We are pleased to accept the appointment as your
accountants and tax consultants. The purpose of this letter is to set out the
basis on which we are going to act and our respective responsibilities. If you
are signing up for one specific service, only the relevant services &
relevant service’s terms will be applicable to you.
1. ACCOUNTING – YEAR END ACCOUNTS
1.1 You
have instructed us to prepare your financial statements each year from the
record provided by you.
1.2 You have agreed that you or your staff will:
(a) Keep the records of receipts and payments;
(b) Keep the records of sales invoices and expense invoices;
(c) Keep all bank and credit card;
(d) Any other relevant information.
(e) Provide us the accurate information to prepare the accounts & Tax
Returns
(f) Provide us information on time
2. OTHER SERVICES
2.1 However, there are many other areas where we can
be of assistance and we shall be pleased to discuss any matters with you. These
other services include:
(a) Management
accounting, including such matters as cash flow statements, costing systems,
etc.
(b) Advice on Bookkeeping, Payroll services,
preparing financial statements, Trial balance reconciliation, preparing various
reconciliation statements.
For any other services, we may not be able to issue
a separate letter of engagement to reduce the admin work. Therefore the same
letter of engagement terms will be applicable on you for all the future
services that we agree in writing or by the email. You will be charged as per
the fee schedule, or fee agreed in advance for the services that you have
selected/opted. For any other services, you will be sent a separate invoice.
Please confirm in writing if you are unsure.
3. OUR FEE & SETTING UP A DIRECT DEBIT.
3.1 The subject of accounting fees is obviously of
interest both to us and to you. You as a client want to feel you are getting
your money’s worth for the fee you pay, and we must have fees that are adequate
to enable us to give a good service.
The fee we have quoted here is purely based on
the information supplied from your end. If you have provided incorrect
information, you are most likely to get an incorrect quote.
In much of the work we do, we are reasonably able to
predict how much time it should take, and are willing to make a firm estimate
of this fee in advance. Often it is impossible to predict all the problems we
are likely to encounter on the job. Hence, we will let you know at the end how
much time we have spent. In some cases, where the fee estimate was completely/materially
incorrect, then we will update you. e.g if we said it will take 20 hours to
complete the job and when we started work , we realised it will take 150 hours,
we will inform you of material change.
The fee we have agreed is based on the assumption
that the payment will be made by setting up the direct debit on the link above.
Where a direct debit is not setup by a customer/client, we will charge 10% fee
on top of the agreed fee.
Therefore, to avoid any confusion in relation to the
fee, it is necessary to setup the direct debit. If you do not have our details,
please request us.
Our fee must be paid in advance for all the work
that we are doing. In some cases, we may show leniency but in majority of the
cases it must be paid in advance.
3.2 Our fees are based on the time necessarily spent
on your affairs by the partners and staff involved. Some clients are billed at
agreed intervals, and our settlement terms are as follows:
a) Our fee/invoice must be settled within 7-10 days
of the invoice date or as mentioned on the invoice, or before the accounts due
date (where applicable). If the accounts due date is before the invoice due
date, the accounts due date will be considered as invoice due date. If the 10
day period is exceeded they are deemed overdue. If you are paying on a monthly
basis, you will be invoiced on the 1st of each month and you will be paying one
month in advance.
b) If fees are not settled within the due date from
the fee note date, on the 7th or 11th day (or soon after the due date) the
service charges will be charged at a minimum of 3% per month from the date they
became overdue, or as it is written on the invoice whichever is higher. Whilst
any amounts are outstanding, our firm reserves the right, at its sole discretion,
to suspend the provision of all services, including services provided that are
covered by separate terms of engagement. Where services are suspended all
obligations attached to our firm under all terms of engagement are also
suspended and no liability is accepted for consequential losses, late filing
penalties, interest or other charges.
c) All fee notes/invoice shall be deemed conclusive
of the sums due and payable to you under them and may not be challenged other
than in writing within 10 days of your receiving the disputed fee note
concerned.
d) Where you are unable to pay the invoice on the
due date, we have authority/right to refer your case to debt collectors or
legal team; you will be responsible to pay service charges, administration fee,
debt collector’s fee (a minimum of 20% to 50% of the outstanding amount, could
increase, depends on the age & value of the debt/invoice) and any other
legal fee that may incur. In the event of non-payment of our fees for services
rendered, we may exercise a particular right of lien over the books and records
in our possession and withhold the documents until such time as payment of our
fees is received in full.
e) Our fee is calculated as per the as per the
accounting year of the company (for limited companies). Say your company is
setup in January and your year end is in December, and we have agreed a fee of
£500 plus Applicable Taxes. The fee will cover the period from January to
December.
If you join us during the year, the fee for the
previous months will be charged. E.g, if you are a contractor/business and your
accounting year runs from January to December, Say, you joined us in the
beginning of July and we have agreed a fee of £100 per month, it means your yearly
fee will be £1200 a year (from January to December) Where either you will pay
us six months in advance from January to June, or we will charge you £200 from
July to December to cover the previous 6 months fee. And from the next January
you will start paying 100 every month.
When you join during the year, or after the year, we
have to do all the previous accounts & tax returns hence the above is
applicable. If you are a contractor and lose your contract during the year, our
fee will still be charged as we have to do the accounts for the whole year.
Where you decide not to pay because of lack of funds, we may freeze the
services and invoice you on pay as you go basis as per our fee schedule;
therefore it is your responsibility to confirm with us about pay as you go fee
as it may be more than the contractor’s fee agreed in advance.
f) For one-off tasks, you will be requested to pay
100% in advance. But in some cases where the amount/fee is higher than £5,000,
we will request 50% in advance to start the work and 50% before
filing/submission. We do have the right to hold the submission where the fee is
not paid in full and will take no responsibility for the late filing penalties.
Where the one-off task involves undertaking work for the company or business
accounting period gone, we reserve the right to charge for the full amount
upfront. So, for example, if you join us in June 2018 and the company accounts
are made up to end of May 2018, we would charge for the whole year up front. If
you are in your first year with us and leave part way through, our firm
reserves the right to charge for the remainder of the full year’s fees’. This
applies to both one-off tasks and our monthly fixed fee packages.
g) Regarding our fee, the direct debit has to be set
up on the following link within 7 days of signing this agreement. Where direct
debit is not set up by the client in 7days, I authorise Our firm to arrange a
direct debit in place using my bank detail anytime and has right to collect the
outstanding payment from my business/personal bank account ,credit or debit
card information our firm hold without notifying to me/client.
3.3 We enter into a trusting relationship. The
director/business owner instructs us knowing their ability to meet our fees. If
the Company/business is unable to pay our fees incurred from time to time for
whatever reason, the directors/business owner personally accepts the liability
for our charges. It is the responsibility of the director/business owner who is
signing this agreement, to inform a new director (where the company is sold,
transferred to some family members, etc.) about this clause that the new
director/business owner will be personally liable for our fee. Moreover,
Directors/business owner (existing, new) will be personally liable for any debt
they owe to our firm in any case, even where the company/business is liquidated
or has been struck off. We have full right to take legal action against the
director/business personally, for the outstanding fee.
3.4 Should you leave during the year; you will be
charged £150.00 plus Applicable Taxes per hour for all the services carried out
during our engagement including the initial meetings. This is usually
applicable to those who do not pay on a monthly basis.
3.5 This Letter of engagement will be renewed
automatically every year unless it is requested by the client. Should you want
to leave our firm for some reason, kindly inform us 28 days before leaving in
writing; The entire outstanding invoice must be clear before you leave.
3.6 Our fee is usually based on the turnover &
work involved. We /our system will provide you a quotation based on your
requirement and the information that you have supplied to us. If your turnover
goes up during the year, or you do not provide us information in the same
format as agreed at the beginning, it means you will fall into a different
band. Therefore, we will send you an invoice for the additional turnover &
work involved. e.g, If you say your turnover is £10K a year, and you will
provide us information on a software, it is implied we will quote you as per
the information supplied. If the year end, your turnover is more than £50K or
information is not supplied on a software, we do have right to charge you
according to our fee schedule. Therefore, it is your responsibility to supply
us the correct information at the beginning to get an exact quote, and to
inform us during the year where your circumstances are changed.
If you need any additional services (besides what
you are agreeing/signing) during the year, the same terms will automatically be
applied to you and we may not ask you to sign a new agreement to save time.
4. RETENTION OF AND ACCESS TO RECORDS
4.1 During the course of our work we will collect
information from you and others acting on your behalf and will return any
original documents to you following the preparation of your accounts.
4.2 All Original documents will be returned to you,
or must be collected within 3 months of us completing your accounts. Sending us
copies or electronic versions is cheaper, safer and quicker. Faxes, emails,
scan documents are all acceptable.
4.3 Whilst certain documents may legally belong to you, we intend to destroy
correspondence and other papers that we store which are more than seven years
old, other than documents which we consider to be of continuing significance.
If you require retention of any document you must notify us of that fact in
writing.
5. QUALITY CONTROL & CONFIDENTIALITY
5.1 To ensure a rapid response and cost effective
service to you, we, on occasions, employ sub-contractors, who may work from
home because of child minding requirements, or disability issues. They are
appropriately qualified and provide a valuable resource to the firm.
5.2 All our staff and sub-contractors are
professional and appropriately qualified. They are under a confidentiality
agreement.
5.3 As part of our ongoing commitment to provide a
quality service, our files are periodically subject to an independent quality
review. Our reviewers are highly experienced and professional people and are,
of course, bound by the same requirements of confidentiality as our principals
and staff.
6. HELP US TO GIVE YOU THE RIGHT SERVICE
6.1 If at any time you would like to discuss with us
how our service to you could be improved, or if you are dissatisfied with the
service you are receiving, please let us know, by calling us.
6.2 We undertake to look into any complaint
carefully and promptly and to do all we can to explain the position to you. If
you feel that we have given you a less than satisfactory service. we undertake
to do everything reasonable to address your concerns.
7. ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION
7.1 Internet communications are capable of data
corruption and therefore we do not accept any responsibility for changes made
to such communications after their despatch. It may therefore be inappropriate
to rely on advice contained in an e-mail without obtaining written confirmation
of it. We do not accept responsibility for any errors or problems that may
arise through the use of internet communication and all risks connected with
sending commercially sensitive information relating to your business are borne
by you. If you do not agree to accept this risk, you should notify us in writing
that e-mail is not an acceptable means of communication.
7.2 If correspondence is requested in paper format,
the disbursement charge of £100 per year is payable to cover the handling and
postage of the correspondence.
7.3 It is the responsibility of the recipient to
carry out a virus check on any attachments received.
7.4 It is your responsibility to update us where you
change your contact details, such as telephone number, home address, an email
address or any other contact details. We will not take any responsibility where
you have not updated us with any change of your personal details.
8. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
8.1 We will provide our professional services with
reasonable care and skill. However, we will not be held responsible for any losses
arising from the supply by you or others of incorrect or incomplete
information, or your or others’ failure to supply any appropriate information
or your failure to act on our advice or respond promptly to communications from
us or other relevant authorities.
9. LATE FILING PENALTIES
9.1 There are a number of penalties for late filing
of returns, etc. To ensure that we are able to meet these deadlines on your
behalf, we must identify when information has to be submitted to our offices.
We will not be held responsible for any penalties
arising where the information is not with us by the due date. If you are in any
doubt, you should contact us to check. Further, you are requested to reply to
our queries by return of post (within 3 working days). This is essential where
we are close to the deadline (within 30 days).
We need at least 28 working days to complete the
accounts, otherwise, an additional fee will be applicable. Where you need any
of them on an urgent basis, we may charge an additional fee for the extra time
and effort we put in.
9.2 We send reminders most of the times before
anything is due, therefore you may be getting emails and phone calls to ensure
you don’t miss any deadline. It your responsibility to allow us to provide us
the requested information on time, we will not be responsible for any penalties
especially where information is not provided on time from your end.
9.3 We get busy time to time; therefore, it is your
responsibility to allow us a minimum time as agreed while accepting the
engagement to perform the tasks.
We have right to charge you an extra fee, where the timescale
as requested by us is not given (despite of several reminders) to complete the
tasks. The additional fee charged for the engagement is based upon the Nature
of the work and Number of days provided by you to complete the engagement.
However, be in no doubt that we will always do our utmost to ensure that you
are not subjected to penalties. The additional fee will still be applicable if
the information is provided late and work is carried out after the deadline
date because the information was sent late to us.
If you have provided us with information to complete
the accounts, You will be charged for the work carried out by OUR FIRM.
10. ANTI MONEY LAUNDERING LEGISLATION
All accountants must comply with onerous duties
imposed by the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, the Terrorism Act 2000 and the Money
Laundering Regulations 2007 (the Anti Money Laundering Legislation), which are
intended to inhibit the activities of terrorists and other criminals by denying
them access to technical expertise. If we fail to perform these duties, we risk
imprisonment.
Before we accept your instructions, we may need to
obtain ‘satisfactory evidence’ to confirm your identity. In certain
circumstances, we may need to obtain evidence confirming the identities of
third parties, the source of any funds or other property, the purpose of any
instructions or any other matter. We may also need to obtain such evidence after
we have begun to act on your instructions, we may do this by electronic means.
We assume that our clients are honest and law
abiding. However, if at any time, there appear to be grounds to suspect (even
if we do not actually suspect) that your instructions relate to ‘criminal
property’, we are obliged to make a report to the Serious Organised Crime
agency (SOCA), but we are prohibited from telling you that we have done so.
In some such circumstances, we must not act on your
instructions without consent from SOCA. If SOCA does not refuse consent within
seven working days we may continue to act. If SOCA issues a refusal within that
time, we must not act for a further 31 days from the date of the refusal.
‘Criminal property’ is property in any legal form,
whether money, real property, rights or any benefit derived from criminal
activity. It does not matter who carried out the criminal activity or how
removed the property is from the original crime. Even if you are honest in your
dealings, if your property represents a benefit from someone else’s crime, we
must still make a report. Activity is considered ‘criminal’ if it is a crime
under UK law, no matter how trivial, and whether carried out in the UK or
abroad. For example, tax evasion is a criminal offence but an honest mistake is
not.
BUSINESS E-MAIL DISCLAIMER.
This email and any attachments to it may be
confidential and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it
is addressed. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author
and do not necessarily represent those of our firm. If you are not the intended
recipient of this email, you must neither take any action based upon its
contents, nor copy or show it to anyone. Please contact the sender if you
believe you have received this email in error.
USE OF INFORMATION
The information is used only for the specific
purpose for which it was provided except where you explicitly select to receive
other information from our firm. When requesting material or asking
someone to contact you, you may have the option to request other information
that may be of interest. You can opt out of receiving information from our firm
or request that your personal details are deleted from our systems at any time
by e-mailing us.
ACCURACY OF INFORMATION
We assume responsibility for keeping an accurate
record of personal data once you have submitted the information, but not for
confirming the on-going accuracy of your personal information. If you advise
that your personal data is no longer accurate, it will be amended (where
practical).
PROVISION OF INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTY
Information is normally only provided to a third
party if it is required to deal with your enquiry, but there may be other
circumstances where, we are required to provide information as a result of
legal process. We do not undertake marketing activities for third parties, nor
does it provide information to third parties for their own marketing purposes.
But we may time to time introduce products or services to our client who we
think are of your benefits.
RETENTION OF INFORMATION
The information is kept for as long as is necessary
to fulfil your request or deal with your job application. Where you have
consented to additional information being provided by us, your details will be
retained for a reasonable period of time.
DATA SECURITY:
We have robust security measures to make sure your
data is secure. All electronic data is kept on secure servers, and all devices
have adequate keys to be accessed by the relevant people only. All hard paper
documents are kept locked.
SECURITY BREACH:
In case of breach of security, we have procedures in
place to report this to data controllers.
OUR PRIVACY POLICY IS SIMPLE
We do not share any
personal information we collect on you with any other organisations or
individuals.
We keep all
information you provide to us completely confidential, no matter how or why you
provide it.
Only those employees and contractors we specifically
employ with relevant business duties may access personal information, and only
to perform their duties. They are strictly prohibited from any other use.
No personal information will be provided to any
third party, except for in the unusual event that we are required to do so by
law.
You may receive periodic mailings from us with
information on services or news. If you do not wish to receive such mailings,
please let us know by contacting us. All emails sent will give you the option
to unsubscribe.
We take all reasonable precautions to protect any
personal data that our users may input via this website. We cannot, however, be
responsible for loss or misuse of personal data which is intercepted or
otherwise accessed by unauthorised persons. We therefore exclude all liability
for this.
You have the right to ask us for a copy of your
personal data and have the right to amend or delete the data.
YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW
You can find contact details for our company
representative on our contact us page.
You may receive periodic mailings from us with information
on services or news. If you do not wish to receive such mailings, please let us
know by contacting us. All emails we send to you will give you the option to
unsubscribe.
We will retain your data until you instruct us to
remove it or decide to unsubscribe from our newsletter.
Your personal data might be accessed by web
developers and other contractors providing us with newsletter functionality.
Your personal data will be stored until you tell us
otherwise.
You have the right to lodge a complaint with the
supervisory authority.
It is not contractually binding to provide us with
your personal data to receive a newsletter from us.
Personal data provided via the newsletter
subscription form is not profiled and automated decision making is not applied
We will not use personal data provided via the
sign-up form for any other purpose than described above.
