Privacy Policy

We respect the privacy of our clients and is committed to protecting personal, financial, tax, banking, and payment information entrusted to us.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, retain, and protect information in connection with our accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, tax preparation, tax advisory, consulting, payment-processing, and related professional services.

1. Information We Collect

Depending on the services requested, we may collect information including:

• Name, mailing address, email address, and telephone number;

• Social Security Number, Employer Identification Number, taxpayer identification numbers, and similar identifiers;

• Federal, state, and local tax information;

• Income, expense, payroll, employment, investment, and business records;

• Bank account and routing information;

• ACH payment authorization information;

• Payment-card information provided for payment of our fees;

• Billing and transaction records;

• Accounting software and bookkeeping information;

• Business ownership and organizational information;

• Identification documents when necessary;

• Information provided through our website, client portal, email, telephone, electronic forms, or other communications; and

• Technical information such as IP address, browser information, device information, cookies, and website activity where applicable.

We collect only information reasonably necessary for legitimate business, professional, legal, security, and payment-processing purposes.

2. How We Use Information

We may use personal information to:

• Provide accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, tax, consulting, and related professional services;

• Prepare and file tax returns and other required governmental filings;

• Maintain client accounting and financial records;

• Communicate with clients regarding services and accounts;

• Verify identity and payment information;

• Issue invoices and collect payments;

• Process ACH, debit-card, and credit-card transactions;

• Prevent, detect, and investigate fraud, unauthorized transactions, identity theft, and security incidents;

• Meet legal, regulatory, professional, banking, payment-network, and record-retention requirements;

• Improve our services and information-security practices; and

• Protect our clients, employees, Company, financial institutions, and payment-processing partners.

We do not sell client tax information, bank account information, or payment-card information.

3. ACH and Electronic Bank Payments

When a client elects to pay through the Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) network, we may collect information such as the client's name, bank routing number, bank account number, account type, payment amount, and authorization information.

ACH transactions may be transmitted to our bank, payment processor, ACH processor, or other authorized financial-service provider for processing.

We use ACH information only for legitimate authorized transactions and related activities, including payment processing, reconciliation, transaction verification, fraud prevention, refunds, dispute resolution, and legally required recordkeeping.

Where required, we obtain authorization before initiating an ACH debit. Clients may request information regarding applicable cancellation or revocation procedures subject to the authorization, applicable law, Nacha Operating Rules, and financial-institution requirements.

We may use account-validation, transaction-monitoring, identity-verification, and risk-based fraud-detection procedures when required or appropriate.

Bank account information is restricted to authorized personnel and authorized service providers with a legitimate business need to access such information.

Electronic banking information retained by us is protected using reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information and applicable requirements.

4. Credit and Debit Card Payments

We may permit clients to pay invoices using credit cards, debit cards, or other electronic payment methods.

Payment-card transactions may be processed through independent merchant-service providers, payment gateways, acquiring banks, or other payment processors.

We endeavor to minimize our possession of payment-card information and use payment-processing systems designed to protect payment account information in accordance with applicable payment-industry requirements.

When payment information is entered directly into a third-party processor's secure payment system, the processor may collect and process the complete payment-card information rather than our Company.

We do not intentionally retain card security codes such as CVV, CVC, CID, or similar card verification values after transaction authorization.

Where card information is stored for recurring or future transactions, we may use processor-provided tokens or other payment references rather than retaining complete payment-card credentials ourselves, where supported by our payment provider.

Payment information may be disclosed to payment processors, merchant-service providers, acquiring banks, card networks, fraud-prevention providers, and other entities reasonably necessary to authorize, process, settle, refund, dispute, or investigate a transaction.

5. Payment Security

We maintain safeguards intended to protect sensitive payment and financial information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, destruction, misuse, or loss.

Depending on our systems and services, safeguards may include:

• Access controls and user authentication;

• Multi-factor authentication;

• Encryption or other protections for sensitive information;

• Secure client portals;

• Firewalls and endpoint-security controls;

• Security monitoring;

• Employee access restrictions;

• Employee security awareness and training;

• Secure disposal of records;

• Vendor and service-provider oversight;

• Backup and recovery procedures; and

• Fraud-detection and transaction-monitoring procedures.

No electronic transmission or information-storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. However, we maintain safeguards appropriate to the nature and sensitivity of the information we handle.

6. Taxpayer and Accounting Information

Accounting and tax records may contain highly sensitive nonpublic personal information.

We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards intended to protect taxpayer and client information and restrict access to individuals who require the information to perform authorized business functions.

Tax return information will be used and disclosed only as permitted by applicable law, client authorization, professional obligations, and requirements applicable to tax practitioners.

7. Information We Share

We do not disclose nonpublic personal information to unrelated third parties except when necessary to provide services, process transactions, comply with legal requirements, protect against fraud, or when authorized by the client.

Information may be shared, as appropriate, with:

• Banks and financial institutions;

• ACH processors;

• Merchant-service providers;

• Payment gateways;

• Credit and debit card processors;

• Payroll-service providers;

• Tax and accounting software providers;

• Secure document-storage or client-portal providers;

• Information-technology and cybersecurity providers;

• Cloud-service providers;

• Professional advisers and contractors;

• Government agencies and taxing authorities when authorized or legally required; and

• Law-enforcement or regulatory authorities when disclosure is required by law.

Service providers receiving sensitive client information are expected to use the information only for appropriate business purposes and protect it consistent with applicable contractual and legal requirements.

8. We Do Not Sell Financial Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade our clients':

• Bank account numbers;

• Routing numbers;

• ACH authorization information;

• Credit or debit card information;

• Social Security Numbers;

• Taxpayer identification numbers;

• Tax returns; or

• Confidential accounting records

to third parties for their independent marketing purposes.

9. Information Retention

We retain personal, tax, accounting, ACH, and transaction information for periods reasonably necessary to:

• Provide requested services;

• Maintain accounting and tax records;

• Document payment authorizations;

• Respond to payment disputes or chargebacks;

• Satisfy legal and regulatory requirements;

• Meet professional record-retention obligations;

• Meet applicable ACH, banking, merchant-processing, and payment-network requirements; and

• Prevent or investigate fraud.

When information is no longer required, we take reasonable measures to securely delete, destroy, anonymize, or otherwise dispose of it in accordance with applicable requirements and our record-retention procedures.

10. Third-Party Payment Processors

Our website, invoices, emails, or client portal may contain links or integrations that permit payment through third-party payment processors.

Those providers may independently collect personal and payment information and may maintain their own privacy policies and security practices.

Use of a third-party payment platform may therefore also be subject to the processor's terms, privacy policy, merchant requirements, and security procedures.

11. ACH and Payment Fraud Prevention

To protect our clients and Company, we may verify payment instructions before processing certain transactions.

We may delay, reject, or request additional verification for transactions that appear unusual, inconsistent, unauthorized, fraudulent, or otherwise present an elevated risk.

Clients should independently verify requests involving changes to bank accounts, routing instructions, payment destinations, or wire instructions.

We may maintain risk-based procedures designed to identify potentially unauthorized or fraudulent electronic transactions as appropriate under applicable ACH and payment-processing requirements.

12. Cookies and Website Information

Our website may use cookies, analytics technologies, security technologies, or similar tools to operate the website, understand website activity, detect malicious activity, maintain sessions, and improve functionality.

Information collected automatically may include IP addresses, browser types, device identifiers, referring websites, pages visited, and access dates and times.

We do not use website tracking technologies to obtain complete bank-account numbers or complete payment-card credentials.

13. Email and Electronic Communications

Clients should avoid sending Social Security Numbers, complete bank-account information, payment-card information, passwords, tax documents, or other highly sensitive information through unsecured email unless specifically instructed to use an approved secure method.

Where available, clients should use our secure client portal or approved payment platform for transmitting sensitive information.

14. Information Security Incidents

If we discover a security incident involving personal or financial information, we will investigate the incident and take reasonable steps to contain and remediate it.

We will provide notices to affected individuals, governmental authorities, financial institutions, payment processors, or other parties when required by applicable law, regulation, contractual obligations, or payment-network requirements.

15. Client Responsibilities

Clients are responsible for providing accurate information and protecting their own account credentials.

Clients should notify us promptly if they believe:

• An ACH transaction was unauthorized;

• Payment information has been compromised;

• Their client-portal credentials have been compromised;

• Banking instructions were changed without authorization;

• A suspicious payment request was received; or

• Personal or tax information submitted to us may have been compromised.

16. Children's Information

Our professional accounting and tax services are not directed toward children for independent commercial use. Information concerning dependents or minors may, however, be collected when necessary to provide tax, payroll, accounting, or related services to a client.

Such information is treated as confidential client information.

17. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in our services, technology, payment-processing arrangements, legal requirements, ACH requirements, payment-card standards, or information-security practices.

The revised policy will identify its effective date and will be posted on our website or otherwise made available as appropriate.

Payment and Data Security Statement

We are committed to safeguarding client financial and personal information. Our payment-processing and information-security practices are designed to align, as applicable to our operations, with requirements governing ACH transactions, merchant-account processing, payment-card security, and the protection of taxpayer and consumer financial information.

We use trusted financial institutions and payment-service providers to process electronic payments and maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect sensitive client information.