1. Overview
Welcome to BuildCost: Construction Budget ("we", "our", or "us"). We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting the financial and operational data you enter into our mobile application.
This Privacy Policy explains how BuildCost: Construction Budget collects, uses, stores, and protects information when you use our Android and iOS applications. Our core design philosophy is offline-first privacy: your construction ledgers, material tracking, worker wage logs, and project financial records remain under your direct control on your mobile device.
2. Data We Process
To provide comprehensive construction budget tracking, project management, and reporting features, BuildCost processes the following types of information strictly on your local device:
A. Project & Financial Data
- Project Information: Project titles, overall budgets, category allocations (materials, labour, fees, permits), and custom settings.
- Unified Ledger Entries: Expense amounts, transaction dates, descriptions, payment status, and vendor names.
- Material Purchases & Supplier Credit: Material items, quantities, unit costs, supplier names, and running credit balances owed to vendors.
- Labour & Worker Logs: Worker roster details (names, roles, daily/hourly rates), days/hours worked, cash advances, and payment tallies.
- Site Daily Logs & Checklists: Site progress notes, task status, completion checklists, and issue reports.
B. Media & Documents
- Receipts & Delivery Photos: Images captured or selected by you to serve as proof of purchase or delivery notes.
- Geotag & Timestamp Metadata: Optional geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) and dates embedded into site photos for audit and verification purposes.
- Export Files: Generated PDF budget reports, Excel workbooks, and CSV ledger spreadsheets created at your request.
Your financial ledgers, salary payments, vendor debits, and site progress photos are never uploaded to external servers without your explicit manual action (such as exporting a report or sharing a summary via WhatsApp/Email).
3. Offline-First Architecture
BuildCost: Construction Budget uses an offline-first storage model powered by a local relational database (SQLite via Drift framework). All data is stored within your device's isolated application storage box.
This ensures that:
- The app functions seamlessly on remote job sites without internet connectivity.
- No central database contains your sensitive financial records or construction cost history.
- Your data travels with your physical device.
4. Device Permissions Explained
To enable specific features, BuildCost requests explicit permissions on your device. You can grant or revoke these permissions at any time through your operating system settings.
| Permission | Type | Purpose in BuildCost |
|---|---|---|
| Optional | Allows you to snap receipt photos, material delivery notes, and site progress images directly into your cost entries. | |
| Optional | Allows you to attach existing delivery slips or invoice images from your device gallery. | |
| Optional | Used solely to automatically record GPS coordinates (geotag) on site receipt photos for client/project proof. | |
| Optional | Enables saving PDF expense reports, Excel budget sheets, and CSV exports to your device downloads or document folders. |
5. Third-Party Sharing & Exports
We do not monetize, sell, trade, or share your data with advertising networks, data brokers, or third-party analytics providers.
User-Initiated Sharing
The app includes features designed to help contractors and owner-builders communicate budget progress with clients, partners, or lenders:
- WhatsApp Summary Share: Generates formatted text summaries or images that you can manually send through WhatsApp using deep linking.
- PDF & Report Exporting: Uses standard system share sheets to allow you to send PDF/Excel reports via email, messaging apps, or cloud storage services of your choice.
When you initiate a share action, the data is handled strictly according to the privacy policy of the application you choose to share through.
6. Data Security & Storage Duration
Because your data is stored locally on your device, the security of your records depends on the security measures enabled on your phone (such as device PIN, biometrics, and filesystem encryption).
Data Retention: We retain your data on your device for as long as the application remains installed. If you uninstall BuildCost or clear its application storage, all locally stored database records, receipts, and photos created within the app will be permanently removed.
7. Your Rights & Data Control
You retain complete control over your data. Under applicable privacy regulations (such as GDPR, CCPA, and regional privacy laws), you have the right to:
- Access Your Data: View all projects, entries, workers, and receipts directly inside the app.
- Export Your Data: Export full project records, summaries, and ledgers into open formats (PDF, Excel, CSV) at any time.
- Modify & Correct: Edit or update any ledger entry, wage payment, or project budget detail.
- Delete Data: Delete individual projects, workers, or ledger entries, or remove all data entirely by clearing app storage or uninstalling the app.
8. Children's Privacy
BuildCost: Construction Budget is designed for home renovators, owner-builders, contractors, and construction managers. It is not intended for use by children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
9. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect app updates or legal requirements. Any updates will be posted on this page with a revised "Effective Date" at the top. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.
10. Contact Us
If you have any questions, feedback, or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or how data is handled in BuildCost: Construction Budget, please reach out to us:
Support & Privacy Inquiries
For questions or privacy-related concerns, drop us an email:
blackspringnepal@gmail.com