FREE Engagement Letter Template for Accountants, Bookkeepers, and CPA's
Outline your responsibilities and establish credibility with your client with our professional engagement letter!
Download Your Free Engagement Letter
Every accounting firm owner wants to impress first-time or potential clients. A client’s first impressions of your business could make or break a deal.
To make a good impression, you have to appear professional, communicate clearly, and make it easy for the customer to work with you.
You have to exhibit these qualities in all your interactions with your clients, whether it’s an in-person meeting, a phone call, or an engagement letter.
Our FREE bookkeeping engagement letter template will help you craft a professional accounting engagement letter that sets expectations and will impress, not confuse, your clients.
How will a solid engagement letter help you impress clients?
A solid engagement letter will help you accomplish 6 things:
- Present a professional image
- Establish credibility
- Set clear expectations
- Outline your services and fee structure
- Outline your and client responsibilities
- Mitigate risk by clearly laying out terms and conditions
Let’s take a look at each of these 6 goals:
Present a professional image
The first step to making a good impression on a client is to appear professional, competent and assured. An official engagement letter outlining all your terms and conditions is just the ticket!
But only if your letter looks and sounds polished.
An accounting engagement letter template, like the one we are offering, allows you to fill in your logo and information so you can quickly create a clear-cut, professional-looking letter.
Trust us – your clients will notice!
Establish Credibility
Secondly, you want to establish credibility with your client. They need to know that you are trustworthy and competent.
A clear, confident accounting engagement letter helps assure potential clients that you are capable and will do a good job.
Does a good engagement letter guarantee you will get the sale and client?
No – but we all understand the importance of initial impressions.
Promptly sending a solid letter of engagement will also let your client know that your accounting business is well run and organized.
Set clear expectations
Clarity is key!
The primary purpose of a bookkeeping engagement letter is to set the expectations of an agreement. You must clearly state these expectations.
If you don’t state your expectations clearly, you could run into confusion in the future.
If you state them clearly, your client will be satisfied, not confused, and more likely to keep working with you.
Having a clear initial engagement letter is one of the best ways to provide clarity and eliminate all confusion right off the bat.
Also, if you have a clear engagement letter that eliminates doubts about your agreement, you reduce your risk of litigation, but more on that in a bit…
Outline your services and fee structure
Your accounting engagement letter will help you clarify what services you will provide and how you would like to be compensated for these services.
A good bookkeeping engagement letter lets your client know exactly what services they can expect to receive from you, what you expect them to pay for it, and other terms and conditions.
If your engagement letter plainly outlines this information, it helps remove potential confusion and forgetfulness, saving you time, stress, and potentially an upset client.
Outline your and your client’s responsibilities
Again, the purpose of an engagement letter is to eliminate confusion and clearly state expectations for an agreement.
Your accounting engagement letter should outline not only your responsibilities but the responsibilities of your client.
For example, you may need certain bookkeeping or financial records from the client by a set time of the month in order to complete your tasks on time.
Or, you may state that your accounting firm does not include any procedures designed to discover fraud or theft and cannot be relied on to find those things, and that these is your client’s responsibility.
Stating clear deadlines and tasks saves you trouble, and maybe even a customer, in the future.
Mitigate risk by laying out terms and conditions
A clear, explicit engagement letter is your first line of defense when it comes to avoiding legal trouble.
An engagement letter is not a binding agreement like a contract, but it’s a written paper that states your terms and conditions and eliminates confusion.
That’s what engagement letters are all about.
An engagement letter can be a good safeguard to help you avoid confusion and anger, which could result in lawsuits.
An accounting engagement letter template like this one will help you make sure that you have all the bases covered so you can avoid unpleasant situations in the future.
Conclusion
Your first interactions with a customer matter!
First impressions lay the foundation for your relationship. It’s important to appear professional, clear, and polished.
Sending a well-written engagement letter will help you to do this.
It will also help you build a good relationship with your client and avoid unpleasantness by eliminating confusion and clearly stating expectations.
The sample bookkeeping engagement letter we offer at Financial Cents helps making and presenting a professional image easier.
Download your template letter today and continue building solid relationships with your clients!
We also offer other template letters for free download:
Download Your Free Engagement Letter
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