Privacy Policy

This policy applies to people who visit https://bizela.co.za, create a Bizela account, are added to a company in Bizela, or whose information is entered into Bizela by a business that uses it (for example, a business's customers who receive quotes or invoices). Bizela is a product operated by Bizela Technologies (Pty) Ltd, Registration No. 2026/714893/07, a private company registered in South Africa, for South African businesses.

Bizela handles personal information in two distinct ways, and it matters which one applies:

• A. Information Bizela processes for its own purposes. Your account and login details, the companies you create, subscription and billing metadata, support conversations and technical logs. For this information Bizela decides why and how it is processed (Bizela is the "responsible party" in POPIA terms).
• B. Information a business enters about its own customers. Customer names, contact details, VAT numbers, addresses, notes, and the quotes, invoices, payments and statements relating to them. The business using Bizela generally decides why it collects this information and how it uses it; Bizela stores and processes it on that business's behalf to provide the software, under these terms and applicable law. In POPIA terms the business is generally the responsible party for this information and Bizela acts as its operator.

If you are a customer of a business that uses Bizela and you have a question about how that business uses your information, please contact that business first. We will assist where we reasonably can.

• Account and contact information — email address, password (stored in hashed form only), and communications with support.
• Company information — company name, VAT registration details, contact details, address, banking details (Premium) and terms & conditions text you choose to print on documents.
• Customer information entered by a business — name, contact person, mobile and telephone numbers, email, VAT number, address and notes.
• Quote and invoice information — document numbers, dates, line items, prices, discounts, VAT and totals.
• Payment-record information — amounts, dates, methods (cash, EFT, card, other), references, notes, allocations and reversals that a business records. These are records of payments a business received; Bizela does not process those payments.
• Subscription and billing metadata — plan, price, currency, renewal dates, subscription status, checkout references, PayFast payment and subscription identifiers, and your recurring-payment authorisation record (company, account, plan, amount, frequency, versions of the legal terms accepted, timestamp and environment).
• Technical, security and log information — IP address, browser/device information, timestamps, error reports and security events.
• Files — company logos you upload.

Bizela does not ask for, receive or store full card numbers or CVV codes. These are entered directly on PayFast.

• Providing Bizela: creating, storing, calculating and displaying your customers, quotes, invoices, payments and statements, and generating PDFs.
• Authentication and account administration, including password resets and email confirmation.
• Subscription administration: checkout, recurring billing through PayFast, renewals, grace periods, cancellations and keeping evidence of your recurring-payment authorisation.
• Customer support and responding to your requests.
• Security and fraud prevention, including detecting abuse and protecting other users.
• Troubleshooting and maintaining the reliability of the service.
• Meeting legal, tax, accounting and regulatory obligations and responding to lawful requests.
• Understanding how the service is used so that we can improve it. We do not sell personal information.

We process personal information where it is necessary to provide the service you or your business asked for, where you have consented (for example when you authorise recurring billing), where we have a legal obligation, or where it is necessary for our legitimate interests — such as keeping the service secure — balanced against your rights. Businesses that enter their customers' information into Bizela are responsible for having a lawful basis to do so.

Bizela uses a small number of service providers that are necessary to operate the service:

• Cloud hosting, database, authentication and file storage — the platform that runs Bizela and stores your data and uploaded logos.
• Application delivery — the network that serves the Bizela website and application to your browser.
• Payment processing — PayFast handles Premium subscription payments. When you subscribe, you are taken to PayFast, where you enter your card details. PayFast processes the payment and future recurring payments and sends Bizela confirmation of the outcome (such as payment status, amount, date and reference identifiers). PayFast's handling of your information is governed by its own terms and privacy policy.
• Email delivery — used for account emails such as confirmation and password-reset links.
• Monitoring and error reporting — used to detect faults and keep the service reliable.

We share only what each provider needs to perform its function. We do not use other processors for your data beyond these categories, and we do not sell or rent personal information.

We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect personal information, including:

• Authentication for every account and password storage in hashed form.
• Company isolation: each company's records are separated, and database access rules restrict every request to the companies a user belongs to.
• Restricted database access with server-side validation of entitlements, limits and document actions.
• Private file storage for uploaded logos with access checks; files are not published on public URLs.
• Separation from the payment provider: card details are entered on PayFast, and payment notifications are cryptographically verified before they are acted on.
• Encrypted connections (HTTPS) between your browser and Bizela.

No online system can guarantee complete security. If we become aware of a security compromise affecting your personal information we will act in accordance with our obligations under POPIA, including notifying you where required.

Bizela's database, authentication and file storage are currently hosted by our cloud provider in the European Union (Ireland). The Bizela application is delivered through a global content-delivery network, which means requests may be processed at servers outside South Africa closest to you. PayFast processes payments in South Africa. Where personal information is transferred outside South Africa, we rely on providers that are subject to laws or binding commitments providing an adequate level of protection, as contemplated by POPIA. We will update this section if our hosting location changes.

We keep account and company information for as long as the account or company exists. Business records — quotes, invoices, payments, allocations, reversals, statements and document audit history — are preserved as financial records and are not automatically deleted when a subscription is cancelled, expires or a company returns to the Free plan. Billing records, PayFast notifications and recurring-payment authorisation records are kept as evidence of the subscription relationship. Technical logs are kept for limited periods needed for security and troubleshooting. Where South African law requires records to be kept for a minimum period (for example tax and accounting records), we keep them for at least that period.

Subject to applicable law, you may ask us to:

• confirm whether we hold personal information about you and give you access to it;
• correct or update inaccurate or incomplete information (you can change most account and company information yourself in Bizela);
• delete information, or close your account;
• object to, or ask us to restrict, certain processing where applicable;
• raise any other privacy concern.

Send requests to support@bizela.co.za. We may need to verify your identity first. Some requests cannot be fully met — for example we may need to keep issued invoices, payment records, billing evidence and security logs to comply with legal, accounting, security, fraud-prevention and legitimate record-retention requirements. Where that is the case we will tell you what we can and cannot do.

If you are not satisfied with our response you may lodge a complaint with the South African Information Regulator: inforegulator.org.za.

Bizela uses strictly necessary cookies and browser storage to keep you signed in, remember which company you are working in, and (in guest mode) keep your trial documents on your device until you create an account. We do not use advertising cookies.

Bizela is a business tool and is not intended for children under 18.

We may update this policy. The version and dates appear at the top of the page. Material changes will be notified inside Bizela or by email where reasonably possible.

Privacy and data-subject requests: support@bizela.co.za. See also our Terms of Service and PAIA Manual.