The reflex we don't have

When you pick a SaaS tool for your freelance business, the question that NEVER comes up: how do I get my data out if I want to change tools in 3 years?

Yet it's the most important question. Your fiscal and financial data must follow you — not be trapped on a platform.

The French rule: 10 years

In France, you must keep your invoices for 10 years (Article L123-22 of the Commercial Code). Not 3 years, not 5 years. Ten years.

That means: if you wind down your activity at the end of 2026, you must still be able to produce invoices from 2017 until 2027. If your tool shuts down, changes owners, or decides to delete your account because you didn't renew — your data must live on.

GDPR right to portability

Article 20 of the GDPR: you have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.

For a SaaS hosting your business data, that means it must be able to provide an exploitable export. Not a screenshot. An actionable file.

Why a proprietary (yet open) format

When you export data from a tool, you usually get:

  • Flat CSVs: useful for Excel but lose relationships (which expense is tied to which mission? Mystery.)
  • PDFs: visually OK, useless for machines
  • Raw JSON: structured but often incomplete

The .fbudget format answers all three needs:

  1. ZIP: one file containing everything
  2. data.json: full model with IDs preserved (so relationships are intact)
  3. manifest.json: schema version, integrity checksum, export date
  4. Bonus CSVs: flat tables for those who just want to open them in Excel

It's proprietary in the sense that it's our format — but completely open: the spec is published in docs/FBUDGET_FORMAT.md. Anyone can write a parser.

The scenario where it saves you

Scenario 1: your accountant requests an audit

You send them the year's .fbudget. They extract data.json and the CSVs, they have EVERYTHING: invoices, expenses, missions, charges, payments, rebillings, reimbursements. Without needing access to your Freelance Budget account.

Scenario 2: Freelance Budget shuts down

Sad hypothesis but possible. You have your exports. You can:

  • Manually reconstitute your data in another tool (by reading data.json)
  • Wait for someone to write a .fbudget → other format converter (the spec is public)
  • Keep the .fbudget as an archive for 10-year compliance

Scenario 3: fiscal audit in 2032

The tax authority asks you to prove your 2024 invoices. You open your 2024 .fbudget archive on your computer, extract the invoices (CSV included), submit. Even if Freelance Budget no longer exists.

The responsible-SaaS checklist

When evaluating a tool for your business, verify:

✅ Structured export format: not just a PDF ✅ Public spec: you can parse without depending on the editor ✅ Integrity checksum: proof the data hasn't been tampered with ✅ Post-cancellation retention: how long data stays available after cancellation ✅ Format versioning: if the schema changes, the old format stays readable

What Freelance Budget guarantees

  • Full .fbudget export on demand, async, email link
  • Open spec in the repo (docs/FBUDGET_FORMAT.md)
  • SHA-256 checksum in the manifest
  • Export retention for 30 days after cancellation (largely enough for archival)
  • Format versioning (manifest contains schemaVersion) — old exports stay readable

This is the foundation of trust a freelancer can have in a tool that hosts their fiscal and financial data. Your data stays yours.