Privacy & Website Terms

Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Accutare Consulting (ABN 39 415 724 265) is a business valuation and fractional CFO practice based in Bendigo, Victoria, operated by Nick Johnson. In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" mean Accutare Consulting.

We handle personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) as a matter of practice, and in line with the professional confidentiality obligations that apply to the work we do.

2. What we collect

We only collect information we actually need to answer your enquiry or carry out an engagement. Depending on how you deal with us, that may include:

• Enquiry details — your name, email address, phone number, business name, an approximate revenue band and a description of what you need, when you complete any of the forms on this website — an enquiry, or a request for one of our free guides — or contact us directly.
• Engagement information — financial statements, tax returns, management accounts, forecasts, contracts, asset registers and similar business records you provide so we can perform a valuation or CFO engagement.
• Correspondence — emails, call notes and meeting notes relating to your enquiry or engagement.
• Technical information — our hosting provider records standard server logs, including IP addresses and browser type, for security and reliability purposes.

Business records you give us will often contain personal information about other people — for example directors, shareholders, employees or family members. We treat that information under this policy too, and we rely on you having the authority to give it to us.

We do not collect sensitive information as defined in the Privacy Act, and we do not ask for it. Please do not send us information we have not asked for.

3. How we collect it

We collect information directly from you — through our enquiry form, by email, by phone or in meetings. Where a valuation requires it, we may also use publicly available sources such as ASIC registers, property records, industry benchmarks and published transaction data.

4. Why we use it

• To respond to your enquiry and scope the work.
• To prepare valuations, reports, estimates and CFO deliverables, and to support the conclusions in them.
• To issue engagement letters, invoices and receipts, and to manage payment.
• To meet our professional, tax and record-keeping obligations.
• To keep in touch with you about work we are doing or have done for you.

We do not sell your information, and we do not use it for advertising or marketing lists.

5. Who we disclose it to

We disclose personal information only where it is necessary, and only to:

• Service providers who help us run the practice — currently Google (Google Workspace for email) and Netlify (website hosting, which also receives and stores submissions from our enquiry form). These providers store information on our behalf and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.
• Your other advisers — your accountant, solicitor or broker — where you ask us to, or where the engagement plainly requires it.
• Courts, regulators or professional bodies where we are required or authorised by law to do so, including under a subpoena or a notice from the Australian Taxation Office.

6. Overseas disclosure

Our email, form and hosting providers store data on servers that may be located outside Australia, including in the United States. By providing information to us you acknowledge that it may be stored overseas by these providers, and that overseas recipients may not be subject to the Privacy Act.

7. Security and how long we keep it

We take reasonable steps to protect information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, including access-controlled accounts, multi-factor authentication and encrypted connections. No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

We generally retain engagement records for at least seven years after an engagement ends, consistent with professional standards, tax record-keeping requirements and the limitation periods that apply to claims. We destroy or de-identify information when we no longer need it and are no longer required to keep it.

8. Cookies and website analytics

Fonts and images are served from this site itself, so the appearance of the pages does not depend on any third party.

We advertise on Google, and to tell which advertisements produce enquiries we use Google’s conversion measurement tag (gtag.js) on every page. It loads a small script from Google, and it sets a cookie on this website that records the advertising click identifier from the web address you arrived on, so that a later enquiry can be matched back to the advertisement that brought you here. Your name, email address and the contents of your message are never sent to Google. The measurement cookie lasts up to 90 days. Google may also use this information for its own purposes as described in its privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy and its advertising notice at policies.google.com/technologies/ads.

Our forms submit directly to our hosting provider, Netlify, which stores the submission and emails it to us. They set no cookies. The form also records the advertising click identifier and the page you were on, for the same measurement purpose.

You can block or delete these cookies in your browser settings, and you can turn off personalised advertising in your Google account at myadcenter.google.com. Doing either will not affect your ability to use this site or to contact us.

If you request one of our free guides we will send it to you and may follow up once about it; we will not add you to a mailing list.

9. Accessing and correcting your information

You can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it if it is wrong or out of date. Email nick.johnson@accutareconsulting.com and we will respond within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity first. There is no charge for making a request, though we may charge a reasonable amount for the cost of supplying a large volume of material.

In limited cases we may refuse access — for example where giving it would unreasonably affect someone else's privacy. If we do, we will tell you why in writing.

10. Complaints

If you think we have mishandled your information, please tell us first at nick.johnson@accutareconsulting.com. We will acknowledge your complaint promptly and aim to resolve it within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can raise the matter with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner — oaic.gov.au or 1300 363 992. The OAIC handles privacy complaints, and can also consider complaints about the handling of tax file numbers.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always the one published on this page, and the date at the top shows when it last changed.