Bookkeeping service terms
1. Who provides the service
The service provider is CLOUDLEDGER COLLECTIVE LIMITED, trading as Cloud Ledger Collective, contactable at info@cloudledgercollective.co.uk. Company number 16942202, registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 61 Bridge Street, Kington, United Kingdom, HR5 3DJ. Companies House record.
These terms are intended primarily for business clients purchasing rescue or regular bookkeeping. They apply only when supplied to the client and incorporated into an accepted engagement. Visiting this website, sending an enquiry or booking a Calendly call does not create a paid bookkeeping contract.
2. Your engagement and scope
Before work begins, we will provide a written quote and engagement letter setting out the services, records and periods covered, deliverables, responsibilities, timetable, fees, payment arrangements and how the engagement can end. Work starts after acceptance and completion of any required checks, authorisations and agreed initial payment.
The engagement letter takes priority over these general terms where they conflict, except that mandatory legal rights cannot be overridden. Changes must be agreed in writing. We will not treat silence as acceptance of additional paid work.
Rescue work may include reviewing a backlog, identifying missing information, correcting agreed records and reconciling accounts. Ongoing work may include agreed transaction processing and regular reconciliations. Payroll, tax advice, returns, statutory accounts, company filings, tax investigations and audit or assurance work are excluded unless specifically included in the engagement.
3. Individual quotes and fees
All bookkeeping services are individually quoted. Pricing depends on the volume and condition of records, the periods involved and the support required. The quote will state whether fees are fixed, hourly or recurring and whether VAT applies, with the amount payable made clear.
If incomplete records, extra periods, additional transactions or another change would affect the price or timetable, we will explain the impact and seek written agreement before undertaking the additional work. No automatic additional fee is authorised by these terms.
Invoice due dates, payment methods, software charges and any deposit will be set out in the engagement letter. For recurring work, it will explain the billing cycle and any notice required. Any proposed fee change will be notified in advance and agreed before it takes effect. There is no automatic annual increase under these terms.
4. Our responsibilities
We will carry out the agreed work with reasonable care and skill, communicate material issues identified within that work and use appropriately competent people. We will tell you promptly if we expect a material delay.
Bookkeeping is not an audit and does not provide independent assurance that all errors, fraud or irregularities will be detected. We do not guarantee a tax saving, funding outcome, business result or acceptance of records by a third party. These statements do not reduce our duty to carry out the agreed service properly.
5. Your responsibilities
- Provide complete, accurate and timely information, including relevant opening balances, bank records and explanations of transactions.
- Tell us about relevant deadlines, changes to your business, missing documents and correspondence from authorities.
- Arrange lawful access and authorisation for the systems and records needed, using delegated access where available rather than sharing personal bank credentials.
- Review requested reports, reconciliations and returns, raise questions promptly and give required approvals by the agreed date.
- Keep the records your business is legally required to retain and maintain appropriate access to its software.
You remain responsible for business decisions and the truth and completeness of the underlying information. Outsourcing does not remove your statutory responsibilities. We remain responsible for our own agreed work and mistakes; this clause does not transfer our negligence to you.
6. Deadlines and submissions
The engagement will identify any filing or submission included and the date by which we need your information and approval. We will not submit a return or make a payment on your behalf without the required authority.
If information or approval is late, we will explain the effect and agree revised arrangements where possible. We cannot promise a deadline without the necessary records, access and approval. Responsibility for any resulting loss depends on the circumstances and applicable law, including whether our own failure contributed.
7. Confidentiality and personal information
We will treat client information as confidential and use it for the engagement and legitimate administration or legal obligations. Disclosure may be made to authorised personnel or service providers under appropriate obligations, to your authorised advisers, or where required by law. Some required disclosures may have to be made without notifying you.
The privacy notice explains our controller activities. Where we act as your processor, a separate processing agreement will cover instructions, confidentiality, security, subprocessors, rights requests, incident assistance, audits and return or deletion of data. These general terms are not a substitute for that agreement.
8. Client checks and professional status
Where applicable, we must complete identity, ownership and other compliance checks before or during an engagement. We may decline, pause or end work if necessary checks cannot be completed or continuing would be unlawful. We will explain where legally permitted.
Our anti-money-laundering supervisor is the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT). The engagement will identify relevant supervision details and any applicable professional complaints route. AML supervision does not itself imply approval of individual services or products.
9. Software, records and work products
We work with your existing bookkeeping software or help you choose a suitable system for your business. The engagement will identify the software used, who pays subscriptions and who controls access. Client bookkeeping records remain within the client’s chosen system wherever practical. If separate documents are necessary, they will only be stored in restricted Microsoft 365 SharePoint or OneDrive for Business folders after multifactor authentication is enabled. The engagement will identify any material storage or transfer arrangements. You retain ownership of records you supply. We retain rights in our pre-existing methods and general templates; you may use the agreed deliverables for their intended business purpose. This does not permit resale of our templates or remove your access rights to your own records.
We will agree proportionate handover arrangements when an engagement ends. Record return, retention and deletion will follow the engagement, any processing agreement and applicable law. We do not claim a blanket right to withhold your records because an invoice is disputed.
10. Pausing or ending work
Either party may end the engagement using the notice and procedure agreed in the engagement letter. A one-off rescue engagement normally ends when the agreed deliverables are completed. We will not begin an engagement without making its duration or termination arrangements clear.
For a material breach, we will normally give written notice and a reasonable opportunity to put matters right before ending or suspending work, unless immediate action is required by law or a serious security risk. Where legally permitted, we will explain the effect on deadlines and handover.
On termination, you pay for work properly performed and authorised, unavoidable costs incurred up to the end date. Unearned advance fees will be reconciled and refunded as appropriate. Any disputed amount can be raised through the complaints procedure.
11. Problems and liability
Please tell us promptly about a concern so we can investigate and, where appropriate, correct the work. We are responsible for loss for which we are legally liable. These general terms do not impose a blanket exclusion of negligence or an arbitrary financial liability cap. Any business liability limit must be fair, clearly agreed and reviewed against the engagement and insurance cover.
Nothing excludes liability for fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any liability or statutory right that cannot lawfully be excluded.
Email complaints to Deborah Massey at info@cloudledgercollective.co.uk, with the service, concern and desired resolution. We will acknowledge the complaint, explain the investigation process and provide a reasoned response. Any applicable external complaints route will be supplied in the engagement letter.
12. Consumers
Most bookkeeping engagements are for business purposes. If you act wholly or mainly outside your trade, business or profession, mandatory consumer protections apply and take priority.
Where a distance service contract carries a statutory cancellation right, you generally have 14 days after the contract is made to cancel without giving a reason. Before contracting, we will supply the required cancellation information and form. If you expressly request work during that period and then cancel, a proportionate payment may be due for work performed where legally permitted. Loss of the cancellation right on full performance requires the necessary prior request and acknowledgement. Statutory remedies for services not performed with reasonable care and skill are preserved.
13. Digital downloads bought on Etsy
These bookkeeping terms do not retrospectively change an Etsy order. Digital downloads are purchased through the relevant Etsy listing and checkout, where the description, compatibility requirements, licence, price, taxes and delivery arrangements must be available before purchase. Buying a spreadsheet does not include personal bookkeeping or bespoke tax advice unless expressly stated.
A consumer's digital-content cancellation right is lost only where the legal requirements are met, including prior express consent to supply during the cancellation period, acknowledgement of the loss of that right and the required contract confirmation. A blanket “no refunds” statement does not override rights for faulty or misdescribed digital content.
For a download problem, contact us through the Etsy order or our email address with your order reference. Rights and remedies under applicable law remain unaffected.
14. Disputes and changes
These terms and engagements are governed by the law of England and Wales, with disputes subject to the courts of England and Wales. Mandatory consumer protections and any right to use local courts are preserved. We will try to resolve disagreements through discussion before formal proceedings where appropriate.
Changes to these website terms apply to future engagements. An existing engagement changes only by agreement or under a valid agreed variation process; a website update alone does not change it.