Privacy & Cookies Policy

Introduction

This is the privacy policy of Johnston Smillie Ltd, Chartered Accountants, a company registered in Scotland, number SC277435. Our registered office address is 5 South Gyle Crescent Lane, Edinburgh EH12 9EG.

This privacy policy sets out how we obtain, store and use your personal information when you use or interact with our website, www.jsca.co.uk, or where we otherwise obtain or collect your personal information. The effective date of this Privacy Policy is 11 February 2024.

Johnston Smillie Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office as a Data Controller under registration number Z9981833

We are committed to protecting your personal data in accordance with legislation.

Our details

Our data controller is Ross McKay.

You can contact Ross McKay by writing to Johnston Smillie Ltd, 5 South Gyle Crescent Lane, Edinburgh EH12 9EG. or sending an email to ross.mckay@jsca.co.uk or telephoning 0131 317 7377.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact the data controller.

What data do we collect?

For clients and prospective clients we collect a variety of personal information:-

  • Full name
  • Date of birth
  • Contact details including personal and business email addresses, postal addresses, telephone numbers and mobile telephone numbers
  • Financial information, including details of your income and employment status, business interests and shareholdings, bank accounts, other investments, previous tax returns and any other personal information that you chose to share with us
  • Identity information
  • For business clients and prospective business clients we also collect details of the business or charity, including the business or charity type and sector and details of the directors of companies and trustees of charities, including names and dates of birth

For prospective employees and employees we collect:-

  • CV’s and covering letters/emails from prospective employees either sent to us directly or via recruitment agencies
  • Identity information

For suppliers we collect:-

  • Contact details including email addresses, postal addresses, telephone numbers and mobile telephone numbers

For visitors to our website we collect:-

  • Standard visitor information via a third-party application called Google Analytics.

This allows us to gauge visitor numbers and observe visitor behaviour patterns. It does not, however, allow us to identify individual visitors. The information we collect via Google Analytics is completely anonymous and is used only to improve our website’s performance and your user experience.

If we do wish to collect any personally identifiable information, we will do so in a transparent manner.

For users of the Johnston Smillie MTD VAT Filer we collect:-

  • Your Name (including business name if applicable)
  • Your VAT Registration Number
  • Your email Address

We will use this information to set up the Johnston Smillie MTD for VAT Filer for you.

Additionally, you may also choose to provide us with your HMRC User ID, or you can set this up in the Filer yourself

How do we collect your data?

We collect personal information about you via:

  • Written correspondence including letters, forms, business cards and invoices
  • Email
  • Meetings and discussions either in person or via the internet
  • Telephone
  • Faxes
  • Cloud based applications that we use (for example Xero Accounting software, QuickBooks online and myePayWIndow)
  • Social Media channels
  • Our website https://www.jsca.co.uk/ and any connected websites
  • Subscription to our Email newsletters
  • Secure portal https://jsca.accountantspace.co.uk/
  • Companies House
  • Visitors book if you visit our office and record your details in this

We may also indirectly receive your data indirectly from the following sources:

  • Referrals from other businesses, such as solicitors or independent financial advisors
  • Recruitment agencies

How will we use your data?

Legislation states that we are only allowed to use personal information where we have a proper legitimate reason to do so. This includes sharing data with third parties.

Clients and potential clients

We collect data so we can:-

  • Provide clients with professional services and fulfil our contractual obligations as set out in our Letter of Engagement with you
  • Assess the professional services requested by potential clients and provide fee quotes
  • Communicate with you, where you consent for us to do this, to advise you about events or products or services from us
  • Run our business in a proper and efficient manner and provide clients with the services they require
  • Meet our legal obligations
  • Verify your identity

Where a prospective client does not appoint us to act, their personal data is immediately securely destroyed.

In the absence of specific legal, regulatory or contractual requirements our standard retention policy for clients’ personal data obtained or created during the provision of services is seven years.

Who do we share your data with?

We use specialist organisations to ensure that we can give our clients the best service possible. These third-party organisations include BACS and Pension providers for payroll clients and our Tax investigation service provider.

All third parties must process personal data under a written contract which states that they must comply with data protection legislation. We will only ever work with third party organisations who comply with data protection legislation.

Prospective employees and employees:-

We collect data so that we can:-

  • Recruit staff
  • Look after the welfare of our staff
  • Meet our statutory obligations

Where an applicant becomes an employee their personal data is processed and retained in accordance with our internal Privacy policy

Personal data from unsuccessful applicants is retained for two years after which it is securely destroyed.

Suppliers

We collect data so that we can:-

  • Procure services from suppliers

Personal data for suppliers will be retained for seven years after the contract ends. It will then be securely destroyed, unless a different retention period is stated in the contract.

How do we store your data?

All personal data supplied is held securely on our in house systems at our office at 5 South Gyle Crescent Lane, Edinburgh EH12 9EG or on our cloud based hosted systems or in paper form in locked filing cabinets.

We will not knowingly transfer your personal information outside of the UK or the European Economic Area without your consent.

We take the protection of your personal information seriously and have several layers of security measures in place including SSL, encryption, firewalls and end-point protection.

We ensure that all staff are aware of their responsibilities to store and transfer personal information securely. We utilise IT documentation tools to ensure your personal information is kept in a secure place that only authorised personnel can access.

Enquiries (Contact Form Completion via Website)

When you complete our enquiry form, you will be asked for three pieces of mandatory information: Your Name; Your Email Address; and Your Message. Additionally, you may choose to include Your Telephone Number.

We use this information to quickly deal with your requests and enquiries, and to put you in touch with the best person to help answer your questions and advise on your circumstances.

We do not sell any of the information collected through our website, or use your personal information for any other purposes than those outlined above.

Links

From time to time we may link to third party websites via our blogs and newsletters. Our Privacy Policy does not cover third party links. If you have any questions regarding how these websites use your information, you should check that website’s privacy and cookies policy.

Security Certificates

When you share your personal information with us, we take the necessary steps to ensure it is delivered and held securely. Any sensitive information is encrypted and protected when sent, and our security certificates are routinely monitored and renewed prior to expiration to maintain validity

Newsletter Sign up

As part of the subscription process for our newsletter, you will be asked for your name and email address.

We will only use your email address to keep you up-to-date with news, offers and events. We do not share email lists with other businesses or organisations, nor will we sell your data to a third party.

We use Campaign Monitor to deliver our newsletters. This allows us to gather information regarding email opens and clicks, which in turn helps us measure and improve our email newsletter. Your information is held securely on Campaign Monitor’s servers. If you’d like more information about Campaign Monitor’s own privacy policy, click here.

If you wish to unsubscribe from our newsletter, you can do so at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.

Cookies Policy

What Are Cookies?

Cookies are text files containing small amounts of data which are sent to your browser when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the website on each subsequent visit, or to a different website that recognises the cookie.

We use cookies to better understand how frequently certain pages are visited, and to make our website more user-friendly.

Below you’ll find a list of the different types of cookies we use on our website.

Cookies Used on Our Website

By using our website, you agree that we can place the following cookies on your device.

Performance Cookies

These cookies collect anonymous information about how visitors use the website – for example, which pages are visited most often, and the types of actions visitors take when they reach particular pages.

These cookies do not collect personally identifiable information. We use these cookies only to understand visitor behaviour, and to improve our website’s performance.

Functionality Cookies

These cookies allow the website to remember any choices you may have made previously when using the site, in order to provide an enhanced and personal user experience.

These cookies cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.

Third Party Cookies

These cookies allow third parties to track how you use their applications.

For example, you may wish to share one of our blog posts via Facebook or Twitter. In doing so, you may be sent cookies from those websites. We do not control these cookies, so please check with the respective websites should you have any questions regarding how they work and how to manage them.

How Long Are Cookies Stored For?

Session cookies allow webmasters to link the actions of a user during a specific browser session. A browser session begins when a user opens the browser window, and it ends when they close the browser window. Session cookies are temporary, and once the browser session ends, all session cookies are deleted.

On the other hand, persistent cookies remain on a user’s device for a period of time specified by the cookie. These cookies are activated every time a user visits the website that generated the cookie in question.

If you’d like to learn more about how cookies work, how to reject them, and how to delete them, we recommend reading:

www.allaboutcookies.org
www.youronlinechoices.eu

Your Personal Information

In accordance with GDPR, you have the right to access, review, and erase any of your personal information currently held by us. You can contact our data controller, Ross McKay, by writing to Johnston Smillie Ltd, 5 South Gyle Crescent Lane, Edinburgh EH12 9EG. or sending an email to ross.mckay@jsca.co.uk .

Your rights

You have a right to object to us processing your personal information at any time where we rely on our legitimate interest for doing so. Such a request must be sent to the Data Protection Officer at the address above.

You also have a right to object to our processing your data for the purposes of marketing. You can choose how you wish us to communicate with you.

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information about you that we hold. Please note that there are circumstances in which we may not be required to provide you with the information contained in this Privacy Policy, for example if you already have the information.

We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date and you may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.

You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:

  • Our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations.
  • You consider that we no longer require the information for the purposes for which it was obtained.
  • We are using that information with your consent and you have withdrawn your consent.
  • You have validly objected to our use of your personal information.

You have the right to ask us to restrict our processing of your information if:

  • You have told us it is not accurate.
  • The processing is unlawful.
  • We no longer need the information for the purposes for which it was collected.

Withdrawing consent using your information

Where we use your personal information with your consent you may withdraw that consent at any time and we will stop using your personal information for the purpose for which consent was given.

Please contact us in any of the ways set out in the Contact information and further advice section if you wish to exercise any of these rights.

Changes to our privacy statement

We keep this privacy statement under regular review and will place any updates on our website www.jsca.co.uk.

This privacy policy was last updated on 11 March 2020.

Contact information and further advice

Please contact Johnston Smillie Ltd, 5 South Gyle Crescent Lane, Edinburgh EH12 9EG. or email: ross.mckay@jsca.co.uk .

Complaints

We seek to resolve directly all complaints about how we handle personal information but you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office, whose contact details are as follows:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns

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