Binnacle Terms
Important: read before you rely on any number
Binnacle is not tax, legal, accounting, or financial advice, and no accountant or attorney reviews its output. Every figure is an estimate built from published tables and your own entries, and it can be wrong. You are responsible for checking each number against IRS and state instructions or a licensed professional before you file or pay.
These terms apply to Binnacle, a Mac app made by Purplelink LLC, a Georgia limited liability company in Atlanta ("Purplelink", "we"). They are in addition to the general Terms of Service, which also apply. If the two conflict on a point about Binnacle, these terms control. By installing or using Binnacle you agree to them. If you do not agree, do not use it.
What Binnacle is
Binnacle is a local-first Mac app for solo founders. It imports income and expenses, keeps a double-entry ledger, estimates quarterly taxes, and produces figures you can use when preparing Schedule C and Schedule SE. Your books are stored on your Mac. Binnacle does not file returns, submit payments, or contact the IRS or any state agency for you. "Binnacle" is a working name and may change.
Not tax, legal, accounting, or financial advice
- Binnacle is software. It is not a tax preparer, accountant, attorney, or financial advisor, and using it creates no professional or advisory relationship between you and Purplelink.
- No CPA, enrolled agent, or attorney reviews your data or Binnacle's output.
- We do not guarantee that any figure, category, estimate, or report is accurate, complete, or suited to your situation.
- Your situation may involve rules Binnacle does not model, such as state taxes, entity elections, credits, or unusual income. Ask a licensed professional about anything that matters.
Your responsibility for estimates and returns
Estimates are calculated from published tax tables and the entries you and your imports provide. Incorrect, missing, duplicated, or mis-categorized entries produce incorrect estimates. Tax rules change, and the tables in Binnacle may lag behind the current rules or miss a change that applies to you.
You are solely responsible for the accuracy of your tax returns, filings, and payments. Verify every figure against the IRS and state instructions or with a licensed professional. Do not file a return or make a payment based solely on Binnacle's output. Any penalty, interest, underpayment, or lost tax saving that follows from relying on it is yours.
Third-party data sources
Binnacle can import data from services such as Stripe, your bank, and aggregators such as Plaid, using files you provide or credentials and keys you supply. Those services are governed by their own terms and privacy policies, and your agreement with each is between you and them. You are responsible for having the right to use your accounts and data this way. Purplelink is not responsible for the accuracy, format, availability, or changes of third-party data, or for how any third party handles your information. Keys and tokens you supply are stored in the macOS Keychain on your Mac and are not sent to Purplelink.
AI features
AI insights are optional and off unless you turn them on. They use your own Anthropic API key. When you ask for one, Binnacle sends a summary of your books to Anthropic under your account and Anthropic's terms, not through Purplelink. Do not enable AI features if you are not comfortable with that. AI output can be wrong, incomplete, or misleading, and it is subject to everything above about advice and accuracy. Charges from your AI provider are yours.
Your data and backups
Your ledger and imported data stay on your Mac. Purplelink does not receive them and cannot recover them. Keep your own backups, for example with Time Machine. The Privacy Policy describes what the website and waitlist collect.
Beta software
During the private beta, Binnacle is provided as is and may contain bugs, change without notice, or lose or corrupt data. Do not use a beta build as the only copy of your records. We may end the beta, or invite or remove testers, at any time.
License
Subject to these terms, Purplelink grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use Binnacle on Macs that you own or control, for your own bookkeeping. Purplelink and its licensors keep all rights not expressly granted. You may not:
- copy, sell, rent, lease, sublicense, or distribute Binnacle or your license key;
- reverse-engineer, decompile, or modify Binnacle, except where the law allows it despite this restriction;
- remove notices, or bypass licensing, trial, or update checks;
- use Binnacle to provide bookkeeping or tax services to others as a commercial service without our written permission.
Your books and data belong to you. Binnacle may include open-source components under their own licenses.
Pricing, trial, and refunds
The private beta is free. When Binnacle launches we expect it to cost about $49 per year in U.S. dollars, with a 14-day free trial. That is not a commitment, and the final price and terms will be shown at checkout. If you buy, the following applies, consistent with our other Mac apps:
- Trial. The trial lets you use Binnacle before paying. Checkout will state whether a payment method is required and what happens when the trial ends.
- Renewal and cancelling. A yearly plan renews until you cancel. Cancelling stops future renewals, and Binnacle keeps working until the end of the period you have paid for. We will email you at least 30 days before a price change applies to your next renewal.
- Refunds. Email ben@purplelink.llc within 14 days of a charge and we will refund that charge to the original payment method. You do not need to give a reason. A refunded license is no longer licensed for use.
- Your key. Your license key is for your own use on your own Macs. Do not publish or share it.
- Updates. The subscription includes updates released while it is active. The app may check for updates and asks before installing one.
Disclaimer of warranties
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Binnacle is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement, and without any warranty that it will be error-free or uninterrupted or that its calculations comply with any tax law. Some places do not allow certain disclaimers, so part of this may not apply to you.
Limitation of liability
To the extent permitted by law, Purplelink will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for tax penalties, interest, additions to tax, unpaid or overpaid taxes, lost tax savings, lost profits, or lost data, arising out of Binnacle, even if we were told they were possible.
To the extent permitted by law, Purplelink's total cumulative liability to you for all claims arising out of or related to Binnacle will not exceed the greater of: (i) the amount you paid for Binnacle in the preceding 12 months; or (ii) USD $25. This cap supersedes the caps in the general Terms of Service for Binnacle claims. Nothing in these terms limits liability that the law does not allow us to limit.
Indemnity
You agree to defend and indemnify Purplelink LLC and its member and contractors against third-party claims, and the reasonable costs of them, arising from your breach of these terms, your violation of law, or data you import into Binnacle that you had no right to use. This does not cover a claim to the extent it results from our own breach or misconduct.
Termination
You can stop using Binnacle at any time by deleting it. Purplelink may suspend or end your license if you breach these terms, or end the beta or the product with notice by email where we have your address. If we end a paid license without cause, we will refund the unused part of the period you paid for. Your data stays on your Mac after termination, and you can export it while you still have the app. Sections that by their nature should survive termination do, including the advice and accuracy disclaimers, warranty disclaimer, limitation of liability, indemnity, and governing law.
Changes to these terms
We may update these terms as Binnacle changes. Each version has an identifier, in the form "Binnacle terms version YYYY-MM-DD-N", and an effective date, both shown at the top of this page. For material changes we will update both and, where the app or your email allows, tell you in the app or by email. Continuing to use Binnacle after a new version takes effect means you accept it. Earlier versions are available on request.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute arising out of or related to Binnacle or these terms will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Fulton County, Georgia, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.
Contact
Questions about these terms? Email ben@purplelink.llc. Back to Binnacle or the general Terms of Service.