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Privacy Policy

Last updated: January 2025. ABS Consultings is committed to protecting your personal data.

This Privacy Policy explains how ABS Consultings Ltd (“ABS Consultings”, “we”, “us”, “our”) collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data that you provide to us through our website at absconsultings.co.uk, through direct contact, or through the provision of our accounting and financial services. We are committed to handling your personal data with respect, transparency, and in full compliance with the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

ABS Consultings Ltd is the data controller for all personal data collected through this website and in connection with our professional services. Our registered address is 4th Floor, 124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX.

1. What Personal Data We Collect

We collect and process personal data that you provide to us voluntarily and data that is generated through your interaction with our services. The categories of personal data we may hold include:

  • Identity data: your full name, date of birth, National Insurance number (for tax and payroll purposes), company name, and Companies House registration details.
  • Contact data: your email address, telephone number, postal address, and other communication details.
  • Financial data: bank account details, salary and income information, tax reference numbers, VAT registration numbers, and financial transaction records provided to us in the course of delivering our services.
  • Website usage data: your IP address, browser type, pages visited, time and date of visits, and other standard web analytics information collected through cookies.
  • Communications data: records of correspondence by email, telephone, or post between you and ABS Consultings.

2. How We Use Your Personal Data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes, always on a lawful basis as defined by the UK GDPR:

To provide accounting, bookkeeping, tax, payroll, and advisory services to you as our client this is necessary for the performance of our contract with you.
To comply with our own legal obligations, including anti-money laundering (AML) identity verification requirements, HMRC reporting obligations, and regulatory filings.
To respond to enquiries submitted through our website contact form or via direct communication.
To send relevant updates about changes to tax legislation, HMRC deadlines, or our services where you have consented to receive marketing communications.
To improve our website and service delivery through analysis of aggregated usage data.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under the UK GDPR, we must identify a lawful basis for each category of personal data processing. The lawful bases we rely on include: contractual necessity (for the provision of our services), legal obligation (for AML compliance and statutory reporting), legitimate interests (for improving our services and preventing fraud), and consent (for marketing communications, which you can withdraw at any time).

4. How We Share Your Personal Data

ABS Consultings will never sell your personal data to any third party. We share personal data only in the following circumstances:

With HMRC and Companies House as required to fulfil our service obligations on your behalf.
With cloud accounting software providers (including Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage) under data processing agreements that ensure your data is protected in accordance with UK GDPR standards.
With our professional indemnity insurers and legal advisors where required for the protection of our legal rights or to defend a claim.
With our IT infrastructure providers who store and process data on our behalf under appropriate data processing agreements and on ISO 27001-certified infrastructure.

5. Data Retention

We retain personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected and to comply with our legal obligations. In practice, financial and tax records are retained for a minimum of six years following the end of the relevant tax year, in accordance with HMRC’s record-keeping requirements. Client engagement records are retained for six years following the end of the client relationship. Website enquiry data is retained for two years from the date of submission.

6. Your Rights

Under the UK GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data held by ABS Consultings:

Right of access: you may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification: you may ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
Right to erasure: in certain circumstances, you may request that we delete your personal data.
Right to restrict processing: you may request that we pause processing of your data while a dispute is resolved.
Right to data portability: you may request a copy of your data in a machine-readable format.
Right to object: you may object to processing based on legitimate interests, including for direct marketing purposes.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer at privacy@absconsultings.co.uk. We will respond within 30 days.

7. Cookies

Our website uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience and to collect anonymised usage statistics that help us improve our content. Strictly necessary cookies are used without your consent; all other cookies are only placed following your express consent through our cookie consent banner. You may withdraw consent for non-essential cookies at any time by adjusting your browser settings or through the cookie preference centre on our website.

8. Security

ABS Consultings takes the security of your personal data seriously. We implement technical and organisational measures including SSL/TLS encryption for all data in transit, secure access controls, multi-factor authentication on all staff accounts, and regular security audits. All data is stored on ISO 27001-certified servers located within the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or in applicable law. When we do, we will update the “last updated” date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or about how ABS Consultings handles your personal data, please contact us at privacy@absconsultings.co.uk or by post to: Data Protection Officer, ABS Consultings Ltd, 4th Floor, 124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. If you are dissatisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.