Privacy notice
Status of this version: there are no user accounts, no analytics or tracking services and no consent banners. The tools for checking, creating and correcting invoices are usable; how files and data are handled is set out below. This notice will be extended as soon as accounts are added.
Controller
oerli GmbH
Maiwaldstr. 9
77855 Achern
Germany
Email: datenschutz@e-rechnung-plumber.de
Hosting and server logs
This website runs on our own infrastructure in a data centre in Germany. When you open a page, the upstream web server processes technically necessary connection data: IP address, time, address requested, volume of data transferred, status code, the identifier sent by your browser (user agent) and, where applicable, the referring page. This processing is required in order to deliver the page at all and to fend off attacks. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is secure and stable operation.
Cookies, analytics, advertising
This website embeds no analytics or advertising services and creates no usage profiles. There is exactly one cookie: anyone who signs in to the handout editor with their email address receives a technically necessary sign-in cookie (see “Handout editor for tax firms”). Without signing in, no cookie is set. That is why there is no consent banner: technically necessary cookies do not require consent (Section 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG).
Fonts
We serve the Fredoka and Nunito fonts from our own server. When you open the site, your browser does not connect to Google or any other font provider for this.
Contacting us by email
If you write to us — for example to arrange a check — we process the details in your email in order to answer your enquiry. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual measures) or (f). Our mailboxes are held on our own mail server in Germany. We delete enquiries once they have been dealt with and no retention obligation applies.
Contact form
On the emergency service and contact pages you can write to us via a form (name, email address, message, optionally a phone number, a call-back request and an error code). These details are not stored in a database but delivered as a single email to our mailbox on our own mail server in Germany; your email address is included as the reply address. From there the same applies as to any email you send us: we use the details only to answer your enquiry and delete them once it has been dealt with and no retention obligation applies. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual measures) or (f). To fend off automated bulk submissions the server keeps the sending IP address in memory for a few minutes (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR); it is not written to any log.
Launch waiting list
On the pre-launch page you can enter your email address to be notified once, when the service goes live. This works as double opt-in: you first receive a confirmation email with a link; until you click it, we store nothing — the link carries your address cryptographically signed within itself and expires after two weeks. Only your click delivers your address as an email into our mailbox on our own mail server in Germany; it is not passed on to third parties and no newsletter service is involved. We use the address solely for this one launch message. The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR); you can revoke it at any time by informal email, and we will delete the entry. The list is deleted at the latest after the launch message has been sent.
Handout editor for tax firms
In the handout editor, tax firms can place a stamp — text or a logo — on our handout. When you download the PDF, the text and image are transmitted to our server in Germany, placed into the PDF and discarded in the same operation; nothing is stored and no sign-in is needed. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, because the PDF is the service you request. A logo is scaled down and stripped of metadata in your browser before it is transmitted.
If you want to save handouts or send them as a public link, you sign in with your email address: we send a sign-in link that is valid for 60 minutes; until you click it, we store nothing. After signing in we set a technically necessary cookie that contains your address in signed form and is valid for 90 days; “Sign out” deletes it. We then store in a database on our server in Germany: your email address, the names of your handouts, every saved version (stamp text or logo, design, time) and, for public links, when and under which address the link was created, plus roughly when it was last opened. The address serves to show you your handouts again and to make it traceable who created a public link. Anyone who knows a public link can open the PDF with your stamp — neither the address nor the internal handout names are included. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (use of the editor) and (f) (preventing abuse; for this the server keeps the sending IP and address in memory for a short time). You can delete handouts yourself at any time, which also invalidates their links immediately. Handouts that have been neither changed nor opened via their link for 24 months are deleted automatically.
Saved handouts carry a QR code with a short referral code that identifies the tax firm and the version of the handout. Anyone scanning it is forwarded to the free check; we count the visit (only as a number per handout) and store the code with a timestamp in your browser’s storage (localStorage) for 90 days, after which it is discarded. If you then write to us via the contact form or the free check, the code is included so that we can attribute your enquiry to the recommending firm and count enquiries per handout. The firm learns nothing about you; it only sees the number of scans and enquiries. The legal basis for the attribution is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (traceability of referrals). You can delete the entry at any time by clearing this site’s data in your browser.
Files you have checked
When you upload an invoice to the validator, it is read and checked on our server in Germany and discarded in the same operation. It is not written to disk, not stored in a database and not used to train AI models; neither the file name nor the content enters the server log. There is therefore nothing left to delete after 24 hours — it is gone when the request ends. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, because the check is precisely the service you requested. Retaining your invoices for tax purposes remains your responsibility.
AI reading of a PDF invoice
If your PDF contains no invoice data set, you can have the fields read by a language model. The PDF is transmitted to our reading service for that purpose. It is not used for training there and not stored; we do not store it either. The result is a proposal that you review and change — only then is a file created. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, because the reading is the service you requested. It is voluntary: the form gets you to the same result without any transmission.
At present this reading service is located outside the EU. We point this out in the tool before every reading and will switch to a service processing inside the EU before the public launch. Until then this website is not publicly accessible.
Creating and correcting invoices
These two tools calculate and check entirely in your browser. What you enter into the form is neither transmitted to us nor stored; the finished file is created on your device and stays there until you download it. There is one exception when correcting: the file you drop in to prefill the form passes once through the same check as in the validator — and is treated the same way, so it is not stored.
Scanning from your phone into the open invoice
In the invoice editor you can transfer photos or PDFs from your phone into the invoice that is currently open. To do so, your computer creates a scan session with a random code (shown as a QR code) that is valid for 15 minutes. Whatever you upload on the phone is held solely in the memory of our server in Germany until your computer collects it — at most twelve files, never on disk, never in a database. Once collected, the file is deleted on the server; anything still there when the session expires is discarded automatically. The code only permits uploading, never reading. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR; to fend off mass uploads the server remembers the sending IP address in memory for a few minutes (point (f)).
Travel calculator
On the “On site” page you can enter a postcode or a town to see distance and guide price for an appointment at your premises. The input goes to our server in Germany, is matched there against a locally stored postcode table (GeoNames, CC BY 4.0) and discarded immediately — no map service, no third party, no storage. It is not transmitted as part of the address and therefore does not appear in the server logs. Which services you tick stays in your browser. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual steps).
Details remembered in your browser
On request the invoice editor can remember your company details, bank details, tax case, recently used buyers and the last invoice number — solely in the storage of your own browser (localStorage), and only after you switch on “Remember my details in this browser”. The same applies to payment details: anyone creating a SEPA file for their online banking from an invoice can have the holder and IBAN of their own account remembered in the browser via a switch; the file itself is created in the browser and not transmitted to us. None of it is transmitted to us; switching it off deletes everything. A draft in progress is additionally kept in the session storage of the browser tab until you close the tab. Since we do not access your device — your browser stores the data locally on your instruction — Section 25 TDDDG is not affected.
Your rights
You have the right to access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21). To exercise these, contact datenschutz@e-rechnung-plumber.de. You may also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority.
Scope
This notice applies to e-rechnung-plumber.de and e-invoice-plumber.com. For formatklar.de, the privacy notice published there applies.