Academy Business Services iscommitted to providing quality services to you and this policy outlines ourongoing obligations to you in respect of how we manage your personalinformation. We have adopted the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) containedin the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act).
The APPs govern the way in whichwe collect, use, disclose, store, secure and dispose of your personalinformation. A copy of the Australian Privacy Principles may be obtained fromthe website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
1. What is personal information, and why do we collect it?
Personal information isinformation or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual whois reasonably identifiable.
Depending on our relationshipwith you, this may include:
- your name, address, email address, and phone number;
- if we provide bookkeeping or payroll services to youremployer or business: your date of birth, tax file number, bank account and BSBdetails, salary and wage information, superannuation fund details, andemployment classification; and
- business and financial transaction information, wherewe provide bookkeeping, payroll, or systems development services to a business.
We obtain this informationthrough correspondence, telephone, email, our website, cookies, and from thirdparties (including the business we're providing services to, where you are oneof their employees). We use cookies and tracking technologies to improve userexperience and analyse website traffic — you can manage your cookie preferencesthrough your browser settings. We don't guarantee the content of externalwebsite links or third-party privacy policies.
We collect personal informationfor the primary purpose of providing our bookkeeping, payroll, and developmentservices. Where we process your information as an employee of one of ourbusiness clients (for example, to process your pay or superannuation), we onlyuse it for that purpose and to comply with our legal obligations — not for ourown marketing, and not to share with our other clients.
Separately, if you are acontact, prospective client, or website visitor of Academy, we may also useyour details for closely related purposes you'd reasonably expect, includingtelling you about our services. You can opt out of these communications at anytime using the "unsubscribe" link in our emails or by contacting usdirectly.
Where appropriate and possible,we'll explain why we're collecting your information and how we plan to use itat the time we collect it.
2. Sensitive information
Sensitive information is definedunder the Privacy Act to include things like an individual's racial or ethnicorigin, political opinions, political association membership, religious orphilosophical beliefs, trade union or professional body membership, criminalrecord, or health information. We will only use sensitive information:
- for the primary purpose for which it was obtained;
- for a directly related secondary purpose;
- with your consent; or
- where required or authorised by law.
3. Third parties
Where reasonable andpracticable, we collect your personal information directly from you. In somecircumstances, we may receive it from a third party instead — for example, fromthe business we provide bookkeeping, payroll, or development services to, whereyou are their employee, customer, or contact. We'll take reasonable steps tomake you aware that we've received your information this way.
4. Disclosure of personal information
We may disclose your personalinformation to:
- software and cloud service providers we use to deliverour services (for example, accounting and payroll platforms, and hostingproviders);
- the Australian Taxation Office, where we lodge SingleTouch Payroll reports or other tax information on behalf of a client;
- AI tool providers, as described in section 11 (Use ofAI tools);
- our own staff and subcontractors who help deliver ourservices, including those based overseas (see section 5, Overseas disclosure);
- our professional advisers (for example, our accountant,lawyer, or insurer), where reasonably necessary;
- third parties where you've consented to the disclosure; and
- anyone else where required or authorised by law.
5. Overseas disclosure
We may store or process personalinformation through third-party service providers located outside Australia,including cloud storage, cloud accounting/payroll platforms, and AI tools —most commonly in the United States. We also engage staff and subcontractorsbased in the Philippines to help deliver our services, who may access personalinformation as part of that work.
Where we disclose personalinformation overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure it continues to behandled in a way that's consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles —including by using providers with appropriate data protection terms in place,and by requiring our overseas staff and subcontractors to comply withconfidentiality and data-handling obligations under a written agreement withus.
6. Data breach notification
If we experience a data breachinvolving your personal information that is likely to result in serious harm,we will notify you and the OAIC in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breachesscheme under the Privacy Act.
7. Security of personal information
Your personal information isstored in a way that reasonably protects it from misuse, loss, unauthorisedaccess, modification, or disclosure. When it's no longer needed, we takereasonable steps to destroy it or permanently de-identify it. We retain mostpersonal information in client files for a minimum of 7 years, in line with taxand employment record-keeping requirements (including the Fair Work Regulations2009 (Cth)).
8. Access to your personal information
You may access the personalinformation we hold about you and request updates or corrections, subject tosome exceptions. If you'd like to access your information, please contact us inwriting. Academy Business Services will not charge for your access requestitself, but may charge a reasonable administrative fee for providing copies. Toprotect your information, we may require identification before releasing it.
9. Maintaining the quality of your personal information
We endeavour to keep yourpersonal information accurate, complete, and up to date. If you notice anyinaccuracies, please let us know as soon as practicable so we can correct ourrecords.
10. If you are an employee of one of our clients
If we process payroll orbookkeeping data on behalf of your employer, we generally don't have a directrelationship with you and haven't collected your information for our ownpurposes — we're processing it strictly to deliver the services your employer hasengaged us for (for example, paying your wages, remitting your superannuation,or lodging Single Touch Payroll data with the ATO). This policy still appliesto how we handle your information in that context, including your rights toaccess and correct it under section 8. If you have a question about your pay orentitlements, we'd suggest raising it with your employer first, since wegenerally act on the information and instructions they give us.
11. Use of AI tools
As part of delivering ourservices — including bookkeeping, payroll processing, and software/appdevelopment — we may use tools and platforms that use artificial intelligence(AI) to help with tasks such as data processing, drafting correspondence, testing,and process automation.
Where practical, we use businessor enterprise-tier AI tools that offer stronger data protection terms —including, where available, a commitment that your information won't be used totrain the provider's models — rather than free consumer-tier tools. We takereasonable steps to avoid inputting highly sensitive identifiers (such as taxfile numbers or full bank account details) into a third-party AI tool where wecan reasonably avoid doing so.
Many of the AI tools we useprocess information on servers located overseas — see section 5 (Overseasdisclosure) for how we handle this. We take reasonable steps to ensure the AIproviders we engage have appropriate safeguards in place to protect your information,consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.
12. Policy updates
This policy may change from timeto time to reflect how our practices develop, and the current version is alwaysavailable on our website. We'll update the "last updated" date belowwhenever we do.
13. Privacy policy complaints and enquiries
If you have a complaint abouthow we handle your personal information, please contact us using the detailsbelow. We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 days and aim to resolve itwithin a reasonable time — for straightforward matters, generally within 14days; more complex complaints may take longer. If you remain dissatisfied, youmay escalate your complaint to the OAIC, or call 1300 363 992.
Academy Business Services
Suite 2, 4 Bligh St, North Tamworth NSW 2340
hello@academybusiness.au
02 6763 3475
Last updated: 14 August 2026
