Privacy policy

Accounts Bridge Pty Ltd (ABN 20 265 601 428) ("we", "us") is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, who we share it with and how you can access or correct it.

1. What we collect

• Names, contact details, dates of birth and identity documents
• Business details: names, ABNs, ACNs, structures, officers and owners
• Financial, tax and accounting records, including tax file numbers (TFNs)
• Employment and payroll information where it is part of our work for you
• What you send us through our website, booking pages, email, phone, text or our document links
• Recordings or notes of calls and meetings, where we tell you at the time

2. Why we collect it

• To provide accounting, tax, advisory and compliance services
• To meet our legal duties, including to the ATO, ASIC, the Tax Practitioners Board and AUSTRAC
• To verify identity and carry out customer due diligence where the AML/CTF Act requires it
• To manage our relationship with you, including bookings, billing and reminders
• To send you updates and insights, only if you have agreed to receive them

3. Tax file numbers

We collect, use and store TFNs only for purposes allowed by tax law, and we follow the Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule. TFNs are stored securely, shown only to staff who need them, and never included in emails, notes or file names. Please do not send your TFN through our website forms or chat.

4. Who we share it with

• Government bodies such as the ATO, ASIC, the TPB and AUSTRAC, when required by law or needed to provide our services
• Advisers you have engaged or asked us to work with, such as lawyers, financial advisers, auditors and brokers
• Our team in Melbourne, and our sister company and its team in Islamabad, Pakistan (see section 5)
• Service providers we use to run the practice: accounting software (such as Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB and Reckon), cloud hosting, email and text message providers, video calls, e-signing, payment processors, identity verification services and AI services (see sections 5 and 6)

We do not sell, rent or trade personal information.

5. Overseas disclosure

Our team. Our team works in Melbourne and in Islamabad, Pakistan. Our Islamabad team is employed by Accounts Bridge's sister company in Islamabad, Pakistan, of which our managing partner Shahid Mahmood is a director. They access client information to prepare and check work and for administration, under the supervision of our Australian registered tax agents and the same confidentiality, privacy and security rules as our Melbourne staff.

Our service providers. Our practice system and its data are hosted in Sydney, Australia (Supabase and Vercel), our AI assistants run on Amazon Web Services (Amazon Bedrock) in Sydney, and our video calls run on Daily.co in Sydney. Microsoft 365 holds our email and files, and Stripe processes payments and identity checks; they may store or process information outside Australia, including in the United States. Some internal AI assistance (the assistant that answers our staff's questions) uses Anthropic's Claude service, which may process information in the United States. Some other providers, such as our bulk email provider, also store or process data in the United States.

So the countries are Australia, Pakistan and the United States, and the reasons are to do the work you engage us for and to run our practice.

Your consent. We ask clients to agree to an "Overseas access and AI tools" clause, in the same words as these sections, on our client details form and in our engagement letter. By agreeing, you consent to your information being disclosed to and accessed by our sister company and its team in Islamabad, Pakistan and the providers above, including in Pakistan and the United States, for the work we do for you and to run our practice. This is your permission for these disclosures under the Tax Practitioners Board's Code of Professional Conduct, which requires us to keep your information confidential. Because you consent, Australian Privacy Principle 8.1 will not apply to these disclosures: we will not be accountable under the Privacy Act 1988 for how an overseas recipient handles your information, and you may not be able to seek redress under that Act or in Australia if it is mishandled. You can withdraw this consent by telling us, but we may then be unable to keep acting for you.

6. Our use of AI and automated tools

Our staff use AI tools to help draft documents and messages, sort documents, suggest bank transaction coding and check work. Our AI assistants run on Amazon Web Services (Amazon Bedrock) in Sydney. Some internal AI assistance (the assistant that answers our staff's questions) uses Anthropic's Claude service, which may process information in the United States (see section 5).

Our staff review AI drafts before they are sent to you, and AI does not make decisions about your tax position without review by our staff. We remain responsible for the work.

Computer programs make, or help us make, these kinds of decisions using your contact details, the services you use and your payment history:

• which staff member a new enquiry or booking goes to
• when reminders about documents, lodgements and payments are sent
• suggested coding of bank transactions and checks on prepared work, which staff review

If you have questions about how a decision was made, contact us.

7. Our website

Our website does not use advertising cookies. If we measure website visits, we use privacy-friendly analytics that do not identify you. Information you type into our enquiry form, booking pages or structure and risk checks is sent to our practice system so we can respond to you.

8. Marketing

We only send marketing emails or texts if you have agreed. Every message has an unsubscribe link or a STOP option, and we act on it within 5 business days. Service messages about work we are doing for you are not marketing.

9. Security

We protect personal information with access controls, encryption in transit, secure document links instead of email attachments, staff training and audit logs. If a data breach is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

10. How long we keep it

We keep records for as long as we need them to provide our services and as required by law: generally at least 5 years for tax records and 7 years for records covered by the AML/CTF Act, and longer where the law or our professional obligations require it. We then destroy or de-identify them securely.

11. Access, correction and complaints

You can ask to see or correct the personal information we hold about you by contacting us. If you think we have breached your privacy, please tell us first; we will respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

12. Contact

Privacy Officer, Accounts Bridge Pty Ltd, Unit 2, 36-38 Glenbarry Road, Campbellfield VIC 3061 · 03 8592 1924 · info@accountsbridge.com.au