Privacy Policy

Sandstone Bookkeeping Data Protection Officer is Victoria Healy, who can be contacted about anything to do with your personal data and data protection, including making a subject access request, using the following details:

Name:  Victoria Healy

Address: 5 Sandstone Drive, West Kirby, Wirral, CH48 9UN

Phone Number: 07359432639

E-mail: victoria.healy@sandstonebookkeeping.co.uk

In this policy “personal data” means all information that enables you to be identified as an individual or recognised directly or indirectly. 

We currently collect and process the following types of “personal data”. 

• Identity Data – Which may include your first name, surname, date of birth, title and gender.
• Contact Data– which may include home and/or address, telephone number(s), email address(es) and fax number(s)
• Contractual Data – which may include details of the existence of any contract that we may have with you and the details of the services we have contracted to provide.
• Employment Data – which may include your job title, position and where you work (including self-employed status)
• Financial Data – which may include your bank account details, VAT number, details of your income, information held by HMRC, information required to prepare tax returns and information required to prepare annual accounts.
• Marketing Data – which may include your preferences in receiving marketing information from us and your communication preferences.
• Technical Data – which may include your internet protocol (IP) address, internet browser type and version, operating system and platform and other technology used to access our website.
• Usage Data– which may include information about how you use our website and services. 

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed of any changes to your personal data 

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly from you. When you correspond with us via email, telephone, browsing our website (including completing forms) and by other electronic means, you may give us personal information about yourself.

We also receive personal information indirectly, from the following sources:

• HMRC
• Companies House
• Your Employer
• Other Third Parties (e.g. external accountants, financial institutions) as instructed by you
• Your spouse/partner
• Electronic ID verification providers
• Social Media

The information you provide to us (or that is provided to us from a third party) is for one of the following reasons:

• To enquire about a service
• To register you (or retain you) as a client in accordance with UK laws and professional regulations (e.g. Anti-Money Laundering)
• To fulfil our contractual obligations 
• To provide ad-hoc advice

We use the information that you have given us in order to 

• Provide a service to you under a contractual obligation
• To contact you with regards to services that may be of interest to you
• To comply with legal and statutory obligations
• To manage our relationship with you
• For other legitimate purposes

We may share this information with the following, in order to provide our agreed services.

• HMRC
• Third parties you may require us to correspond with (for example, external accountants, financial providers, pension providers)
• Professional Indemnity Insurance
• Subcontractors who are bound by the same professional and ethical obligations
• Tax Insurance Providers
• Our professional body, The Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) or an external reviewer in relation to quality assurance 

During our contractual obligations or after the relationship has ceased, if required by law, we may give information about you to 

• Police and law enforcement
• Courts and tribunals
• The Information Commissioner’s Office

After our relationship has ceased, we may give information about you to 

• To our professional indemnity insurance or legal representative where we need to defend ourselves against a claim
• Our professional body (Association of Accounting Technicians) where a complain has been made against us, in order to defend ourselves against the claim.
• Your new advisors or other third parties you give us consent to give information to

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are: 

• Your consent. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting Victoria Healy by email victoria.healy@sandstonebookkeeping.co.uk 
• We have a contractual obligation
• We have a legal obligation
• We have a legitimate interest

Your information is securely stored. 

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose we collected it for and to satisfy any legal, accounting and reporting requirements. 

• General Enquiries (where no contract is entered into) - 1 year after the last general enquiry (or for a longer period if there is a legitimate period or with consent)
• Tax returns & accounts that have been prepared - 7 years from the end of the tax year in which they relate
• Ad-Hoc advisory work - 7 years from the date the business relationship ceased
• Ongoing client relationship permanent information (information provided by you and others which is needed for more than one year compliance) - 7 years from the date   the business relationship ceased 
• Anti-Money laundering Checks - 5 years from the date the business relationship ceased

Under data protection law, you have rights set out below in respect of your personal data.  To exercise your rights, please provide all requests in writing to our data protection officer, Victoria Healy. 

Your right of access - You have the right to request information on the personal data the firm holds about you. 

Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete. 

Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.  For further information please refer to the Information Commissioner’s Office website (www.ico.org.uk).  

Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.  For further information please refer to the Information Commissioner’s Office website (www.ico.org.uk). 

Your right to object to processing - You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances. For further information please refer to the Information Commissioner’s Office website (www.ico.org.uk). 

Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. In order to provide the information we may request copies of ID and proof of address.

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to by contacting our data protection officer, Victoria Healy by email victoria.healy@sandstonebookkeeping.co.uk 

You can also complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), the UK’s supervisory authority on data protection issues if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF (www.ico.org.uk)

You can also lodge a complaint with our professional body Association of Accounting Technicians – AAT (www.aat.org.uk)  

UPDATED - December 2023