Privacy policy

Last updated 25 September 2026

cent4cent (the operating entity will be named here before the service opens) (“cent4cent”, “we”, “us”) provides personal bookkeeping software at cent4cent.com and the signed-in application (the “Service”). We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles, and with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme. This policy says what we collect, why, where it lives, who else handles it, and what you can ask of us. Questions go to support@cent4cent.com.

1. Who this policy covers

• Visitors to this website.
• Customers: people with an account, and the people they invite to a book (editors, viewers, accountants).
• Other people who appear in a book. Statements name counterparties: a friend who paid you back, a company that owes you money. We hold that information on the customer’s behalf, as the record of their own money, and we use it for nothing else.

2. What we collect

Information you give us

• Account details: an email address and a password, or a sign-in link.
• Your books: the statements you drop (as files and as parsed lines), the notes and answers you write, the figures you give for accounts without statements, the rules the bookkeeper drafts from your answers, and the entries that result.
• Correspondence: what you send us when you write for help.

Information we collect automatically

• Technical and usage data: IP address, browser and device type, pages and screens used, and timestamps, to run, secure and improve the Service. Product analytics record which screens are used and how long a drop takes; they never carry the contents of a book.
• AI run records: for each drop, how many lines were read and what it cost to read them, kept per book for billing and for improving the bookkeeper’s judgement in aggregate. Not the lines themselves.

What we do not collect

• Bank credentials. There is no bank connection of any kind. We never ask for, receive or store a bank login.
• Payment card numbers. Card details are entered directly with Stripe. We hold a reference and the last four digits.
• Sensitive information as the Privacy Act defines it. A statement may incidentally reveal something (a payment to a clinic, a union fee); we do not seek it, categorise on it, or use it for anything but keeping your books.

3. How we use it

• To keep your books: read statements, propose entries, ask questions, remember answers, reconcile accounts, and produce reports.
• To run your account: sign you in, bill the subscription, send statement reminders you have turned on, and answer support requests.
• To keep the Service secure and to improve it, using aggregate usage and AI run records.
• To meet legal obligations, such as tax and accounting records of our own.

We do not use your books, your notes or your answers to train machine-learning models, and we contract with our model provider on terms that exclude it. We do not sell personal information, share it with advertisers, or use it for lead generation of any kind.

4. How the AI handles your data

The bookkeeping judgement is made by a large language model called from our servers. Each call carries only the batch of statement lines being read, your chart of accounts and your rules. It never carries a whole book, your name, or your sign-in details. Every proposal the model returns must fit a fixed schema and pass the ledger’s balancing rule before you see it. The model provider processes the data in the United States and does not retain it for training.

5. Where it lives

Books are stored in Australia (Google Cloud, australia-southeast1), encrypted at rest under managed keys. Free text you write (narration, notes, answers) is encrypted again inside the database with a key of its own. A United States region will be offered for customers who need it, and a book stays in the region it was created in.

6. Who else handles it

We use a small number of service providers to run cent4cent. Each sees only what it needs, under contract. The current list, with what each does and where it operates, is kept on the security and privacy page. Some of them (authentication, the model provider, billing, email, analytics, error reporting) operate in the United States, which is a disclosure of personal information overseas under Australian Privacy Principle 8. We take reasonable steps to ensure they handle it in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.

We may also disclose personal information where the law requires it, or to protect the rights, safety or property of a person or of cent4cent.

7. People you invite

A book’s owner can invite others: an editor, a viewer, or an accountant. Everyone invited sees what their role allows, and the owner can remove them at any time. If you invite someone, you are responsible for having the right to share the book with them.

8. Cookies and analytics

The signed-in application uses cookies and local storage to keep you signed in and to remember preferences. This website uses no advertising cookies. If product analytics are enabled, they run without persistent identifiers on the marketing site and with a per-account identifier in the signed-in application, so we can see which screens are used; they never record the contents of a book. We honour your browser’s Global Privacy Control signal.

9. Keeping it and deleting it

Your books are kept for as long as you keep your account. You can export the whole book at any time as CSV, JSON or Beancount text, from inside the product. Deleting a book deletes its statements, lines, notes, answers and entries; backups roll off within 35 days. Closing your account deletes every book you own. We keep the minimum records the law requires of us (invoices, for example) for the period it requires.

10. Security

Encryption in transit and at rest, envelope encryption of free text, least-privilege access for the services that run the product, and no bank credentials anywhere in the system, so there are none to lose. Nobody at cent4cent reads a customer’s books without that customer’s explicit consent for a specific support request, and such access is logged. If a data breach is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.

11. Your rights

You can ask to access or correct the personal information we hold about you, and we will respond within 30 days. Most of it you can see and change yourself, inside the product. You can unsubscribe from any email with one click. If you are in a jurisdiction that grants further rights (the United Kingdom or the European Union, for example), we will honour them.

If you believe we have handled your information in breach of the Australian Privacy Principles, write to support@cent4cent.com and we will investigate and reply. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

12. Children

The Service is for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.

13. Changes

We will update this policy when the product or the law changes, and note the date at the top. A material change is announced by email to customers before it takes effect.

14. Contact