WPC Accountants Terms and Conditions
The contract between WPC Accountants Ltd and each client
Version 1.0 | Effective date: 3 November 2026
WPC Accountants Ltd | Company number 15741398
1. About these terms
1.1These terms are a contract between WPC Accountants Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 15741398, whose registered office is at 3rd Floor, 112-116 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1JE (“we”, “us”), and the person or organisation that engages us (“you”).
1.2The contract is made up of these terms and your engagement letter or order (together, the “engagement letter”), which sets out the services, fees, billing and any other terms agreed with you. If they conflict, the engagement letter wins on the services, fees and billing. Our website and marketing material are not part of the contract.
1.3You may be an individual, a sole trader, a partnership, a company, a charity or another organisation. Where you are an individual acting wholly or mainly outside a trade, business or profession (a “consumer”), nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights. Anyone accepting these terms for an organisation confirms that they are authorised to bind it.
1.4You accept these terms by signing or accepting the engagement letter, by ticking the box when asked, or by instructing us to start work after we send them to you. We keep a copy of the version you accepted.
1.5We use personal data in two different ways. For our own records of you and the people connected to you, we are a controller, and our Privacy Policy on our website explains how we use that data and the cookies we use. For some services, such as payroll, we process personal data on your instructions, and section 13 applies.
2. Words with special meanings
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Client Data | The information and documents you or your people give us, or we collect for you, to deliver the services, including records about your employees and other individuals |
| Engagement letter | The engagement letter or order described in section 1.2 |
| Free Tools | The free online tools on www.wpcaccountants.co.uk |
| Services | The services described in your engagement letter, such as bookkeeping, accounts, tax returns, VAT, payroll, CIS, registrations (including charity registration), Universal Credit support and consultancy |
| WPC Group | A trading style for a family of separate companies under common ownership, each of which provides its own services under its own terms |
3. Our services
3.1We provide the services described in your engagement letter with reasonable skill and care, in line with the standards that apply to us as an AAT-supervised accountancy practice. We may use staff, contractors and suppliers to do so, and we remain responsible for their work.
3.2Work outside the engagement letter is not included. If you ask for it, we will tell you whether we can do it and on what terms before we start.
3.3We rely on the information and instructions you give us. We do not audit or independently verify them unless the engagement letter says so.
3.4No immigration or legal advice. We do not give immigration or legal advice under these terms, and nothing we say or provide, including the Free Tools, is such advice. For that you need a regulated adviser, such as Work Permit Cloud (WorkPermitCloud Limited, registered with the Immigration Advice Authority) or WPC Lawyers (regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority), engaged directly under that firm’s own terms.
3.5All terms implied by law are excluded to the extent the law allows. This does not affect a consumer’s statutory rights.
4. Becoming a client and our checks
4.1The law requires us to carry out identity and anti-money-laundering checks on our clients and on people connected to them, and to keep monitoring the relationship. We may need documents and information about you, your source of funds and your source of wealth before we start work and from time to time afterwards.
4.2We may decline or stop work if checks are not completed to our satisfaction, or if we think the law or our professional duties require it. We are not liable for any delay or loss this causes.
4.3We are required to report suspicious activity to the National Crime Agency, and we may be prevented by law from telling you that we have done so. We may also disclose information to our supervisor, the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT), for supervision and monitoring.
5. What you do
5.1You give us complete, accurate and timely information and documents, and you tell us promptly of any change or error. You confirm that you are allowed to give us personal data about other people, such as directors, employees and family members.
5.2You keep your own records as the law requires, and you review everything we prepare before it is filed or relied on. Where a return or filing is made in your name, you remain responsible for its contents.
5.3Where we act as your agent with HMRC, Companies House or another authority, you give us the authority we need, and you keep your own access details secure. Do not share more access credentials than the service needs.
5.4You must not use the services unlawfully, or ask us to do anything that is dishonest, misleading or contrary to the law or our professional duties.
6. Fees and payment
6.1Our fees are determined by the complexity of the work, the level of professionals we need to engage, and the time required to deliver the services. The fee, how it is calculated and how it is billed are set out in your engagement letter. Fees exclude VAT, which we add where it applies, and exclude third-party costs such as filing fees, which we pass on at cost as agreed.
6.2You pay our invoices in pounds sterling by the method and within the time stated in the engagement letter or on the invoice. Card payments are handled by our payment provider. We do not accept cash.
6.3If you have concern on our invoice, please tell us in writing (email will do) within 3 days of receiving the invoice.
6.4If an invoice is overdue, we may pause the services until it is paid, after telling you first, but we will not miss a statutory filing deadline for that reason without warning you in time to make other arrangements.
6.5If extra work is caused by missing, late or inaccurate information, or by a change in your instructions, we may charge for it after telling you.
6.6We may change our fees for future work by giving you notice. If you do not agree, you may end the contract under section 8.
7. Your right to cancel (consumers)
7.1If you are a consumer and the contract is made online, by phone or otherwise at a distance, you may cancel it within 14 days after the day it is made, without giving a reason, by telling us at support@wpcaccountants.co.uk.
7.2If you ask us to start work during the 14 days, you must pay for the services we have provided up to the time you tell us you are cancelling, in proportion to the full contract. If we have fully provided the services by then, you lose the right to cancel.
8. How long the contract lasts
8.1The contract starts when you accept these terms and continues until the services in the engagement letter are completed, or until it is ended under this section or section 17.
8.2For continuing services, either of us may end the contract by written notice. The notice period is the one in your engagement letter or, if none is stated, a reasonable period that allows us to hand over, taking account of any filing deadlines.
8.3Ending the contract does not affect fees for work done up to the end date, or any right that has already arisen.
9. Deadlines, filings and outcomes
9.1We will tell you what information we need and by when so that statutory deadlines can be met. We are not responsible for a late filing, a penalty or interest caused by information, documents or approvals reaching us late.
9.2We do not guarantee any outcome, including the amount of tax payable or refundable, the result of an application for appeal, the outcome of an enquiry by HMRC or another authority, or the acceptance of a registration. Each depends on the facts, the information you give us and the decision of the authority.
9.3Unless the engagement letter says so, our services do not include representing you in an enquiry, investigation or dispute with HMRC or another authority. We can tell you on what terms we could help.
10. Free Tools and our website
10.1The Free Tools and the information on our website are general guides. Results are estimates, may not suit your circumstances and are not advice. Please check them with us or another adviser before you rely on them.
10.2We try to keep the website and the Free Tools available and accurate, but we do not promise that they will always be available or free of errors, and we may change or withdraw them at any time. Our Privacy Policy explains how we use data from the website, including cookies.
11. Services from other WPC Group companies
11.1Each WPC Group company is a separate company and provides its services under its own terms. Using WPC Accountants does not make you a client of any other WPC Group company.
11.2We may share your details with another WPC Group company only with your agreement, or where it provides shared IT or administrative support to us under a data sharing agreement. A WPC Group company that provides its own service to you is responsible for it, and for the personal data it receives, under its own terms and privacy notice.
12. Confidentiality and ownership
12.1Each of us keeps the other’s confidential information secret and uses it only for this contract, except where it is already public, was already lawfully known, or must be disclosed by law or to a regulator or supervisor. Each of us may share it with staff, advisers, insurers and subcontractors who need it and are bound by similar duties.
12.2You may be asked to authorise us to disclose your information to a professional body or reviewer, such as an AAT quality review. We will use only what the review needs, and the reviewer is bound by confidentiality.
12.3We and our licensors own the Free Tools, our website, templates, working methods and other material we create, except what we prepare for you in the services, which you may use for your own purposes. You own the documents and records you give us.
13. Your data and ours
13.1Our role. For our own records, including identity and anti-money-laundering checks, we are a controller, as our Privacy Policy explains. For personal data we process on your behalf, such as the records of your employees when we run your payroll, you are the controller and we are your processor. Where you are an individual and we handle only your own data, this section does not apply. Terms used in this section have the meaning they have in UK data protection law.
13.2This section contains the terms that UK GDPR Article 28 requires between a controller and a processor. It forms part of this contract, and no separate data processing agreement is needed for the processing it covers.
13.3What we process, and why. The personal data in Client Data about your employees, directors, workers, customers and others, such as identity and contact details, tax and National Insurance references, pay, pension and payroll records. We store, retrieve, use, file, send and delete it, only to provide the services to you, for as long as the contract lasts and section 18 allows.
13.4Instructions. We process this data only on your documented instructions, which are these terms, the engagement letter and your reasonable written instructions, unless the law requires otherwise (in which case we tell you, unless the law forbids it). We tell you if we think an instruction breaks data protection law.
13.5Confidentiality. Everyone who can access this data for us is bound by a duty of confidentiality and sees only what their work needs.
13.6Security. We keep it secure with appropriate technical and organisational measures, as described in our Privacy Policy.
13.7Sub-processors. You allow us to use the service providers listed by category in our Privacy Policy (section 8), under written terms that protect the data at least as well as this section. We tell you before adding or replacing a sub-processor that handles this data, so you can object; if we cannot meet a reasonable objection, you may end the contract without charge. We remain responsible for our sub-processors.
13.8Outside the UK. This data may be processed in the countries and under the safeguards described in our Privacy Policy (section 9), and only as UK data protection law allows.
13.9Assistance. We help you, as far as we reasonably can, to answer requests from individuals about their data, to keep the data secure, and with any data protection impact assessment or consultation with the regulator that concerns the services.
13.10Breaches. We tell you without undue delay after we become aware of a personal data breach affecting this data, with the information we have, and help you deal with it.
13.11Deletion or return. At the end of the contract we return or delete this data as section 18 says, unless the law requires us to keep it.
13.12Information and audits. We give you the information you reasonably need to show that this section is met, and allow reasonable audits by you or your auditor, at your cost, with reasonable notice and not more than once a year, unless the regulator requires it or after a breach.
14. Suspension
We may suspend all or part of the services if we reasonably believe it is needed to comply with the law or our professional duties (including anti-money-laundering rules), to protect Client Data, or if you seriously breach section 5. We tell you first where we reasonably can and where the law allows, and we restart as soon as the reason has gone.
15. Events outside our control
Neither of us is liable for delay or failure caused by an event outside its reasonable control, such as a failure of the internet or of a hosting provider, a natural disaster, war, a pandemic or government action. This does not apply to paying fees. If the event lasts more than 30 days, either of us may end the contract by notice.
16. Liability
16.1Nothing in this contract limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else the law does not allow to be limited, and nothing affects a consumer’s statutory rights.
16.2Subject to section 16.1, neither of us is liable for loss of profit, revenue, business, goodwill or anticipated savings, or for indirect or consequential loss. This does not apply to fees due to us.
16.3Subject to section 16.1, our total liability under or in connection with the services is limited to the amount stated in the engagement letter or, if none is stated, to the fees paid and payable for the services that gave rise to the claim.
16.4We are not liable for a penalty, surcharge or interest charged by an authority to the extent it results from your breach of these terms, from information that was inaccurate, incomplete or late, or from your decision not to follow our advice. If a penalty results from our breach, we are liable for it only within this section 16.
16.5If Client Data is lost or damaged through our fault, our first duty is to restore it from our latest backup. You remain responsible for keeping your own copies of records the law requires you to keep.
17. Ending for breach or other cause
17.1Either of us may end the contract at once by notice if the other commits a serious breach that cannot be put right, or is not put right within 30 days of being asked, or becomes insolvent (subject to section 233B of the Insolvency Act 1986).
17.2We may also end the contract at once by notice where the law, our supervisor or our professional duties require it, including if identity and anti-money-laundering checks cannot be completed.
17.3If we end the contract, we tell you in good time where we can and tell you of any deadlines that fall soon, so that you can arrange for another adviser to act.
18. What happens to your records when we stop acting
18.1When the contract ends, we return the documents you gave us on request, and we hand over to your new adviser, with your written permission, the information they reasonably need. We may charge for this where the engagement letter or the work involved allows.
18.2We keep our working papers and records only for the periods set out in our Privacy Policy (section 10), for example the legal periods for anti-money-laundering and tax records, and then delete or anonymise them securely. We may keep data longer where a regulator, a law or an ongoing claim requires it.
19. Changes to these terms
19.1We may update these terms. Each version is published on our website with its date.
19.2For a change that is not material, we tell you by email or on our website, and it applies from its date. For a material change (one that affects liability, how data is used, or what you must do), we email you at least 30 days before it takes effect, and you may end the contract without charge before then. We do not treat continued use as acceptance of a material change.
20. Notices and complaints
20.1We send notices to the email address you gave us. You send notices and complaints to support@wpcaccountants.co.uk or by post to our registered office.
20.2If you are unhappy with our service, please tell us first so we can put it right. We look into every complaint and reply as soon as we can. Complaints about how we use personal data are dealt with under our Privacy Policy (section 13).
21. General
21.1This contract is the whole agreement between us about the services and replaces any earlier arrangement about them.
21.2You may not transfer this contract without our written consent. We may transfer it to a buyer of our business, if the services continue on the same terms, with notice to you, during which you may end it without charge.
21.3Nobody else has any right to enforce this contract.
21.4If any part of this contract is found invalid, the rest continues. A delay in using a right is not a waiver of it.
21.5This contract and any dispute about it are governed by the law of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, except that a consumer may also bring proceedings in the courts of the part of the UK where they live.
22. About us
WPC Accountants Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 15741398, whose registered office is at 3rd Floor, 112-116 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1JE. Email: support@wpcaccountants.co.uk. Telephone: 07838 125511. Registered with the Information Commission (formerly the Information Commissioner’s Office, ICO), registration number ZB822304. Anti-money-laundering supervisor: Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT), licence number 1008840. Data protection contact: support@wpcaccountants.co.uk.