Privacy policy

KwikBillng is invoicing and scan-to-pay software for small and growing businesses in Nigeria. The service is operated by Pils Tech LTD, and in this policy the words “we” and “us” mean that company.

We are the data controller for information about the businesses that hold KwikBillng accounts and about the people who sign in to them. Our role changes when it comes to information about a business’s own customers, and section 4 explains that difference because it matters more than most of this page.

KwikBillng holds two very different sets of records, and keeping them apart is the clearest way to understand everything that follows.

The first set is about the businesses that use KwikBillng and the colleagues they invite. We decided to collect that information, we decide how long it is kept, and we answer for it.

The second set is about the customers those businesses invoice. A business enters that information, a business decides what to enter, and a business remains responsible for it. We hold it and process it on their instructions so that an invoice can be produced and sent.

An account cannot exist without some of this, and the rest is collected only when a business asks for a feature that needs it.

• Account details. The business name, the email address it signed up with, a phone number, and a password that is stored only as a hash. We never hold a password in a form anybody can read, including us.
• The people who sign in. The name, email address and role of every colleague invited to the account, along with a record of when each of them signed in.
• Verification details. Nigerian regulations require a business to be identified before it can be paid out. Depending on how far up the verification ladder a business chooses to go, this can include a Bank Verification Number, a bank account, and a business registration number.
• Bank details for payouts. The account number, account name and bank name that money is sent to. We hold these in full because a transfer cannot be made without them.
• Billing records. What plan a business is on, what it has been charged, and a reference to any card it has chosen to keep on file for renewals.
• What happens in the account. Invoices raised, customers added, settings changed, and who did each of those things. This is the audit log, and a business can read its own.
• Technical records. The IP address a request came from, the browser it came from, and error reports when something goes wrong.

When a business adds a customer, it can record a name, an email address, a phone number and a postal address. Nothing more than that is asked for, and only the name is required.

We hold this so that an invoice can be addressed, sent by email, and paid. We do not use it for anything else. We do not build profiles from it, we do not market to it, and we do not make it available to other businesses on the platform.

When a customer pays an invoice, the payment is handled by our payment partner rather than by us. We keep a record of the payment itself, which includes the amount, the reference, and the confirmation our partner sends back.

Each of these has a reason, and the reason is the limit on the use.

• To provide the service. An invoice cannot be produced without a customer to address it to, and a payout cannot be made without a bank account to send it to.
• To meet legal obligations. Identity checks before payouts, and financial records kept for the period Nigerian law requires.
• To keep accounts secure. Sign-in records and audit logs exist so that a business can see who has been in its account, which is the first question anybody asks after a password goes astray.
• To bill correctly. Plan charges and API usage have to be recorded to be charged for, and to be explained afterwards.
• To support and improve the product. Error reports tell us what broke, and support messages tell us what confused somebody.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers. There is no version of this product where that would be part of the deal.

Some information passes through the service without ever being kept, and these are worth stating plainly because they are the ones people ask about.

• A full Bank Verification Number. When a business verifies its BVN, the number is checked with our identity partner and then discarded. We keep the last four digits, a one-way hash that cannot be turned back into the number, and the date the check passed. That is enough to prove the check happened and not enough to reconstruct the BVN.
• Card numbers. A card entered to pay for a plan goes directly to our payment partner. What comes back to us is an authorisation reference, the last four digits, the card type, the issuing bank and the expiry month and year. We never see or store the full number, and we never see the security code.
• Readable passwords. Passwords are hashed before they are stored. A forgotten password is reset rather than looked up, because looking it up is not possible.
• API keys in readable form. An API key is shown once when it is created. Only a digest is stored afterwards, so a lost key is replaced rather than recovered.

KwikBillng relies on a small number of specialist companies to do things we do not do ourselves. Each of them receives only what its job requires.

• Paystack processes card and transfer payments, and sends payouts to bank accounts. Payment details go to Paystack rather than to us.
• Dojah performs the identity checks: the Bank Verification Number, the bank account, and the business registration lookup.
• Cloudflare stores invoice documents and business logos.
• An email delivery provider sends invoices, receipts, reminders and account notices on our behalf.
• Sentry receives error reports when something in the product fails, so that it can be fixed.

We also share information when the law requires it, when a regulator or a court properly asks for it, and when it is necessary to investigate fraud or to protect somebody from harm. If a business is ever the subject of such a request, we will tell them unless we are legally prevented from doing so.

If KwikBillng is ever sold or merged into another company, account records would transfer with the business. We would say so before that happened, and the new owner would be held to this policy until it published one of its own.

Records are stored on servers operated by our infrastructure providers, and some of those servers are outside Nigeria. Where information leaves the country, we rely on providers that offer contractual protection for it.

We keep information for as long as an account exists. When an account is closed, we delete what we are free to delete and keep what we are obliged to keep. Financial records, invoices and payment history fall into the second group, because tax and anti-money-laundering rules require them to be retained for a set period after the last transaction.

Audit logs and sign-in records are kept while the account is open, so that a business can look back at its own history.

Every connection to KwikBillng is encrypted in transit. Passwords are hashed, API keys are stored only as digests, and the secrets used to sign webhooks are encrypted at rest.

Access within a business account is controlled by roles, so that an accountant who should not be able to change bank details cannot change them. Access by our own staff is limited to the people who need it to answer support requests, and what they do is recorded.

No system is perfectly secure, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. If a breach ever affects personal information, we will tell the businesses concerned and the relevant authority within the time the law allows.

Nigeria’s data protection law gives people rights over information held about them, and we honour those rights whether or not the person asking holds a KwikBillng account.

• To see it. Anybody can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about them.
• To correct it. Most details can be changed directly in the product, and we will correct anything that cannot.
• To delete it. We will delete what we are not legally required to keep, and we will explain what remains and why.
• To object or restrict. Anybody can ask us to stop a particular use of their information, and we will either stop or explain why we cannot.
• To take it elsewhere. Invoices, customers and payment history can be exported from the product at any time in a format other software can read.

Requests go to support@kwikbillng.com, and we answer within 30 days. Anybody who is unhappy with our answer may complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, and we would rather they came to us first so that we have a chance to put it right.

KwikBillng sets one cookie, and it exists to keep somebody signed in. It cannot be read by scripts running in the page, it is sent only to our own servers, and it expires on its own.

We do not use advertising cookies, and we do not allow third parties to track visitors across other websites from here. There is no cookie banner on this site because there is nothing on it worth asking permission for.

We do measure how the public pages are read, using Google Analytics configured to store nothing on your device. It sets no cookies and keeps no identifier between visits, which is why the paragraph above still stands: what we learn is that a page was read and roughly where the visit came from, not who you are or where else you have been.

It runs on the public pages only — this one, the home page, the API documentation, the contact page and the terms. It is not on your dashboard, and it is not on the pages your customers use to look up or pay an invoice, because those addresses identify a business or a document and are nobody else’s to collect.

KwikBillng is built for businesses and is not intended for anybody under 18. We do not knowingly collect information about children. If we learn that we have, we will delete it.

This policy will change as the product changes. When something material changes, we will update the date at the top of this page and tell account holders by email before the change takes effect.

Continuing to use KwikBillng after a change means accepting the updated policy. Anybody who does not accept it can close their account, and section 8 explains what happens to their records when they do.

Questions about this policy, and requests about personal information, both go to support@kwikbillng.com. The contact page reaches the same people.

The terms that govern the use of the service are on the terms of use page.