TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT FOR PUBLIC ACCOUNTING SERVICES
Between HD Accounting Services (us or we or our) and {q2_fullname0} (you or your) for the Term specified.
1. Purpose
This Terms of Engagement for Public Accounting Services (TE) confirms our understanding of the engagement and the nature and limitations of services provided.
2. Term
2.1 This TE will commence at the time you indicate acceptance and will continue until revoked by us or you.
3. Objectives and Scope of work
3.1 We will provide you with professional accounting services in compliance with APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including Independence Standards) (the Code), including but not limited to:
· accounting and tax services
· bookkeeping services
· transactional accounting
· business advisory
3.2 We will provide you with the following output including but not limited to accounting reports, Business Activity Statement submission reports, Financial Statement Reports, Taxation Return submission report, or other as specified within the agreed time frames.
3.3 We will provide the scope of work output within the specified timeframe or within a reasonable period considering the context of the services.
3.4 Unless otherwise specified in this TE or letter of engagement, audit and assurance or review are not included in this engagement.
4. Our Promise
4.1 We will perform procedures (guided by the APES suite of standards) required that are directly related to the engagement consistent with our fundamental principles of integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality, professional behaviour, and identifying, avoiding and dealing with conflicts of interests (Fundamental Principles).
4.2 We will seek to understand your requirements and provide you services confidentially and professionally.
4.3 We will document sufficient and appropriate records of the procedures performed for the TE, which may be subject to the CPA Best Practice Program under APES 320 Quality Control for Firms.
5. Our obligations
5.1 We are obliged to consider whether our clients create any threats to compliance with our Fundamental Principles and where we cannot reduce the risk to an acceptable level we are obliged to cease the TE under the Code (section 320) to decline or cease the client engagement.
5.2 We have a duty to act in your best interests, unless this duty is inconsistent with our duty to act in the public interest.
5.3 We are responsible for maintaining records for a period of five-year unless otherwise required by legislation.
5.4 We have a duty to conduct customer due diligence under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act) for specific services provided. Accordingly, before providing these services we may ask you for records to verify your identity. Where you are representing a company or trust, we may also request information regarding previous transactions, including details of where money has come from and third parties involved. We also have a duty to monitor and report suspicious transactions or activity.
5.5 During the course of our engagement, if we identify or suspect that Non-Compliance with Laws or Regulations (NOCLAR) has occurred or may occur, which may have a direct effect on material amounts or disclosures in the financial statements or compliance and may be fundamental to your ability to continue its business or to avoid material penalty, we may:
5.5.1 discuss the matter with the appropriate level of management, those charged with governance or the internal auditor, as appropriate
5.5.2 communicate the non-compliance or suspected non-compliance with your external auditor, unless prohibited by law or regulation
5.5.3 disclose the matter to an appropriate authority even when there is no legal or regulatory requirement to do so; and/or
5.5.4 withdraw from the engagement and the professional relationship where permitted by law or regulation
5.6 Where appropriate we will inform you of our intention to disclose the matter to an appropriate authority before disclosing the matter. However, if we have reason to believe that the actual or intended conduct would constitute an imminent breach of a law or regulation that would cause substantial harm to the general public, we may immediately disclose the matter to an appropriate authority in order to prevent or mitigate the consequences of such imminent breach of law or regulation.
6. Your obligations
6.1 You are responsible for full disclosure of all relevant information.
6.2 You are responsible for your own record keeping relating to your affairs.
6.3 You provided us with accounting and tax records relating to your affairs.
6.4 You are responsible for the reliability, accuracy and completeness of the particulars and information provided to us.
6.5 You are responsible for retaining paperwork for as long as legally required.
7. Third Party Involvement
7.1 We may from time to time engage third party specialist professionals and other public practitioners, where warranted to obtain the advice you need or to assist us to provide our service to you. These may include cloud service providers and outsourced service providers.
7.2 We will seek your consent if third party involvement is likely to exceed the fixed price (if applicable).
7.3 Acceptance of our services in conjunction with this engagement document indicates your acceptance of the use of outsourced services as described above.
8. Fees, Billing & Trust Monies
8.1 If the engagement involves the use of trust monies, we will manage those funds in accordance with APES 310 Client Monies and as authorised by you in the Trust Account Authority Letter (if applicable) or as otherwise instructed by you.
8.2 Our professional fees will be calculated on a time-cost basis unless otherwise quoted, which will be specified in the letter of engagement. If no method is specified, our fees will be calculated on a time-cost basis at an appropriate hour rate for the services provided.
8.3 Our invoices may also include disbursements paid by us. These may include photocopying charges, telephone and facsimile transmission charges, travel fares and expenses, stamp duty and fees paid to third parties such as couriers, registration fees or fees for other professionals. These may be in addition to the fixed price (if applicable).
8.4 Unless other payment terms are agreed, each invoice is payable within 14 days of receipt.
9. Ownership of materials
9.1 You own all original materials given to us.
9.2 We own all materials produced by us that resulted from our skill and attention to the extent that the materials produced by us incorporate any original materials you give to us.
9.3 We may exercise a lien of your documents in our possession in the event of a dispute, which will be handled in accordance with our firm’s dispute resolution process.
9.4 Subject to the payment of all outstanding professional fees and disbursements owing to us, we will provide you with materials produced by us for you in the event you engage the services of another practitioner and the materials are required by your new practitioner.
10. Privacy
10.1 Our collection use and disclosure of your personal information (PI) may be subject to the Privacy Act 2020 and accordingly we will only collect PI about you that relates to the TE. We may disclose PI about you for the primary purpose of this TE or to third parties by express consent or as required by law. If you would like to access any PI we might hold about you please contact us.
10.2 We may collect PI about you, your representatives, your clients and others when we provide services to you. If we do, you agree to work with us to ensure that we both meet our respective obligations under the Privacy Act 2020. Your obligations may include ensuring your privacy policy and contracts include a reference to your collection practices, how you will use the PI and that you may disclose the PI to an agent for public accounting services.
10.3 Where an outsourced service requires the disclosure of PI to an overseas recipient, we take care to ensure that other third parties outside New Zealand to whom we disclose PI are subject to contractual obligations relating to privacy and the handling of your personal information and can only use the information for the purposes stipulated by us
10.4 In providing our services to you, we utilise Xero Tax using cloud computing provided by Xero Limited and we rely on their security measures.
10.5 If your PI is disclosed to CPA Australia for the purpose of conducting a CPA Australia Best Practice Program assessment on the services provided, your personal information will be handled by CPA Australia as outlined in the CPA Australia Privacy Policy.
11. Confidentiality
11.1 We have an ethical duty of confidentiality, which means we must not share or disclose your details of this TE to anyone, except as otherwise specified in this clause, without your consent unless required to by law.
11.2 We may disclose your personal and confidential information details, as part of our working papers of the services provided to you, to CPA Australia Ltd, (if requested) for the purposes of conducting a CPA Australia Best Practice Program assessment aimed at maintaining high industry professional standards. Any such disclosure of confidential information does not change any of our commitments to safeguard your information, and the information remains subject to any existing confidentiality obligations. We advise you by signing this letter you acknowledge, our engagement files relating to this assessment will be made available under this program.
12. Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII)
12.1 We hold professional indemnity insurance of at least the minimum amount prescribed in the CPA Australia Ltd By-Laws or as required by law. Our PII cover at the time of this TE is with QBE Insurance (Australia) Limited.
13. Other
This letter will be effective for future years unless we advise you of its amendment or replacement, or the engagement is terminated.