DRAFT — requires lawyer review before real customers.
[COMPANY NAME] ("we", "us") runs Paylark, an invoicing and payments service for small businesses. This policy explains what information Paylark handles, why, and what choices you have. It is written for a US service. Last updated: [DATE].
Contact: [CONTACT EMAIL]
Who is who
- Business owners ("you") sign up for Paylark and create estimates and invoices. Staff are people an owner invites to help.
- Customers are the people your business invoices. They never create a Paylark account; they receive an email or a link and can open a pay page.
For the information about your customers that you put into Paylark, you (the business owner) are responsible for having the right to use it and for how you use it. We process it on your behalf to provide the service.
What we collect
From business owners and staff:
- Email address, used to sign in with an emailed link (there are no passwords), and the role (owner or staff).
- Business profile: business name, logo, brand color, address, reply-to email.
- Plan, subscription and billing status, and which payment options you turned on.
- Messages you send us through in-app Help.
- Waitlist: if you ask to hear when Paylark opens, your email address, when you asked, and your line of work if you choose to tell us. We use it only to tell you when you can sign up, and delete it on request.
- Security records: the IP address used to request a sign-in link, and an audit log of key actions (sign-ins, connecting Stripe, sending or voiding an invoice, payments and refunds, team changes, account deletion).
About your customers (entered by you):
- Name, email address and, optionally, phone number.
- If a customer declines an estimate, the reason they choose to give.
Invoice and payment information:
- Estimate and invoice contents: line items, amounts, deposits, dates, notes, status, and recurring schedules.
- Payment records from Stripe: amount, method (card or bank), status, refunds, disputes, our fee, and Stripe reference IDs.
Card and bank details are handled by Stripe and never touch Paylark. Customers pay on a page hosted by Stripe. We do not see or store card or bank account numbers.
Optional quick-add text: if you use quick add, the text you type is sent to our AI provider to turn it into proposed line items.
Why we use it
- To let you and your staff sign in and run your account.
- To create, send and track estimates and invoices, take payments through Stripe, and send receipts, payment reminders and recurring invoices to your customers.
- To email you and your customers about estimates, invoices, reminders, receipts and changes to your plan or prices.
- To answer support requests.
- To keep the service secure, limit abuse, and keep financial and audit records.
- To meet legal obligations.
We do not sell personal information and we do not use advertising or tracking.
Who we share it with (service providers)
- Stripe — payments, payouts to your business, subscriptions, refunds, disputes and sales-tax monitoring. Stripe's own terms and privacy policy apply to its handling of your and your customers' payment details.
- Affirm and Klarna — only when a customer chooses to pay over time; they receive what they need from Stripe and the customer.
- Postmark — delivers our emails (sign-in links, estimates, invoices, reminders, receipts).
- DigitalOcean — hosts the application and database in the United States.
- Cloudflare — provides our domain's DNS and forwards email sent to our support addresses.
- Anthropic — receives quick-add text only when you choose to use that feature.
We may also disclose information if required by law, such as a valid subpoena or court order, or to protect rights and safety. If Paylark is merged, acquired or sold, your information may move to the new owner, who must keep using it as this policy describes; we will tell you before that happens.
Where your information is stored
Paylark is a US service. Your information is stored and processed in the United States. If you use Paylark from another country, your information will be transferred to the United States.
Cookies and browser storage
Paylark sets one session cookie that keeps you signed in; it is needed for the service to work. On a pay page, the browser may briefly store a note that a payment was started, so the page can show the right status when the customer returns. We do not use analytics, advertising or tracking cookies. Because we don't track you across websites, browser "Do Not Track" and Global Privacy Control signals don't change anything on Paylark.
How long we keep it
- Sign-in links expire after 15 minutes and are single use. Sessions end after 30 days without use.
- Waitlist emails are kept until Paylark opens and we have told you, or until you ask us to remove yours.
- While your account is open, we keep your data so the service works.
- If you delete your account: your sign-in access is removed and your business profile details are cleared. Your customers' names, email addresses and phone numbers are replaced with placeholders. We keep the following as financial records: estimates and invoices and their contents (line items, notes, amounts and dates), payment records, and the audit log (including the IP addresses recorded in it). Because invoice contents and notes are kept as written, they may still contain information about your customers. [RETENTION PERIOD — to be set with legal advice.]
- You can export your invoices as a CSV file before deleting.
Your choices
You can export your data and delete your account in the app. For other requests (access, correction), contact [CONTACT EMAIL]. Customers who want their information changed or removed should contact the business that invoiced them; they can also contact us at [CONTACT EMAIL]. [Additional state-specific rights — to be reviewed by a lawyer.]
Security
We use encrypted connections, store sign-in tokens and sessions only in hashed form, keep each business's data separate from every other business, verify payment notifications from Stripe, and limit how often sign-in and other actions can be repeated. No system is perfectly secure. If a security incident affects your personal information, we will notify you as the law requires. Security issues can be reported to [CONTACT EMAIL].
Children
Paylark is for businesses and is not directed to children. You must be at least 18 to create an account. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13; if we learn we have, we will delete it.
Changes
We will update this policy as the service changes and post the new date above. If a change materially affects how we use your information, we will tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect.
Contact
[COMPANY NAME] — [CONTACT EMAIL]