BudgetCoach: how we use your information (privacy notice)

This notice is for families who use BudgetCoach, the budgeting app run by Finance Admin LTD. It explains what information we keep, why, who else handles it, how long we keep it and what your rights are. Version 1.2, dated 29 October 2026.

1. Who we are

Finance Admin LTD, trading as BudgetCoach, is the “controller” of your information. Company number 15639702, registered office Flat 1, 71 Wellington Street West, Salford M7 2ED. Questions or requests: privacy@familybudgetcoach.com.

2. What we keep

• Your login: family name, login email address and password. The password is stored only in scrambled (hashed) form, so nobody can read it, not even us. We also keep your settings, for example language and Hebrew dates.
• Your money records: accounts and balances, transactions (date, description, amount, category, notes), splits and transfers, categories, rules, budgets and “still to come” items, reconciliations, money owed to or by other people (with the names you type), and your Masser settings and figures.
• Receipts: photos or PDFs of receipts you upload (up to 4 MB each), kept on our server and shown only to your family.
• Excel/CSV uploads (optional): the file name and the rows of the file are kept with the import, so we can show what was imported.
• Texts and WhatsApp (optional): the mobile numbers you register; the messages those numbers send to the BudgetCoach number (for example “Tesco 23.50”), when they arrived and what was done with them; any replies, alerts and weekly summaries we send. Messages from numbers that are not registered to a family are thrown away straight away and not kept. One exception: while we register our own WhatsApp number, for up to 15 minutes we keep any message that looks like a registration code so that we can read it; it is cleared after about an hour.
• PocketSmith link (optional): your PocketSmith key (stored encrypted), your PocketSmith name and user number, the names, banks, account numbers and balances of the accounts you link, and the bank transactions we fetch from your own PocketSmith account.
• YNAB link (optional): the access YNAB gives us when you allow it (stored encrypted — we never see your YNAB password), the name of the YNAB plan you choose, the names and balances of the YNAB accounts you link, and the transactions we fetch from that plan, including the payee, memo and the YNAB category of each one.
• SimpleFIN link (optional): the access address SimpleFIN Bridge gives us in exchange for your Setup Token (stored encrypted), the names, banks and balances of the accounts you link, the bank transactions we fetch through SimpleFIN, any messages SimpleFIN asks us to show you, and a count of how many times we asked SimpleFIN each day.
• Email alerts (optional): the email address you give for alerts and a record of which alerts were sent, when and to which address.
• Change history: a record of every change made in the app (what it was before and after, who made it and when). This is what lets you undo mistakes. It also means something you delete is hidden but stays in the history (see section 6).
• Coach visits: when you let your coach in, how long for, and which pages the coach looked at and when. Notes your coach writes, both shared notes/actions you can see and the coach’s own private notes about your sessions.
• Coach’s private session notes: Your coach also keeps private notes about your sessions. You do not see them in the app, but you can ask to see them or to have them deleted at any time by emailing privacy@familybudgetcoach.com.

The app itself does not record your IP address or what device you use. Our web server keeps standard technical logs, including IP addresses, for security; they are deleted after 14 days. We do not use your information for advertising, we do not sell it, and no decisions about you are made automatically.

3. Who can see your figures

Your coach can see your figures ONLY when you open access with “Let my coach in”, for 30 minutes, 1 hour or 2 hours. Access closes by itself, or earlier if you press “Close now”. Your coach can only look, unless you also switch on “My coach may also make changes”. At other times your coach sees only your family name, login email and the date your account was created. You can see a list of every visit and the pages looked at.

4. Why we use it (lawful basis)

• To provide BudgetCoach and the coaching you signed up for (including the optional features you switch on): this is needed for our contract with you.
• To keep the service safe and working (backups, the change history and undo, the record of coach visits, refusing messages from unknown numbers): our legitimate interests in running a secure, reliable service, which also protect you.
• Masser figures may show your religious practice (your religious giving), which the law treats as extra-sensitive (special category data under UK GDPR). We use them only with your explicit consent. When you first log in you tick one box to agree; the words next to that box name your Masser records. You can withdraw your consent at any time by emailing privacy@familybudgetcoach.com, and you can ask us to delete your Masser figures. Some transactions may also show sensitive things (for example health or religion); we use them only to give you your budget.
• Business records (our invoices and records of what you pay Finance Admin LTD for BudgetCoach): to meet our legal obligations, such as tax law. These are our own business records, not your budget data.

5. Who else handles your information

We use a few service providers who act on our instructions:

• DigitalOcean hosts the BudgetCoach server and its backups in its London (UK) data centre. DigitalOcean is a US company, and its staff may access the server for support under its data processing terms.
• Twilio (a US company) carries text messages to and from the BudgetCoach number: the mobile number, the message text and the time.
• Meta (WhatsApp Business) carries WhatsApp messages to and from the BudgetCoach WhatsApp number, if you use WhatsApp.
• PocketSmith (a New Zealand company), only if you link it. PocketSmith is your own account with them, under their own privacy policy; we only fetch your transactions using the key you give us. You can disconnect at any time.
• YNAB (You Need A Budget, a US company), only if you link it. YNAB is your own account with them, under their own privacy policy; you log in to YNAB yourself and allow BudgetCoach to read your plan, and we only fetch your accounts and transactions (we never change anything in YNAB). You can disconnect at any time, here or in YNAB.
• SimpleFIN Bridge (a US service), only if you link it. SimpleFIN Bridge is your own account with them, under their own privacy policy; it fetches your bank data from your banks, and we only fetch your accounts and transactions from it using the Setup Token you give us. You can disconnect at any time, here or in SimpleFIN Bridge.
• Resend (a US company) sends our emails: your email address and the email text. These are budget alerts (when spending in a category reaches the level you chose), bank-feed alerts to you and your coach (when your bank link has not updated for a few days and needs reconnecting), the welcome email with the link to choose your password, and a note to your coach when you let them in. Bank-feed alerts may later also be sent by text or WhatsApp to your registered numbers.
• ImprovMX forwards emails you send to our contact address (privacy@familybudgetcoach.com) to our email inbox, which is hosted by Google (Gmail).

Exchange rates are fetched from the European Central Bank; no information about you is sent to get them.

International transfers

Your main records stay on our server in the UK. Some providers are based in, or handle information in, the USA and other countries. When information goes outside the UK we rely on the UK’s legal safeguards, as set out in each provider’s own data processing terms:

• DigitalOcean: the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses as a back-up (DigitalOcean Data Processing Agreement, digitalocean.com/legal/data-processing-agreement).
• Twilio: the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (Twilio Data Protection Addendum, twilio.com/en-us/legal/data-protection-addendum).
• Meta (WhatsApp): the WhatsApp Business UK Data Transfer Addendum, which uses the Standard Contractual Clauses with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum (whatsapp.com/legal/business-data-transfer-addendum-uk).
• Resend: the EU Standard Contractual Clauses as amended by the UK Addendum, and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework with its UK Extension (Resend Data Processing Addendum, resend.com/legal/dpa). We send through Resend’s Ireland (EU) region, but Resend says its main processing is in the USA.
• ImprovMX: the Standard Contractual Clauses in its Data Processing Agreement (improvmx.com/transparency/gdpr-compliance). It handles email on servers in France and the USA.

6. How long we keep it

• Your account and money records: while you use BudgetCoach. When you leave, we delete everything about your family, including receipts, history and texts, within 3 months, unless you ask us to do it sooner.
• Items you delete inside the app are hidden at once, but stay in the change history so that they can be undone (History/Undo). They are removed completely 12 months after deletion, or sooner if you ask us.
• Text and WhatsApp messages and our replies: 12 months, then deleted.
• Records of coach visits and coach notes: as long as you are a client, then deleted with your account.
• Backups: the server is backed up daily and nightly copies are kept for 14 days, so deleted information disappears from backups within 14 days.
• Twilio, Meta and Resend keep their own records of messages under their own terms (Resend keeps email records for 30 days on our plan).
• Payment records: 6 years, as HMRC requires. This covers ONLY Finance Admin LTD’s own records of what you pay us for the BudgetCoach software, NOT your budget data.

7. Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of your information; to correct it; to delete it; to limit or object to how we use it; and to have the information you gave us in a usable format (reports can already be exported to Excel and PDF). Where we rely on your consent you can withdraw it at any time. Email privacy@familybudgetcoach.com. We will reply within one month. There is normally no charge.

8. Cookies

BudgetCoach uses one cookie, which is needed to keep you logged in and to protect the forms you send (and to remember your language before you log in). It cannot be read by other websites’ scripts and ends when you close your browser. It is essential, so no consent banner is needed. We use no advertising, tracking or analytics cookies.

9. Complaints

Please tell us first at privacy@familybudgetcoach.com and we will try to put things right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, helpline 0303 123 1113.

10. Changes

If we change this notice we will tell you in the app and by email before the change takes effect.