Privacy and data handling
CTRL Finance Ops · last updated 14 October 2026
CTRL Finance Ops is the internal system CTRL Finance uses to provide outsourced accounting and bookkeeping services to its clients. It is used by CTRL Finance staff, by people our clients invite to approve bills and payments, and by customers of our clients who are offered a payment plan.
We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
What we hold and why
- Accounting data copied from the client's Xero organisation, with the client's permission: contacts (including supplier bank details), bills, invoices, payments, bank transactions and financial reports.
- Names and email addresses of the people who use the system, and a record of what they do in it.
- For payment plans: the name, title and email of the person who signs, their signature, IP address and browser.
We use this only to provide the services the client has engaged us for: approving and paying bills, chasing overdue invoices, month-end accounts, cash flow forecasts and finance applications. We don't sell it or use it for marketing.
Services that process data for us
These providers process data only to run the system for us, under their commercial terms:
| Provider | Where | What for |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Sydney, Australia | Database, sign-in and back-end functions. Holds the accounting data we copy from Xero and the encrypted Xero connection. |
| Vercel | Sydney, Australia | Hosts the CTRL Finance Ops web application. |
| Google Workspace | Google's data centres, which may be outside Australia | Our email: payment reminders, remittance advice, approval notices and sign-in links. |
| Anthropic (Claude API) | United States | Reads finance contracts we upload so repayment schedules can be set up, and drafts lending application text from a business's financial figures, some of which come from Xero. Our staff check every result. Inputs aren't used to train models. |
| Xero | Xero's hosting | The client's accounting system, which we connect to with the client's permission. |
Some of these providers process data outside Australia, as shown. We choose providers with strong security commitments and use them only for the purposes above.
How we protect it
- All data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS) and at rest; Xero connection tokens are encrypted again in a separate secrets store.
- Staff sign in with company Google accounts; client users sign in with an emailed link and an authenticator app.
- Each person sees only the businesses and functions they're assigned. Every change is kept in an audit log that can't be edited.
Keeping and deleting data
We keep a client's data while we act for them and as long afterwards as tax and accounting record-keeping laws require. A client can disconnect Xero at any time, and can ask us to delete the data we hold.
Access, corrections and complaints
To ask what we hold about you, correct it, or make a complaint, email ryan@ctrlfinance.com. If you're not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).