out or before you have punched in. If you need to do work while you are not punched in, contact Adam McMahon so that the time is recorded and paid.

6.4 No one may ask you to work off the clock. No supervisor, administrator, or other employee may ask, pressure, or allow you to work without recording the time.

6.5 Report errors right away. If you miss a punch, punch incorrectly, or believe your recorded time is wrong for any reason, report it right away under your Employer's Employee Handbook and Workplace Policies, or to Adam McMahon. Every correction is recorded with a note in the time clock's audit log.

6.6 All time worked will be paid. All time you actually work will be paid as required by law, whether or not it was recorded correctly at first.

6.7 No retaliation. The Employer will not retaliate against you for reporting time that was not recorded or paid, for reporting a request to work off the clock, or for raising any other concern about timekeeping or pay.

7. What the Time Clock Collects

7.1 When you use the time clock, the following information is collected:

7.2 What is not collected or tracked.

7.3 Alerts. The time clock sends alerts to administrators about events such as late punches, a punch out without a punch in, camera failures, and attempts to punch from outside an approved Company location.

8. No Biometric Data

8.1 Photos do not collect biometric data.

8.2 AAA and the time clock do not collect, capture, store, use, or share biometric identifiers or biometric information. There are no fingerprints, no face scans, no face geometry, no face recognition or face matching, no face analysis of any kind, no iris or retina scans, no voiceprints, and no hand scans.

8.3 Punch photos are ordinary photographs. They are not analyzed by any software. They are used only so that a person can look at them to confirm who made a punch and to look into time clock problems. Punch photos are never used for marketing.

8.4 If the Employer ever decides to collect biometric identifiers or biometric information, it will first publish a written retention and destruction policy, give you written notice of what will be collected, why, and for how long, and obtain your separate written release, as required by the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. That would be done in a separate document, not through a change to these Terms.

9. Monitoring of Company Systems

9.1 Company systems may be monitored. The Employer may monitor, log, review, and keep records of activity on all company systems, accounts, and devices for legitimate business purposes. This includes AAA, company email and other company accounts (including @fpcail.com accounts), company files and shared folders, and company-owned devices. Business purposes include security, payroll accuracy, compliance with law, investigations, and protecting customer and company information.

9.2 No expectation of privacy on company systems. You should not expect privacy in anything you create, send, receive, or store using company systems or accounts.

9.3 What is not monitored. The Employer does not monitor your personal accounts or the personal content on your personal phone. The Employer does not gather or keep records of your associations, political activities, or non-employment activities, except as permitted by the Illinois Personnel Record Review Act. Nothing in these Terms limits your lawful off-duty use of lawful products.

10. Acceptable Use

10.1 Use AAA only for work for your Employer. When using AAA, you must not:

10.2 Discipline. Violating these Terms, including buddy punching, sharing a PIN or password, falsifying time records, or trying to get around time clock controls, may lead to discipline, up to and including termination of employment, consistent with at-will employment.

11. Confidential Information

11.1 What is confidential. Information in AAA belongs to the Employer or its customers and is confidential. This includes customer names, addresses, phone numbers, and job notes; photos of customer homes; pricing, discounts, dealer costs, and catalog data; estimates; schedules; reports; and vendor and supplier terms.

11.2 How to handle it. Use confidential information only to do your job. Do not share it with anyone outside your Employer, or post it on personal social media, except as your job requires or as allowed in Section 12.

11.3 When employment ends. When your employment ends, or whenever the Employer asks, return all company property and delete confidential information from any personal device or personal account, including job photos stored on your personal phone. Your duties under this Section 11 continue after your employment ends.

12. Your Protected Rights

12.1 Nothing in these Terms limits or prohibits you from:

You do not need the Employer's permission to do any of these things, and you do not need to tell the Employer that you have done them.

12.2 Trade secret immunity notice. Under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. 1833(b), you will not be held criminally or civilly liable under any federal or state trade secret law for disclosing a trade secret (a) in confidence to a federal, state, or local government official, directly or indirectly, or to an attorney, solely for the purpose of reporting or investigating a suspected violation of law, or (b) in a complaint or other document filed under seal in a lawsuit or other proceeding. If you file a lawsuit for retaliation for reporting a suspected violation of law, you may disclose the trade secret to your attorney and use it in the court proceeding if you file any document containing the trade secret under seal and do not disclose the trade secret except under court order.

13. Using Your Personal Phone

13.1 Required use. Your Employer requires employees who use the job photos app or the Document Submission Form to use their personal phone for those tasks.

13.2 Your phone stays yours. Your phone remains your property, and you are responsible for it. To protect company and customer information on it, you must:

13.3 What the Employer will not do. The Employer will not access your personal content, such as personal photos, messages, or accounts. The Employer does not install device management software on your personal phone and does not track your phone's location. Photos you upload through the job photos app or the Document Submission Form may include information your phone's camera adds automatically, such as the date and location the photo was taken. You can control this in your phone's camera settings.

13.4 Reimbursement. As required by the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act (820 ILCS 115/9.5), your Employer will reimburse necessary expenditures and losses you incur within the scope of your employment that are directly related to services performed for your Employer, including necessary costs of using your personal phone for work. To request reimbursement, send Adam McMahon the request with supporting documentation, such as a bill or receipt, within 30 calendar days after you incur the expense, unless a written policy of your Employer allows more time. If you cannot provide supporting documentation, you may submit a signed statement describing the expense instead. If your Employer adopts a written expense reimbursement policy that sets a reasonable reimbursement amount, that policy will apply. As provided by that law, your Employer is not responsible for losses due to your own negligence, losses due to normal wear, or losses due to theft unless the theft was the result of your Employer's negligence.

14. Company Equipment

14.1 Kiosk tablets and all other company-provided devices and equipment belong to the Employer or FPCA. Use them only for work, handle them with reasonable care, and report damage, loss, or malfunction to Adam McMahon right away. Do not change a kiosk tablet's settings, location permissions, or camera.

14.2 No wage deductions. Nothing in these Terms authorizes any deduction from your wages. No deduction will be made from your wages for lost or damaged equipment or for any other reason unless permitted by law, which for most deductions requires your express written consent given freely at the time the deduction is made.

15. Work Product and Photos

15.1 Records, documents, estimates, reports, and job photos that you create in the course of your work belong to your Employer.

15.2 Job photos may be used by your Employer for business and marketing purposes, in a way that respects customer privacy.

15.3 Punch photos are never used for marketing. They are used only as described in Section 8.3.

16. Who Can See Time Clock Data

16.1 Only the following may access punch data and punch photos:

16.2 Service providers. AAA runs on technology service providers that host, store, secure, and deliver AAA and its data on the Employer's behalf. They may access data only as needed to provide those services.

16.3 Legal requirements. The Employer may also disclose information when required by law, subpoena, or court order, or to a government agency with authority to request it.

16.4 Administrator and supervisor duties. Anyone with administrator or supervisor access in AAA must:

17. Data Retention and Your Records

17.1 Retention periods.

Any of these records may be kept longer when the law requires it or when the Employer must preserve them for an investigation, legal claim, or government inquiry. In that case, they are deleted when the requirement ends.

17.2 Personnel records. Punch history, time corrections and their notes, and punch photos tied to you may be part of your personnel records.

17.3 Requesting your records. You may ask to inspect or receive a copy of your time records and personnel records by sending a written or emailed request to Adam McMahon at adam@authorityhearth.com. Under the Illinois Personnel Record Review Act, you may do this at least twice in each calendar year. Your Employer will respond within 7 working days after receiving your request. If your Employer cannot meet that deadline despite good faith efforts, it may take up to 7 more working days and will tell you. If you ask for copies, your Employer may charge only the actual cost of duplicating them. You may also ask Adam McMahon to review a time record you believe is wrong at any time.

18. Changes to These Terms

18.1 Versions. Each version of these Terms has a version number and an effective date. A published version is never edited. Changes are made by publishing a new version. Earlier versions are kept and remain available at https://timeclock.fpcail.com/terms followed by the version number, for example https://timeclock.fpcail.com/terms/v1.0.

18.2 Material changes. If the Employer makes a material change to these Terms, you will be notified at your next sign-in or PIN entry with a summary of what changed and a link to the full new version. Where practical, the Employer will also give advance notice by email to your company email address or by notice in AAA. You must accept the new version to continue using AAA, subject to the one grace punch described in Section 4.3. A material change does not apply to you until you accept it.

18.3 Non-material changes. Changes that do not affect your rights or duties, such as fixing typos, improving formatting, or updating a web address, may be published as a new version without asking you to accept again. They are posted at the current Terms address.

18.4 Change of web address. The Employer plans to move AAA, including these Terms, to aaa.fpcail.com. When that happens, the Employer will give notice in AAA, and the same Terms will be available at https://aaa.fpcail.com/terms, with earlier versions at the same path followed by the version number. Moving the address alone is a non-material change.

18.5 No annual re-acceptance. You will be asked to accept these Terms again only after a material change.

19. Suspension and Ending Access

19.1 Your Employer may suspend or limit your access to AAA, or any part of it, to investigate suspected misuse, to protect security, or to fix a technical problem. If your access to the time clock is suspended, contact Adam McMahon right away. All time you actually work will still be recorded and paid.

19.2 Your access to AAA ends when your employment ends. Your final punches, final pay, and records are handled as required by law and as described in these Terms.

20. Use of Artificial Intelligence

20.1 The Employer does not use artificial intelligence to make or assist with decisions about hiring, discipline, discharge, promotion, scheduling, pay, or any other term or condition of employment.

20.2 If the Employer decides to use artificial intelligence for any of those purposes, it will give you notice before that use begins, as required by the Illinois Human Rights Act.

21. General Terms

21.1 Governing law. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois and applicable federal law.

21.2 No waiver of rights. These Terms do not contain, and are not, an arbitration agreement, a waiver of any right to a jury trial, a release of any claim, a non-compete agreement, a non-solicitation agreement, or an authorization for any wage deduction. Nothing in these Terms waives any right you have under federal, state, or local law.

21.3 Severability. If any part of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest of these Terms remains in effect, and the unenforceable part will be applied to the fullest extent the law allows.

21.4 Help reading these Terms. If you would like help reading or understanding these Terms, or a translation into another language, contact Adam McMahon. If you need a disability-related accommodation to use AAA or to review these Terms, contact Adam McMahon.

21.5 Notices. Notices to you about these Terms are given in AAA, at the time clock kiosk, or by email to your company email address. Notices from you to your Employer about these Terms must be sent by email to Adam McMahon at adam@authorityhearth.com.

22. Time Clock Terms (Kiosk Summary)

The following summary is shown at the time clock kiosk the first time you enter your PIN and after any material change. It summarizes these Terms. The full Terms control.

Time Clock Terms

Before you punch, please read and agree to these time clock rules.

Full Terms: https://timeclock.fpcail.com/terms

Questions or need help or a translation? Adam McMahon, adam@authorityhearth.com, 630-279-8500.

I have read and agree to the Authority All Access (AAA) Terms and Conditions, Version 1.0, including these Time Clock Terms.

Buttons: "I agree" and "Not now." Selecting "Not now" records that one punch under Section 4.3.

23. Acceptance Statement

The following statement and checkbox appear on the AAA acceptance screen:

I have read and agree to the Authority All Access (AAA) Terms and Conditions, Version 1.0, effective October 19, 2026. I understand that checking this box and selecting "Accept and continue" is my electronic signature.

Buttons: "Accept and continue" and "Decline." The "Accept and continue" button works only after the box is checked.

24. Contact

For any question about these Terms, privacy, time clock problems, personnel records, reimbursement, or accommodations, contact:

Adam McMahon

Email: adam@authorityhearth.com

Phone: 630-279-8500

Authority All Access (AAA) Terms and Conditions, Version 1.0, effective October 19, 2026. Owned and operated by Fireplace and Chimney Authority, Inc., an Illinois corporation.