Security & encryption
Last updated: September 2026
How Platybooks protects your invoices, clients, and payments — in plain language you can forward to an auditor.
Encryption in transit
Everything between your browser and our servers — the app itself, the public invoice pages your clients open, and the hosted payment checkouts — travels over encrypted HTTPS connections. There is no unencrypted mode.
Encryption at rest & isolation
Records stored in our database are encrypted at rest by the database platform, and backups inherit that protection. Day-to-day access is then fenced by workspace isolation: every business record belongs to exactly one workspace, and the database refuses to serve one workspace’s rows to another.
What this protects — and what it doesn’t
To operate the service, Platybooks must be able to read your workspace data — that is how invoices get emailed, reminders go out on schedule, and your dashboard adds up. Anyone with your password can read it too, so keep your password safe and sign out on shared devices. Our job is to make sure nobody else can: not another workspace, not a stranger on the network, and not someone who steals a hard drive.
Who can do what
Inside a workspace, everyone has a role — owner, admin, or member — and the boundaries are enforced on the server. Members handle day-to-day clients and documents; recording payments, changing settings, and managing the team need an owner or admin. Payment records themselves are append-only: once written, they cannot be edited, only refunded or reversed with a new record.
Payments
Online card payments run on the payout account you connect (Paystack for South African businesses). Your client pays on the processor’s hosted checkout and we keep only its opaque payment reference — never the card number. Until you connect an account, invoice pages simply show no Pay option.
| Is my data encrypted in transit?Yes | The app, public invoice pages, and payment checkouts all run over HTTPS. |
|---|---|
| Is my data encrypted at rest?Yes | Stored records are encrypted at rest by our database platform. |
| Is my workspace isolated from other businesses?Yes | Every record belongs to one workspace and the database refuses cross-workspace access. |
| Are team permissions enforced?Yes | Owner, admin, and member permissions are enforced on the server, not just hidden in the interface. |
| Do you store my clients’ card numbers?No | Card numbers never touch our systems. Checkout runs on your connected Paystack account, which vaults the card. |
| Can I lock my data with my own private key?No | There is no private-key mode: reminders, receipts, and public invoice links run on our servers while you are offline, which is only possible because the service can read your data. |
Getting your data out
Your data stays yours. Export invoices, quotes, clients, and payments to CSV from each page, download any invoice as a PDF, and if you ever leave, deleting your account removes you — and solely-owned workspaces with it.
Questions auditors ask
- Can I encrypt my data with my own key?
No — and that is deliberate. A private key you lose means your invoices, client list, and tax records are gone forever, with no recovery possible. Worse, the features that make the service useful — scheduled sends, overdue reminders, receipts, public invoice links — run while you are offline and need the service to read your data. Instead we encrypt everything in transit and at rest and isolate every workspace. - My accountant needs my invoices — does encryption block that?
Every invoice you send is already shared by design: it goes out as an email with a PDF attachment and a public link your client can open. Anyone you send it to can forward it. Treat a sent invoice like a sent letter — the encryption story covers storage and transport, not the recipient’s inbox.