Privacy Policy

helfin app & website

Last updated: 3 November 2026

This policy explains what personal data helfin processes — in the helfin web application and on this website — why we process it, and the rights you have. Records in your accounting Vault are encrypted on your device before they reach our servers; the optional calendar connection has a different, separately described protection model.

1. Who is responsible

The controller responsible for the data processing described here is:

helfin Business · korner studio Sàrl
Impasse des Amandiers 4
1585 Salavaux VD, Switzerland
Email: privacy@helfin.ch

For any question about your data or this policy, write to the email above.

2. The short version

Records in your accounting Vault, including books, invoices, expenses and documents, are end-to-end encrypted on your device before they reach our servers — we host them but cannot read them.
helfin's application hosting and encrypted storage are in Switzerland (Infomaniak). If you choose a Google or Microsoft calendar connection, selected appointment data also goes to that provider and may be processed outside Switzerland.
helfin shows no ads, uses no advertising or cross-app tracking, runs no analytics inside the app, and we never sell your data.
Location and Face ID are optional and stay off unless you turn them on.
You can delete your account and its data from the app at any time.
Connecting Google or Microsoft Calendar is optional for each person. A company cannot authorize access to your personal provider calendar for you.

3. Data the helfin app processes

Your account

To create and secure your account we process your email address and a password (kept only as a salted, one-way hash — we never store the password itself). This is used to sign you in, sync your data across your own devices, and contact you about your account and service.

Your accounting data

When you use helfin you create financial and business data — invoices and offers, expenses and receipts, your ledger and journal, VAT figures, your clients' and suppliers' details (names, addresses, IBANs), payroll, and, if you connect a bank via EBICS, payment and statement data.

Records kept in the accounting Vault are encrypted on your device with a key derived from your password (zero-knowledge). They are stored on our Swiss servers only in encrypted form, so neither helfin nor our hosting provider can read them. We use them solely to provide the app's features and to sync your data across your own devices. We do not use them to profile you, and never for advertising. The separate calendar connection described below does not use this zero-knowledge encryption model.

Documents and receipts

Photos and scans of documents and receipts are processed on your device, including text recognition (OCR) — the images do not leave your device to be read. If you attach a document to an entry, it is encrypted and stored like the rest of your data.

Location — only if you turn it on

If you enable the optional work time-clock location, helfin records your position at the moment you clock in or out, or log travel, to confirm you were on the job site. It is off by default, used only while the app is open (never in the background), and you can switch it off at any time in the app or in your device settings. If you use the time-clock as an employee of a company (see below), your clocked hours and — if you enabled it — the location stamp are sent to that employer.

Teams — employees and their employer

A company can let its staff submit expenses and work hours from their own phone, using a code the employer gives them. When a worker submits an item, helfin's server relays it to that one employer's account — for an expense: the receipt, amount, date and category; for hours: the times, the worksite, and any location stamp. The worker's identity is tied to the code the employer created, so submissions always belong to the right person. The employer then imports the item into their (encrypted) books, after which the relayed copy is deleted from our server.

Face ID / biometrics

If you enable Face ID or biometric unlock, it is handled entirely by your device's operating system (Apple / Google). helfin never receives your biometric data — the device only tells the app whether unlocking succeeded.

Technical data

Like any online service, our servers process basic connection data — such as IP addresses and request times — as needed to deliver the service and keep it secure. We keep server logs for a limited period and use them only for operating, debugging and securing helfin.

Optional Google and Microsoft calendar connection

Each person decides whether to connect their own Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook account and which calendars to select. This is off by default. Your employer or another HELFIN user cannot grant access to your personal provider account on your behalf. Connecting does not make your whole personal calendar visible to your company; work appointments shared or assigned in HELFIN remain visible only according to HELFIN permissions.

When you enable a connection, HELFIN requests calendar permissions from that provider and may read events from the calendars you select, including titles, dates, times, time zones, locations, descriptions, attendees and provider event identifiers where present. HELFIN uses them to show your agenda and, if you separately enable synchronization, reconcile changes while the app is closed. After you accept a work appointment proposed for you, HELFIN may export it to your selected destination; it does not export a pending proposal. The provider receives the appointment details needed for that event, which may include a client or mandate name you put in the appointment, but not your entire accounting books or documents.

If you separately enable synchronization with both Google and Microsoft, details of an event from one selected calendar may be sent to the other selected provider as part of that synchronization. Neither connection is required to use HELFIN.

Viewing events from a selected external calendar does not automatically copy them into your accounting Vault. If you explicitly choose events to import, they become persistent personal HELFIN planning notes in that device-encrypted Vault; disconnecting the provider or hiding the source does not delete those copies. You can remove the imported notes in HELFIN.

Work appointments proposed to you by an authorized colleague are handled separately from your personal provider calendar. HELFIN stores their title, time and location in a server-readable proposal so you can accept or decline; they are not sent to Google or Microsoft before acceptance. If you enable notifications on an iPhone, HELFIN sends a device token and a generic proposal or reminder alert through Apple Push Notification service; the push message does not contain client or appointment details.

Unlike the password-encrypted accounting Vault, connected-calendar event copies and synchronization state are encrypted on HELFIN's Swiss servers with separate keys held by the service. Authorized server processes can temporarily read the event details to synchronize them. Provider authorization tokens are encrypted at rest. We use this data only for the calendar features you enable and service security, not advertising, profiling, sale or AI training. Google and Microsoft process data in their own services under their own policies; their processing may occur outside Switzerland.

Our use of information received from Google APIs complies with the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.

You can pause synchronization or disconnect the provider in HELFIN, and revoke HELFIN's access in your Google or Microsoft account. Disconnect stops future access and writes; removing HELFIN's retained calendar mirror is a separate action where offered. A provider may retain events previously exported, especially if cleanup fails or access has already been revoked; review and remove those events there if necessary. Account deletion removes HELFIN's active calendar records, subject to limited backup retention and legal obligations. For details about provider-held data, consult Google's and Microsoft's privacy policies.

If an employee's HELFIN access is reset, their former synchronized calendar copies, proposals and notifications move to a company-linked recovery archive. It may contain server-readable appointment previews. Former Google or Microsoft connections are revoked and retained for safe cleanup; if the separate connection-archive option is chosen, the encrypted token and tracked-event inventory enter another recovery archive. The new holder of that access does not receive these records. There is currently no automatic time-based purge or individual in-app deletion for these archives; they remain until HELFIN account deletion, subject to backups and legal duties. Contact legal@helfin.ch to exercise your rights. Resetting access does not remove events already held by Google or Microsoft.

Google Privacy Policy · Microsoft Privacy Statement

4. The website

When you contact us through this website or by email, we use the information you provide to respond to your request. We do not buy personal data or build advertising profiles. Account creation and subscriptions are handled by the helfin application.

The interactive QR-bill and ledger demo on this site runs entirely in your browser; the sample figures you adjust are not sent to us or stored anywhere.

No audience tracking on this website. This site loads neither Google Analytics nor Google Tag Manager and sends no audience-measurement events. Language, theme and intro preferences are stored locally in your browser. Necessary server security logs described in §3 remain. Links to other websites are subject to their own privacy policies.

5. Where your data is processed

We use Infomaniak Network SA (Geneva, Switzerland) as our processor for Swiss hosting and storage of the application and website, and for contact emails. This website does not send audience data to Google. If you choose a Google or Microsoft calendar connection, selected appointment data also goes to that provider as described in §3; it may be processed outside Switzerland. If you enable iPhone notifications, Apple processes the device token and generic alert in its push service, potentially outside Switzerland. For paid subscriptions, Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd., Ireland, and its affiliates) processes billing and payment data; this may include processing outside Switzerland, including in the United States. The accounting Vault itself remains encrypted in our Swiss hosting.

6. Legal basis and purpose

We process personal data under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP / nLPD) and, for users in the EU/EEA, the GDPR. Our legal bases are:

Performance of our contract with you — to provide the helfin app and sync your data across your devices;
Your consent — for time-clock location and your own optional calendar connection, each of which you can withdraw at any time;
Our legitimate interest — in operating, supporting and securing the service.

Purposes are limited to running helfin, supporting you, and keeping the service secure — never advertising or profiling.

7. How long we keep it

We keep your account and its encrypted data for as long as your account exists; you can delete your account and its data from the app at any time. Calendar connection data and the encrypted mirror are retained while needed for the enabled feature; you can disconnect, and request or use the separate mirror-removal action where available. Previously exported events may remain with Google or Microsoft until removed there. Relayed employee expenses and hours are removed from our server once the employer imports them. Data you send us through the contact form or by email is kept only as long as needed to handle your request, or until you ask us to delete it. Backups and technical logs are kept for a limited period and then deleted, subject to legal retention duties.

8. Your rights

Under the FADP (and the GDPR for EU/EEA users) you have the right to:

ask whether we process data about you, and request a copy of it;
have inaccurate data corrected;
have your data deleted;
withdraw your consent and unsubscribe at any time — every email we send includes an unsubscribe link, or you can write to us directly;
object to, or ask us to restrict, the processing of your data; and, where applicable, receive it in a portable format.

To exercise any of these, contact us at privacy@helfin.ch. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC / PFPDT), www.edoeb.admin.ch; EU/EEA users may also complain to their local data-protection authority.

9. Security

Your accounting Vault is end-to-end encrypted on your device before it reaches us, hosted in Switzerland, and backed up in encrypted form. The separately encrypted calendar mirror is described in §3. We protect our systems with access controls and offer optional two-factor authentication and Face ID / biometric unlock. No system can be guaranteed perfectly secure, and we ask you to keep this in mind — in particular, keep your password safe, as it is the key to your encrypted Vault.

10. Children

helfin is a professional accounting and business tool intended for use by businesses and adults. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect data from children.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as helfin develops. The current version is always the one published on this page, with the date shown at the top; where changes are significant, we will take reasonable steps to let you know.