Your data
Your client data never reaches us.
That is a design decision, not a policy promise, and this page is written so you can check it rather than believe it. Everything described here is in the shipped program. Anything not yet built is labelled as such.
Where your data lives
IncomeSync stores everything in a single database file on your computer, in a folder you choose, alongside the document library of statements it files for you. There is no vendor account, no sign-in, no synchronisation and no cloud copy. We do not operate a server that holds customer data, because there is nothing for one to hold.
The practical consequence: we cannot produce your data, hand it to anyone, lose it in a breach of ours, or read it to “help with support”. If you want us to look at something, you send it to us deliberately.
Every network request the program makes
There is one, and this is the whole of it.
| Request | What it sends | Can you turn it off? |
|---|---|---|
| Update check | A plain request for a small published file listing the latest version number. It carries no information about you, your business, your clients or your data. The comparison against your installed version happens on your machine. | Yes. It is on by default and there is a switch to turn it off. |
The honest footnote. Like any request to any website, the server that publishes the version file sees the connecting IP address and the time. That is a property of how the internet works, not a measurement we take, and we do not build profiles from it. If you would rather it never happened at all, turn the update check off and IncomeSync makes no network requests whatsoever.
Licensing does not phone home either
Your licence key is verified on your own machine using cryptography, not by contacting an activation server. A machine with no internet connection at all runs IncomeSync normally, licence checks included.
No crash reporting, no telemetry, no analytics
The program sends no crash dumps, no error reports, no usage statistics and no support logs. This website carries no analytics, no tracking pixels, no embedded fonts and no third-party scripts, for the same reason: a “your data stays with you” product whose own website reports your visit to somebody else is not telling the truth.
What protects the data on your machine
Optional app password
A password on opening the program, for a machine other people can reach.
Automatic backups, and a second location
IncomeSync backs itself up, and you can nominate a second backup folder — put it on a different drive so one failure is not both copies.
A backup before every upgrade
Any release that changes the database structure takes a backup first, automatically, before it changes anything.
Filing that cannot destroy a document
Statements are moved and renamed inside the managed library only. The program never deletes a document and never overwrites one.
What is not in place, stated plainly
- The database is not encrypted at rest. It relies on your computer's own security — your Windows account, and full-disk encryption if you have it switched on. If your device could be lost or stolen, turn on BitLocker or the equivalent. We would rather tell you this than let you assume otherwise.
- Installer code signing: not yet in place. Until it is, Windows will show a “unrecognised app” warning the first time you run the installer. See the FAQ for what that looks like and how to check you have the right file.
The Privacy Act 1988, and whose obligation is whose
Your practice's obligations under the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles are yours. No software discharges them, and IncomeSync does not claim to.
What the design does do is reduce the surface those obligations have to cover. Because your client data is never disclosed to us, IncomeSync does not add an overseas disclosure, does not add a third party you have to account for in your privacy policy, and does not add another organisation whose breach becomes your notifiable data breach. Compared with a cloud product holding the same information, that is a smaller problem, not an absent one.
What stays with you: securing the computer IncomeSync runs on, controlling who can use it, holding personal information only for as long as you need it, and meeting your own notification obligations if that machine is compromised.
If you are doing a due diligence pass on behalf of a licensee or an AFSL holder and need something specific answered in writing, email sales@incomesync.com.au. A question we cannot answer honestly gets told to you as such.