This Privacy Policy explains how personal information is handled by the independent bookkeeping practice operated under the developer name Abacus Homedale and the company name Abacus Homedale LLC, whose counting hall sits at 4543 S Holladay Blvd, Holladay - 84117-4425, United States (US). It applies to this website, to enquiries sent through the contact form, to telephone and postal contact, and to the account work carried out for households and small firms.
The practice is deliberately small, and the policy is written to match that scale. In everyday terms, information is collected only when it is needed to answer a question, prepare a document, keep a ledger or meet a record keeping duty. It is not sold, it is not rented, and it is not used to build advertising profiles.
Please read this policy together with the Terms of Service, which describe the professional relationship between the practice and the client. Where a separate written engagement letter sets stricter limits on the handling of information, that letter prevails for the work it covers.
Abacus Homedale LLC is the party responsible for the personal information described in this policy, often called the data controller. The company is registered in the United States and works from the Holladay office listed above.
A single point of contact handles privacy questions, access requests, corrections and complaints. That contact can be reached by email at service@abacushomedale.mom or by telephone on +17315194807 during the business hours published on the contact page. Written correspondence may be addressed to Abacus Homedale LLC, 4543 S Holladay Blvd, Holladay - 84117-4425, United States (US).
Where the practice acts for a client who is a business, the client normally remains responsible for the personal information of its own customers and workers. In those arrangements the practice acts on written instructions and does not decide the wider purposes of the processing. This distinction matters because requests about such records should usually be sent to the business that holds the relationship, and the practice will help that business respond where it can.
No data protection officer is appointed, because the scale and nature of the work do not require one under the laws that apply. The named contact above performs the equivalent function for all practical purposes.
The information collected falls into five broad groups. Not every group applies to every person, and a person who simply reads the website will usually fall into the first group alone.
Names, postal addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers are collected when a person writes, calls or signs an engagement letter. For firms, this may also include the name of a contact person, a job title and a business address.
Ledger work requires bank statements, invoices, receipts, wage records, benefit letters, tenancy documents and similar papers. These documents frequently contain account numbers, transaction histories, employer names and information about dependants. They are handled with the care described later in this policy.
Letters, email messages, notes of telephone calls and written instructions are kept so that the record of an engagement is complete and so that any decision can be explained later.
The website does not run analytics scripts, advertising trackers or third party embeds. The web server that delivers the pages may nevertheless record routine technical information such as the time of a request, the page requested, a browser type and a network address. This is standard for almost every web host and is used to keep the site available and secure.
When a client sends records that mention a spouse, a dependant, a lodger, an employee or a co-signatory, the client is asking the practice to handle information about those other people. The client should tell those people that their information is being shared for bookkeeping purposes and should send only what the work genuinely requires.
Most information arrives directly from the person it concerns, or from the client who has engaged the practice. Statements and receipts come from banks and suppliers; wage information comes from employers and payroll platforms; tenancy figures come from landlords and agents. Where a client authorises it, information may also arrive from an accountant, a solicitor, a financial adviser or a family member acting with written authority.
The practice does not buy contact lists, does not acquire information from data brokers and does not gather information by scraping other websites. If a document appears to have been obtained without the knowledge of the person it concerns, the practice will ask how it was obtained before using it and may decline to act on it.
Public registers are consulted only where a specific piece of work requires it, for example to confirm a business registration or an address that is already part of a client file. Such lookups are recorded in the file so that the reason is clear.
Information is used for a narrow set of purposes connected to the services described on this website. Each purpose is listed below with a plain explanation of what it involves.
Information is not used for marketing lists, is not sold to advertisers and is not used to train external artificial intelligence models. If the practice ever wishes to use information for a new purpose, the people concerned will be told first and asked for consent where consent is the appropriate basis.
Different laws use different names for the reasons that make handling information lawful. This policy describes them in ordinary language so that a reader does not need a legal dictionary to follow the position.
Most handling is necessary to deliver the bookkeeping services a client has engaged. Without names, statements and receipts, a ledger cannot be kept. This ground covers the preparation of engagement letters, the posting of entries, the preparation of invoices and the delivery of year end summaries.
Some records must be kept for a set period because tax, company or record keeping rules require it. Where those rules apply, information is retained even after an engagement ends, but only for as long as the rule demands and only in the form the rule requires.
The practice has a legitimate interest in answering enquiries, keeping its own records accurate, protecting its systems and defending itself against claims. Where this ground is used, the interest is weighed against the privacy of the person concerned, and the handling is kept to what that balance allows.
Consent is used where the law requires it, for example before sending occasional practice updates to a person who has asked to receive them. Consent can be withdrawn at any time by a short message to the contact address above, and withdrawal does not affect work already carried out.
Financial records deserve a separate explanation because they are the most common category of information handled here and the one most likely to cause worry. A bank statement can reveal where a person shops, what medical appointments were paid for and which relatives received money. A wage record can reveal hours, sickness and family arrangements.
The practice therefore works on a need to know basis. A statement is opened only when the work requires it, only the lines needed for the ledger are transcribed, and the rest is left unread where that is practical. Screens are not left open in shared rooms, and paper is kept in closed folders rather than on open tables when the hall is not in use.
Sensitive details such as health information, religious affiliation or trade union membership are not requested. If they appear incidentally in a document that is otherwise needed, they are ignored and are not recorded in the ledger, in correspondence or in any summary.
Payment card numbers and online banking passwords are never requested, never recorded and never stored. A client who sends such details by email will be asked to stop and to change any password that may have been exposed. Bank details used for paying invoices are limited to the account number and sort or routing information that a normal invoice requires.
A small practice still relies on a few outside services: a web host for this website, an email provider, a secure storage service for scanned documents, and occasionally a courier or postal service. These providers are chosen for reliability and for a reasonable standard of security, and they act on written instructions rather than at their own discretion.
Where a provider handles personal information on behalf of the practice, the arrangement is limited to the purpose of the service. Providers are not permitted to use the information for their own marketing, to sell it onward or to combine it with other data sets. Where a provider offers a data processing agreement, that agreement is accepted and kept with the practice records.
The practice does not use cloud accounting platforms that publish client data by default. Where a platform is used at the request of a client, the client holds the primary account and the practice works inside it under permissions that the client can revoke at any time.
Any person who works in the hall, whether as an employee or as temporary help, signs a confidentiality undertaking before seeing client records. That undertaking continues after the work ends.
Records are kept only as long as they are needed. The practice applies the following general periods, which may be shortened where the work allows or extended where a law or an open dispute requires it.
When a retention period ends, paper is shredded and digital files are deleted from working systems. Encrypted backups may persist for a further short cycle before being overwritten in the ordinary course of backup rotation. Records subject to a legal hold are kept until the hold is lifted, and the reason for the hold is noted in the file.
Security here is mostly a matter of ordinary discipline rather than expensive technology. The hall is locked when unattended, paper files sit in closed cabinets, and the computer used for ledger work requires a password and a second verification step at sign in.
Digital files are held in a storage service that encrypts data in transit and at rest. Access is limited to the person doing the work, and permissions are reviewed whenever a device is replaced. Backups are kept so that a lost file can be restored, and restoration is tested from time to time rather than assumed.
Devices are kept updated, disk encryption is enabled where the operating system supports it, and email attachments containing financial records are protected by a password sent through a different channel where that is practical. Printed documents are not left in vehicles overnight and are carried in a closed folder when they must leave the hall.
No system is perfectly secure, and this policy does not pretend otherwise. What the practice can promise is that reasonable and proportionate steps are taken, that access is kept narrow, and that any incident is handled quickly and honestly, as described in the next section.
Depending on where a person lives, the law may grant a set of rights over personal information. The practice extends the following rights to everyone it deals with, regardless of location, because they reflect fair treatment rather than a local technicality.
A person may ask what information is held about them, why it is held, where it came from and who has received it. A written request to service@abacushomedale.mom is enough. A reply is normally provided within one month and may take a little longer for a complex file, in which case the reason will be explained.
Inaccurate information should be corrected. A short message naming the error and the correct figure is sufficient, and the change is recorded with the date and the source of the correction so that the file remains trustworthy.
A person may ask for information to be deleted. The request will be honoured where no legal duty or open dispute requires retention. Where a record must be kept, the reason will be explained and the information will be reduced to what the duty requires.
A person may object to a particular use of their information or ask for handling to be restricted while a question is resolved. The practice will pause the disputed use unless there is a compelling reason to continue, and will explain any such reason in writing.
Where information was provided by the person concerned and is held in a structured form, a copy can be supplied in a common electronic format such as a spreadsheet or a plain text export.
Where consent is the basis for a particular use, it may be withdrawn at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of earlier handling, nor does it end a contract that relies on a different basis.
Requests are handled without charge in ordinary circumstances. Proof of identity may be requested where the file contains sensitive financial detail, so that information is not released to the wrong person. No fee is charged for a first request, and any later repetitive request that places a genuine burden on the practice may be discussed before action is taken.
This website is written for adults who manage household or business accounts. It is not directed at children, and the practice does not knowingly collect information directly from a child.
Books for a household may of course mention children, for example in a school fee record or a childcare payment. Such information is handled as part of the adult account and is not used for any separate purpose. A parent or guardian may ask for it to be corrected or removed, subject to the retention duties described earlier.
If the practice becomes aware that information has been sent directly by a young person without the involvement of a parent or guardian, that information will be deleted unless a legal duty requires otherwise. A parent or guardian with a concern can use the contact details at the top of this page.
The practice works from Holladay in the United States, and the primary records are held there. Some service providers, particularly email and cloud storage providers, may store data in other countries. Where that happens, the practice takes reasonable steps to ensure that the provider offers protections consistent with this policy and with applicable law.
A client who requires records to remain within a particular country should say so before the engagement begins. It may be possible to arrange local storage for paper files while keeping digital copies in the main system, or to avoid a provider that stores data abroad. If the requirement cannot be met, the practice will say so honestly rather than accept work it cannot protect as requested.
Transfers within the practice itself are limited to the Holladay office and to the single person who carries out the bookkeeping work. No client file is sent to an overseas subcontractor.
The practice does not make automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects. Ledger entries are posted by a person, balances are checked by a person, and summaries are written and reviewed by a person.
Software is used for arithmetic, for reconciliations and for organising documents, but its output is always read before it is filed. A bank feed that suggests a category is treated as a suggestion and not as a decision. Where a reconciliation tool indicates a mismatch, the mismatch is investigated rather than quietly accepted.
No profile of a person is built for advertising, scoring or behavioural prediction, and no information is shared with a party that would do so.
This policy will be reviewed at least once a year and whenever the way information is handled changes in a material way. The date at the top of the page records the most recent review.
Where a change affects existing clients in a significant way, they will be told directly by email or by a note with their next summary, and the change will not apply retrospectively to work already completed. Minor clarifications that do not alter the substance of the policy may be made without individual notice, but the review date will still be updated.
Earlier versions of the policy are kept with the practice records for seven years so that a client can ask what the position was at a particular time. A copy of any earlier version can be requested using the contact details above.
A question about this policy, an access request, a correction or a complaint should be sent to Abacus Homedale LLC by email at service@abacushomedale.mom, by telephone on +17315194807, or by post to 4543 S Holladay Blvd, Holladay - 84117-4425, United States (US).
Every complaint is acknowledged within five working days and answered within one month wherever possible. If an investigation takes longer, the person who raised the complaint will be told why and given a date by which a full reply will be sent.
The practice would always prefer the chance to put something right before a complaint goes further. Where a person remains dissatisfied after the internal process, they are free to raise the matter with the data protection authority or consumer body that applies in their own country, and the practice will cooperate fully with any such process.
Clients may also ask, at any time, for a written statement of the information held about them and for a list of the parties to whom it has been disclosed. That statement is provided free of charge for the first request in any twelve month period.