Privacy Policy

High Crest Consultancy Limited ("High Crest", "we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and the rights you have over it.

1. Who we are

High Crest Consultancy Limited provides fractional Financial Controller services — including bookkeeping, payroll, month-end reporting and business consultancy — to businesses across the UK. We are a UK-registered company, remote-first, and MAAT & AATQB qualified.

2. What information we collect

We collect personal data in the following ways:

a) Information you give us directly

• When you complete our website contact form: your name, business/company name, email address, phone number, and any details you include in your message.
• When you email or call us directly.
• When you become a client: information necessary to provide our services, such as company details, financial data, and relevant business records shared with us in the course of engagement.

b) Information collected automatically

Our website is hosted on Netlify and uses Netlify Forms to process contact form submissions. This may involve standard technical information such as IP address and browser type, collected for security and spam-prevention purposes (including a hidden honeypot field used to filter automated submissions).

3. How we use your information

We use the personal data we collect to:

• Respond to enquiries submitted through our contact form, email, or phone
• Provide, manage and administer our consultancy services to clients
• Communicate with you about our services
• Meet our legal, accounting and regulatory obligations
• Improve our website and services

4. Our legal basis for processing

We rely on the following legal bases under UK GDPR to process your personal data:

• Consent — where you have given clear consent, such as submitting our contact form
• Contract — where processing is necessary to perform a contract with you (e.g. providing our fractional FC services to a client)
• Legitimate interests — for example, responding to business enquiries or maintaining the security of our website, where this does not override your rights
• Legal obligation — where we are required to process data to comply with the law

5. Who we share your data with

We do not sell or rent your personal data. We may share information with trusted third parties strictly where necessary, including:

• Netlify — our website hosting and form-processing provider
• Subcontracted accountants — where a client engagement requires specialist year-end accounts work, a trusted, named subcontractor may process relevant financial data, with High Crest remaining your single point of contact
• Professional advisers, regulators or authorities — where required by law

We do not transfer personal data outside the UK/EEA except where a service provider (such as Netlify) processes data on infrastructure with appropriate safeguards in place.

6. How long we keep your data

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes it was collected:

• Contact form / general enquiries: retained for a reasonable period to respond and follow up, then deleted if no engagement follows
• Client data: retained for the duration of the engagement and afterwards in line with our legal and accounting record-keeping obligations (typically up to 6 years, in line with HMRC requirements)

7. Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate data
• Request deletion of your data, in certain circumstances
• Object to or restrict our processing of your data
• Request that your data be provided in a portable format
• Withdraw consent at any time, where processing is based on consent

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at lewis.michael@highcrestconsultancy.co.uk.

8. Cookies

Our website uses minimal technical functionality provided by our hosting platform (Netlify) to process form submissions securely. We do not currently use tracking or advertising cookies. If this changes, this policy will be updated accordingly.

9. Complaints

If you have concerns about how we handle your personal data, please contact us first at lewis.michael@highcrestconsultancy.co.uk so we can try to resolve the issue.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's supervisory authority for data protection:

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for legal reasons. The "last updated" date at the top of this page will always reflect the latest revision.

11. Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data: