Privacy notice
Last updated 1 January 2026. Plain English on purpose, because a privacy notice nobody reads protects nobody.
We're Alder & Gale Accountants, based in Woking and working with clients across Surrey. We decide what happens to the information described here, which in data protection language makes us the data controller. Email hello@example.co.uk or ring 01483 000000.
The enquiry form on this site is handled by Formspree, which passes your message to our inbox. We receive your name, email address, phone number if you give one, and whatever you tell us about your business. We keep enquiries for twelve months if you don't go on to become a client, then delete them.
We hold what we need to do the work: your contact details, your accounts and bookkeeping records, payroll information about you and your staff, your tax references and your authorisation for us to act as your agent with HMRC. Some of that sits in cloud bookkeeping software, which holds it on our behalf.
The law also requires us to check who you are before we act for you. That means copies of identity documents and proof of address, held under the Money Laundering Regulations. We keep those for five years after our work for you ends, because the regulations require it, and we can't take you on without them.
Accounting and tax records are kept for six years after the end of the tax year they relate to, which is what HMRC expects.
HMRC and Companies House, where filing on your behalf requires it. Our software providers, in the ordinary way those services work. Our professional body, if it inspects our files, which it may do as part of practice assurance. And nobody else, unless the law obliges us or you ask us to.
We don't sell anything to anyone, and we don't pass your details to lenders, insurers or introducers.
You can ask to see what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, or ask us to stop using it. Some records we must keep whatever you ask, for the periods above, and we'll tell you which those are.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, tell us first and we'll do our best to put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
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