Privacy policy

The short version

• TradesMax is job-management software that trades businesses use to run their leads, jobs, customers, quotes, invoices and staff hours.
• If you are a customer of a business that uses TradesMax, that business decides what is collected about you and why. We store and process it for them, and we never use it for our own purposes. Contact the business first with privacy questions; we will help them answer.
• If you use our website, contact us, or are one of our business clients or their staff, we are responsible for your information and this policy explains how we handle it.
• Our database and stored files are in Sydney, Australia. Some services we rely on are run from the United States. We list them all below.
• We do not sell personal information, and we do not use advertising or analytics trackers in the app.

1. Who we are

TradesMax is built and run by SN Business Solutions (“SNBS”, “we”, “us”), a New Zealand partnership. You can contact us at [email protected].

We follow the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 and its information privacy principles.

2. Whose information this covers, and our role

We handle personal information in two different roles.

a. Information we hold for the businesses that use TradesMax

Each business that uses TradesMax (our “client”) puts information about its own customers, enquiries and staff into the app. That business is responsible for that information under the Privacy Act. We hold it only as their agent, to store and process it so the app works for them (section 11 of the Privacy Act). We do not use or share it for our own purposes, we do not combine one business’s data with another’s, and we do not market to their customers.

If you are a customer of one of these businesses, please read their privacy policy too, and send access, correction or deletion requests to them. If you contact us instead, we will refer you to the business.

b. Information we are responsible for ourselves

We are responsible for information about people who visit our website or contact us, our business clients and the people we deal with there, and the login accounts we set up so people can use the app.

3. What we collect

When you visit our website or contact us

• What you send us: your name, business name, email, phone number and message, by email, phone or any form on our website.
• Basic technical information that our website host records when pages load, such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you view.

When you have a TradesMax login

• Your name, work email, role and the business you work for, entered by that business’s admin or by us. There is no public sign-up.
• Your password, stored only in scrambled (hashed) form by our sign-in provider. We cannot see it.
• For owners and admins, the link to your authenticator app for two-step sign-in.
• Sign-in records, such as when you signed in and from which IP address.
• If you turn on phone alerts: a technical address for your phone or browser, and your alert settings (such as quiet hours).
• For subcontractors: the last day your login works.

What businesses put into TradesMax

Depending on the features a business uses, this can include:

• Customers and enquiries: names, phone numbers, email addresses, home and site addresses, site access notes, notes about the work, and where an enquiry came from.
• Leads from the business’s website and phone: details from website forms and phone calls passed on from the business’s HighLevel (GHL) account, including the caller’s number, the call time, length and whether it was answered. We do not collect call recordings.
• Jobs: job details, bookings, notes, tasks, and photos taken on site. When a photo is uploaded we remove hidden details such as the location it was taken and the phone model.
• Quotes and invoices: prices, line items, payment status and, if the business connects Xero, the matching Xero contact and invoice records.
• Staff information: hours worked, breaks, time off, leave and who is booked on which job.
• Email and text history: records of the automatic emails and reminder texts sent for the business (when, to which address, and whether it went), and whether a customer has asked not to receive them.
• Change history: who changed a lead, job, customer or timesheet and when.

We ask businesses not to store sensitive information they don’t need, such as IRD numbers, bank card numbers or health details.

4. How we use it

• To run TradesMax for each business: show the right information to the right people, send the alerts, emails and texts the business has switched on, and keep its records.
• To set up, support and fix the service. SNBS’s owners can open a client’s business in the app to do this, after their own two-step sign-in. Every time they open a business, and every change they make there, is recorded.
• To keep TradesMax secure, find and fix errors, and check it is running.
• To answer your enquiries, and to manage our relationship with our business clients, including billing.
• To meet our legal obligations.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use customers’ information for advertising.

5. Emails and texts sent for businesses

When a business switches these features on, TradesMax sends emails on its behalf, such as quote follow-ups and overdue invoice reminders. They come from the business’s name, replies go to the business, and each one says “Sent by [business] using TradesMax”. Every one has an unsubscribe link that stops emails from that business straight away. Reminder texts for booked visits are sent through the business’s own HighLevel (GHL) account from its phone number, and replying STOP opts you out.

We also send account emails, such as password reset links, and team emails to a business’s staff about new leads and what to follow up.

6. Who we share it with

We use the service providers below to run TradesMax. They act on our instructions and may only use the information to provide their service to us. We may also disclose information when the law requires it.

7. Storing and sending information overseas

Our main database is in Australia, and some providers above are in the United States. Where a provider only stores or processes information for us, we stay responsible for it. Where information is sent overseas, we choose established providers with their own security commitments and data protection terms, so that it is protected in a way comparable to the New Zealand Privacy Act. If you’d like more detail about a provider, ask us.

8. Cookies and tracking

The TradesMax app uses only the cookies it needs to work: to keep you signed in, to remember which business you are working in, to link phone alerts to your device, and to complete a password reset or a Xero connection safely. It has no advertising or analytics trackers.

Our website is hosted by HighLevel, which may set its own cookies to keep the site working. We use Google Analytics on the website to see how many people visit and which pages they view; it uses cookies and sends this information to Google. It does not tell us who you are. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings.

9. How we keep it secure

• Each business’s information is kept separate by rules in the database itself, not just by what the screens show. Automatic tests check this on every update.
• Owners and admins must use two-step sign-in with an authenticator app. Each person only sees what their role allows. Subcontractors only see their own open jobs, and their login ends on a set day.
• Information is encrypted while it travels over the internet and while it is stored. Connection keys for Xero and HighLevel are kept in an encrypted vault.
• Job photos are private to each business.
• Every change to TradesMax is reviewed for security before it goes live, and we are alerted if the app has errors or stops responding.

No system is perfectly secure, so if you think your account or information has been misused, tell us straight away.

10. If something goes wrong

If a privacy breach is likely to cause serious harm, it will be notified to the Privacy Commissioner and the people affected as the Privacy Act requires.

11. How long we keep it

• We keep a business’s information while it uses TradesMax, unless the business deletes it earlier.
• When a business stops using TradesMax, we delete all of its information within 14 days after the end of its agreement. A business that wants a copy of its data must ask for it before then.
• Some records are cleared automatically sooner: in-app alerts after 60 days, website-form and phone-call delivery records after 90 days, and password-reset requests after one day.
• Each business is responsible for keeping its own records, such as wage and time records, for as long as the law requires it to.
• Our own business records (enquiries, contracts, invoices) are kept as long as we need them and as tax law requires.

12. Seeing and correcting your information

You can ask for a copy of the personal information held about you, and ask for it to be corrected. If it is held for a business that uses TradesMax, ask that business. For anything else, contact our privacy officer below. We will reply within 20 working days, and we may need to confirm who you are first. Customers can also stop a business’s emails at any time with the unsubscribe link.

13. Children

TradesMax is a business tool and is not meant for children. We do not knowingly collect information from children, except where a business records a young person as a customer contact or apprentice.

14. Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when the way we handle personal information changes. Each update gets a new version number and “last updated” date at the top of this page.

15. Contact us or make a complaint

Our privacy officer is Nathan Hrstic.

• Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

If you are not happy with how we handled your concern, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz or on 0800 803 909.