Privacy policy

BOOKKEEPING PARTNER LIMITED ("BKP", "we", "us") is a bookkeeping practice registered with the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB). We are a company registered in England and Wales, company number 10761607, with our registered office at Churchill Court, 3 Manor Royal, Crawley, England, RH10 9LU. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, registration number ZA352825.

We are the data controller for the personal information in this policy. Questions about it go to Jeremy Ferendinos, Director, at jeremy@bookkeepingpartner.co.uk.

If you use the contact form, we collect your name, email address, phone number (if you give it), the sector you select and your message, and use them only to reply and, if you become a client, to set up our engagement. Please do not put bank details or tax references in the form.

If you request or buy a guide, we collect your first name and email address to send it to you. Payments for paid guides are taken by Stripe; we never see your card details. We send tax tips by email only if you tick the box asking for them, and you can stop them at any time by replying to any email.

Our hosting provider keeps short-lived technical logs, such as IP addresses, to keep the site secure. This site does not set advertising or analytics cookies.

We hold information about our clients, and about the people connected to them:

• Identity and contact details: names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers of directors, owners and contacts.
• Identity checks: the details and documents needed for our anti-money laundering checks.
• Tax and statutory details: Unique Taxpayer References, VAT registration numbers, PAYE references, company numbers and, for self-employed clients, National Insurance numbers.
• Financial records: bookkeeping records, bank statements, payroll information and the documents clients send us.
• Information from HMRC: when a client has authorised us as their agent, we read their VAT return periods, amounts owed and paid, and Making Tax Digital for Income Tax filing dates from HMRC. We only read this information. We do not submit returns through this connection.
• Information from Companies House: company details, officers and persons with significant control, from the public register.

We do not use client information for marketing without consent, and we never sell it.

We share information only as far as our services need:

• HMRC and Companies House, when we act as your agent or file on your behalf.
• The software we use to run the practice, acting as our processors under contract: Microsoft (our practice system, email and document storage), Xero, Dext, BrightPay, Inform Direct and Xama.
• The services that run this website: Vercel (hosting), Resend (email delivery) and Stripe (guide payments).
• Our professional body and insurers, where we are required to.

Our practice system and client documents are held on Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 in the United Kingdom (UK South). Where any of our suppliers holds information outside the UK, including the US-based services that run this website, it is protected by the safeguards UK data protection law requires for international transfers, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.

Access is limited to BKP staff, who sign in with their Microsoft work accounts. Tax amounts, fees and National Insurance numbers can be seen only by the Director. Every change made in the practice system is logged with who made it and when.

• Accounting, tax and payroll records: 6 years from the end of the tax year or accounting period they relate to.
• Anti-money laundering records: 5 years from the end of the business relationship, as the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 require.
• Starters' and leavers' payroll papers: 6 years after the end of the tax year in which the person left.
• Information read from HMRC: for as long as we act for the client, then deleted with the client's other records.
• Website enquiries: up to 12 months from our last contact, unless you become a client.

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, to have it corrected, to have it deleted where we are not required by law to keep it, to object to or restrict how we use it, and to withdraw consent where we rely on consent. To use any of these rights, email jeremy@bookkeepingpartner.co.uk. We will reply within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, or by phone on 0303 123 1113.

We will update this page when how we use information changes, and show the date of the latest version at the top. Our terms and conditions cover the use of this website and our online services.