Privacy Policy

Effective July 31, 2026

Bergland & Gao, LLC ("the Firm", "we", "us") provides accounting, tax and compliance services to Chinese companies entering and operating in the United States, and operates an internal-only operations application called Belle Ops. This policy explains what information we handle, how we protect it, and who it is shared with.

1. This website

This website has no contact form and does not collect names, email addresses or phone numbers. It contains no advertising and no third-party tracking. If we enable website analytics in the future, we will describe the tool and its data handling on this page.

2. Information we handle in the course of our services

To deliver the professional services our clients engage us for, we handle client business records, which may include:

• Bank and credit card statements, invoices, receipts, and e-commerce or delivery platform settlement reports
• Accounting records, trial balances, journal entries and financial statements
• Payroll and employee benefits information
• Employer Identification Numbers (EIN), Forms W-9 and W-8, and related tax documents
• Business contact information for client staff, their customers and vendors
• Accounting data read from, and written to, QuickBooks Online companies that have authorized the connection

3. How we use it

This information is used solely to deliver the services the client has engaged us to perform: bookkeeping, reconciliation, financial reporting, tax compliance and related advisory work. We do not sell client information, we do not use it for advertising, and we do not use one client's information for the benefit of another client.

4. QuickBooks Online data

• We access a QuickBooks Online company only after an authorized administrator of that company connects it through Intuit's OAuth 2.0 authorization flow.
• Access tokens are stored encrypted on the Firm's own server and are never shared with third parties.
• Data retrieved from one company is used only for that company's engagement and is kept logically separated from other clients' data.
• Any write to QuickBooks Online requires explicit approval by a licensed professional of the Firm and is recorded in an audit log.
• A client may disconnect the application at any time from within QuickBooks Online (Settings → Apps → Disconnect), or by contacting us. Upon disconnection we cease API access and delete stored authorization tokens.

5. Use of artificial intelligence

The Firm uses the Anthropic Claude API for two narrowly scoped tasks: translating Chinese journal entry descriptions provided by clients' overseas finance teams into English, and classifying uploaded source documents by client, period and document type. Amount calculations, debit and credit balancing, and reconciliation are performed by deterministic code, not by AI. All AI output is reviewed by a licensed professional before use. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, data submitted through the API is not used to train models.

6. Service providers

We share information with these providers only to the extent necessary to deliver our services, and with government authorities where required by law or where the client has authorized a filing.

7. Security

The Firm maintains a written information security program (WISP) consistent with the FTC Safeguards Rule applicable to tax professionals. Measures include:

• Data processed on a single-purpose private server located in the United States; client data is not processed on personal devices
• Encryption in transit (TLS); credentials and authorization tokens stored encrypted
• Multi-factor authentication on administrative accounts; key-based server access only
• Least-privilege access; separate accounts for staff and automated processes
• Append-only audit logging; regular encrypted backups
• Original client documents retained unaltered; processed copies stored separately

8. Retention

Client records are retained for the period required by professional standards, engagement terms and applicable tax law — generally seven years — after which they are securely destroyed. Authorization tokens are deleted upon disconnection or termination of the engagement.

9. Your choices

Clients may request access to, correction of, or deletion of information we hold, subject to our legal and professional record-retention obligations. Requests may be sent to the address below.

10. Changes

Any material change to this policy will be posted on this page with a revised effective date.

11. Contact

Bergland & Gao, LLC | Florida, United States

jenny@bgusatax.com | Documents: docs@bgusatax.com