BillCountr
Privacy Policy
BillCountr is a simple, offline-first billing and shop-management app for Indian retailers and wholesalers. This policy explains what information the app collects, why, how it is stored and protected, and the choices you have.
1. Who we are
BillCountr is published by Mahalakshya Ventures ("we", "us"), the developer named on its Google Play listing. We provide the BillCountr mobile app and web dashboard. For any privacy question or request, contact us at support@billcountr.com.
2. Information we collect
We only collect what the app needs to run your shop. This falls into a few groups:
Account & identity
- Mobile number — your primary sign-in identity. A one-time password (OTP) is sent to it over WhatsApp to verify you.
- Your name and shop name, and (optionally) an email address.
- Names and mobile numbers of any staff you add, so they can sign in.
Business data you create
- Products and stock, prices, and (optionally) product images or barcodes.
- Customer and supplier records you enter — typically a name, mobile number, and area — used for billing and the udhaar (credit) ledger.
- Bills, invoices, estimates, payments, credit ledger entries, notes, and reports.
- Shop profile details and images you choose to add.
Device & technical data
- A device identifier generated by the app, used to sync your data reliably and to keep your account secure (one active device per user).
- Basic technical logs (e.g. sync status, error diagnostics) needed to keep the service working.
- A notification token for each device on which you turn notifications on. This is an identifier issued by Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging service that lets us deliver a notification to that specific phone. It identifies the device, not you, and it is deleted when you sign out, when you remove the device, or when Google tells us it is no longer valid. See section 6.
3. Device permissions
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Camera | To scan product barcodes while billing, and to capture product/shop images if you choose. Images are only used inside your shop's data. |
| Vibration | Haptic feedback on actions such as adding an item to a bill. |
| Notifications | To alert you about your own shop — bills that are not reaching our servers, stock running out, udhaar that is due, a sign-in on another device, and your day summary. We ask for this after you sign in, never on first launch, and the app works fully without it. See section 6. |
Permissions are requested only when needed and can be revoked in your device settings.
4. How your data is stored
BillCountr is offline-first: your data is written first to your device and continues to work with no internet connection. When you are online, it is securely synced to BillCountr's servers so you can use it across your devices and the web dashboard, and so it is not lost if your device is.
- Data in transit is protected with HTTPS/TLS encryption.
- Your shop's data is stored on servers in Mumbai, India.
- Each night a backup of the database is made and kept in private storage.
- Each shop's data is strictly isolated from every other shop's. Access requires authentication, and the people in your shop see only what their role allows.
- To run the service, BillCountr staff can see your account details: the shop, its people and phones, its plan and invoices from us, and whether it is syncing. To see your bills, stock or customers, a support person needs a recorded grant that names who, why and until when; it lasts at most 4 hours and can be ended early. These actions are written to a log that our staff cannot change.
5. Service providers we use
We share the minimum data necessary with a small number of trusted providers who process it only on our behalf:
| Provider | Purpose | Data involved |
|---|---|---|
| Meta (WhatsApp Business API) | Sending sign-in codes; sending staff their sign-in details when you add them; account messages such as a trial ending or a payment received | Your mobile number and those of staff you add, their names, a staff member's temporary password, your shop's name, and the text of each message |
| Our hosting and database provider | Running BillCountr, on servers in Mumbai, India | Your account and business data |
| Our file storage and backup provider | Storing images you upload and the invoices and receipts for your BillCountr plan, and keeping a copy of the nightly database backup off the server | Images you choose to add (including a drawn signature or a photo of a paper bill), and your plan invoices and receipts, which show your shop's name and address, and its GSTIN if you gave one. These are served from links that anyone who has the link can open. The backups hold a copy of your account and business data, in private storage. |
| Razorpay | Taking payment for a BillCountr plan, including autopay if you set it up | Your email address, the plan and invoice being paid, and whatever you enter on Razorpay's payment page. Razorpay tells us whether a payment succeeded and how it was made; we do not store card, UPI or bank details. |
| Our website hosting provider | Serving this website and the web dashboard | Your requests to them, including your IP address |
| Our app update provider | Delivering updates to the Android app | Your phone's requests for an update, including its IP address and app version |
| Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging) | Delivering notifications to your phone | Your device's notification token, the title and one-line text of the notification, and identifiers the app uses to open the right screen. Separately, the app checks whether the phone is online by contacting a Google address every fifteen seconds, which shows Google the phone's IP address. |
We do not sell or rent your personal information to anyone.
6. Notifications
BillCountr can send you notifications about your own shop. They are never advertising, and they never promote anything to you. There are two kinds, and they are worth telling apart because only one of them leaves your phone.
Raised on your phone
Alerts about bills that are not reaching our servers, stock running out, udhaar that is due, and your end-of-day summary are worked out on your phone, from data it already holds. They keep working with no internet, and their contents are never sent to us or to anyone else.
Sent from our servers
Alerts that only our servers can know about — a payment recorded by someone else in your shop, a sign-in on another device, a staff member being removed, a sync conflict, and messages about your BillCountr plan and bills — are delivered through Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM), which is the only way an Android phone can be woken by a message when the app is closed.
What reaches Google is your device's notification token, the two lines you see on your lock screen — a title and a short line of text — and identifiers the app uses to open the right screen when you tap it. Depending on the alert, those lines can include a customer's or staff member's name, an amount, an invoice number or a device name. Your bills, product list, customer list, ledger and reports are never sent through it. Google processes this only to deliver the message, and delivery may involve servers outside India.
Your choices
- Android asks your permission before the first notification is shown. We ask after you sign in, not on first launch, and declining changes nothing else about the app.
- Inside the app, Settings → Notifications lets you choose which kinds you want. The choice is stored on that device, so the owner's phone and the counter phone can be set differently.
- You can turn all notifications off at any time in your phone's system settings. When you do — or when you sign out, or remove the device from your account — the notification token for that device is deleted.
7. How long we keep it
We keep your data for as long as your account is active. Items you delete go to a recycle bin, where you can restore them for 30 days; after that they can no longer be restored from the app. The owner can also delete a product, customer or supplier for good from the recycle bin on the web dashboard. Some records are kept for as long as your account exists and cannot be edited: finalized invoices, and the record of changes. Copies of the database made as backups are kept for up to 30 days. A log of the WhatsApp messages we send, and of replies to our number, is kept for as long as your account exists: the phone number, the kind of message and whether it was delivered, never the text of a message.
8. Deleting your account
The shop's owner can delete the shop from inside BillCountr, without asking us. On the Android app: More → Shop settings → Account → Delete this shop. On the dashboard: Settings → Delete this shop. Both ask you to type the shop's name to confirm.
The shop is deleted 7 days after the request. Until that day everything keeps working and the owner can stop it from the same screen; after it, the shop's data is removed from our servers and cannot be brought back. Asking also stops a paid plan, so nothing further is charged. Full details, including what is kept: billcountr.com/delete-account.
If you cannot sign in, write to support@billcountr.com from your registered number or email and we will do it for you, after checking who you are. Either way we remove your personal data, apart from records we are legally required to keep — the invoices we issued you for your plan, which tax law requires us to retain, and the shop name, address and GSTIN printed on them.
9. Your rights
You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data, and you may withdraw consent where processing is based on it. Contact support@billcountr.com and we will respond within a reasonable time.
10. Children
BillCountr is a business tool intended for use by shop owners and their staff, and is not directed to children under 18. We do not knowingly collect data from children.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, notified in the app.
12. Contact
Questions or requests: support@billcountr.com.