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PocOff Synergy privacy policy

Last updated: 16 October 2026

PocOff Synergy ("the app") is a shared pocket office for small businesses and their teams. People in the same company sign in and share clients, quotes, invoices, bookings, company expenses and a company calendar with tasks. This policy explains what the app does with your information.

In short: your company's shared records are stored in the cloud so your team can see them, and only members of your company can read them. Your personal tools (notes, trips, signatures and the like) stay on your phone. The app has no ads, sells no data and does not use your data for advertising.

Developer and contact: FJW Apps, 27 Kopjeskraal Road, Parys, 9585, South Africa ยท fjwapps@gmail.com

Who is responsible for what

  • Your account (name, email address, password): FJW Apps is responsible.
  • Your company's records (clients, invoices, bookings and so on): your company decides what goes in and who can see it, so under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) your company is the responsible party for the personal information of its own clients. FJW Apps acts as its operator: it stores the records for your company and uses them for nothing else.

Your account

To use the app you create an account with your name, email address and a password. Firebase Authentication (Google) handles sign-in and stores the password in a protected form; the developer never sees it. Your name and email address are shown to the other members of your company.

What is shared with your company, and where it is stored

When you are a member of a company, the following is stored in Google Cloud Firestore (part of Google Firebase) in Google's Johannesburg, South Africa region (africa-south1), and can be seen and changed by the members of your company according to their role (owner, admin or member):

  • Company details: company name, business details (address, registration and VAT numbers, banking details, logo, terms and conditions) and the list of members with their names, email addresses and roles.
  • Clients and products: client names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and registration numbers; products, services and bookable units.
  • Quotes, invoices and payments: line items, totals, tax, deposits, payments and who created each document.
  • Bookings: units, dates, number of persons and the linked quote or invoice.
  • Company calendar and tasks: events, tasks, due dates, who each task is assigned to, and the questions and replies people write on a task.
  • Notification token: a code from Firebase Cloud Messaging that lets the app tell your phone about a new task, a question on a task or a leave decision. It's saved on your account and removed when you sign out.
  • Company expenses: amounts, VAT, vendor, category, date, payment method and slip photos for expenses you mark as company expenses.
  • Payroll (if your company uses it): employees' names, job titles, ID or passport numbers, income tax numbers, dates of birth, pay rates, hours worked, bank details, and every payslip with its deductions. Only the company's owner and admins can see payroll. An employee linked to a team account can see their own finalised payslips and nobody else's. Employers must keep payroll records for at least 5 years (Tax Administration Act); a finalised payslip can't be changed or deleted, except when the owner deletes the whole company.
  • Clock-in (if your company uses it): the times you clock in and out, the location of the phone at that moment (to check you're on a work site), and a face photo taken in the app each time, with your name and the time on it. A manager may also take one reference photo of you to compare them with. To make sure a real person is in front of the camera, the app asks you to blink or turn your head; this check runs on the phone (Google ML Kit). If a reference photo was taken, the phone then compares the new photo with it (face matching, using the open-source SFace model) and warns, and tells your company's managers, if it looks like someone else. Face matching processes biometric information, which POPIA treats as special personal information: it is done only to check that the right person is clocking in, with your consent when the reference photo is taken, and entirely on the phone. Only a match score is saved with the shift; no face measurements or templates are kept or sent anywhere. You can ask your employer to delete your reference photo, after which no matching is done. After the photo you sign with your finger; the signature is saved with the shift and printed on the company's time sheet. Only your company's owner and admins see everyone's shifts, photos, signatures and time sheets; you see your own shifts. Location is taken only when you tap Clock in or Clock out, never in the background.
  • Business trips (if you're in a company): the driver, vehicle registration, the inspection tick, odometer readings and times, purpose, closing comment and small copies of the two odometer photos, so the owner and admins can download everyone's trip log. Where the readings were taken is not shared; it stays on the phone.
  • Leave (if your company uses it): the leave you ask for or a manager records: its kind (annual, sick, family responsibility or unpaid), dates, days and any reason you give, and who approved it. Sick leave can be health information, so only your company's owner and admins see the kind and reason; you see your own. Approved leave shows on the company calendar only as "Name on leave". Your leave balances are printed on your payslip.
  • Join codes: a short code a company owner or admin creates to invite someone, with the role it grants. Codes expire after 7 days.

The same company data can be opened in a web browser at pocoff-synergy.web.app, signing in with the same account; the same roles and rules apply there. The browser keeps a copy of what you open so pages load quickly; signing out of a shared computer is recommended.

Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS) and at rest by Google. Firestore keeps a copy on your phone so the app works without signal and catches up when you're back online.

What stays on your phone only

These features are personal and are not uploaded:

  • Notes, personal to-dos and their reminders.
  • Personal expenses (expenses not marked as company expenses) and their slip photos.
  • Documents: scans and imported PDF, Word and Excel files in your Library, unless you share them yourself.
  • Documents & Expiries: photos of licences, certificates and other documents and the details read from them (on a vehicle licence disc: the licence number, vehicle register number, VIN, engine number, make, description and expiry date).
  • Trip log: odometer photos and readings and, if you allow it, the location where each reading was taken. Private trips stay on the phone.
  • Time sheets, budget entries, calculations and split bills.
  • Signatures: stored encrypted on the phone.

Camera, photos and on-device text recognition

When you photograph a slip, an odometer, a document or a licence (or pick a photo from your gallery), the picture is read on your phone by Google ML Kit text recognition, built into the app. The text is read on the phone; a slip photo is uploaded only when you save it with a company expense. The app uses your phone's camera app and the Android photo picker. It doesn't ask for camera or storage permission and only sees the photos you choose.

The document scanner and the optional writing help (proofread, rewrite, summarise) use Google Play services on your phone. Where your phone supports it, writing help runs on the phone with Google's on-device Gemini Nano model. Your text is not sent to the developer. Google's own handling of Play services is covered by Google's privacy policy.

Location

Location is used by the trip log, to record where an odometer reading was taken (it stays on your phone), and by clock-in, to check you're on a work site when you clock in or out (it's stored with the shift and seen by your company's owner and admins). It is used only at those moments, after you allow it, and never in the background.

Notifications and reminders

Reminders for your events, to-dos, overdue invoices and expiring documents are scheduled on your phone. When a team member assigns you a task or changes a booking, the app may send you a notification through Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google); it carries only the task or booking title. The app doesn't read or write your phone's own calendar.

Backups

Company records are kept in the cloud and are not lost with a phone. Your personal, phone-only data is lost with a lost or reset phone unless you back it up: Export backup writes one file with your app data to a place you choose (for example your own cloud drive). Keep it somewhere safe; the developer never receives it. Android's automatic backup includes only the app's small settings file.

Company plan and payment

PocOff Synergy is a monthly company plan, bought through Google Play by the company's owner for the whole team, with the first month free for every new company (plans and prices are in the terms of use). Google Play processes the payment under Google's terms and privacy policy; the app never sees payment details. The app's server checks the purchase with Google and stores, against the company: the plan, whether it's active, when it renews, Google's purchase reference, and how many users and payroll employees the company has.

Who else receives your information

  • Members of your company see the shared records described above, by role: a Worker sees the calendar, tasks and their own clock-in, payslips and leave, but not clients, invoices, payments or company expenses.
  • Google (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Storage, Cloud Messaging and Google Play) stores and processes data for the developer as a service provider, under Google's data processing terms. It doesn't use your company's records for its own purposes.
  • Nobody else. The app doesn't sell, rent or share your information for advertising. When you share or export a document yourself (for example emailing an invoice PDF), it goes to the app you pick, and that app's own privacy policy applies.

How long it's kept

Company records are kept while the company exists. When a member leaves or is removed, the records they created stay with the company; their account stays until they delete it. When you delete your account, your name, email address and sign-in details are deleted within 30 days. If you own a company, deleting your account also deletes the company and its shared records, after a warning.

Deleting your account and data

You can delete your account in the app (tap the people icon on Home, then Delete account) or by emailing fjwapps@gmail.com from your account's email address; the steps are also at the account-deletion page published next to this policy. Deleting your account doesn't cancel a Google Play subscription: cancel it in the Play Store app under Payments and subscriptions. Uninstalling the app or clearing its storage deletes everything held only on your phone. Backup files you saved elsewhere must be deleted by you.

Your rights

Under POPIA you may ask to see the personal information held about you, have it corrected or deleted, or object to its processing. Contact the developer at the address above. For information in your company's records about you as a client, contact that company. You may also complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa): https://inforegulator.org.za.

Children

PocOff Synergy is a business tool and isn't directed at children under 18.

Security

Only signed-in members of a company can read or change its records; this is enforced by the server's security rules, not only by the app. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. On the phone, data is kept in the app's private storage and signatures are encrypted. You can switch on App lock (fingerprint, face or device PIN) in Settings. Use a strong password and remove people from your company when they leave.

Terms of use

Use of the app is also subject to the PocOff Synergy terms of use, available in the app under Settings > Terms of use.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be published at this address with a new "Last updated" date, and significant changes will be shown in the app.