Privacy Policy

Privacy at a Glance

We believe financial software should be transparent about how it handles your information.

We collect information necessary to operate BookNerd.
This includes account information, business information, financial transactions, receipts, invoices, and information you choose to connect or upload.

We use your financial data to provide BookNerd.
For example, transactions may be analyzed to suggest accounting categories, receipts may be processed to extract information, and financial data may be used to assist with reconciliation and reporting.

We do not sell your personal or financial information.

We do not give advertisers access to your financial data for targeted advertising.

We use service providers when necessary to operate BookNerd.
These may include cloud infrastructure, financial-data providers, payment processors, AI providers, document-processing providers, analytics, security, and communication services.

AI may make mistakes.
BookNerd uses artificial intelligence and automation to assist with bookkeeping. Users should review important financial information before relying on it.

You have control over your information.
Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have rights to access, correct, export, or delete personal information.

1. Information We Collect

The information we collect depends on how you use BookNerd and which features you enable.

1.1 Account Information

When you create an account, we may collect information such as:

• Name;
• Email address;
• Login and authentication information;
• Company or business name;
• Business type;
• Business entity information;
• Industry or business description;
• Accounting preferences; and
• Subscription information.

Why We Collect It

We use this information to create and maintain your account, authenticate you, customize BookNerd for your business, communicate with you, and provide relevant accounting functionality.

1.2 Financial Information

When you connect financial accounts or import financial information, we may process information such as:

• Bank transactions;
• Credit card transactions;
• Transaction descriptions;
• Merchant information;
• Transaction dates;
• Transaction amounts;
• Account names;
• Account types;
• Account balances where supported;
• Financial institution information;
• Transaction categorization information;
• Payouts from a payment processor you connect (Square or Stripe), and the sales, refunds, and fees in them;
• Invoices you send through a connected payment processor, and invoices and bills you add yourself, including amounts, dates, payment status, and the name of the customer or vendor; and
• Journal entries you record.

BookNerd may use this information to organize transactions, recommend accounting categories, assist with reconciliation, identify potential matches, track what your customers owe you and what you owe, generate reports, and provide other bookkeeping functionality.

BookNerd does not need your online banking password directly when financial accounts are connected through supported financial-data providers such as Plaid.

2. Bank and Payment Processor Connections

BookNerd may use third-party financial-data providers, including Plaid, to allow you to connect supported bank and financial accounts.

When you connect an account, information may be exchanged directly between you, the financial institution, Plaid or another financial-data provider, and BookNerd.

Depending on the connection and permissions you authorize, BookNerd may receive financial information including transactions, account information, balances, and merchant information.

BookNerd uses this information to provide accounting and bookkeeping features.

BookNerd does not control the accuracy or availability of information supplied by banks or financial-data providers. Financial institutions may delay, modify, duplicate, or omit information.

You should review imported transactions and account information for accuracy.

If you connect a payment processor such as Square or Stripe, BookNerd receives read-only access to your payouts, the sales, refunds, and fees in them, and the invoices you send through it. For an invoice, this includes its number, amounts, dates, and payment status, and your customer's name, or their email address when no name is given. BookNerd cannot charge cards, issue refunds, move money, or change anything in your payment processor account.

BookNerd uses this information to record your sales, sales tax, and fees, to show which invoices are still owed, and, if you keep your books on an accrual basis, to record invoices when they are issued. If you disconnect a payment processor and choose to remove what it added, the invoices it brought in are removed as well, except any that periods you have closed in your books still record.

3. Receipts, Invoices, and Documents

You may upload receipts, invoices, statements, and other documents to BookNerd.

These documents may contain:

• Merchant information;
• Customer or vendor information;
• Dates;
• Amounts;
• Taxes;
• Payment information;
• Addresses;
• Line items; and
• Other information contained within the document.

BookNerd may use optical character recognition ("OCR"), artificial intelligence, and other automated technologies to extract information from uploaded documents.

Uploaded files or portions of their contents may be securely transmitted to service providers when necessary to perform document-processing or AI features.

Extracted information may be associated with financial transactions or other records within your BookNerd account.

4. Information Collected Automatically

When you use BookNerd, we may automatically collect certain technical information.

This may include:

• IP address;
• Browser type;
• Device type;
• Operating system;
• Login timestamps;
• Pages or features accessed;
• Session information;
• Error logs;
• Security events;
• Approximate location derived from an IP address; and
• Other technical information about your interaction with the Service.

Why We Collect It

We use this information to:

• Operate the Service;
• Secure user accounts;
• Detect fraud and abuse;
• Diagnose technical problems;
• Monitor performance;
• Understand how features are used; and
• Improve BookNerd.

5. How We Use Information

We may use information collected through BookNerd to:

• Create and maintain user accounts;
• Provide bookkeeping and accounting software features;
• Import and organize financial transactions;
• Analyze and suggest transaction categories;
• Process receipts and invoices;
• Match documents with transactions;
• Assist with account reconciliation;
• Generate financial reports and summaries;
• Provide AI-powered accounting assistance;
• Personalize BookNerd to a user's business;
• Process subscription payments;
• Provide customer support;
• Communicate important account and Service information;
• Detect fraud, unauthorized access, and security threats;
• Diagnose technical issues;
• Improve the reliability and functionality of BookNerd;
• Comply with applicable legal requirements; and
• Enforce our Terms of Service.

6. Artificial Intelligence

BookNerd uses artificial intelligence and automated systems to provide certain features.

AI may be used to:

• Analyze transaction descriptions;
• Identify merchants;
• Suggest accounting categories;
• Analyze receipts and invoices;
• Extract document information;
• Identify potential transaction-document matches;
• Explain financial information;
• Assist with reconciliation;
• Generate summaries; and
• Provide other bookkeeping-related assistance.

Information necessary to perform an AI-powered feature may be transmitted to third-party AI providers.

Where reasonably possible, BookNerd seeks to minimize the personal information transmitted for AI processing.

We do not intentionally send banking login credentials to AI providers.

AI-generated results may contain errors. BookNerd's AI recommendations should be reviewed before being relied upon for accounting, tax, financial reporting, or business purposes.

7. AI Model Training

BookNerd does not sell your financial information to AI companies.

BookNerd does not permit customer financial information to be used to train unrelated public AI models where our applicable provider agreements and configurations prohibit such use.

We may use aggregated, anonymized, or de-identified information to understand and improve BookNerd where permitted by law.

We may also use user feedback, corrections, or interactions to improve BookNerd's features and systems, subject to applicable law and our privacy and security practices.

8. How We Share Information

We do not sell your personal or financial information.

We may disclose information in the following circumstances.

Service Providers

We may share information with companies that perform services necessary to operate BookNerd, such as:

• Cloud hosting and database providers;
• Financial-data providers;
• Payment processors;
• Artificial intelligence providers;
• OCR and document-processing providers;
• Authentication providers;
• Email and communication providers;
• Analytics providers;
• Error-monitoring providers; and
• Security and fraud-prevention providers.

These providers receive information only as necessary to perform services on our behalf, subject to applicable agreements and safeguards.

At Your Direction

We may disclose information when you instruct us to do so, such as when you connect another application, invite an accountant, authorize a user, export information, or enable an integration.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose information when we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary to:

• Comply with applicable law;
• Respond to valid legal process;
• Protect our legal rights;
• Investigate fraud or abuse;
• Protect users or the public from security threats; or
• Enforce our agreements.

Business Transactions

If Design Detective LLC or BookNerd is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, restructuring, bankruptcy, or sale of some or all of its assets or business, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to applicable law.

9. What We Do Not Do

BookNerd does not:

• Sell your personal information or financial records to data brokers;
• Sell your bank transaction history to advertisers;
• Allow advertisers to use your private financial records for targeted advertising;
• Require you to provide your online banking password directly to BookNerd when using supported third-party bank connections; or
• Allow BookNerd employees to access customer financial information merely out of curiosity or without a legitimate business purpose.

Access to customer information may occur when reasonably necessary for customer support, security, fraud investigation, technical troubleshooting, legal compliance, or operation of the Service.

10. Third-Party Services

BookNerd relies on third-party technology providers to operate certain features.

These providers may maintain their own privacy policies governing information they independently collect or process.

Plaid

BookNerd may use Plaid to connect supported financial accounts.

Plaid may process financial account credentials and connection information according to the permissions you provide and Plaid's applicable privacy practices.

BookNerd generally receives financial data made available through the connection rather than your underlying online banking password.

Square and Stripe

If you connect Square or Stripe, BookNerd reads your payouts and invoices through the access you approve in that service, according to the permissions you grant and its applicable privacy practices. You can remove that access from BookNerd or from your Square or Stripe account at any time.

AI Providers

BookNerd may use third-party artificial intelligence providers to perform certain AI features.

Information transmitted to an AI provider is limited to information reasonably necessary to perform the requested function.

We configure and select providers based in part on available privacy, security, and data-handling protections.

Cloud and Database Providers

BookNerd uses cloud infrastructure and database services to store and process application and customer information.

Document Processing

BookNerd may use third-party OCR, document-processing, or AI services to extract information from receipts, invoices, and other uploaded documents.

Payment Processing

Subscription payments may be processed by third-party payment processors.

BookNerd generally does not directly store complete payment-card information when payment information is handled by our payment processor.

11. Data Security

We use administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal and financial information.

Depending on the applicable system, these safeguards may include:

• Encryption in transit;
• Encryption at rest;
• Authentication controls;
• Access controls;
• Secure cloud infrastructure;
• Logging and monitoring;
• Security testing;
• Restricted employee access; and
• Other commercially reasonable security practices.

No internet-connected system can guarantee absolute security. Users should maintain strong passwords and protect access to their BookNerd accounts.

If you believe your BookNerd account or information has been compromised, contact us promptly at support@booknerd.io.

12. Data Retention

We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide BookNerd, maintain your account, satisfy legal requirements, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, prevent fraud, and maintain appropriate business records.

Retention periods may differ depending on the type of information.

Account Information

Generally retained while your account remains active and for an appropriate period afterward where necessary for legitimate business or legal purposes. If your subscription ends, we keep your login and business profile on file so you can return later (see “After a Subscription Ends” below).

Financial Information

Financial information is generally retained while your subscription is active unless you delete it or request deletion where that option is available. If your subscription ends, it is deleted after 90 days (see “After a Subscription Ends” below).

Receipts and Documents

Uploaded documents are generally retained until deleted by the user, the associated account is deleted, the subscription has been ended for 90 days, or retention is no longer necessary.

After a Subscription Ends

When a subscription ends, whether the owner cancels it or we cancel it because a payment was never made, we keep your financial information for 90 days so you can resubscribe and pick up where you left off. During that time the account owner can still view and export it. We email the account owner when the subscription ends and again 60 days, 30 days, and 3 days before the deletion date. When the subscription ends we disconnect your linked bank, payment-processor, and email-inbox connections, and during this period we pause other automated processing for the business and don't import new data. Other team members lose access to the business when the subscription ends (we email them in advance when the owner cancels), and only the owner can access its information. If you resubscribe, you reconnect your banks, payment processors, and inboxes.

After 90 days, we permanently delete the business's financial information, including transactions, ledgers and journal entries, invoices and bills, receipts and uploaded documents, reports, rules, counterparties, alerts, and conversations with the in-app assistant. We also disconnect any bank, payment-processor, or email-inbox connection still linked, and remove sensitive business identifiers you provided, such as a tax ID. We do this to protect your privacy and to meet our data-retention and compliance obligations. Deleted information can't be recovered.

We keep your login, your business profile and settings, and billing and legal records described below, so the account is archived and you can return later and start again with a fresh set of books. If you delete your account instead, your information is deleted as described in “Deleting Your Information” and we don't send these emails.

Billing and Legal Records

Certain billing, transaction, security, tax, fraud-prevention, or legal records may need to be retained after an account is deleted where required or permitted by law.

Backups

Deleted information may remain temporarily in secure backups before being overwritten or permanently removed according to our backup-retention procedures.

13. Deleting Your Information

Where supported, users may delete information through BookNerd account settings.

You may also contact us to request deletion of personal information.

Deletion requests are subject to applicable law. We may retain limited information when necessary to:

• Meet legal obligations;
• Maintain financial or tax records;
• Prevent fraud;
• Resolve disputes;
• Enforce agreements;
• Protect security; or
• Establish or defend legal claims.

Deleting your BookNerd account disconnects your linked bank, payment-processor, and email-inbox connections and permanently deletes your financial records, invoices and bills, uploaded documents, counterparties, rules, alerts, and support history, and removes your saved payment cards. We keep only the email address of a deleted account, to prevent the same email address from receiving another free trial. You should export any records you need before requesting deletion.

Canceling your subscription is different from deleting your account. If you cancel, your banks, payment processors, and email inboxes stay connected until the subscription ends and are then disconnected. If you don't resubscribe, your financial records are deleted automatically after 90 days, and your login and business profile are kept. See “After a Subscription Ends” in the Data Retention section above.

14. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, applicable privacy laws may provide rights regarding your personal information.

These may include the right to:

• Request access to personal information;
• Request correction of inaccurate information;
• Request deletion;
• Obtain a portable copy of certain information;
• Restrict certain processing;
• Object to certain processing;
• Withdraw consent where processing relies on consent; and
• Appeal certain privacy-request decisions where applicable.

We will not unlawfully discriminate against you for exercising applicable privacy rights.

To submit a privacy request, contact:

support@booknerd.io

We may need to verify your identity before completing certain requests.

Authorized agents may submit requests where permitted by applicable law and subject to appropriate verification.

15. United States State Privacy Rights

Residents of certain U.S. states may have additional privacy rights under applicable state privacy laws.

Where applicable, users may have rights to access, correct, delete, or obtain copies of certain personal information and to opt out of certain forms of data processing.

BookNerd does not sell customer financial information.

If our practices change in a way that creates additional legally required opt-out rights, we will provide appropriate controls and disclosures.

16. International Users

BookNerd may be accessible from multiple jurisdictions.

If information is transferred between countries, we take reasonable measures designed to provide appropriate protection consistent with applicable law.

Users in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or other jurisdictions may have additional rights concerning the processing and international transfer of personal information.

Where required, we rely on appropriate legal mechanisms for international data transfers.

17. Cookies and Similar Technologies

BookNerd and its website may use cookies and similar technologies for purposes such as:

• Authentication;
• Security;
• Maintaining user sessions;
• Remembering preferences;
• Measuring Service performance; and
• Understanding how the Service is used.

Some cookies are necessary for BookNerd to function.

You may be able to control certain cookies through your browser or available cookie-management tools. Disabling necessary cookies may prevent portions of BookNerd from functioning correctly.

18. Analytics

We may use analytics technologies to understand how users interact with BookNerd.

Analytics information may include pages visited, features used, session information, device information, and performance information.

We do not intentionally provide private bank transaction contents to advertising analytics providers for targeted advertising.

19. Communications

We may send transactional or administrative communications concerning:

• Account activity;
• Security;
• Bank connections;
• Subscription and billing information;
• Product changes;
• Service interruptions;
• Privacy or Terms updates; and
• Customer support.

We may separately send marketing communications where permitted by law.

You may unsubscribe from marketing emails using the unsubscribe mechanism provided in those communications.

Certain operational or security communications are necessary to maintain your account and cannot be disabled while the account remains active.

20. Children's Privacy

BookNerd is intended for adults and businesses and is not directed to children under 13.

We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13 through individual BookNerd accounts.

If you believe a child has provided personal information to BookNerd without appropriate authorization, contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

21. Security Incidents

If we discover a security incident involving personal information, we will investigate and take reasonable steps to contain and remediate the incident.

Where notification is required by applicable law, we will notify affected individuals and/or appropriate authorities within the timeframe required by that law.

22. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as BookNerd evolves or as legal, technical, or business requirements change.

When we make changes, we will update the Last Updated date at the top of this policy.

If changes materially affect how we handle personal information, we will provide additional notice where required by law.

23. Contact Us

BookNerd is owned and operated by:

Design Detective LLC
BookNerd
Website: booknerd.io

Design Detective LLC: designdetective.net

Privacy inquiries: support@booknerd.io
Customer support: support@booknerd.io
Business Address: Puyallup, WA 98374
United States

For privacy-related requests, please include enough information for us to identify your account and understand your request. We may request additional information to verify your identity before providing or deleting personal information.

BookNerd's Privacy Commitment

Your financial information is sensitive.

Our goal is to collect and process only the information reasonably necessary to provide, secure, maintain, and improve BookNerd.

We do not sell your financial data.

We do not provide your private financial records to advertisers for targeted advertising.

You retain ownership of the financial records and documents you provide to BookNerd.

BookNerd uses artificial intelligence to help make bookkeeping easier, but you remain in control of your financial records and should review AI-generated accounting results before relying on them.