Privacy policy

Doriva is software for accountancy practices: a practice uses it to keep its clients' books, prepare accounts and tax returns, send them to HMRC and Companies House once approved, and share documents with its clients through a secure portal. This policy explains what personal information Doriva handles, why, where it is kept and the rights you have.

1. Who we are

Doriva is provided by Doriva Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17390221), registered office 45 Carlton Road, Erith DA8 1DR. Our registration with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is in progress. For anything about this policy or your information, email privacy@doriva.co.uk.

2. Our role, and your accountant's

• Information a practice keeps about its clients (their records, books, returns and documents) belongs to the practice. The practice is the controller of it; Doriva Ltd processes it only on the practice's instructions, as its processor, under a written agreement. If you are a client of a practice, its own privacy notice applies too, and questions or requests about your records are best sent to your accountant. We will help them answer.
• Information we need to run Doriva itself (sign-in and security, and the information HMRC requires software to send with each submission) is handled by Doriva Ltd as controller, as described below.

3. What we hold

People who sign in

Practice staff and clients with portal access: name, email address, role, the practice you belong to, and your sign-in details. Passwords are stored only in a protected (hashed) form. You can add two-step verification to your sign-in.

A practice's client records

What a practice puts into Doriva or asks its clients to provide, which can include: names, addresses, contact details, dates of birth, National Insurance numbers, tax references (UTR, VAT and PAYE references), company details, directors and shareholders, bank statements and transactions, invoices and receipts, payroll and pension details of a client's employees, accounts, tax computations and returns, engagement letters, messages and uploaded documents.

Identity checks

Practices must check their clients' identity under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017. When a practice uses Doriva's check, the person takes a photo of an identity document and a short selfie with ComplyCube, our identity-check provider, which compares them (this is biometric information) and screens the name against sanctions and politically-exposed-person lists. Doriva keeps the result and ComplyCube's report; ComplyCube holds the images.

Device and connection information for HMRC

The law requires software that sends returns to HMRC (for example VAT returns under Making Tax Digital) to send information about the device and connection used, so HMRC can protect taxpayers against fraud. When you sign in, Doriva collects: a random identifier it stores in your browser for this purpose, your screen and window size, colour depth and scaling, time zone, language, browser and operating system (user agent), your Doriva user identifier, whether two-step verification was used, your public IP address, and the time. It is sent to HMRC with the submissions it relates to and to no one else.

Records of what happens

An activity log of who did what in Doriva and when (for example who approved a set of accounts), and for an electronically signed document, the signer's name, the time, their IP address and browser.

4. Why we use it, and the lawful basis

We do not sell personal information, use it for advertising, or send marketing on our own account.

AI features

Doriva can use AI (Anthropic's Claude) to read a document or bank line and propose how to record it, or to draft text for staff. Only what each task needs is sent. Every proposal is reviewed and accepted, changed or rejected by a member of the practice's staff: no decision with legal or similarly significant effects is made about anyone by automated means alone. Anthropic does not use this information to train its models.

5. Who it is shared with

The services Doriva runs on, which handle information only to provide their service to us:

And, when the practice uses them:

• HMRC: returns and submissions the practice approves, and the device information above. The practice signs in to HMRC on HMRC's own page; Doriva never sees the HMRC password and keeps the access HMRC grants encrypted.
• Companies House: public company information, and accounts or other filings the practice approves.
• Nest: pension contribution schedules for a client's workplace pension scheme.
• A bank connection (open banking): read-only access to a client's bank transactions and balances, only if the client agrees at their bank. They can withdraw it at any time, at the bank or by asking the practice.
• The practice's own email account, if it chooses to send its emails from it.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it, for example to a regulator or the police.

6. Where it is kept

Doriva's database, documents and backups are kept in the UK (London). Some processing takes place outside the UK: AI requests (United States) and the delivery of static page files. Where personal information is processed outside the UK, it is protected by safeguards approved under UK law, such as the International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum issued by the ICO, or the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.

7. How it is protected

• Encryption in transit (HTTPS) and at rest; the access tokens and passwords Doriva holds for connected services are encrypted separately.
• Two-step verification (once set up, it is asked for at every sign-in), and database rules that let each person see only what their role allows: a client sees only their own records.
• Encrypted backups, locked against any change or deletion for their first 35 days.
• Regular security testing, and a record of who did what.
• A way to report a security problem: report a security issue (security@doriva.co.uk).

8. How long it is kept

• A practice's client records: as long as the practice decides. Practices must normally keep accounting and tax records for at least six years, and identity-check records for five years after the client relationship ends. When a practice deletes records, or its agreement with us ends (after it has had the chance to export everything), they are deleted from Doriva.
• Backups: each night's copy is kept for 35 days and the copy from the first of each month for a year, so deleted information can remain in a backup for up to a year before it is gone.
• Sign-in details: while your access is open. Once the practice closes it you can no longer sign in; your name stays in the activity log, which is part of the practice's records.
• Device information for HMRC: kept with the submission records it supports, for as long as those records are kept.

9. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask for a copy of your information, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, object to or ask us to limit how it is used, and ask for it in a portable form. Some rights depend on the lawful basis: records a practice must keep by law cannot be deleted early. For a practice's client records, send your request to your accountant (we will help them); for anything else, email privacy@doriva.co.uk. We reply within one month.

If you are unhappy with how your information is handled, please tell us first. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, telephone 0303 123 1113.

10. Cookies and browser storage

Doriva uses only what it needs to work: a sign-in cookie that keeps you signed in, and items in your browser's storage for your preferences (such as dark mode and how a list is sorted) and the HMRC device identifier described in section 3. There are no advertising or analytics cookies, so there is nothing to opt in to.

11. Children

Doriva is for practices and their clients' businesses, not for children. If a child's information is in a client's records (for example as an employee), it is handled as described above.

12. Changes

We will update this policy when Doriva or the law changes, and show the date at the top. If a change matters to how your information is used, we will tell the practice, and the people affected, before it applies. See also our terms of use.