Your Jobs,
Your Phone

Last Updated · August 18, 2026

This policy covers the Tradie Mate iOS app, published by Willneeds Pty Ltd and available on the App Store for iPhone running iOS 17 or later. It applies to every version of the app, including the free tier and Tradie Mate Pro.

Data Collection

Tradie Mate does not collect any personal information. There are no user accounts, no servers we operate, and no analytics infrastructure. We cannot see your clients, quotes, invoices, job photos, expenses, or any other content you create in the app, because none of it is ever sent to us.

Everything you enter is stored on your device using Apple’s SwiftData framework, inside the app’s own sandbox. If you are signed in to iCloud it is also mirrored to your own private iCloud database — see below. The app’s privacy manifest declares no collected data types and no tracking domains.

iCloud Sync

Tradie Mate uses Apple’s CloudKit to keep your records in step across your own devices. Two things are worth being precise about.

• It is your iCloud, not our server. The app writes to a private CloudKit database bound to your Apple ID. Apple stores it under your account, subject to Apple’s own terms and privacy policy. We are not a party to it and have no ability to read, copy, or recover it.
• It follows your iCloud account, not a switch in the app. Signed in to iCloud with iCloud Drive available, your records sync. Signed out, or with iCloud turned off for Tradie Mate in the iOS Settings app, everything stays on the one device. Settings in the app shows you which of those is actually happening rather than assuming.

Because sync is real, so is its consequence: clearing all data removes it from every device signed in to the same iCloud account, not just the one in your hand. The app warns you about this at the time.

Network Requests

Beyond iCloud, Tradie Mate is designed to work without a connection. Quoting, invoicing, PDF generation, reminders, and reporting all run on the device. The app contains no code that sends your business data to us — there is no outbound request of that kind anywhere in it.

• iCloud sync — handled by Apple’s frameworks, between your device and your account. Apple also sends a silent push when another of your devices writes, so changes arrive without waiting for the next launch. That notification carries no content to us.
• App Store purchases — handled entirely by Apple’s StoreKit framework. We never see your payment details, name, email address, or Apple ID.
• Links you tap — opening a link from Settings, such as this policy or Apple’s standard licence terms, loads that page in your browser as any link would.
• Messages you choose to send — when you send a quote or invoice, it leaves through your own Mail, SMS, or share-sheet app, using your own accounts. It does not pass through us.

Backups Are Still Worth Taking

Sync is not a backup. It faithfully copies deletions and mistakes to your other devices along with everything else. Use Settings → Purchases & data → Back up all data to keep a point-in-time archive you control, and keep it somewhere other than the phone.

Permissions

Tradie Mate asks for the following permissions. Each is optional — declining one disables that feature and nothing else — and everything captured stays on the device.

• Camera & Photo Library — to take or attach job photos. Photos are stored in the app on your device; the app does not upload them.
• Contacts — used only when you choose to import clients. The app reads the contacts you select in order to create client records locally. It does not upload your address book or read it in the background.
• Microphone — to record short voice notes against job photos. Recordings are saved on the device.
• Speech Recognition — to turn those voice notes into text. The app sets requiresOnDeviceRecognition = true and skips transcription entirely if your device does not support local recognition for that language, so audio is not sent to Apple’s servers for transcription.
• Location — While Using — to tag a job photo with where and when it was taken, and to set a job site’s location when you add one.
• Location — Always — only if you turn on automatic time tracking. The app asks iOS to monitor a 120-metre boundary around a job site so your timer can start and stop when you arrive and leave. iOS performs that monitoring; the app is told only that a boundary was crossed, and your position is not logged to a server or shared with anyone. Leave this feature off and the permission is never needed.
• Notifications — to deliver follow-up and retention reminders, which are scheduled locally on your device. The app also uses background refresh and silent push so reminders stay current and iCloud changes arrive promptly; neither sends anything about your jobs to us.

On-Device Intelligence

Several features use machine learning, and all of it runs on your iPhone using Apple’s own frameworks. Nothing is uploaded to be processed, by us or by anyone else.

• Voice notes — transcribed with requiresOnDeviceRecognition = true. If your device cannot recognise that language locally, the app skips transcription rather than sending the audio to Apple.
• Translation — dictated work descriptions are turned into English for client paperwork using Apple’s on-device model, where the device supports it.
• Photo tagging — job photos are analysed with Apple’s Vision framework on the device.
• Estimate suggestions — produced by Apple’s on-device model where available, and otherwise by plain arithmetic over your own past jobs.

Client Trust Scores

The app shows a 1–100 reliability score for each client. It is worth being clear about what that is and is not.

It is calculated on your device, by a fixed formula, from your own invoice history with that client — how often they paid on time, how many invoices are currently overdue, and how long they typically take. Clients with no history sit at a neutral score.

It is not a credit check and not a credit report. It draws on no external database, no bureau, and no data from other users of the app. It never leaves your device, and it is not shared with the client or with us. Treat it as a summary of your own records, not as an assessment of anyone’s creditworthiness.

What the App Does Not Do

To be explicit about a few things people reasonably worry about:

• It does not send emails or messages on your behalf. Reminders pre-fill a message; you review it and press send yourself.
• It does not track whether a client has opened a quote or invoice, because doing so would require a server and a tracking pixel.
• It does not consult any external database about your clients, or contribute anything about them to one.
• It does not share, sell, or licence your data to anyone. There is no mechanism by which it could.

Subscriptions

Tradie Mate is free to use within limits on how many quotes and invoices you can have open at once. A Pro subscription, billed monthly or yearly and starting with a free trial, removes them. Final pricing will be confirmed at release.

All billing is processed by Apple. We receive an anonymous entitlement telling the app whether a subscription is active. We do not receive your name, email address, payment method, or Apple ID, and we cannot link a subscription back to a person. Manage or cancel it in the iOS Settings app under your Apple ID → Subscriptions.

Third-Party Services

Tradie Mate integrates no third-party analytics, advertising, attribution, or crash-reporting services. It is built on Apple’s own frameworks — SwiftUI, SwiftData, CloudKit, StoreKit, PDFKit, AVFoundation, Speech, Vision, Contacts, CoreLocation, and UserNotifications. Apple is the only party involved in handling your data, and only as the provider of your own iCloud account and the App Store.

Your Data, and Getting It Out

You can export your full records at any time — every quote and invoice PDF plus CSV files — as a single ZIP, through the system share sheet. Individual quotes and invoices can be exported as PDFs whenever you need them.

Australian businesses generally need to keep records for five years. Tradie Mate stores those records on your device rather than for you, so please keep your own copies of anything you may need later.

Data Deletion

Settings → Purchases & data → Clear all data removes your records. If iCloud sync is active it removes them from every device signed in to that account, not only the one you are holding — the app spells this out before you confirm.

Deleting the app removes its local copy. Anything already mirrored to your iCloud account is removed through the app’s clear-data action or by removing the app’s data in the iOS Settings app under iCloud. Either way there is no copy on our side to delete on request, and no way for us to restore one. Export or back up anything you want to keep first.

Your Rights

Australian Privacy Principles, and equivalents such as the GDPR, give you rights to access, correct, and erase personal information a company holds about you. We hold none: there is no account with us, no profile, and no record of your use of Tradie Mate. You exercise those rights directly, on your own device and in your own iCloud account, by editing or deleting the data.

Note that the client details you enter are personal information about other people, and you remain the party responsible for handling it appropriately under Australian privacy law.

Children’s Privacy

Tradie Mate is a business tool intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone, including children, because we do not collect information at all.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated “Last Updated” date. If a change materially affects how the app handles your data, we will say so in the app.

Contact

Questions about this policy or Tradie Mate’s privacy practices can go to sales@willneeds.com.au.

Willneeds Pty Ltd · Melbourne, Australia