Budget Express Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 16, 2026. This policy replaces the policy dated September 22, 2023.
Budget Express provides online budgeting software and the website budget-express.com. Protecting your personal information is essential to us. This policy explains, in plain language, what information we collect, why, how we protect it and what your rights are, in accordance with Québec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (as amended by Law 25) and other applicable laws.
"Personal information" means any information about a person that allows that person to be identified, directly or indirectly.
1. Person in charge of the protection of personal information
Katie Lefebvre, Person in charge of the protection of personal information
Budget Express, 1562 rue Arthur, Gatineau, Quebec, J8R 3J3
Phone: 418-717-4441
Email: support@budget-express.com
She ensures compliance with this policy and answers your questions, requests and complaints.
2. Information we collect
Information you provide:
- Account: first name, last name, email address, password (stored in encrypted form), and the language and currency of your profile.
- Your budget: the budget items, income, expenses, accounts, entries and other data you enter in the software.
- Subscription and payment: information about your subscription and invoices. Payments are processed by our payment providers (Stripe, Zoho); Budget Express does not keep your full credit card number.
- Communications: the information you give us when you write to us, use the chat or ask for help.
Information collected automatically: technical data (IP address, device and browser type, pages viewed, date and time) and cookies (see section 6).
Banking information, only if you link a bank: see section 5.
We collect only the information needed for the purposes described below.
3. Why we use your information
- To create and manage your account and give you access to the software.
- To run the features you use: budget, calendar, entries, reconciliation, analyses and reports.
- To manage your subscription and payments.
- To provide support and answer your requests.
- To keep the software secure, prevent fraud and fix technical problems.
- To improve our products, using overall statistics or anonymized data.
- To send you newsletters and offers, only if you have consented. Every message includes an unsubscribe link.
- To meet our legal obligations (for example, accounting and tax obligations).
If we want to use your information for a new purpose, we will ask for your consent first, unless the law allows it without consent.
4. Your consent
We ask for clear, free and informed consent, for specific purposes. For sensitive information, such as your banking data, we ask for express consent.
You can withdraw your consent at any time by writing to us or by using the options in the software (for example, removing a bank or unsubscribing from a newsletter). Withdrawing consent may, however, prevent some features from working.
Our services are intended for adults. Information about a person under 14 may only be collected with the consent of their parent or guardian.
5. Linking your bank accounts with Plaid
If you choose to, Budget Express lets you link your bank accounts so you can see your balances and reconcile your budget with your actual transactions. This feature is optional: you can use Budget Express without linking a bank.
Our provider. Bank linking is provided by Plaid Inc. ("Plaid"), a specialized provider based in the United States. You enter your bank credentials (username and password) directly in Plaid's secure window: Budget Express never sees or stores them.
Your consent. Before any link is made, Plaid shows you what information will be shared and asks for your authorization. Plaid processes your information under its own privacy policy: https://plaid.com/legal/#end-user-privacy-policy.
Information we receive, for the banks you choose to link:
- the name and logo of the financial institution;
- the name and type of your accounts;
- your account balances (including, where applicable, investment, credit and loan accounts);
- your transactions (date, description, amount), going back up to 24 months.
How we use it. This information is used only to show your balances and to let you reconcile and categorize your transactions in your budget. It is never sold, rented, or used for advertising, profiling or training artificial intelligence systems.
Retention and security. Your transactions are retrieved when you need them and are not kept by Budget Express; only the entries you choose to add to your budget are saved. We keep the bank name, the names and balances of your linked accounts, and an access key provided by Plaid. This key is encrypted in our database, and all communications are encrypted.
Removing a bank. You can remove a bank at any time on the Bank page. We then ask Plaid to cut off access, and we delete the bank, its accounts and the access key. When your subscription ends, all your bank links are cut off and deleted in the same way within 24 hours.
6. Cookies and tracking technologies
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies:
- Essential cookies: required for the website and the software to work (sign-in, security, language). They cannot be turned off.
- Statistics, chat and advertising cookies (for example Google Analytics, Zoho SalesIQ): they may be used to measure how the site is used or to show you relevant ads. They are turned off by default and are only turned on if you accept them in the cookie banner.
You can change your choices at any time with the cookie settings button on the site, or in your browser settings. The Budget Express software does not use any technology to locate you or build a profile of you.
7. Sharing your information with third parties
We do not sell or rent your personal information. We share it only with the providers that help us deliver our services, and only as needed:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS): hosting of the software and the database;
- Plaid: bank account linking (section 5);
- Stripe and Zoho (Zoho One, Zoho Subscriptions, Zoho SalesIQ): payments, subscriptions, invoicing, customer management, emails and chat;
- Google (Google Analytics, reCAPTCHA): website statistics, if you accept them, and protection against bots.
These providers are bound by contract: they must protect your information, use it only for the service they provide, and destroy it when the contract ends.
We may also disclose information without your consent when the law requires or allows it (for example, under a court order).
8. Transfers outside Québec
Some of our providers (including Plaid, Stripe, Google and AWS) are located or store data outside Québec, notably in the United States. Before sending information outside Québec, we assess whether it will be adequately protected there, and we put that protection in a contract. This information may be subject to the laws of the country where it is located.
9. Security
We take reasonable measures to protect your information: encrypted communications (HTTPS), encrypted passwords and bank access keys, access limited to those who need it, and backups. Because no system is perfectly secure, we cannot guarantee absolute security.
If a confidentiality incident occurs (unauthorized access or loss), we act quickly to reduce the risk. If the incident presents a risk of serious injury, we notify the Commission d'accès à l'information and the people concerned, as required by law.
10. Retention and destruction
- Your account and budget data: kept during your subscription, then for up to 90 days after it ends so you can reactivate it. It is then destroyed.
- Bank links: cut off and deleted within 24 hours after the subscription ends, or as soon as you remove a bank.
- Invoices and accounting records: kept for the period required by tax laws (generally six years).
We may keep anonymized statistics, which can no longer identify you, for longer.
11. Your rights
You have the right to:
- access your personal information and get a copy of it;
- have it corrected if it is inaccurate, incomplete or ambiguous;
- withdraw your consent and ask for your information to be deleted, subject to our legal obligations;
- receive your information in a structured, commonly used technological format, or have it sent to a person you designate (portability);
- ask us to stop disseminating your information, or to de-index any hyperlink attached to your name that gives access to it, where the law provides for it;
- be informed of the information used if a decision about you were based exclusively on automated processing. Budget Express does not currently make any such decisions.
To exercise your rights, write to the person in charge (section 1). We may need to verify your identity. We respond within 30 days of receiving your request, free of charge (reasonable fees may apply for transcription or copying). If we refuse your request, we will tell you why.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may file a complaint with the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec: www.cai.gouv.qc.ca.
12. Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites. This policy does not apply to those websites; please read their own privacy policies.
13. Changes to this policy
We may change this policy. The date of the last update is always shown at the top. If there is a significant change, we will post a notice on our website and, where appropriate, inform you by email. We will not reduce your rights without your consent.
