SharpQuote, a WhatsApp quoting service ("the service"), is operated by Level Ideas (Pty) Ltd, South Africa ("we", "us"). It lets businesses and tradespeople ("artisans") create quotes and invoices by sending WhatsApp messages. We comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). This policy explains what we collect, why, and your rights.
Who is responsible
Level Ideas (Pty) Ltd is the responsible party for artisans' information. For the details of an artisan's own clients, the artisan decides what is included and why; we process those details on the artisan's behalf to make their documents. Information Officer: support@sharpquote.co.za.
What we collect
- When you first message us: nothing is stored until you tap a button to start (and agree to this policy). Then we store your WhatsApp number and name.
- Artisans: business name, the kind of work you do, and anything you choose to add: registration details, VAT status and number, address, contact details, banking details, logo, brand colour, saved prices and document settings.
- Subscription payments: the plan, amounts, dates and PayFast references of an artisan's payments, and the invoices we issue for them. Card details are entered on PayFast's own secure page; we never see or store them.
- Referral programme: if you apply, your full name as on your ID, your South African ID number, an email address, your SARS tax number (if you give it), when you accepted the referral terms, who you referred and the rewards you earned. We use these only to run the programme, to pay rewards and for tax records. When an account is deleted we keep only a scrambled code of its WhatsApp number with the last day it paid for, so the same number can't claim a referral discount again straight away.
- Messages: the WhatsApp messages and voice notes artisans send the service, and a text transcript of voice notes. Questions and feedback you send us (QUERY, FEEDBACK).
- Artisans' clients: the client details an artisan includes in a quote (such as name, company, address, phone, email and VAT number) and the quotes and invoices created. When a client accepts a quote online, we record the name and any note they type, and when they accepted.
- Technical information: internet (IP) addresses and times of visits to our pages, used only for security (for example, to stop repeated abuse) and kept briefly.
Cookies
This website and our quote pages don't use advertising or tracking cookies, and we don't use analytics that follow you around the web. The only cookie we set is a sign-in cookie for SharpQuote's own staff on our admin pages.
Why we use it
Only to create, store, edit and send the artisan's quotes and invoices, to take subscription payments, to answer questions and support requests, and to keep the service running and secure. We do not sell personal information or use it for advertising. We process it because it's needed to provide the service you asked for, with your consent, and to meet legal obligations (such as tax records).
Who processes it
To provide the service we use: Meta (WhatsApp Business Platform) to send and receive messages; Deepgram to turn voice notes into text (we opt out of Deepgram using them to improve its models); Anthropic to read the message and extract the quote details; PayFast to take subscription payments; Supabase to store data and documents; an email provider to send quotes you ask us to email; and Railway to host the service. Some of these providers process data outside South Africa, under their own data-protection terms that give protection comparable to POPIA.
How we protect it
Information is sent over encrypted connections and stored with reputable cloud providers. Access to our admin tools is limited to SharpQuote staff and protected by a strong sign-in. Links to quotes are private and hard to guess. If we ever discover a security breach affecting your information, we'll tell you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.
How long we keep it
We keep an artisan's data while their account is active. Invoices may need to be kept for five years for tax purposes. When an artisan leaves, we delete their account and data on request; records of payments made to us (business name, amounts, dates and our invoices) are kept for five years, as tax law requires. To stop the free quotes being claimed again and again, we also keep a one-way scrambled code made from the WhatsApp number (it can't be turned back into the number) with how many free quotes and access codes it has used.
Your rights
Artisans can send DELETE in the chat at any time to delete their account and data. You may ask to see, correct or delete your personal information, or object to how it's used. Clients of an artisan may ask the artisan, or us, to remove their details. Contact: support@sharpquote.co.za. You may also complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa): inforegulator.org.za.
Children
SharpQuote is for businesses and is not meant for anyone under 18.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. The date at the top shows when it last changed, and we'll tell you in the chat about important changes.