Last updated 26 October 2026
You choose where your budget is saved: only on your phone, or in your Bill Jar account so it’s on any phone you sign in on and can be shared live with your partner. Only you, and a partner you invite, can see a budget saved in your account. To manage access, we keep your email address and name, your trial end date and when you last opened the app. We never sell or share your information.
Who we are
This policy explains how Bill Jar (ABN 72 534 428 239) (“we”, “us”) handles your information. We aim to follow the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
Signing in for the trial
While Bill Jar is in a private trial, you sign in with Google, Microsoft (Outlook) or your email address and a password, so we can check you’ve been invited and when your trial ends. Google or Microsoft handles their sign-in, and we never see those passwords. If you use an email and password, Google Firebase stores the password in a scrambled form and we can’t see it either. We receive your email address and name.
We keep a short record for each tester: email address, name, trial end date, the date you were added and when you last opened the app. It’s stored in Google Firebase (part of Google Cloud). We use it only to give, extend and end trial access and to know whether the app is being used. We don’t use it for marketing.
Your record is deleted when we remove you from the trial, or sooner if you ask us. Your budget itself is never part of it.
If someone invites you to share their budget, your access comes from theirs: it lasts as long as theirs does, and we record which shared budget you belong to.
Our website
If you fill in the early access or contact form on billjar.com.au, we receive what you enter (such as your name, email address and message). Forms are handled by Netlify, which hosts our website. We use these details only to reply to you or invite you to Bill Jar, and we delete them when you ask us to. Our website doesn’t use advertising or tracking cookies.
What Bill Jar keeps, and where
To work, Bill Jar saves what you enter: names, take-home pay and paydays, bills, savings goals, any balance you track, goal pictures, and your settings. Where it’s kept depends on what you choose (Settings → Data & storage → Where your budget is saved):
- On this phone only. Everything is stored only in your web browser’s storage on your device. It’s never sent to us, and we can’t see it, recover it or delete it for you.
- In your account. Your budget is stored in our database in Google Firebase (Google Cloud, Sydney, Australia), linked to your Google account, so it’s on any phone you sign in on. A copy is also kept on each of your devices so the app works offline. The database only lets you, and a partner who has joined your shared budget, read or change it. Savings goals marked private can only be read by their owner. In a shared budget, your profile picture (your Google account picture, or one you upload for yourself) is shared with the other person. Pictures you upload for someone else, and appearance settings, stay on that phone.
Sharing a budget with a partner
If you invite a partner, we store their email address with the invitation. When they join, you both see and can change the shared budget, and each of you gets a short notice of what the other changed (for example “Chanique added a bill”). Those notices are kept in your shared budget and tidied away 30 days after they’re seen.
The person who set up the shared budget (the subscriber) keeps it. If a partner leaves or is removed, a copy of the shared budget as it was is saved on their phone, their private savings goals are deleted from the shared budget, and they no longer see it. Joining someone else’s budget saves a copy of your own budget on your phone first, so you can restore it later.
If you switch from “Two of us” to “Just me”, a copy of the budget as it was is kept for you (on your phone and in your account), and a copy is kept in the other person’s account if we know their email, so they can open it if they get their own access. Each person can delete their own copies.
If you turn on the app lock, your PIN is saved on your device in a scrambled (hashed) form. Fingerprint and face unlock are checked by your phone, and Bill Jar never receives your fingerprint or face details.
Deleted bills and savings goals go to the recycle bin for 30 days, so they can be restored, and are then removed. Reminders are created and kept on your device.
You can change or delete anything in the app at any time. Settings → Support → “Delete everything and start again” removes it all (from your account too, if it’s saved there), and switching back to “On this phone only” deletes it from your account. Deleting the app or clearing your browser’s data removes the copy on that device. You can also ask us to delete everything we hold about you.
Statements, bills and screenshots you upload
When you add bills from a file, the file is read on your device to find payments and dates. The file isn’t uploaded to us or kept by the app. Only the bills you choose to add are saved.
Sync codes and backup files
A sync code or backup file is only created when you choose to make one. It contains your budget details (names, pay, bills and savings goals, but not pictures). Sync codes leave out savings goals you’ve marked private. You decide where to send or keep them, and the app or service you use to do that (such as messages or email) has its own privacy policy. Anyone who has your code or file can read what’s in it, so keep them safe.
Internet connections
Bill Jar works like a website saved to your phone. Your device connects to the internet to:
- load and update the app from the service that hosts it
- sign in with Google, check your access and download the app itself from Google Firebase
- save and sync your budget, if you’ve chosen to keep it in your account
- load the app’s font from Google Fonts
- load tools from jsDelivr for reading PDFs and pictures, only when you add bills from a file
Like any website, these services receive standard technical details such as your IP address and browser type, and handle them under their own privacy policies. Apart from the sign-in details above, and your budget if you keep it in your account, none of your information is sent with these requests.
No tracking
Bill Jar has no advertising, analytics or tracking, and doesn’t use cookies to follow you. Reminders are created on your device, not sent from a server.
Children
Bill Jar is made for adults managing their own household bills.
Questions or complaints
If you have a question or concern about privacy, or want your trial record or a budget saved in your account deleted, email support@billjar.com.au. If you’re not happy with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the new version will appear in the app with a new “last updated” date.