iNdex POS privacy notice

This notice explains how iNdex Tech Solutions ("iNdex Tech", "we") handles personal information in iNdex POS — the till app, the admin website at pos.indextech.co.za, the iNdex Admin and Times apps and the iNdex POS servers — in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). The shop using iNdex POS (the "merchant") decides what is recorded about its staff and customers; for that information the merchant is the responsible party and we process it on the merchant's behalf.

What we process

• Account details: the merchant's business name, address, VAT number, owner name, email and phone number.
• Staff: names, usernames, roles, PIN and password hashes (never the PIN or password itself), clock-in times and which till each person used.
• Sales records: products sold, prices, VAT, payment method, refunds, cash-ups and the staff member who made each sale.
• Customers the merchant adds: name, phone number, email, loyalty points and — when the merchant offers credit — the customer's account balance, invoices, payments and statements.
• Devices: device name, app version, push-notification token and technical logs used to keep the tills working and to find faults.

Why we process it

To run the point-of-sale service the merchant signed up for: ringing up sales, keeping stock, cash-ups, reports, receipts, customer accounts, reminders and the integrations the merchant switches on. We do not sell personal information and we do not use it for advertising.

QuickBooks Online

A merchant can connect iNdex POS to its own QuickBooks Online company. Connecting is done by the merchant's owner on Intuit's own sign-in page; iNdex POS never sees the QuickBooks password. When connected:

• What we send to QuickBooks: one summary per day and payment method (sales and refunds split by VAT rate), an invoice for each sale on a customer's account (with the customer's name and phone number), customer account payments and reversals, and cash-up differences. Individual cash and card sales are sent as daily totals, not one by one.
• What we read from QuickBooks: the company name and country, the VAT codes, the accounts, items and customers needed to post those documents, and each document we created (to check that QuickBooks recorded the same amounts as the tills).
• What we create in QuickBooks: a few items ("POS sales – standard rated" and similar), the accounts "POS cash on hand" and "Cash over/short", a "POS walk-in sales" customer and the customers who buy on account.
• Access keys: the keys Intuit gives us are stored encrypted (AES-256) on our servers and are used only to post and check the merchant's own documents. We ask Intuit only for accounting access.
• Disconnecting: the owner can disconnect at any time under Finance & reports → Accounting → QuickBooks. We then revoke the keys with Intuit and stop posting. Documents already in QuickBooks stay in the merchant's QuickBooks company; our record of what was posted is kept with the merchant's sales records.

Information in QuickBooks Online is handled by Intuit under Intuit's own privacy statement.

Who else processes it

We use service providers only as needed to run iNdex POS, and only for the features the merchant uses:

• hosting and databases (Render and MongoDB Atlas);
• push notifications (Google Firebase) and email delivery (Twilio SendGrid);
• WhatsApp messages and receipts (Meta WhatsApp Business), when the merchant switches them on;
• AI features such as product suggestions (Google Gemini), which receive product names, not customers' personal information;
• online payments (Ozow, PayFast and the payment apps the merchant enables) and accounting (Intuit QuickBooks Online), when the merchant connects them.

Some of these providers store information on servers outside South Africa, for example in the United States or Europe. We use providers that protect personal information to a standard comparable to POPIA.

Security

Data travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Passwords and PINs are stored only as one-way hashes, access keys for connected services are encrypted, till databases on Android are encrypted, and each shop can only see its own data. Managers' approvals and changes to money, prices and credit are kept in an audit trail.

How long we keep it

Sales, VAT and accounting records are kept for as long as the merchant uses iNdex POS and afterwards for the period South African tax law requires (generally five years). Other information is deleted or anonymised when the merchant closes the account, unless the law requires us to keep it.

Your rights

Customers and staff should first contact the shop that recorded their information. Anyone may also ask us to see, correct or delete personal information we hold, or object to its processing, by writing to our information officer at privacy@indextech.co.za. You may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa (inforegulator.org.za).

Contact

iNdex Tech Solutions, Cape Town, South Africa · privacy@indextech.co.za · 021 569 4997. See also the iNdex POS licence terms and our website privacy notice.