1.   INTRODUCTION 

This privacy notice provides you with details of how we collect and process your personal data through your use of our site  www.helensaccountancy.co.uk as well as via email, post, portal, telephone, and included any information you may provide when you purchase a service from Helen's Accountancy Services Limited.

Version 3.0 - updated 18th October 2024

Helen's Accountancy Services Limited sets out this notice in line with the UK GDPR which governs the use of personal data and PECR which governs the use of Business to Business data, most notably through any marketing activities. 

By providing us with your data, you warrant to us that you are over 16 years of age. Helens Accountancy Services Limited are the data controller and we are responsible for your personal data (referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).

We have appointed a Data Protection Officer who is in charge of privacy related matters for us. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact the Data Protection Officer using the details set out below.

Contact Details:

Name or title of Data Protection Officer: Mark James CIPM

Email address: mark@mojou.co.uk (Independent DPO)

If you are not happy with any aspect of how we collect and use your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We should be grateful if you would contact us first if you do have a complaint so that we can try to resolve it for you.

It is very important that the information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. Please let us know if at any time your personal information changes by emailing us at admin@helensaccountancy.co.uk  

2.  WHAT DATA DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

Personal data means any information capable of identifying an individual, either directly or indirectly. It does not include anonymised data.

We may process certain types of personal data about you as follows:

•Identity Data may include your first name, last name, title, address.

•Contact Data may include your billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.

•Financial Data may include bank info, receipts, tax related financial details and other details provided to us

•Technical Data may include internet protocol addresses, browser type and version, browser plug-in types and versions, time zone setting and location, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this site.

•Usage Data may include information about how you use our website and services.

•Marketing and Communications Data may include your preferences in receiving marketing communications from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

Sensitive Data

We do not collect Sensitive Data about you. Sensitive data refers to data that includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data. We do not collect any information about criminal convictions and offences although we may collect information seemed sensitive to you by virtue of your business and its transactions.

3.  HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We collect data about you through a variety of different methods including:

•Direct interactions: You may provide data by filling in forms on our site (or otherwise) or by communicating with us by post, phone, email or otherwise, including when you:

•When you sign up to our services;

•via your partner(s) or your appointed 3rd parties

•When you create an account on our site;

•When you subscribe to our service or mailings;

•When you are giving us feedback.

Also; via Analytics providers such as Google based outside the EU as per our cookies below.

4.  HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA 

We will only use your personal data when legally permitted. The most common uses of your personal data are:

•Where we need to perform the contract between us.

•Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests such as working with a partner we have appointed.

•Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal ground for processing your personal data, other than in relation to sending marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by emailing us at admin@helensaccountancy.co.uk or by opting out of marketing activities. You can also amend your cookie compliance at anytime also by going to the cookie settings icon which should be seen on your screen when on our site. 

Purposes for processing your personal data 

Set out below is a description of the ways we intend to use your personal data and the legal grounds on which we will process such data. We have also explained what our legitimate interests are where relevant.

We may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground, depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please email us at admin@helensaccountancy.co.uk if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data but these include:

 Lawful basis for processing

To register you as a new customer (Legitimate Interest)

• Performance of a contract with you (Contract)
• To process terms of engagement including:
  
• Manage payments, fees and charges  (Legitimate Interest)
  
• Collect and recover money owed to us  (Legitimate Interest)

To manage our relationship with you which will include:

• Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy.  (Legitimate Interest)
  
• To administer and protect our business and our site (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data) -  (Legitimate Interest)
• Necessary for our legitimate interests for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise - (Legal obligation.)
• To deliver relevant content and advertisements to you and measure and understand the effectiveness of our advertising.  (Consent)
• To use data analytics to improve our website, products/services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences.  (Legitimate Interest)
  
• We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes. (Consent)
• You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you OR by emailing us at admin@helensaccountancy.co.uk (right to withdraw consent)

Change of purpose 

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to find out more about how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please email us at admin@helensaccountancy.co.uk

If we need to use your personal data for a purpose unrelated to the purpose for which we collected the data, we will notify you and we will explain the legal ground of processing. We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law. (Legal Obligation)

5.  DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA 

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the list in paragraph 4 above:

•IT and system administration services and undertake leadership reporting.  (Legitimate Interest)

•Service providers who provide IT and system administration services.  (Legitimate Interest)

•Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.  (Legitimate Interest)

•HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities based in the United Kingdom and other relevant jurisdictions who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.  (Legitimate Interest)

•Third parties to whom we sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets.  (Legitimate Interest)

We require all third parties to whom we transfer your data to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We only allow such third parties to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

6.  INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS 

It is possible we may transfer your data outside of the EEA. If we do process your data outside of the EEA we will ensure it is done so within the confines of GDPR law. For example, we will conduct appropriate DPIA's and due diligence practice(s) as well as ensure contracts are appropriate for the data processed.

7.  DATA SECURITY 

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. 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 such data. 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 personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

8.  DATA RETENTION 

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they cease being customers for tax purposes.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: for example:

• Where you do not become an active customer
• Where you are no longer a client or employee.

We are not obliged to delete data where we have a legal basis to refuse.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

9.  YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS 

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. These include the right to:

•Request access to your personal data.

•Request correction of your personal data.

•Request erasure of your personal data.

•Object to processing of your personal data.

•Request restriction of processing your personal data.

•Request transfer of your personal data.

•Right to withdraw consent.

You can see more about these rights at:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email 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 is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

 10. THIRD-PARTY LINKS 

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

11. COOKIES 

This website has cookies. We use cookies to analyse our traffic and personalise our content. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners to improve our service. If you continue to use this website, you consent to the use of our cookies.

A cookie is a small file, typically of letters and numbers, downloaded on to a device when the user accesses certain websites. Cookies allow a website to recognise a user’s device. For more information see: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/

Cookies can expire at the end of a browser session (from when a user opens the browser window to when they exit the browser) or they can be stored for longer.

Our site uses the following cookies

Marketing cookies

Facebook Pixel

Facebook social media plug in

Google Ads

Google Tag Manager

Both of these are used by advertisers to serve you relevant ads when accepted.

Functional Cookies

Mapbox

Site Analytics

Site Prioritisation

Site Analytics

Site Personalisation

Google webfront

Double Click Ad

Google Analytics

These eight cookies above are technologies issued to enable us to analyse usage behaviour in order to measure or improve site performance

Our website has the following cookies installed although you may not experience them all in any one visit.

Sita Analytics – Functional

Site Personalisation – Functional

Google Analytics – Functional

Consent Management – Essential

Google webfront – Functional

Google Ads – Marketing

Double Click Ad – Functional

Gstatic.com – Essential

Mapbox – Functional

Google Tag Manager – Marketing

Cloudfront (AWS) – Essential

ReCAPTCHA – Essential

Facebook social plugin - Marketing

Consent:

By law, Helen's Accountancy Services Limited must:

o  Tell people that the cookies are there.

o  Explain what the cookies are doing.

o  Obtain user consent to store a cookie on their device.

Helen's Accountancy Services Limited uses cookies to analyse our traffic and personalise our content. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners to improve our service. These cookies do not give us access to your computer or any information about you, other than what you choose to share.

When you use our website for the first time, or 30 days after your last visit you will find a permissions bar appear. You can either accept using cookies or you can stop us using cookies. Either way you can browse our website.

You can set your browser not to accept cookies. Visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/ to find out more.