Yes. The whole site is locked to logged-in staff, and three roles control exactly what each person can do. Original invoice PDFs are stored outside the public web area (not reachable by URL) and can only be downloaded by a Manager or Super Admin through an authenticated link — and every download is logged.

It runs today on standard managed cloud hosting (currently a US data centre). Because it’s a standard WordPress application, it can be relocated to a Canadian provider — that’s a planned migration (set up the Canadian environment, move the data, repoint the address), not a rebuild. Canadian hosting typically costs a little more per month; we’ll provide a quote so you can weigh the “buy-Canadian” preference against the cost.

To read an invoice, the PDF is sent securely to Anthropic’s Claude service (which processes in the USA). Anthropic does not use submitted business data to train its models, and you supply and control your own AI key. Note that hosting location and AI-processing location are separate questions — moving hosting to Canada doesn’t change where the AI reads the file. If strictly Canadian processing of invoice content is required, that’s a larger trade-off we can discuss.

No. The system captures supplier invoices only — not personal, health, or otherwise regulated records. That keeps it squarely a financial-document tool, so the heavier compliance regimes that govern sensitive data are out of scope, while strong baseline security still applies.

It’s fast and accurate, but it’s an assistant, not the final word. It never saves anything on its own: it fills in the form and a staff member confirms every record. When it’s unsure (two possible dates, a credit memo, a non-Canadian amount), it raises a “needs recheck” flag rather than guessing. The guiding rule is accuracy over speed — a blank field is better than a wrong one.

The AI checks first. If a document is clearly not an invoice (a flyer or a letter, say), it’s rejected with a reason — nothing is stored and no reference number is used. If it’s genuinely ambiguous, it’s accepted but flagged for a second look.

That’s your policy choice. We recommend a ~3-month rolling retention for the stored original PDFs: once a record is captured, reviewed and exported, the data lives on in your accounting system and the records database, while the original is mainly needed for near-term verification. Keeping everything indefinitely steadily increases storage and running cost — a shorter window keeps cost predictable. You can set a longer period to match audit obligations.

It’s a simple vendor model: you pay for your own AI usage (via your own key, so it’s pay-as-you-go and tunable), plus hosting and DIYB’s support/updates. There’s no per-seat licence trap. Your running cost is driven by two things: how many invoices you process each month, and how many months you keep the original files (up to a year). See the Pricing page, then contact Paul for a tailored quote.

No. It’s used in a normal web browser — there’s nothing to install, patch or maintain on staff computers.

It exports completed records to CSV or Excel (XLSX), with the columns already in your accounting system’s import order. Drafts are always excluded, and the export includes a “Needs Recheck” column so finance can see which items were flagged.

DIYB (Paul Hughes) acts as your vendor: hosting arrangement, support, and software updates. Updates are deployed by us and the database upgrades itself automatically — no manual work for you.

Very little — mainly switching the AI key from the build/test key to your own key, which is a setting change, not a code change. The system you evaluate is the system you run.