Policies

Cookies Policy

This Cookie Policy describes how Simplified Accounting Limited uses cookies and similar technologies to provide, improve, promote and protect the Services. If you have any comments or questions then please contact us.

Cookies are small pieces of text sent to your browser when you visit a site. They serve a variety of functions, like enabling us to remember certain information you provide to us as you navigate between pages on the Services. We use cookies for the following purposes:

  • Performance and Analytics - These cookies help us analyse how the website is being accessed and used, and enable us to track performance of the website. For example, we use cookies to determine if you viewed a page. This helps us provide you with information that you find interesting.

  • Third Parties - Third Party Services may use cookies to help you sign into their services from our Services. We also may use third party cookies, i.e. Google Analytics, to assist with analysing performance. Any third-party cookie usage is governed by the privacy policy of the third party placing the cookie.

  • Opting Out - You can set your browser to not accept cookies.

  • Pixels - A pixel tag, or pixel, is a small piece of code that can be embedded on websites and emails. We use pixels to learn how you interact with our site.

NOTE We may modify this Cookie Policy from time to time and will post the most current version on our site.

Data Protection Policy

The following definitions shall apply:

  • ‘client personal data’ means any personal data provided to us by you, or on your behalf, for the purpose of providing our services to you, pursuant to our engagement letter with you

  • ‘data protection legislation’ means all applicable privacy and data protection legislation and regulations including PECR, the GDPR and any applicable national laws, regulations and secondary legislation in the UK relating to the processing of personal data and the privacy of electronic communications, as amended, replaced or updated from time to time

  • ‘controller’, ‘data subject’, ‘personal data’, and ‘process’ shall have the meanings given to them in the data protection legislation

  • ‘GDPR’ means the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) and

  • ‘PECR’ means the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (SI 2426/2003).

We shall each be considered an independent data controller in relation to the client personal data. Each of us will comply with all requirements and obligations applicable to us under the data protection legislation in respect of the client personal data.

You shall only disclose client personal data to us where:

  • you have provided the necessary information to the relevant data subjects regarding its use and you may use or refer to our privacy notice available at www.simplified-accounting.co.uk

  • you have a lawful basis upon which to do so, which, in the absence of any other lawful basis, shall be with the relevant data subject’s consent and

  • you have complied with the necessary requirements under the data protection legislation to enable you to do so.

Should you require any further details regarding our treatment of personal data, please contact our Rachael Savage via email: hello@simplifiedaccounting.co.uk

We shall only process the client personal data:

  • in order to provide our services to you and perform any other obligations in accordance with our engagement with you

  • in order to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations and

  • where it is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests and those interests are not overridden by the data subjects’ own privacy rights. Our privacy notice (available at www.simplified-accounting.co.uk) contains further details as to how we may process client personal data.

For the purpose of providing our services to you, pursuant to our engagement letter, we may disclose the client personal data to our regulatory bodies or other third parties (for example, our professional advisors or service providers).

We shall maintain commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures, including administrative, physical and technical safeguards, to protect against unauthorised or unlawful processing of the client personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, the client personal data.

In respect of the client personal data, provided that we are legally permitted to do so, we shall promptly notify you in the event that:

  • we receive a request, complaint or any adverse correspondence from or on behalf of a relevant data subject, to exercise their data subject rights under the data protection legislation or in respect of our processing of their personal data

  • we are served with an information, enforcement or assessment notice (or any similar notices), or receive any other material communication in respect of our processing of the client personal data from a supervisory authority as defined in the data protection legislation (for example in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Officer) or

  • we reasonably believe that there has been any incident which resulted in the accidental or unauthorised access to, or destruction, loss, unauthorised disclosure or alteration of, the client personal data.

Upon the reasonable request of the other, we shall each co-operate with the other and take such reasonable commercial steps or provide such information as is necessary to enable each of us to comply with the data protection legislation in respect of the services provided to you in accordance with our engagement letter with you in relation to those services.

Privacy Policy

PURPOSE OF THIS NOTICE

This notice describes how we collect and use personal data about you, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act [1998 OR 2018] and any other national implementing laws, regulations and secondary legislation, as amended or updated from time to time, in the UK (‘Data Protection Legislation’). Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

ABOUT US

Simplified Accounting Limited is a firm of Chartered Accountants regulated by the ICAEW. We are registered in England and Wales as a limited company under number: 07622796 and our registered office is address is 34 Brackley Road, Towcester, Northants, NN12 6DJ.

For the purpose of the Data Protection Legislation and this notice, we are the ‘data controller’. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you. We are required under the Data Protection Legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice. Should you wish to contact our Data Protection Point of Contact you can do so using the contact details noted at paragraph 12 (Contact Us), below.

HOW WE MAY COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We obtain personal data about you, for example, when:

  • you request a proposal from us in respect of the services we provide

  • you, your employer, our clients engage us to provide our services and also during the provision of those services

  • you contact us by email, telephone, post or social media (for example when you have a query about our services)

  • when you download our resources

  • when you visit our website (please see our Cookies Policy)

  • when you subscribe to our mailing list, or

  • from third parties and/or publicly available resources (for example, from your employer or from Companies House).

THE KIND OF INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT YOU

The information we hold about you may include the following:

  • your personal details (as required to undertake our work per the terms of our engagement)

  • details of contact we have had with you in relation to the provision, or the proposed provision, of our services

  • details of any services you have received from us

  • our correspondence and communications with you

  • information about any complaints and enquiries you make to us

  • information from research, surveys, and marketing activities

Information we receive from other sources, such as publicly available information, information provided by your employer or our clients.

HOW WE USE PERSONAL DATA WE HOLD ABOUT YOU

We may process your personal data for purposes necessary for the performance of our contract with you or your employer or our clients and to comply with our legal obligations.

We may process your personal data for the purposes necessary for the performance of our contract with our clients. This may include processing your personal data where you are an employee, subcontractor, supplier or customer of our client.

We may process your personal data for the purposes of our own legitimate interests provided that those interests do not override any of your own interests, rights and freedoms which require the protection of personal data. This includes processing for marketing, business development, statistical and management purposes.

We may process your personal data for certain additional purposes with your consent, and in these limited circumstances where your consent is required for the processing of your personal data then you have the right to withdraw your consent to processing for such specific purposes. Please note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data.

Situations in which we will use your personal data

We may use your personal data in order to:

  • carry out our obligations arising from any agreements entered into which will most usually be for the provision of our services

  • carry out our obligations arising from any agreements entered into between our clients and us (which will most usually be for the provision of our services) where you may be a subcontractor, supplier or customer of our client

  • provide you with information related to our services and our events and activities that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, provided you have consented to be contacted for such purposes

  • seek your thoughts and opinions on the services we provide and

  • notify you about any changes to our services.

In some circumstances we may anonymise or pseudonymise the personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use it without further notice to you. If you refuse to provide us with certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you. Alternatively, we may be unable to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations. We may also process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in accordance with this notice, where we are legally required or permitted to do so.

Data retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it is collected. When assessing what retention period is appropriate for your personal data, we take into consideration:

  • the requirements of our business and the services provided

  • any statutory or legal obligations

  • the purposes for which we originally collected the personal data

  • the lawful grounds on which we based our processing

  • the types of personal data we have collected

  • the amount and categories of your personal data and

  • whether the purpose of the processing could reasonably be fulfilled by other means.

Change of purpose

Where we need to use your personal data for another reason, other than for the purpose for which we collected it, we will only use your personal data where that reason is compatible with the original purpose. Should it be necessary to use your personal data for a new purpose, we will notify you and communicate the legal basis which allows us to do so before starting any new processing.

DATA SHARING

Why might you share my personal data with third parties?

We will share your personal data with third parties where we are required by law, where it is necessary to administer the relationship between us or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.

Which third-party service providers process my personal data?

“Third parties” includes third-party service providers. The following activities are carried out by third-party service providers: administration support, marketing support, payroll support and banking services. All of our third-party service providers are required to take commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect your personal data and are only privy to the data that they need in order to provide their services.

We only permit our third-party service providers to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. All third-party service providers are GDPR compliant.

Additionally, we utilise third-party commercial software for data-back ups, accounting and tax software, practice and project management, email, marketing etc. All third-party commercial software providers are GDPR compliant and do not have access to your data and this compliance is reviewed on a regular basis. Where appropriate, we utilise two-step authentication access for all software. What about other third parties? What about other third parties? ird parties? We may share your personal data with other third parties, for example in the context of the possible sale or restructuring of the business. We may also need to share your personal data with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

TRANSFERRING PERSONAL DATA OUTSIDE THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA (EEA)

Some of our third-party software providers are located outside of the EEA, all third party software providers are GDPR compliant.

DATA SECURITY

We have put in place commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed.

For example, all computers are password protected and where appropriate software requires two-step authentication. All mobile devices are finger-print and pin protected.

In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

RIGHTS OF ACCESS, CORRECTION, ERASURE, AND RESTRICTION

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Should your personal information change, please notify us of any changes of which we need to be made aware by contacting us, using the contact details below.

Your rights in connection with personal data

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

  • Request access to your personal data. This enables you to receive details of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are processing it lawfully.

  • Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you.

  • Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).

  • Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this basis. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.

  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal data about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.

  • Request the transfer of your personal data to you or another data controller if the processing is based on consent, carried out by automated means and this is technically feasible.

If you want to exercise any of the above rights, please contact us. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

RIGHT TO WITHDRAW CONSENT

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal data for a specific purpose (for example, in relation to direct marketing that you have indicated you would like to receive from us), you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact us.

Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your personal information (personal data) for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

CHANGES THIS NOTICE

Any changes we may make to our privacy notice in the future will be updated on our website.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions regarding this notice or if you would like to speak to us about the manner in which we process your personal data, please email Rachael Savage at hello@simplified-accounting.co.uk and include “GDPR Privacy Request” within your message title.

You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues, at any time. The ICO’s contact details can be found at ico.org.uk/concerns.