Engagement Letters..

Engagement Letters..

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Hi,

I currently prepare Engagement Letters from a Standard template from my institute but tailored to each client's individual needs. Does anyone have a template that they use for all clients that can be signed by a client at a meeting, as opposed to sending out in the post after the meeting?

Would you be willing to share?

Thanks,

Murphy

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Kieran Phelan
By KPEM online
26th Nov 2010 10:06

Template

It's tricky to do this unless you have a template which can be tweeked easily whilst the client is meeting with you in your office. It is often the case that you establish what services the client requires at the initial meeting and then you tailor your engagement letter accordingly.

I would suggest using your institute version as a starting point, but perhaps move each service area to an appendix, which can be included or excluded as needed (e.g. appendix I - accounting services; appendix II - taxation services; appendix III - VAT services........etc)

The trickiest bit will be the pricing part. You could consider including a fixed price on a covering letter after the meeting once you have had an opportunity to establish what services are needed, the size of the client's business and the quality of the records.

If you tell me your email address I will forward something to you that you may find useful.

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Replying to vrickett:
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By Abbeybrook
25th Oct 2011 10:19

Engagement Letters Template

My Email is [email protected]

I would be grateful if you would email the templates you mention, I am sure it would be most helpful

 

Many thanks

Abbeybrook

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Universe
By SteveOH
26th Nov 2010 10:17

Almost...

I have a system where I have an engagement letter, schedules of service (one each for tax, vat, payroll and enquiry work) and terms & conditions.

So the client can take with them from the meeting the terms & conditions (which never need amendment) and the schedules of service which relate to the work I am doing for them (which in 99% of cases need no alteration).

I then have a template for a letter of engagement which is just over a page long and refers to the schedules and T&Cs. The template is highlighted with the bits that need amending. It only takes a couple of minutes to alter the template which can either be done in front of the client or by a member of staff while you are chatting about the weather.

The other advantage with this system is that each year you only need to send the short letter of engagement which just the dates updated and refers to the schedules of service that they already have.

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Replying to mikewhit:
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By Joolls-B
14th Aug 2013 22:59

Engagement Letter

I am just starting out in practice and wondered if you could forward a copy of your engagement letter. It would be much appreciated

 

Many Thanks

Email

[email protected]

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By pipper01
26th Nov 2010 11:53

Christmas sharing

Hi Steve

That system sounds really good - my clients hate receiving the lengthly novel I've been doing! Any chance you fancy sharing the templates??

Pip

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Giraffe
By Luke
26th Nov 2010 13:09

Do you re-do letter of engagement annually?

I don't and am wondering whether I should??

At the moment, they are all based on institute templates along similar lines with schedule of service and t&cs as appendices.  Each one says we will start with x period and also say the contract can be terminated with a month's notice so I assumed I'd wouldn't need to re-do every year.

What do others do?

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By noradh
27th Nov 2010 10:00

PII aspects

I understand that we now have to give new clients details of our PII arrangements. The engagement letter is a convenient place to give this info.

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By Mrs_G
01st Dec 2010 12:00

Sofware solution

Hiya

I got a bit tired of chopping and changing based on clients, as it took too long, at least half an hour, and was concerned that we lose track of versions. So I spent a couple of days sorting out a new system, and now it takes me about four minutes to assemble an engagement letter, so client can just have a cup of tea while I print it out.

1> In Word I created a template that has every possible clause I may want to include in an engagement letter. So it has all the standard clauses, clauses for accounts, tax, vat, payroll, tax credits, etc. It also has all the clauses in with "You haven't asked us to .....". This is relatively simple to do from the institute's template.

2> I bought a piece of software, where I mark each section as a standard clause. I'm sure there must be quite a few out there, but this is the one I use.http://www.infoware.ca/content/infoframe.htm?docassem.asp

3> With the same software I also marked up the fields which are variable. For example "You have asked us to prepare accounts from year ending [XXXX]." So software knows that XXXX is a variable date.

4> I then start my new letter of engagement. With the add-in I just tick which clauses I want to include, and they all drop into my letter of engagement with formatting, etc. I then click another button and fill in the variables, which are listed one after the other, so I don't have to search through pages and pages, and invariably miss one.

It is really quick. I hope this helps.

Edit

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By Laurence52
01st Dec 2010 12:12

Reply to Luke

Provided that your letter of engagement does not restrict the engagement specifically to one year, I doubt if there is any need to do an annual letter. The main exception being if the services provided change, or if there is a change in ownership of the business.

On a separate note, if you haven't already done so, check that your standard engagament letter complies with the EU Services Directive which has been in force for the best part of a year. Have a look at your Institute's website for their latest version of engagement letter.

For the non-regulated practioner (no audit work or insolvency work), I think the most likely changes are that the engagaement letter needs to disclose either fax number or email address, and for those with professional indemnity insurance which will be most of us, a requirement to state details of this. The ICAEW have provided this as a suggested disclosure:

In accordance with the disclosure requirements of the Provision of Services Regulations 2009, our professional indemnity insurer is [name of insurer], of [contact address]. The territorial coverage is worldwide excluding professional business carried out from an office in the United States of America or Canada and excludes any action for a claim brought in any court in the United States of America or Canada.

(Please note that in the ICAEW's original release on the Services Directive they mistakenly typed "claim bought" instead of "claim brought" - this has since been corrected)

The Institute do not expect us to reissue engagaement letters to existing clients for these changes. There are other requirements following the Services Directive, but it is likely that our exisitng letters would comply.

 

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By BigBadWolf
01st Dec 2010 12:32
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By ola.oladokun
02nd Dec 2010 12:38

Fancy Sharing?

 Hi Steve,

It seems to me that you've got the best form of engagement letter. I'll appreciate it if you can share. my email is [email protected].

Thanks!

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By beverly chester
02nd Dec 2010 13:03

Me To

 If you are feeling really generous can I have them as well please? Engagement letters are the bugbear of my life. I hate doing them and yours does sound a very sensible option. See what you let yourself in for!

My email [email protected]. (no e between the "l" and the "y" of beverly please! everyone does it and I do not get their emails!

Pretty Please!

 

 

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By help4u
02nd Dec 2010 22:03

Engagement letter

Something along the lines of what Steve uses is also available to members of www.help4accountants.co.uk but also they can help set one up specific to your firm in accordance with your professional institute's requirements very muich along ther lines Steve has explained.

 

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By Calladine1
04th Dec 2010 10:57

Engagement Letters

I use standard templates for Sole Trader, Partnership, Limited Co or Individual. although I don't issue the letter until after the first client meeting when I can determine exactly what work is to be undertaken.

In the template a list of services and requirements so it can be edited to include work areas, i.e bookeeping Payroll, accounts and self assessement.

I would only re issue a letter of engagement if services required by the client changes.

This seems to work quite well for me.

 

Regards

Denise Calladine

 

 

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Replying to AnonymousUser:
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By Joolls-B
14th Aug 2013 23:02

Letter of engagement

 

 

Would you be willing to share your templates, i have just set up in practice and would appreciate the help.

 

Many Thanks

[email protected]

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Image is of a pin up style woman in a red dress with some of her skirt caught in the filing cabinet. She looks surprised.
By Monsoon
05th Dec 2010 13:35

PII disclosure

We issue one engagement letter, and only send another one if the scope of the work changes, we don't send one annually.

In regards to the PII disclosure, we state this:

Our insurers for professional indemnity are [NAME AND ADDRESS].  This information is correct at the time of writing; up to date information is available on our website: www.domainname.co.uk/location.

This means that if we change our insurers part way through the year, we don't need to reissue the information.

 

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By ryanseligmann
27th Aug 2012 16:08

Engagement letters

Steve

 

In the same boat

 

Did anyone send you a standard template.  Need one for accounting services?

 

If you could share, that would be great

 

Regards

 

Ryan

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By Ade Anthony
17th Oct 2013 17:09

Letter of engagements template

Steve,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Please, if you don't mind can you also forward me the template.                                            Many thanks                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                A. Anthony     [email protected]                                                    

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