How Clyde Valley Accounting Ltd collects and uses personal information
Effective date 21 September 2026
Last reviewed 21 September 2026
Version 1.0
This Privacy Policy explains how Clyde Valley Accounting Ltd uses personal information relating to website visitors, prospective clients, clients, their personnel and other business contacts. It also explains the choices and rights available to individuals under UK data protection law.
1. Who we are
Clyde Valley Accounting Ltd is the controller of the personal information described in this policy. This means that we decide why and how that information is used.
| Contact detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Company | Clyde Valley Accounting Ltd |
| Company number | SC609413 |
| Registered office | Aves Business Centre, Aves House, 11 Jamaica Street, Greenock, Inverclyde, Scotland, PA15 1XX |
| [email protected] | |
| Telephone | 01475 332957 |
| Website | https://clydeaccounts.co.uk/ |
2. Information covered by this policy
We may collect and use the following categories of personal information, depending on our relationship with you:
- identity and contact information, including names, addresses, dates of birth, telephone numbers and email addresses;
- business and employment information, including job titles, company details, ownership and directorship information;
- identification and due-diligence information required for anti-money laundering checks, including copies of identity documents, address evidence and the results of screening checks;
- financial, accounting and tax information, including income, expenditure, assets, liabilities, bank details, transactions, tax references and information contained in business records;
- payroll, pension and employment information provided for payroll and related services;
- communications, enquiries, instructions, complaints and records of our dealings with you;
- website and technical information, including IP address, browser and device information, cookie identifiers, pages visited and security or spam-risk signals; and
- publicly available information, including information held by Companies House, HMRC and other official or professional sources.
Some services may involve information about health, trade-union membership or other special-category information, for example where this is relevant to payroll, benefits or tax. We only use such information where necessary and where an additional legal condition applies. We may also process information relating to criminal allegations or offences where permitted by law, including for fraud prevention, anti-money laundering compliance or legal claims.
3. How we obtain personal information
We obtain information directly from you when you contact us, use a website form, become a client, supply records or otherwise communicate with us. We may also receive information from your employer, company, directors, employees, business partners, previous advisers, banks, pension providers, HMRC, Companies House, public registers, professional advisers and other organisations where this is necessary and lawful.
4. Why we use personal information
We use personal information only where we have a lawful basis. The principal purposes and lawful bases are set out below. More than one basis may apply to the same information.
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Responding to enquiries and taking steps before an engagement | Steps at your request before entering into a contract; legitimate interests in responding to enquiries and developing our business. |
| Providing accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, tax and business-support services | Performance of a contract; legal obligations; legitimate interests in delivering and administering professional services. |
| Client identification, due diligence, anti-money laundering checks and fraud prevention | Legal obligations; legitimate interests in protecting our practice, clients and the public from fraud and financial crime. |
| Billing, payments, debt recovery, record keeping and practice administration | Performance of a contract; legal obligations; legitimate interests in managing our practice and protecting our legal rights. |
| Communicating service information and maintaining professional relationships | Performance of a contract; legitimate interests in effective client communication and service management. |
| Operating, securing and improving our website, forms and systems | Legitimate interests in operating a secure and effective website and preventing abuse; consent where required for non-essential cookies or analytics. |
| Meeting tax, regulatory, professional, court or law-enforcement requirements | Compliance with legal obligations; establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; substantial public interest where applicable. |
| Business continuity, professional advice and insurance | Legitimate interests in managing risk, obtaining advice and maintaining continuity; legal obligations where applicable. |
5. If you do not provide information
Where information is needed to enter into or perform an engagement, verify identity or meet a legal obligation, failure to provide it may mean that we cannot begin or continue acting for you. We will explain this where it applies.
6. Who we share information with
We disclose personal information only where necessary, proportionate and lawful. Recipients may include:
- HMRC, Companies House, courts, regulators, supervisory authorities, law-enforcement bodies and other public authorities;
- accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, tax, practice-management, identity-checking and secure document-management providers used to deliver our services;
- banks, payment providers, pension providers and other organisations where you instruct us to make or support a submission or transaction;
- professional advisers, insurers, auditors, contractors and continuity providers subject to appropriate confidentiality requirements;
- a prospective purchaser or successor if our practice is reorganised, sold or transferred, subject to appropriate safeguards; and
- other parties where you instruct or authorise us to disclose information, or where disclosure is required or permitted by law.
7. Website service providers
The website currently uses the following services. These providers may process limited personal or technical information on our behalf or as independent controllers for their own stated purposes.
| Provider or service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| OSAM | Managed website hosting and technical support. |
| Amazon Web Services (Amazon SES) | Delivery of website form submissions to our email inbox. |
| Google Analytics through Google Site Kit | Website analytics and usage measurement. Non-essential analytics operates subject to the consent choices made through the cookie banner where consent is required. |
| Google reCAPTCHA v3 | Automated spam, abuse and security protection for website forms. |
| Trustindex | Display of reviews published through Google. |
| Complianz | Recording and management of website cookie choices. |
| Cloudflare | Content delivery, availability and website security. |
The website has a separate Cookie Policy containing more detailed information about cookies and similar technologies. You can change non-essential cookie preferences through the consent tool where available.
8. International transfers
Some service providers operate internationally and may process information outside the United Kingdom. Where personal information is transferred to a country that is not covered by UK adequacy regulations, we require an appropriate safeguard where the law requires one. This may include the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to approved standard contractual clauses, or another lawful transfer mechanism. You may contact us for further information about safeguards relevant to your information.
9. How long we keep information
We retain information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including legal, regulatory, professional, tax, accounting, insurance and dispute-resolution requirements. Our normal approach is:
| Type of information | Normal retention approach |
|---|---|
| Enquiries that do not become an engagement | Normally up to 24 months after the last meaningful contact, unless a longer period is needed for a complaint, legal claim or another lawful reason. |
| Client engagement, accounting, tax and supporting records | Normally at least six years after the end of the relevant accounting or tax period, the end of the engagement, or the completion of the relevant work, using the latest applicable date. Some records may be kept longer where law, professional guidance or an ongoing matter requires it. |
| Anti-money laundering and identity-check records | Normally five years after the business relationship ends or the relevant occasional transaction completes, subject to applicable legal requirements and permitted extensions. |
| Website form communications | Handled as business correspondence and normally retained for up to 24 months if no engagement follows; otherwise retained with the relevant client or engagement record. |
| Website analytics and cookie information | Retained according to the configured period for the relevant service and the choices recorded through the cookie-consent tool. Further details appear in the Cookie Policy. |
| Complaints, disputes and legal claims | For the period needed to investigate and resolve the matter and, where appropriate, for the applicable legal limitation or insurance period. |
When information is no longer required, we delete it securely or anonymise it so that it no longer identifies an individual.
10. Security
We use appropriate organisational and technical measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, loss or destruction. Access is limited to people and service providers who need the information for a legitimate purpose and who are subject to confidentiality and security obligations. No internet or electronic storage system is completely secure, but we review safeguards in light of the information and risks involved.
11. Automated processing
Google reCAPTCHA v3 may automatically assess website activity to distinguish genuine users from suspected spam or abuse. We do not use website information to make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects.
12. Your data protection rights
Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:
- ask for access to your personal information and receive a copy;
- ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
- ask us to erase information where there is no lawful reason to continue using it;
- ask us to restrict how information is used in certain circumstances;
- object to processing based on legitimate interests or to direct marketing;
- receive information you provided in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or ask for it to be transferred, where the right to data portability applies;
- withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent, without affecting earlier lawful processing; and
- ask for safeguards relating to certain international transfers.
These rights are not absolute and exemptions may apply, including where we must retain information to meet legal or regulatory duties. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request. We normally respond without undue delay and within one month, although the law permits an extension for certain complex or multiple requests.
To exercise a right, email [email protected] or write to the registered office shown in section 1. There is normally no fee, but the law allows a reasonable fee or refusal in limited circumstances involving manifestly unfounded or excessive requests.
13. Complaints
If you have a concern about how we use your information, please contact us first at [email protected] so that we can investigate and respond. We will acknowledge and consider data-protection complaints and provide an outcome without undue delay.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Information about making a complaint is available at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ or by telephoning 0303 123 1113. You may contact the ICO at any time, although it will usually be helpful to give us an opportunity to address the matter first.
14. Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to websites operated by other organisations. Their privacy practices are outside our control. You should read the privacy information provided by those organisations before giving them personal information.
15. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when our services, website technology or legal obligations change. The latest version will be published on our website and will show its effective and review dates. Where a change materially affects how we use existing personal information, we will take reasonable steps to bring it to the attention of affected individuals.