Membership & Accreditation Requirements

Ready to join our unique and industry leading Accreditation & Membership?

What do you need in place to join?

Our main requirements for Accreditation & Memberships are:

• At least 3 months in business (or working with at least 2 clients)

• Competent data storage/backup plan

• PI Insurance – minimum £50,000

• Cyber Insurance – minimum £50,000

• Appropriate Terms & Conditions for business – these are the ones you issue to clients

• Appropriate policies (GDPR – privacy, cookies, AML if relevant, Website Terms)

• Business address and phone number on your website (if you are a Ltd company your company registration number as well)  – as a minimum your business adddress should be on your privacy policy.

• Testimonial or Reference – one piece of feedback form a recent client or previous employer

• Photograph

• ICO Registration**

• Domain specific email

• Photo ID

Please note, you will need the following information and documentation to hand to complete your application:

• Proof of your PI/PL/Cyber Insurance 
• Data protection registration confirmation (please bear in mind the changing GDPR rules commencing May 2018) 
• Example of your Terms of Business issued to clients
• At least one written business testimonial or reference – including contact details for follow up (video testimonials also acceptable)
• Company registration number (if applicable)
• Up to date professional profile picture
• Anti-Money Laundering confirmation from HMRC (if you are supporting clients in a financial/bookkeeping capacity

**If you are not based in the UK you may not be required to register with the ICO so we will require evidence of the appropriate registration for your country – please contact us to discuss this.

We also gather the following further information when assessing new applications:

Legal Stuff

• Eligibility to work
• Criminal convictions – anything to declare
• Background checks, where appropriate
• Registered address and telephone number on your website
• Registered with HMRC
• Website Terms & Conditions
• Cookie, Privacy & Acceptable Use Policy displayed on your website
• Registration with HMRC for Anti-Money Laundering (if appropriate)

 About Your Business

• Business type – sole trader, partnership, Ltd Company
• Length of time in business
• Registration with Companies House
• Registration with Information Commissioners Office for Data Protection?
• Social media presence for your business
• Current GDPR preparation plans
• Appropriate PI, PL and Cyber Insurance cover
• VAT registered (if applicable)
• Hours of Business
• Working environment 
• Data security/recovery or other fail safe systems in practice
• Sickness or holiday strategy
• Client on-boarding process
• Invoicing & Accounting process
• Current Associates on board or future growth plans
• Other relevant Business documentation

IMPORTANT NOTE

Not all information you supply will visible on your directory profile.  Most of the really in-depth questions are for our eyes only to assist in the application and job matching process.   Our aim is to get as much information from you to ensure we can match you appropriately with clients, but also to ensure that we really are building a forum of high performing VAs.

NOTE:  Some questions are optional, although answering these will assist us with being able to swiftly process your application.. 

PRIVACY POLICY:  We take privacy and data protection incredibly seriously and guarantee 100% the information you supply will be kept private and will never be disclosed to any third party unless we are legally bound to do so.  You can view our full privacy policy HERE.