Privacy

Last updated 1 October 2026

Helmsman is built to hold as little about you as it can while still being useful. This page sets out what it keeps, why, where, and how to get it back or have it deleted. Questions go to info@tryhelmsman.app.

What Helmsman keeps

• Your account: your name, email address, and either a scrambled (hashed) password, a passkey, or your Google sign-in.
• For each device you are signed in on: the date, the browser it reported and its IP address, so you can see and sign out your devices.
• What you import or type in: transactions from your CSV files, holdings, trades, your tags, rules, categories and settings.
• Invoice details: the number, client, description, amount, currency, dates and status, plus the file name and a hash so the same file is not added twice. The invoice file itself is not kept.
• A business share of a household category for a tax year: the percentage, which profit-and-loss line it joins, and the note on how you worked it out. The underlying payments stay household.
• Uploaded CSV files, only while you finish an import. They are deleted once it completes, or after a day if you leave it.
• When your 14-day trial ends. If you subscribe, your Stripe customer and subscription ids, the subscription's status, whether it is set to cancel, and its renewal date. Never your card.

What it never asks for

Helmsman never asks for your bank password and never connects to your bank. It has no analytics, no advertising and no tracking scripts, and it does not sell your data. A share image of your portfolio or subscriptions is made in your browser and is not uploaded to Helmsman. This public website sets no cookies at all.

Cookies

The app sets one cookie, which keeps you signed in. Nothing else is stored in your browser for tracking.

Where it is stored, and who else is involved

• Your data lives in a Postgres database run by our hosting provider, Railway.
• Emails to confirm your address and reset your password are sent through Resend, which sees your email address and that message.
• If you sign in with Google, Google tells Helmsman your name and email address.
• If you subscribe to Pro, payment is handled by Stripe on its own pages. Stripe sees your email address and card details; Helmsman keeps only the billing fields above, never your card. The 14-day trial does not create a Stripe subscription.
• Exchange rates come from the European Central Bank via Frankfurter, and prices from public stock exchange and crypto price pages. Those requests carry only currency codes and tickers, never anything about you.
• A backup and the accountant's spreadsheet are built when you download them. Helmsman does not keep a separate copy of those files.

How long it is kept

Everything stays until you delete it or close your account. Closing your account deletes your login and every row it owns straight away; copies can persist in the hosting provider's backups for a short period before they roll off.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can see, correct, move and delete your data. In Helmsman:

• On Pro, or during the trial, Settings then Backup & restore downloads the rows your login owns (accounts, transactions, rules, holdings, trades, invoices, business shares, settings and the prices stored for your holdings). It does not include your password, sessions, passkeys or subscription. On Free that download is locked; the rows are still there.
• On Pro, or during the trial, you can also export transactions as CSV and download the tax year as a spreadsheet.
• Anything you imported or typed in can be edited or removed on its own page.
• Profile, then Delete account, removes your account and all its data.

For anything else, email info@tryhelmsman.app. If you are unhappy with the answer you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Keeping it safe

Traffic is encrypted, passwords are stored only as hashes, and every row of financial data is tied to your account so no one else's account can read it.

Changes

If this changes in a way that matters, the date at the top changes and we email you before it takes effect.