Privacy Policy

Steward Accounting operates Steward. This Privacy Policy explains how Steward collects, uses, stores, shares, and deletes information when you visit or use the Service. It also explains choices and rights relating to personal information.

Steward is a business-to-business service. A workspace may be managed by an accounting firm or organization that controls who can use it. For QuickBooks Online data and other information a customer provides about third parties, Steward generally acts as a service provider processing that information for the workspace. Steward and Intuit each handle information under their own policies and responsibilities.

Steward does not persist report-generation Facts in its database. Actual Facts are built in memory from live General Ledger report data and current restriction rules each time a report is generated; budget Facts are also built in memory from the selected live budget. Those Facts are discarded after generation.

Steward does persist synchronized QuickBooks reference records, connection and sync metadata, workspace configuration, report metadata, and generated report files. A generated report can contain underlying accounting information even though the Facts used to build it were ephemeral.

Steward's AI Assistant sends your current message, the bounded conversation history from completed saved Turns (or from your browser in Temporary conversation), server instructions, authorized workspace and organization context, and an opaque safety identifier to OpenAI so it can generate an answer. Steward requests that OpenAI not store the response as application state. OpenAI may retain API content in abuse-monitoring logs for up to 30 days under its default API data controls, and provider prompt caching may apply. Steward has not opted in to use this information to train OpenAI models.

Your default Assistant Conversations are saved privately to your account. Steward retains submitted messages, Assistant answers, generated descriptions, ordered Tool cards and complete write reviews. Backend processing continues when you leave or reload the page; explicit Stop or Conversation deletion requests cancellation of further generation. Failed, interrupted or stopped Turns may still contain valid pending reviews. Historical content remains available to its owner after Organization access changes or removal, including as completed conversation context. New Tool operations and Report access always require current authorization. Temporary conversation instead holds text and pending reviews in browser memory and loses them on navigation. Separate operational records retain content-minimized usage, read-Tool arguments, metadata-only write and unknown Tool Invocations, decision receipts and Tool Access changes. Operational records exclude transcripts, write payloads, previews, credentials and raw errors. Write payloads and reviews are never placed in logs or provider continuation history.

Read-Tool Invocations retain parsed JSON read-Tool argument values; malformed JSON and JSON null retain the original provider string. These customer-confidential read-Tool Invocation records remain out of application logs. Operational records exclude Tool result bodies, credentials, authorization material and raw application errors. Retained numeric Organization identifiers are historical metadata. Organization Tool Access change records are durable security and configuration audit history and are not automatically expired. Account deletion detaches the actor identity from these operational records.

Steward also sends separate background requests to the configured AI provider to generate short descriptions for your saved Conversation list, even after you leave the page. These requests use bounded saved conversation text and limited confirmed write-status metadata, including historical Organization labels. They use no Tools and exclude execution payloads, approval tokens and raw Tool datasets. Descriptions are stored privately with the Conversation until Conversation or account deletion; they never grant permission or replace the conversation used for future answers. Summary requests contribute separately identified provider token usage and cost. A failed summary preserves the previous description and has bounded retries.

After required Intuit approval, the Assistant may send OpenAI bounded read-only synchronized account metadata, Class and Project target names and identifiers, restriction rules and notes, report-template and workbook capability metadata, active synchronized Budget headers (name, identifier, period, type, and synchronization time), and generated report status when needed to answer your request. Matching Accounts, Restriction Rule targets, Restriction Rules, Report Templates, Report Workbooks, and available Budget headers are returned completely or produce an explicit safe-size failure instead of a silently partial result. Generated report searches use a rolling 30-day window when their creation lower bound is null and an explicit all-history option to remove that bound; older searches can use a creation timestamp and report identifier together so equal creation times are not skipped. They always use hard count and size bounds. Steward does not send live General Ledger lines, Balance Sheet responses, Budget detail, report-generation Facts, generated files or workbook contents, QuickBooks credentials, authorization headers, or raw application and report errors.

Each Organization begins with no Assistant Tool access. A workspace Owner or Admin may set that Organization's ceiling to none, read, or write. With write access, a current Owner or Admin may prepare creation, editing, or deletion of individual Restriction Rules or an explicit batch for one Organization. Each batch contains only one operation: creation, editing, or deletion. Owners and Admins may also prepare a Report request using an available Report Template or saved Report Workbook. Batches may mix Accounts, Classes, and Projects. They review every target and field before explicitly approving execution in the originating chat card. Patches show current and proposed values; deletions show the complete current rule. Execution refuses a rule or target changed since review. Only the requesting user may approve; chat messages, standing permissions and model-generated approval fields cannot authorize a write. Pending approval expires after 24 hours, and every Write Tool Execution requires its own explicit approval. An active deployed Tool remains subject to current user access, renewed agreement acceptance, that Organization's Tool Access, Tool activation, and code-registry consistency. Steward maintainers remain responsible for required Intuit approval and OpenAI project review before production deployment.

Saved Write Tool Executions retain the exact normalized action privately on the server and restore the complete reviewed preview in their originating Conversation. The browser submits only the saved execution identity and an explicit approve or reject decision; it cannot substitute changes. Preparation performs no domain write. Approval rechecks the requester, current permissions, agreement acceptance, deployed Tool version, expiry and unchanged reviewed state. Each domain write, saved outcome and operational receipt commit together. Repeated decisions return the original outcome without another write. Executable payloads are cleared when an execution is settled; previews and safe outcomes remain saved, including every committed resource identity and count. Failed batches retain affected row numbers and safe failure codes, never row values. Temporary conversations retain browser-only signed reviews and cannot restore them after navigation.

For a Report request, the chat card shows the Organization, target, dates, selected Budget when required, output mode, and each worksheet's Report Template. Single-template requests also show presentation options; saved Workbooks use their configured worksheet options. Approval rechecks the reviewed definition and current permissions, then creates the Report and its outcome receipt together. Generation begins after that creation commits. A generation or queue failure does not undo the recorded creation. Repeated approval returns the same Report. The chat displays generation status and an authenticated download button when ready. Status responses fetched for that download card and downloaded contents are not sent to OpenAI; the card uses safe failure messages and does not use model-generated download links. Returning to a saved Conversation restores this card, subject to current Report authorization. Leaving the chat ends its status polling but does not cancel an approved Report.

Restriction Rule batches are immutable: approve all or reject all. To revise a pending batch, explicitly reject its card and request a fresh batch. A later message or request does not cancel earlier cards. An uncertain rejection must be confirmed through its outcome; rejection cannot undo a committed approval. Each Organization and batch requires its own approval. Conflicts apply no subset, and an oversized complete review fails explicitly without silently omitting or splitting rows. Batch edits show complete current and intended values; batch deletions show every complete current rule. Repeated rule IDs or conflicting edit destinations fail the entire batch, and deletion removes only the reviewed rules, never their QuickBooks targets.

Steward does not sell personal information or QuickBooks Online data. We do not use one customer's accounting data to train models or provide benchmarks, insights, or reports to another customer, and we do not permit OpenAI to use Steward customer data to train its models. Steward does not use third-party product analytics or advertising trackers and does not use customer data for targeted advertising. We will update this policy and obtain any required permission before introducing a materially different use.

Steward uses cookies that are necessary for sign-in, session security, and cross-site request forgery protection. The current application does not set advertising or non-essential analytics cookies. Your browser can block cookies, but essential authentication and security features may then stop working.

We disclose information only as needed to operate the Service, follow your instructions, complete a business transaction, protect rights and safety, or comply with law. Service providers are expected to protect information and process it for the services they provide to us.

Steward's production data is processed in the data-center region selected for its Hetzner server and by service providers in the locations where they operate. Cloudflare, Intuit, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and email providers may process information in the United States and other countries. Those countries may have different data-protection laws. Before supporting customers whose data is subject to cross-border transfer rules, we will review provider arrangements and apply safeguards required by applicable law.

If QuickBooks authorization is revoked or expires, Steward can no longer successfully retrieve new data through Intuit. An Intuit-side authorization change does not itself delete data held in Steward.

Separately, a workspace Owner or Admin can permanently delete an Organization in Steward. Deleting the Organization removes Steward's stored QuickBooks credentials and all Organization-scoped active-system accounting data, subject to the operational and audit retention described above, and queues its report files for durable cleanup and retry, so Steward no longer holds the credentials needed for future QuickBooks requests. It does not itself revoke authorization in Intuit; QuickBooks authorization is managed separately through Intuit's controls.

For account-level or workspace-level deletion, an authorized workspace representative should email us. We verify the request, remove eligible data from active systems within 30 days after approval, and allow database backups to expire through the 14-day rotation. We may retain limited records when required by law or necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

Steward uses measures designed to protect information, including encrypted QuickBooks OAuth token fields, HTTPS at the production edge, restricted network ingress, role-based workspace access, secure production cookies, and access-controlled infrastructure. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Depending on where you live and the context, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to processing of personal information, receive a portable copy, or appeal a request decision. You may also complain to an applicable regulator. We may need to verify your identity and authority before acting.

If your information was placed in Steward by an accounting firm, nonprofit, employer, or other workspace customer, contact that organization first because it may control the data and the instructions we follow. We will assist the workspace with appropriate requests.

Steward is intended for business users and is not directed to children under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children through account registration.

We may update this policy as the Service or our practices change. We will publish the new version and last-updated date and provide reasonable notice of material changes.

To ask a privacy question or make a request, email [email protected] or write to Steward Accounting in Denver, Colorado.