How we handle your data

Tradie Automations is operated by Diego Fernandez (sole trader, Gold Coast QLD) — referred to below as "we", "us", or "the platform". This notice explains what personal information we collect about you (the tradie) and about your customers, how we use it, and your rights under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

1. What we collect

From you (the tradie)

• Identity & contact: name, mobile phone, email address
• Business details: business name, ABN, business address, business phone, location (state/region)
• Licensing: QBCC licence number, electrical contractor licence, other trade licences (if you provide them)
• Banking details for invoice footers: BSB, account number, account name, PayID (all optional)
• Optional CC email (e.g. your accountant or spouse) — used to CC them on every invoice/quote you send
• Uploaded certificates (insurance, licence PDFs) you attach to your account, which we re-attach to your outbound emails
• Connection to third-party services if you opt in (Xero, etc.)

From your customers

When you text us a job, we extract and store the customer's name, email, phone, and job description (plus pricing) so we can send them the invoice or quote on your behalf. This information is provided by you, not collected directly from your customer.

Automatically

• SMS message metadata (sender phone, timestamp) when you or your customer texts our Twilio number
• Dashboard access token (a 16-character string in the URL when you open your dashboard)
• Workflow execution logs in our n8n instance (which steps ran and any errors), kept for ~30 days for debugging

2. How we use it

• Generate and send invoice/quote emails to your customers on your behalf, using your business name as the sender display name
• Send SMS notifications to you (e.g. "Quote QTE-001 confirmed and sent") and to your customers (e.g. "Your quote is ready — accept here")
• Send overdue-invoice reminder SMS to your customers at 7, 14, and 30-day marks past the due date
• Send quote follow-up emails to your customers at 3, 7, and 14-day marks
• Sync invoices into your Xero account (only if you've connected Xero and given consent)
• Email Diego an SMS notification if a workflow fails on your account (so he can fix it before you notice)

3. Who we share it with

We don't sell your data and we don't share it for advertising. We do disclose information to the following third-party processors so the platform can function:

• Twilio (USA) — sends and receives SMS on our behalf. Twilio sees your phone number, your customer's phone number, and the SMS body text.
• SMTP2GO (USA/AU) — sends invoice and quote emails to your customers. SMTP2GO sees the recipient email, sender, subject, body, and any attached PDFs (the invoice/quote and your certificates).
• Anthropic (USA) — provides the Claude AI model that extracts data from your SMS messages. Anthropic processes the raw SMS text only and does not retain it for training (per their commercial API policy).
• Google (Google Sheets, OAuth) — stores tradie and customer data in private spreadsheets owned by Diego's Google Workspace account.
• Xero (AU) — only if you've connected Xero. We send invoice data through Xero's OAuth API; Xero applies its own privacy policy.
• Your nominated CC email recipient — if you set a CC email (e.g. your accountant), they receive a copy of every invoice and quote we send on your behalf. This is your disclosure obligation to your customers; we strongly recommend you tell your customers if their info is being shared with your accountant.
• DigitalOcean (USA/AU) — hosts the n8n server and website in their Sydney data centre.
• Australian Business Register (ABR, AU) — when you sign up, we validate your ABN against the ABR public lookup service.

We do not share data with any other party except where compelled by Australian law (court order, ATO request, etc.) or with your express written consent.

4. SMS consent and opt-out

By signing up, you consent to receive SMS messages from us for account confirmations (invoice/quote previews), service notifications, and billing reminders. This consent is required for the platform to work, since it's SMS-driven.

To opt out at any time, reply STOP to any of our SMS messages (or to +61 483 967 304). We'll record your opt-out within 24 hours and you'll receive a single confirmation message. Replying START re-enables messages.

Your customers also receive a "Reply STOP to opt out" footer on any SMS we send them. Their STOP replies are recorded against their phone number and we will not send them further messages from any tradie's account.

5. Data storage and security

• All data lives in Diego's private Google Workspace (Australian region) or on the DigitalOcean Sydney droplet.
• HTTPS is enforced on all webhook endpoints and the dashboard.
• Dashboard access requires a private token in the URL. Treat your dashboard link like a password — don't share it.
• Workflow execution logs (which contain SMS and email bodies) are retained for ~30 days then automatically pruned by n8n.
• If a data breach occurs that's likely to cause serious harm to an individual, we will notify the OAIC and affected individuals within 30 days, as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

6. Your rights

• Access — request a copy of all data we hold about you
• Correction — ask us to fix anything inaccurate
• Deletion — ask us to delete your account and personal data. We honour deletion requests within 30 days. Note: tax invoices you generated through the platform are your tax records under ATO retention rules (5 years); we will export them to you on cancellation, then delete from our systems.
• Withdraw consent — reply STOP to SMS, or contact Diego to cancel your account entirely
• Complaint — if you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

7. Retention

While you're an active paying customer, we retain all data you've entered or generated through the platform. If you cancel:

• Your data stays for a 90-day grace window so you can reactivate without losing history.
• After 90 days, we export your invoices and quotes as a CSV bundle and email it to you.
• Customer PII (names, emails, phone numbers on your invoices/quotes) is then deleted from our Sheets.
• Your tradie profile row is anonymised or removed on your request.

8. Cookies and tracking

The marketing website (tradieautomations.com) uses no third-party trackers, no Google Analytics, no Facebook Pixel, and no advertising cookies. The dashboard authenticates via a token in the URL only — no session cookies. We don't track you across other websites.

9. Children

The service is intended for Australian businesses. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16.

10. Changes to this notice

If we materially change how we use your data, we will email all active tradies before the change takes effect, with at least 14 days notice. Minor wording updates may be made without notice; this page always shows the latest "Last updated" date.

11. Contact

For privacy questions, data access requests, or to lodge a complaint:

• Email: diego@tradieautomations.com
• Phone: 0493 480 757 (Diego, Mon–Fri 9am–6pm AEST)
• Post: available on request