Much as I am loathe to jump through hoops for things that keep bureauprats and our regulators happy but the rest of the world has managed to do without, I suddenly feel the urge to burden my clients with more paperwork for something they know nothing about and don't care about.
I'm sure my professional body has a 400 page letter of engagement that I could use, but I like my postman and don't want to give him a hernia. Does anyone have some simple GDPR wording or a simple terms of engagement letter template covering GDPR that they would be willing to share. I can pretty much guarantee that my clients will not read it, so hopefully minimal copyright infringement!
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Not yet - the last time I checked even our Institute (ICAS) didn't have a suitably worded one.
I looked today on the ATT website for an updated LOE. But the latest one is still April 2016.
So our professional bodies aren't going to look after us when the big day comes.
I'm waiting for the ACCA one to come out which is currently being revised but I have not been given a timetable as to when I might get the email advising it is ready to download.
ICAEW have published templates and guidance for engagement letters and privacy notices - available to all members here
https://www.icaew.com/en/technical/practice-resources/practice-helpsheet...
I found some on BrightPay's website -
https://www.brightpay.co.uk/docs/18-19/gdpr/data-processor-agreement/
That could definitely be very useful (at least from a payroll point of view). Thanks ScribbleD and thanks Brightpay!
STEP (I believe in association with some other professional bodies) has almost finished the preparation of fresh engagement letters taking on board GDPR and privacy notices. I understand they have been vetted by Counsel and should be out soon.
Engagement letters:
"These will need to be reworked to comply. The institutes are working on updating advice as confirmed by TaxAdviser: "‘Engagement letters for tax practitioners’ are currently being worked on jointly by AAT, ACCA, ATT, CIOT and STEP. The working party of these professional bodies is working towards issue of the updated guidance and template letters in early summer 2018".
>>> so they are all working together
See my article 'GDPR and the small accounting practice'
https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/tech-pulse/gdpr-and-the-small-accou...
PS>>> Simplydocs has just issued a GDPR privacy notice template which could be sent to clients.