Privacy Policy
Backburn Advisory helps small businesses with cashflow, profitability and viability. To do that, we need to see some of your most private information, including your bank statements, what you owe and sometimes how you're coping. We take that seriously. This policy explains, in plain words, what we collect, why, where it's kept, who sees it, and what you can do about it.
In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" mean Backburn Advisory Pty Ltd (ABN 40 704 022 337). "You" means anyone whose personal information we handle: clients, the owners and staff of client businesses, people who enquire, and visitors to our website.
1. Our commitment
We follow the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) as our standard for handling personal information. We do this as a matter of good practice and trust, whether or not the Act applies to a business of our size.
2. What we collect
We only collect what we need to help you. Depending on the service, this may include:
• Contact details: your name, business name, role, email, phone number, postal address and town.
• Business details: ABN, business type, industry, number of staff and how long you've been trading.
• Financial information: bank balances and statements, overdraft limits, sales and expense figures, debtor and creditor lists, loan and lease details, ATO and superannuation balances and correspondence, payroll totals, and financial reports from your accounting software.
• Personal financial exposure: where it matters to the advice, details of personal guarantees, personal assets or debts linked to the business.
• How you're going: our intake form has an optional question about how you're coping. You don't have to answer it. If you do, we treat it as sensitive information and use it only to look after you during the engagement, for example by suggesting support services.
• Payment details: your payment is processed by our payment provider. We don't see or store your full card number.
• Website information: when you visit our website, our website provider may collect technical information such as your IP address, browser type, pages viewed and cookies. See section 10.
Please don't send us your tax file number (TFN). If a document you send contains one, we'll redact or delete it.
3. How we collect it
We collect personal information directly from you wherever we can: through our website, our online intake form, bookings, email, phone, and our video or face-to-face sessions. With your permission, we may also get information from your accountant, bookkeeper, bank or accounting software. If someone gives us information about you (for example, a business partner), we'll handle it under this policy.
You can make a general enquiry without giving your name. To provide advice, though, we need to know who you are and which business we're helping.
4. Why we collect it and how we use it
We use your personal information to:
• respond to enquiries and book sessions;
• analyse your business's cashflow, profitability and viability, and prepare reports and recommendations for you;
• deliver the services in your engagement letter, including check-in calls and monthly reviews;
• issue invoices and receive payments;
• keep records we're required to keep by law (for example, for tax);
• improve our services, using information that has been de-identified so it can't be linked to you; and
• send you updates or useful resources, but only if you've agreed (see section 11).
We won't use your information for any other purpose unless you agree, or the law requires or allows it.
5. Who we share it with
We don't sell, rent or trade your personal information. We only share it:
• with your accountant, bookkeeper, lawyer, lender or other adviser, when you ask us to or agree to it;
• with service providers who help us run the business, such as our website and booking platform, online forms, cloud storage, email, video calls, accounting and invoicing software, payment processing and AI tools (see sections 6 and 7). They may only use your information to provide their service to us;
• with our own professional advisers (such as our accountant, lawyer or insurer), where needed; and
• where the law requires it, or to prevent a serious threat to someone's life, health or safety.
If we use a story or example from our work in marketing, it will be de-identified, or we'll ask your written permission first.
6. Information stored overseas
We use reputable cloud services, and some of them store or process information on servers outside Australia, mainly in the United States, and possibly in Europe or other countries where those providers operate. These currently include Wix (website and bookings), Jotform (intake forms), Microsoft (OneDrive storage and email) and Anthropic (Claude AI). We choose providers with strong security and take reasonable steps to make sure they protect your information to a standard consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.
7. How we use AI tools
We use AI software (currently Claude, made by Anthropic) to help analyse financial information and draft reports, for example to build a 13-week cash view, calculate ratios or prepare a first draft of a report. We do this to work faster and keep our fees down.
• No decisions about you are made by a computer alone. Every analysis, rating and recommendation is reviewed, checked and finalised by Darren Elphinstone before it reaches you.
• Our spreadsheets apply set rules to your figures (for example, our cashflow "fire rating" uses how many weeks of cash you have left and whether certain warning signs are present). These ratings are a starting point for discussion, not a decision. We explain how they were reached and you can question them.
• We use business accounts with settings that stop your information being used to train AI models, where the provider offers this.
• We only put into AI tools what's needed for the analysis, and we remove details we don't need.
If you'd prefer we didn't use AI tools on your information, tell us. We'll do the work by hand, which may take longer.
8. How we keep it secure
We take reasonable steps to protect your information from misuse, loss, and unauthorised access or disclosure. These include password-protected and multi-factor-secured accounts, encrypted cloud storage, separate client folders, limiting access to people who need it, and keeping paper records locked away.
No system is completely secure. If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we'll tell you as soon as we can, explain what happened and what you can do, and notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner where required.
9. How long we keep it
We keep client records for seven years after the end of an engagement, which is how long we generally need them for tax, legal and insurance purposes. After that we securely delete or destroy them. Enquiries that don't become engagements are deleted after two years.
10. Our website and cookies
Our website is hosted by Wix. Wix uses cookies and similar technologies to make the site work, remember your preferences and give us general statistics about visits. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, though some parts of the site may not work properly. Our website may link to other sites; we're not responsible for their privacy practices.
11. Marketing
We'll only send you newsletters, tips or offers if you've said yes. Every message will have an easy way to unsubscribe, or you can just tell us. We follow the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).
12. Accessing and correcting your information
You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it if it's wrong, out of date or incomplete. Contact us using the details below. We'll respond within 30 days. There's no charge for asking. If we can't give you access or make a correction, we'll explain why in writing.
13. Questions and complaints
If you have a question or think we've mishandled your information, please contact Darren first. We'll acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days and aim to resolve it within 30 days.
If you're not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC): www.oaic.gov.au, phone 1300 363 992.
14. Contact us
Darren Elphinstone, Privacy Officer, Backburn Advisory Pty Ltd, 10 Frederick Street, Ocean Vista TAS 7320, Phone: 03 6431 1336
15. Changes to this policy
We'll update this policy when our practices or the law change. The current version is always on our website. We welcome feedback on it.
Last updated: 10 November 2026