Here’s one for all you Accountants…
As if GDPR was not boring enough……. now, they are Making Tax Digital, but we must keep up. So, let’s take a look at how document management solutions can help accountants!
GDPR
GDPR compliance requires, and will continue to demand, ongoing attention, which brings its own set of challenges for accountants; the biggest of which is ensuring adequate resources are available within organisations to fulfil the requirements set out within the GDPR. Internal resources often lacking include having sufficient personnel and finances to meet the additional demands placed on businesses irrespective of the size of the organisation. (you can’t expect poor Sue in reception to do everything!)
The change in the regulatory landscape has, however, shown the importance of getting privacy right and highlighted within the public forum many organisations shortcomings.
How can CH Digital help accountants achieve and maintain GDPR compliance?
The document scanning and document management services that CH Digital offer along with our Live-Docs solution can help accountants achieve and maintain GDPR compliance, particularly where there is legacy data such as large volumes of archive documents or customer files.
Our Live-Docs solution is designed to comply with all of the requirements of the GDPR, including: –
- Right to Rectification – Live-Docs allows for the completion and amendment of personal data, where such data is incorrectly stated
- Right to erasure – Known as ‘the right to be forgotten’ Live-Docs enables the permanent deletion of personal data
- Right to data portability – Live-Docs allows the data to be transferred in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
- Subject Access Requests (SAR) – With legacy data converted into digital formats, SAR can be satisfied well within the 30 day timescale imposed by GDPR, this will be particularly helpful, given that the £10 charge (which the previous 1998 DPA allowed to help fund SAR) has now been removed!
Making Tax Digital
Essentially, Making Tax Digital is a key part of the government’s plans to make it easier for individuals and businesses to get their tax right and keep on top of their affairs.
HMRC’s ambition (yes people, they have an ambition!) is to become one of the most digitally advanced tax administrations in the world. Making Tax Digital is making fundamental changes to the way the tax system works – transforming tax administration so that it is:
- more effective
- more efficient
- easier for taxpayers to get their tax right (wouldn’t that be great!)
VAT
Although there are some exceptions, the majority of VAT registered businesses have to submit VAT returns electronically, i.e. via an approved accounting software product, or via an authorised spreadsheet API when their VAT account period commences after 1st April 2019.
This is a significant change for a lot of businesses. According to HMRC, as of December 2018, only 12% of the 2.66 million VAT registered businesses used accounting software to submit returns.
Simple maths tells us that over 2.3 million businesses will be using or acquiring software of sorts to ensure they can submit VAT returns!
What CH Digital and Live-Docs can accountants to create digital structure.
Clearly, the move towards MTD, will lead to organisations selecting which systems to use when storing digital data, also will such systems be compliant with GDPR?
Live-Docs is such a system, it is a secure GDPR compliant archive repository where digital archives are held purely for your use only, accessible only by username and password. What is possibly not fully understood in the digital archive arena, are the following clauses (which we seem to accept) used when signing up for (mainly) popular US systems:-
Google Drive:
When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through Google Drive, you give Google a worldwide licence to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this licence are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our services, and to develop new ones. This licence continues even if you stop using our services unless you delete your content. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this licence for any content that you submit to Google Drive.
Dropbox:
Your Stuff. Our Services are designed to make it simple for you to store your files, documents, photos, comments, messages, and so on (“Your Stuff”), collaborate with others, and work across multiple devices. To make that possible, we store, process, and transmit Your Stuff as well as information related to it. This related information includes your profile information that makes it easier to collaborate and share Your Stuff with others, as well as things like the size of the file, the time it was uploaded, collaborators, and usage activity. Our Services provide you with different options for sharing Your Stuff.
Microsoft:
2. Your Content
b. To the extent necessary to provide the Services to you and others, to protect you and the Services, and to improve Microsoft products and services, you grant to Microsoft a worldwide and royalty-free intellectual property license to use Your Content, for example, to make copies of, retain, transmit, reformat, display, and distribute via communication tools Your Content on the Services. If you publish Your Content in areas of the Service where it is available broadly online without restrictions, Your Content may appear in demonstrations or materials that promote the Service.
Can these large corporates really help secure data or is this fake news? 😊
If you need help with your Document Management then please get in touch with us on 01827 726934 for a free review of your current document management procedures.
