Alternatives to ACCA Engagement Letters?

Seeking alternatives to ACCA Engagement Letters

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I'm setting up in Public Practice and working hard to get the background infrastructure in place.  I have FCCA status from working in industry and finding ACCA not as proactive as I'd like through my PC application to ensure I'm fully compliant before I set off on the public practice journey.

ACCA offer engagement letters via their website at £30 per letter which seems a bit steep in my opinion.  After all I've paid my annual membership fee and PC application fee too.

Are there (free) alternatives to the ACCA engagement letter templates that I can utilise?  Where can I source them?  Should I include my terms and conditions within the engagement letters or refer potential clients to my website? 

Thanks in advance,

Replies (9)

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By Moonbeam
26th Mar 2019 11:49

I am shocked that ACCA want a paying member to pay again for this vital stuff. Surely that's what your sub should be for.
I'm an ATT and I use their suggested engagement letters. They are regularly updated and would be similar to all the major accountancy bodies' letters. (I think they're written by a committee of all the bodies.) The letters are free to download from the Association of Taxation Technicians website - Members in Practice area.

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By CazzyT
26th Mar 2019 11:50

I believe the £30 covers the whole suite of letters - at least it did when I purchased them - and it is well worth the expense.

We have tailored some of the letters to more suit our circumstances / preference but I was much happier knowing they included everything I needed as advised by ACCA.

We also received a really useful update re MTDfV which I would have had to write myself otherwise.

I think terms and conditions will be a matter of preference. I prefer to have it all within one letter.

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Intercity
By Mr Hankey
26th Mar 2019 11:54

I got my engagement letters from ACCA, and its £30 in total, not £30 per letter!

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By Moonbeam
26th Mar 2019 11:57

It's good to know the expense is lower, but ATT letters will be almost identical and free.

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blue
By mg200
26th Mar 2019 12:08

We use ICAEW, which is free. But I suspect that you

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blue
By mg200
26th Mar 2019 12:08

We use ICAEW, which is free. But I suspect that you

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Scooby
By gainsborough
26th Mar 2019 14:43

I use CIOT's which is also free.

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By Sky_accounts
26th Mar 2019 21:28

That's a relief that it's £30 for the suite of letters. It still begs the question why they are chargeable under ACCA when other accounting bodies offer them FOC.

Thanks for the advice. I'm sure I'll have more questions during startup phase.

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Replying to Sky_accounts:
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By Mr_awol
27th Mar 2019 12:33

Sky_accounts wrote:

That's a relief that it's £30 for the suite of letters. It still begs the question why they are chargeable under ACCA when other accounting bodies offer them FOC.

Thanks for the advice. I'm sure I'll have more questions during startup phase.

ACCA website says:

ACCA wrote:

In partnership with VS Consultancy, we have produced engagement letter templates that can form the basis of a contract between practitioner and client to cover a variety of scenarios.

I imagine the other bodies have written/commissioned their own templates, whereas ACCA seem to have subbed it out and may well incur some form of licence/royalty fee to VS consultancy based upon the number of member firms using the template pack. I'm just guessing, however.

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