Account Closure and Data Erasure Policy

1. Scope

This policy explains how customers and users of Arubis can reduce their plan, close a set of books, close their own login, obtain a copy of their data and ask for personal data to be erased. It applies to everyone whose data Olympus Pay Proprietary Limited ("Olympus Pay", "we") holds in connection with Arubis, and it follows the account closure and erasure policy that applies across Olympus services, adapted for the particular obligations that attach to accounting records.

Three different things can be closed in Arubis, and the difference matters:

Closing your login does not close the books of the businesses you work for; closing a set of books does not close the logins of the people who worked in it. Each is handled separately below.

This policy should be read with the Privacy Policy, which sets out what personal data we hold and why, and the Data Processing Addendum, which governs personal data in a customer's books.

2. Your rights

You may stop using Arubis, move to a lower plan or close your account at any time. You also have rights over your personal data under the Data Protection Act, 2024 of Botswana and, where they apply to you, the United Kingdom and European Union General Data Protection Regulations. They include the rights to:

You can exercise most of these rights yourself, directly in Arubis, under Settings, in the "Your data and account" section. You can also write to privacy@olympuspay.co. Using the in-app tools is usually faster, because you are already signed in and we can verify who you are.

3. Moving to a lower plan

The owner of an Organisation can move it from a paid plan to the free plan at any time from Settings, under Plan.

The change takes effect at the end of the current billing period, so you keep the paid features you have already paid for until then. We do not charge for downgrading, and your books, documents and history are not affected. Features that are not included in the free plan become unavailable from the effective date; any data created with them remains in your books and is included in exports. If you later move back to a paid plan, those features become available again with your data intact.

Premium functions are free until 1 December 2026. If you take no action before that date, we will ask you to choose between continuing on Premium at the published price or moving to the free plan. We will not charge you without that choice. Free plan functions remain free after that date.

Where a plan change would take your Organisation below a limit you are currently using, for example a number of users, we will tell you before the change takes effect so that you can decide what to do. We will not remove users or data without your instruction.

4. Getting a copy of your data

You can export your books at any time, on any plan, without asking us. Every list and report in Arubis can be downloaded as a spreadsheet or a comma separated file, and Settings includes a full export that packages the chart of accounts, contacts, documents, journals, bank lines and attachments of an Organisation.

You can also ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you as a user, such as your profile, the Organisations you belong to, your sign-in history and your conversations with Athena. Use the "Request a copy of my data" control in Settings or write to privacy@olympuspay.co. We will provide it in a structured, machine-readable format within the time described in section 7.

We recommend that you download a full export of each Organisation before closing it, and keep it for as long as the law requires you to keep accounting records.

5. Closing a set of books

Only the owner of an Organisation can close it. Before a set of books can close, the following must be in order, and Arubis will show you what is outstanding when you start:

When you confirm closure, the Organisation is closed at once. Members lose access, automation stops, and customer links to invoices and quotes stop working. For thirty days afterwards the owner can reopen the books from Settings, in case closure was a mistake. After thirty days the books cannot be reopened.

Closed books are then retained in a restricted state for the period described in section 8, because the law requires businesses to keep accounting records. During that period no one can use them in Arubis, but the owner, or a person who can show they are now responsible for the business's records, can ask us for a copy. When the period ends, the books are deleted.

If the business would rather hold its own records and does not want us to keep them, the owner can instruct us in writing to transfer the complete records and then delete them, confirming that the business has taken over responsibility for keeping them. We will act on that instruction once the export has been delivered.

6. Closing your personal account

You can close your own login from Settings at any time. Before it closes:

Your login is then closed and you are signed out everywhere. Within thirty days we delete or irreversibly anonymise your profile, contact details, preferences, marketing history, notification settings and Athena conversation history.

Your name will continue to appear in the audit trail and on records you created or approved in the books of businesses you worked for, such as "posted by" or "approved by" entries. Those records belong to the businesses concerned, who must keep them by law; removing your name would make their books unreliable and could expose them to penalties. They are kept for the retention period and are visible only to members of those businesses.

Having an Arubis account does not mean you have an Olympus Banking or Merchant Services account; those are separate services that require their own application. If you do also use them, you sign in to them with the same Olympus identity, so closing your Arubis access does not close them, and they are closed under the Olympus account closure policy for those services.

7. Verifying requests and how long they take

We verify identity before acting on any request, so that nobody can close an account, obtain data or erase data that is not theirs. Requests made from within Arubis while you are signed in are already verified, subject to a fresh sign-in for sensitive actions such as closing books. Requests made by email may require us to contact you through the details linked to your account, and, for a business, to confirm that the request comes from the owner or an authorised representative.

We respond to a verified request within one month. Where a request is complex, or we receive many requests at once, the law allows us to extend this by up to two further months; if we extend, we will tell you within the first month and explain why. Changes you make yourself in Arubis, such as exports and plan changes, take effect immediately or at the time stated.

8. What we erase and what we keep

When an erasure request is accepted, or a login is closed, we delete or irreversibly anonymise personal data that we no longer need. This includes profile and contact details, preferences, marketing history, waiting list entries, support conversations older than our support retention period, and Athena conversations.

Some data must be kept by law and cannot be erased on request:

During the retention period this data is restricted: it is used only for the legal purpose for which it is kept and is not used for any other purpose. At the end of the period it is deleted. Backups are overwritten in the ordinary course within ninety days.

9. Personal data in a business’s books

If you are a customer, supplier, employee or other contact of a business that uses Arubis, the personal data about you in that business's books is controlled by that business, not by Olympus Pay. To ask for access to, correction of or erasure of that data, please contact the business directly; it is responsible for responding to you and, where it must keep the data for tax or other legal reasons, for telling you so.

If you contact us instead, we will tell the business about your request and help it respond, unless the law requires us to act ourselves. We will not erase data from a business's books without its instruction, because doing so could make its accounting records incomplete and expose it to penalties.

10. When we can refuse or limit a request

We may refuse or limit a request where keeping the data is needed to meet a legal obligation, to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, to protect the rights of another person, or for another reason the Data Protection Act, 2024 permits. We may also decline a request that is manifestly unfounded or excessive, in particular because it is repetitive.

We may delay or decline closure while a regulatory, fraud or legal review is open, while fees are unpaid, or where a competent authority has directed us to preserve records. If we refuse or limit a request, we will tell you which part we could not meet and why, unless the law prevents us, and we will tell you how to complain.

11. Partners and processors

Where we share personal data with providers that process it on our behalf, such as our database, hosting, email and inference providers, we pass on erasure requests so that they act on them, unless they must keep the data by law. The providers we use are listed in the Privacy Policy and the Data Processing Addendum.

Where your data has been shared with another Olympus service because you linked it, for example Olympus Banking, we will tell you that the request should also be made to that service, or pass it on with your agreement.

12. After closure

We confirm by email when your plan has changed, when books have been closed, and when your login has been closed. You can ask us for a copy of your data at any time while we still hold it.

Books that have been closed for more than thirty days, and logins that have been closed, cannot be reopened. You are welcome to sign up again, and to import an export of your former books into a new Organisation.

Messages that we are required to send after closure, such as confirmation of closure or notice of a security incident affecting data we still hold, will still be sent. Marketing will stop immediately.

13. Closing books while money is owed

If your Organisation owes fees to Olympus Pay, closure can proceed once they are paid, or once we have agreed a way to settle them. We will not hold your books hostage: even where fees are unpaid, you can always export your data so that you can meet your legal obligations.

If we owe you a refund of prepaid fees, for example because we have terminated for convenience, we will pay it to the payment method you used, or to a bank account in the business's name, within thirty days after closure.

14. When the owner cannot act

If the owner of an Organisation has died, become incapacitated, or left the business without transferring ownership, a person who is legally entitled to act for the business may ask us to transfer ownership to them or to close the books. We will ask for evidence of their authority, such as a resolution of the directors, a letter of executorship, a court order or a certificate from the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority showing the current directors, and will act once we are satisfied that the request is properly made.

Until then, the books remain available to their other members according to their existing roles, and are protected from closure, so that the business's records are not lost while the question is resolved.

15. Businesses that are sold, deregistered or in liquidation

If a business is sold as a going concern, its owner can transfer ownership of its Organisation to a member from the buyer's team. The audit trail records the transfer, and the books continue unbroken.

If a business is deregistered, placed in liquidation or in business rescue, the person appointed to administer its affairs, such as a liquidator or business rescue practitioner, may ask us for access to its books or for an export. We will provide what the law entitles them to on receipt of evidence of their appointment.

The fact that a business has ceased to exist does not end the obligation to keep its records. Where we hold the books of a deregistered business, we will keep them for the remainder of the retention period and will provide them to any person lawfully entitled to them.

16. Accounts that are no longer used

If a login has not been used for twenty-four months and does not belong to the owner of any open Organisation, we may close it after giving at least thirty days' notice by email. If a free-plan Organisation has had no activity for thirty-six months, we may ask its owner whether it is still needed and, if we receive no reply within sixty days, close it and retain its records as described in this policy.

We will not close an inactive Organisation that is on a paid plan, or that has activity within the last thirty-six months, without the owner's instruction.

17. Transferring your books elsewhere

You can move your books to another accounting system at any time. The full export from Settings includes the chart of accounts, opening balances, contacts, open and historical documents, journals and attachments, in formats that other systems can import. We do not charge for exports and do not restrict their frequency.

If you need help with a migration, for example a mapping of our chart of accounts to the structure of another system, contact support@olympuspay.co. We would rather you leave with complete records than stay because leaving is difficult.

18. Plan changes and fairness

We want leaving, or paying less, to be as easy as joining. You can change plan or close your books in Arubis without contacting us or explaining why. We do not use deliberately confusing steps, hidden fees for leaving, or requirements to speak to a salesperson.

If you move to the free plan or close your books in the middle of a billing period, you keep paid features until the end of the period you have paid for. If we change our prices, we will tell you in advance and you may move to the free plan or close before the change applies to you, without charge.

19. Records of requests

We keep a record of each closure and data request, including when it was made, how we verified it, what we did and when, so that we can show that we have complied with the law and so that you can ask us about it later. That record contains only the minimum information needed for that purpose and is kept for three years after the request is completed, unless it is needed for longer to deal with a complaint or legal claim.

20. What happens to linked Olympus services

If you have linked Olympus Banking, Merchant Services or Invoicing to an Organisation, closing the Organisation in Arubis unlinks them, but does not close them. Transactions that happen in those services after unlinking will not appear in the closed books.

Closing an Olympus Banking or Merchant Services account is governed by the Olympus account closure and erasure policy for those services, published on the Olympus website, which requires balances to be withdrawn, payments in progress to be resolved and cards to be cancelled before closure. If you are closing both, close the banking or merchant account first, so that its final transactions are recorded in your books before they close.

21. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we handled a request, please write to us first at privacy@olympuspay.co, or for questions about plans and billing at support@olympuspay.co, and we will review it. You may also complain to the Information and Data Protection Commission of Botswana or, where it applies to you, the data protection regulator in your country, at any time.