Terms of business

1. About us

Burlingham Financial Services is the trading name of Burlingham Financial Services Limited, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 17568948. Registered office: 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. Email: info@burlingham-financial-services.uk.

2. Our services

We provide the services set out in your engagement letter, which may include bookkeeping, payroll, management information, company secretarial and finance systems services. We carry out our work with reasonable care and skill.

Our services do not include preparing statutory accounts or tax returns, giving tax, legal or investment advice, or audit. If you need these, please speak to your accountant or another suitably qualified adviser. We are happy to work alongside them.

Unless agreed in writing, we do not audit or verify the information you give us, and our work should not be relied on to detect errors, fraud or other irregularities.

3. Your responsibilities

• Give us complete and accurate information and records, on time, and tell us promptly about any changes that affect our work.
• Keep your original records. You remain responsible for keeping records for the periods the law requires.
• Review and approve figures before we submit anything on your behalf, including payroll and Companies House filings. You remain legally responsible for any return or filing made in your name.
• Authorise us as your agent with HMRC or Companies House where our services require it.
• Pay our fees on time.

4. Management information

Management accounts and other reports we prepare are for your internal use only. They must not be given to, or relied on by, banks, lenders, investors or any other third party without our written agreement. We accept no responsibility to third parties.

5. Anti-money laundering

The Money Laundering Regulations 2017 require us to verify the identity of our clients and, where relevant, their beneficial owners before we start work, and to keep those records for five years after our relationship ends. We cannot start work until these checks are complete. We are also required by law to report any knowledge or suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing to the National Crime Agency, and we may not be allowed to tell you that we have done so.

6. Fees and payment

• Our fees are set out in your quote or engagement letter. Monthly fees are invoiced monthly in advance. One-off work is invoiced as agreed in your quote.
• Invoices are payable within 14 days of the invoice date.
• Monthly fees based on transaction volumes are reviewed every six months. We will always give you at least 30 days' written notice before any fee change.
• If an invoice is not paid on time, we may charge statutory interest and compensation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, and we may pause work until the account is settled.
• Work outside the agreed scope will be quoted and agreed with you before we start.

7. Confidentiality

We keep your information confidential and only share it as needed to provide our services, with your permission, or where the law requires us to.

8. Data protection

We both agree to comply with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Our privacy notice explains how we handle personal information. Where we process personal data on your behalf, for example your employees' data for payroll, we act as your processor and agree to: process it only on your documented instructions; keep it confidential; keep it secure; only use sub-processors we have told you about, under equivalent written terms; help you respond to individuals' rights requests and meet your security obligations; tell you without undue delay about any personal data breach; delete or return it when our services end; and give you the information you need to show compliance.

9. Your records and software

Your financial records and data belong to you. Where possible, your software subscriptions should be held in your name so that you always keep access to your data. When our engagement ends, we will give you or your new adviser reasonable help to take over, once any outstanding fees are paid.

10. Communication

We will communicate with you by email and use secure file sharing for documents. Email cannot be guaranteed to be secure or free from viruses, and we will not ask you to send bank details or identity documents by ordinary email. If you receive a request that appears to come from us to change our bank details, please call us to check before making any payment.

11. Our liability

• Our total liability to you for any loss arising from our services is limited to the total fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose.
• We are not liable for loss caused by information that was incomplete, inaccurate or late, or by delays in you providing information or approvals.
• We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue or goodwill.
• Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited or excluded by law.

12. Ending our engagement

Either of us can end the engagement by giving one month's written notice. We may end it immediately if fees remain unpaid after a reminder, if you breach these terms, if we cannot complete anti-money laundering checks, or if continuing would put us in breach of the law or professional standards. Fees for work carried out up to the end date remain payable.

13. Consumers

Our services are designed for businesses. If you are a consumer, your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 are not affected, and you may cancel a contract made at a distance within 14 days without giving a reason under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. If you ask us to start work within that period, you will pay for work done up to the date you cancel.

14. General

• Complaints: please see our complaints procedure.
• Third parties: no one other than you and us has any right to enforce these terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
• Events outside our control: we are not liable for delays caused by events beyond our reasonable control, such as a software provider or HMRC system outage.
• Changes: we may update these terms and will give you at least 30 days' written notice of any change that affects you.
• Severability: if any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest remains in force.
• Law: these terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.