Bookvue

Privacy policy

Effective 1 October 2026

Bookvue is point of sale, stock, invoicing, banking and bookkeeping software for South African businesses. This policy covers the website at bookvue.co.za and the Bookvue apps for iPhone and Android. It explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and what you can ask us to do with it under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

Who we are

Bookvue is the responsible party for your account information. For anything in this policy, write to privacy@bookvue.co.za.

For the business records you keep in Bookvue (your customers, sales, invoices and books), your business is the responsible party and we process that information on its behalf, only to provide the service.

What we collect

  • Your account: your name, email address, mobile number, a hashed password (never the password itself), and your role in your business.
  • Your business's records: what you and your team enter or import: business details (name, address, VAT and tax numbers, banking details for invoices), products, stock, sales, invoices and payments, customers and suppliers, expenses, bank statement lines, and the journal entries all of these post to.
  • Sign-in and security: one-time codes we send you, the time of each sign-in, and the IP address and device description (user agent) of each signed-in session, so we can show and end sessions and detect abuse.
  • Errors: when something fails on our servers, an error report with the request that failed, so we can fix it.

The apps do not use advertising, analytics or tracking SDKs, do not track you across other companies' apps or websites, and do not access your location, contacts, camera or photos. The apps keep your sign-in token in the phone's secure storage (the iOS Keychain or Android Keystore).

Why we use it

  • To provide the service: sign you in, keep your business's books, and show them to the people in your business you invite.
  • To keep accounts secure: sending sign-in codes, limiting repeated attempts, and ending sessions.
  • To fix faults and keep the service running.
  • To meet legal obligations, including keeping accounting records for as long as the law requires.

We do not sell personal information and we do not use it for advertising.

Who we share it with

Only the service providers we need to run Bookvue. Each may use it only to provide its service to us, and must protect it to the same standard as this policy and POPIA require:

  • SMSPortal and WhatsApp (Meta): your mobile number and a one-time code, when you ask for a code by SMS or WhatsApp.
  • ZeptoMail (Zoho): your name and email address, and the content of the emails we send you, such as sign-up codes, password resets and team invitations.
  • Sentry: error reports from our servers, which can include the details of the request that failed.
  • Our hosting provider: the servers and database Bookvue runs on.

Some of these providers process information outside South Africa. Where they do, we rely on the protections POPIA section 72 requires. We disclose information to authorities only when the law obliges us to.

When you share an invoice or receipt from Bookvue, for example on WhatsApp or by print, you choose who receives it. That sharing happens in the app you choose, under its own privacy policy.

How long we keep it

  • Your account information: until you delete your account.
  • Sign-in codes: until they are used or expire, within minutes.
  • Your business's accounting records: for as long as the business uses Bookvue, and then for 5 years, because South African tax and company law requires accounting records to be kept for that long.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the Bookvue app (More, then Delete account) or by writing to privacy@bookvue.co.za. How account deletion works explains exactly what is erased and what the business's books keep.

Your rights

Under POPIA you may ask what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, and object to how we use it. Write to privacy@bookvue.co.za. We will answer within 30 days. You can change your name and number yourself in your profile.

If you are not satisfied with our answer, you may complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za.

Security

All traffic to Bookvue is encrypted in transit. Passwords are stored only as bcrypt hashes. Each business's records are separated from every other business's on every request. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your information, we will tell you and the Information Regulator as POPIA section 22 requires.

Children

Bookvue is business software for adults. It is not meant for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect children's information.

Changes

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top and, for a significant change, tell account holders before it takes effect.