Terms of Use

Other terms that also apply. When you subscribe through the App Store, Apple’s Media Services Terms govern that purchase. If you use a beta build, Apple’s TestFlight terms apply to it. Our Privacy Policy describes what little data exists and who is responsible for it.

Section 1Who we are#

In these terms, Settlano, we, us and our mean the operator described in this section. You means the person using the app.

Section 2What these terms cover#

These terms are between you and Settlano only. They cover the Settlano app for iPhone and iPad, including pre-release builds you get through TestFlight, the parts of a subscription that are not about billing, and the website settlano.com. You accept them when you install the app, having had the chance to read them at settlano.com/terms and from the App Store page; when you subscribe, on a screen that links to them; and when you keep using the app after we have told you about a change.

When you subscribe through the App Store, you buy the subscription from Apple. In the European Union that is Apple Distribution International Ltd, in Cork, Ireland, which is the seller (the merchant of record), and the purchase is governed by the Apple Media Services Terms. The app itself is licensed to you by Settlano under these terms. Apple, not Settlano, takes your payment.

Your rights as a consumer. Nothing in these terms limits the rights you have under Malta’s Consumer Affairs Act, the Consumer Rights Regulations or the Digital Content and Digital Services Contracts Regulations, or under the law of the EU country you live in. We do not ask whether you are a consumer: every user gets the same terms and the same promises from us. Which courts, tribunals and statutory remedies are open to you depends on your status under the law.

Settlano is built for self-employed people in Malta. You must be at least 18 and use your own Apple Account.

A few words are used throughout with one meaning. The app is the Settlano app. A subscription (shown in the app as Settlano Pro) is the paid plan, monthly or yearly, bought through Apple, and the trial is the free 7 days that start when you finish setting up the app. Your data, which the app calls your books, is everything you enter and everything the app produces from it. Estimates are the figures the app computes. The tax rules are the Maltese rates and rules bundled in the installed version of the app for the tax year it shows. Apple is Apple Distribution International Ltd and the other Apple companies that run the App Store and TestFlight. The Privacy Policy is the one at settlano.com/privacy.

Section 3What Settlano is, and what it is not#

Settlano works out estimates. It takes the income, expenses, invoices and answers you enter and applies the Maltese income tax, Class 2 social security and VAT rules bundled in the app for the tax year shown. The app’s Rules & sources screen cites the legal source of each rate and shows the date on which the year’s rates were verified against those sources. If our estimate and the Malta Tax and Customs Administration’s figure differ, theirs is the one that counts.

The app does not know anything you have not entered. It cannot see your bank. It does not file returns or make payments for you.

The figures, the exports and the accountant pack are information for you and for your own adviser. They are not tax, legal or accounting advice, and nothing in the app is a professional opinion. Settlano is not a warrant-holding accountant, auditor or tax adviser, and using the app creates no accountant-client or adviser-client relationship.

You remain responsible for your own returns, payments and deadlines, for checking our figures before you rely on them, and for asking a professional when it matters.

Tax rules change. The rules in your installed version are the ones bundled when that version was released; a Budget measure or a legal notice can change them before we ship an update. Section 9 explains how updates reach you and what happens if you do not install them.

The estimates notice shown inside the app says, in one sentence, what this section says in full; if they ever differ, this section applies. Read this section together with section 13, our liability.

Section 4Your data stays on your device#

Everything you enter is stored on your device. Settlano has no user account and keeps no copy of your books. There is no analytics or tracking software in the app.

Here is what does leave your device, and why:

Backups are encrypted files you make and keep. Only your passphrase opens them. If you lose the passphrase, nobody, including us, can open the backup.

You can export your data, as CSV files, PDFs, the accountant pack or an encrypted backup, at any time, including after your subscription ends, without paying anything.

Your books are your records. Where your invoices contain your clients’ personal data, you are the one responsible for it under data-protection law; we have no access to it.

Deleting the app, or the backup files you made, deletes your data, with one exception: entries the app wrote into Apple Calendar stay there until you turn the calendar setting off or delete the Settlano calendar in the Calendar app, so turn the setting off before you delete the app. There is nothing to delete on our side. The Privacy Policy describes the rest.

Section 5Your licence, our app, your books#

We give you a non-transferable licence to use the app on Apple devices you own or control, as Apple’s Usage Rules allow, including through Family Sharing, volume purchasing and Legacy Contacts.

Settlano owns the app, its code, its design and its name. You own everything you enter and everything the app produces from it: invoices, quotes, PDFs, CSV files, the accountant pack and your backups.

If you send us suggestions, we may use them to improve Settlano without owing you anything, but they stay yours.

You may not copy, resell, rent or lend the app, remove its notices, or reverse-engineer it except where the law expressly allows you to.

Section 6Your responsibilities#

Settlano can only estimate from what you enter. Keep your entries complete and correct, and check them before you rely on a figure.

Install app and iOS updates when they are offered; section 9 explains why the figures depend on it.

Keep a backup, and keep its passphrase somewhere safe. If other people use your phone, leave the app lock on; it is on by default and can be turned off in your profile.

Use the app lawfully and within Apple’s Media Services Terms, your mobile data plan and the terms of any account you connect to it, such as a calendar account.

If something seems wrong, help us check whether your device or iOS version is the cause; we will ask for the least intrusive information.

If you use a beta build, read section 8 and do not make it your only record.

Section 7Trial, subscription, price, renewal, cancellation and refunds#

The first 7 days are free, and nothing is charged when they end. The trial starts when you finish setting up the app, needs no purchase and no payment details, and there is nothing to cancel. When it ends, the app shows you the subscription screen. From then on, adding to your books, the Tax Coach, the filing figures, recording a payment, reminders, calendar entries and the home-screen widget need a subscription; everything you already entered stays readable and exportable, and you can delete it all. Reminders and the Apple Calendar entries the app maintains are part of the subscription: when it ends the app stops scheduling reminders and removes the entries it wrote into its Settlano calendar, until you subscribe again. If Apple’s purchase sheet ever offers an introductory free period when you subscribe, that is separate from the trial: it starts when you subscribe, Apple offers it once per Apple Account, and it becomes the paid plan unless you cancel it at least 24 hours before it ends.

When the app goes on sale the prices will be €9.99 per month or €69.99 per year, including VAT; we will update this section if that changes before launch. The price that binds is the one shown on Apple’s purchase sheet when you subscribe, in your local currency. (The yearly plan works out at about €5.83 a month. That is the same price described per month, not a discount from an earlier price.)

The subscription is bought only through Apple in-app purchase, from Apple as the seller, and Apple bills, renews, cancels and refunds it under the Apple Media Services Terms. Nothing is sold on settlano.com.

It renews automatically, at the same price and for the same period, until you cancel. To cancel, open Settings on your iPhone, tap your name, then Subscriptions, and cancel there; the Manage subscription row in your Settlano profile opens the same Apple controls. Apple charges up to 24 hours before each renewal. Cancelling takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for; the paid features stop then, including reminders, the widget and the calendar entries the app wrote, and your data does not.

We change the price only for a reason: our costs change, including Apple’s commission or the VAT rate; the law changes; or the subscription comes to include materially more. A price you have already paid for a period never changes. If the price changes, Apple tells you in advance and the new price applies only from a later renewal. Where Apple or the law requires your consent, the subscription simply ends at the end of the current period if you do not agree; otherwise you can cancel before the new price applies.

Apple runs refunds for purchases: ask at reportaproblem.apple.com. Where the law gives you money back from us, for example under sections 9, 10, 11 or 12, tell us at support@settlano.com: we will refund you within 14 days of your message, through Apple where Apple does it, or otherwise by bank transfer if you agree to that, and you pay no fee for it. You may also ask Apple at the address above; a refund from Apple settles the same amount once. None of this affects your legal rights.

If you are a consumer, you may withdraw from the purchase within 14 days of your receipt without giving a reason. You do that with Apple: use Report a Problem at the address above, which is the online withdrawal function, or send Apple’s model withdrawal form to rightofwithdrawal@apple.com. Apple refunds within 14 days by the same means you paid. Under EU law the right arises once, when the subscription starts, provided you were clearly told before starting that payment would follow any free period; it does not arise again at each renewal. It can also be lost if you ask for delivery to start straight away and acknowledge that you lose the right by doing so; Apple’s purchase flow may ask you for that acknowledgement when you subscribe. If it does, what remains is Apple’s ordinary refund process at the address above, and the rights in sections 9 to 12.

Your subscription is tied to your Apple Account and works on all your devices. If the app does not recognise it, use Restore purchases in the app.

Section 8Beta and TestFlight builds#

While Settlano is on TestFlight it is free. Nothing is charged, and any purchase screen you see runs in Apple’s test sandbox.

Export a backup before a build expires. Beta builds are pre-release software. They may be incomplete or wrong, may change between builds, and may be withdrawn. Each build expires 90 days after it is released. Your data may not carry over to the App Store version, so export a backup before a build expires, and do not rely on a beta build as your only record.

Apple’s TestFlight terms also apply. Settlano, not Apple, is responsible for the beta app; send anything about it to support@settlano.com.

Apple and we receive crash logs and usage data from TestFlight builds, and you cannot opt out of that while testing. We use that data, and any feedback you send, only to improve Settlano, and we do not share it.

You may talk about the beta publicly.

The beta is not the 7-day trial: a trial counter or purchase screen you see in a beta build is not live and changes nothing. But setting up a beta build does start the 7-day trial clock, so if you later install the App Store version on the same phone the subscription screen may appear at once; your data stays readable and exportable either way. The App Store version may differ from the beta builds.

Section 9Updates and changes to the app#

For as long as you subscribe, we supply through the App Store the updates the app needs to stay as described in these terms, including security updates and, within a reasonable time after they are published, updates to the bundled Maltese tax rules when the official rates or rules change.

The App Store tells you when an update is available. If you do not install it within a reasonable time, the figures may be out of date, and we are not responsible for problems that come only from the missing update, unless you could not install it because our instructions were wrong. The source of every rule, and the date the year’s rates were verified, are shown in Rules & sources.

Settlano needs an iPhone or iPad running iOS 16 or iPadOS 16 or later. The home-screen widget needs iOS 17 or later.

We may change or remove features, at no extra cost and with clear information, for these reasons only: changes in Maltese or EU tax, VAT or social-security law or in official rates; iOS or App Store requirements; security; performance; improving features or retiring ones that few people use; and legal compliance.

If a change makes the app noticeably worse for you to use, we will tell you reasonably in advance, with a dated notice in the app through an update and in the version history on settlano.com, which is archived and never edited, what changes, when, and that you may leave. You may end your subscription free of charge within 30 days of that notice or of the change, whichever is later: cancel with Apple, and the unused part of a period you prepaid comes back to you as section 7 describes.

A new tax year’s rules arrive by update after Malta publishes its Budget measures and legal notices. Until then the app keeps using the latest rules it has, and says so.

Section 10Changes to these terms#

We may change these terms for these reasons only: a change in the law or in official guidance; a new tax year; security; Apple or platform requirements; a new or retired feature; a change in who operates Settlano or in its legal form; and correcting mistakes or making the text clearer.

For a material change we give at least 30 days’ notice, in the app through an update and with a banner on settlano.com showing what changes and the date it takes effect. If you do not want the new terms, cancel with Apple before they take effect; if you prepaid a period that runs past that date and you leave because of the change, you get the unused part back, as section 7 describes. Changes that only add information in your favour, fix typos, or publish the operator’s details in section 1 take effect when published, and still appear in the version history.

If you keep using Settlano after a change takes effect, the new terms apply from then on.

Every version is listed in section 19, with its date, what changed and why, and a copy of the previous text is kept.

Section 11Ending the agreement#

You can stop at any time. Cancel the subscription with Apple, which runs it to the end of the period you paid for, and delete the app.

We may end your licence only for serious reasons, for example unlawful use of the app or an attack on it, and only after telling you and giving you a reasonable chance to respond, unless the seriousness of the matter does not allow that. If we end it, the unused part of any period you prepaid still comes back to you as section 7 describes.

If we discontinue Settlano, we will give at least 90 days’ notice, in the app through an update and on settlano.com, and stop renewals. You will get back the unused part of any period you prepaid: tell us, and we refund it within 14 days as section 7 describes, whether or not Apple also does.

Whoever ends it, your data stays on your device and you can still export it. The sections listed in section 17 continue to apply.

Section 12What we promise, and what we do not#

The app will work as described in section 3 and in these terms, for as long as you subscribe.

If you are a consumer, the law guarantees that the app matches its description (the guarantee of conformity for digital content and digital services). These terms do not reduce it.

If something is wrong, tell support@settlano.com. We will fix it within a reasonable time, free of charge and without significant inconvenience to you. If we cannot fix it, do not fix it within a reasonable time, it comes back after a fix, it is serious, or we have said (or it is clear) that we will not fix it, you may ask for a partial refund for the affected period (a proportionate price reduction). You may instead end the contract, unless the problem is only minor; it is for us to show that it is minor. Money back comes as section 7 describes.

Subject to those rights, we do not promise that the app will run without interruption or error, or that it meets your particular needs. And we cannot promise anything about your actual tax liability: the Malta Tax and Customs Administration decides that, and section 3 explains why our figures are estimates.

Section 13Our liability#

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury, for fraud, for gross negligence or wilful misconduct, for failing to perform a fundamental element of this contract, for your rights under consumer law, or for any liability the law does not allow us to exclude, including under product-liability law.

Otherwise, we are responsible for the loss our breach of these terms causes that could be foreseen when the contract was made; if we act fraudulently, that foreseeability limit does not apply.

What we are not responsible for. The tax itself is yours to pay, whatever we estimate. We are not responsible for tax, interest or penalties that arise from entries you did not make or made incorrectly, or from returns or payments you did not file or make on time. If a figure was wrong because the app did not work as these terms say, section 12 and the first two paragraphs of this section apply, and section 3’s request that you check figures does not reduce that.

We do not ask you to cover our losses or legal costs (there is no indemnity). Read this section together with section 3. Nothing here limits the rights described in section 2.

Section 14Third-party services around the app#

The App Store, billing, TestFlight, Face ID and calendar access are Apple’s services, under Apple’s terms. The app asks before using Face ID or a calendar, and a cloud calendar entry carries no amounts and no client names.

To know whether your subscription is active, the app uses RevenueCat and sends it, from your phone, the purchase receipt Apple issued, a random identifier, and the technical details any such request carries (your IP address, device model, iOS and app version, language and App Store country, and Apple’s per-developer device identifier). It never receives your books. The Privacy Policy lists these.

Foreign-currency invoices use European Central Bank reference rates bundled with the app and dated. An invoice keeps the rate it was issued with. A date after the bundled data has no rate until you update the app or enter one yourself.

Links to the Malta Tax and Customs Administration, to its online services and to legislation.mt lead to websites outside our control.

Any optional connection to a bank or another account will be offered only with your separate consent and under its own terms. Working offline, on your phone alone, remains the default.

Section 15If you got the app from Apple’s App Store#

Apple requires the following terms in the licence agreement of every app sold through the App Store. They apply to every copy of the app you get from Apple.

1. These terms are between you and Settlano only, not Apple. Settlano alone is responsible for the app and its content. Nothing in these terms conflicts with the Apple Media Services Terms and their Usage Rules.
2. Your licence is the one in section 5: non-transferable, for Apple devices you own or control, as Apple’s Usage Rules allow, including through Family Sharing, volume purchasing and Legacy Contacts.
3. Settlano alone provides any maintenance and support for the app, at support@settlano.com. Apple has no obligation whatsoever to provide any maintenance or support for it.
4. If the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price to you. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation for the app. Any other claim, loss, liability, damage, cost or expense from a failure to conform to a warranty is Settlano’s responsibility.
5. Settlano, not Apple, is responsible for addressing any claim by you or by a third party relating to the app or your possession and use of it, including product-liability claims, any claim that the app fails to conform to a legal or regulatory requirement, and claims under consumer-protection, privacy or similar law. These terms do not limit Settlano’s liability to you beyond what applicable law permits.
6. If a third party claims that the app, or your possession and use of it, infringes their intellectual property rights, Settlano, not Apple, is solely responsible for investigating, defending, settling and discharging that claim.
7. You confirm that you are not located in a country that is subject to a United States Government embargo or that has been designated by the United States Government as a “terrorist supporting” country, and that you are not on any United States Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
8. Our email address for questions, complaints and claims about the app, and our name, address and telephone number once published, are in section 1.
9. You must comply with applicable third-party terms when using the app, as section 6 says.
10. Apple and Apple’s subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms. Once you accept them, Apple has the right, and is deemed to have accepted the right, to enforce them against you as a third-party beneficiary.

Apple is not a party to disputes about the app and does not take part in alternative dispute resolution; see section 16.

Until we file these terms with Apple as the app’s licence agreement, Apple’s standard licence agreement also applies to a copy of the app from the App Store. We do not use any permission it gives us to collect data, and sections 13 and 16 of these terms apply between you and us.

Section 16Complaints, disputes and governing law#

If something is wrong, write to support@settlano.com first. We aim to reply within two working days. Questions about payment, renewal and refunds go to Apple.

These terms are governed by the laws of Malta. If you are a consumer living in another EU or EEA country, you also keep the protection of the mandatory consumer laws of that country.

Disputes may be brought before the courts of Malta. If you are a consumer, you may instead bring a claim before the Consumer Claims Tribunal in Malta, for claims up to €10,000 excluding interest and costs; the transaction counts as made in Malta, where we are, wherever you live. Before a claim is presented there it is referred to the Director General of the Office for Consumer Affairs, or to a registered consumer association, who tries to bring the two sides to an agreement; if there is none within fifteen working days, the claim can go ahead. If you are a consumer living in another EU or EEA country, you may also bring proceedings in the courts of that country, and if we ever bring a claim against you we will bring it only there.

For a consumer dispute that no other alternative dispute resolution entity is competent to hear, Maltese law refers the dispute to the Complaints and Conciliation Directorate of the Office for Consumer Affairs at the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority, mccaa.org.mt. If we cannot settle a complaint with you, we will tell you in writing, on paper or by email, whether we will take part in a procedure there and which entity is competent.

Apple does not take part in dispute resolution about the app.

Section 17General#

The agreement between you and Settlano is made up of these terms, the Privacy Policy, the Apple Media Services Terms for your purchase (and the TestFlight terms for beta builds), and the information we gave you before you subscribed, including on settlano.com and on the App Store page.

If a clause is found unfair or unenforceable, it drops out and the rest continues.

We may transfer this agreement to a successor operator of Settlano, for example a company that takes over the app, provided your rights and guarantees are not reduced. We will tell you in the app and in the version history. Your licence is personal and cannot be transferred, except as Apple’s Usage Rules allow through Family Sharing, volume purchasing and Legacy Contacts.

If we do not enforce a clause at some point, we can still enforce it later. Sections 3, 4, 5, 12, 13, 15, 16 and this section continue to apply after the agreement ends.

The English text is the contract. These terms are available as this web page and as a plain-text file at settlano.com/terms.txt, both linked from the app’s Terms and privacy page, which opens them in your browser, so that you can store and reproduce them.

Nobody other than you, Settlano, and Apple under section 15 has rights under these terms.

Section 18Contact#

For anything about the app, these terms, or a complaint: support@settlano.com. We aim to reply within two working days.

For payment, renewal, cancellation and refunds: Apple, at reportaproblem.apple.com or through Apple Support. Where the law gives you money back from us, section 7 applies: write to support@settlano.com.

The operator’s legal details, and the telephone number once published, are in section 1.

Section 19Version history#

Archived copies of earlier versions will be linked here from the first change onward. Archived versions are never edited.