The service provider typically prepares the Letter of Engagement, be it a law firm, accounting agency, consultancy, or any professional offering services.
Who Prepares a Letter of Engagement? An engagement letter is drafted by the company rendering the service, often with the help of a lawyer. It is than presented to the client, and both parties must sign in order for it to be legally binding.
This is a legal contract between the law firm and the client setting forth the terms of the legal services to be provided and how the client will be charged for the services.
We are pleased to accept the instruction to act as your bookkeeper/accountant and we are writing to confirm the terms of our appointment. The purpose of this letter is to set out our terms for carrying out the work and to clarify our respective responsibilities.
While a proposal is focused on showcasing your services and convincing a client to engage with your firm, an engagement letter is a legal document that sets the terms of the agreement, including the scope of work and other contractual terms.
Your designated audit firm will prepare the specific terms of engagement using the appropriate AICPA-issued engagement letter template. It should be noted that there are many terms for audit engagements that are deemed required by the AICPA and therefore unable to be negotiated.
For an engagement letter to be binding, there must be agreement to the terms on both sides. The engagement letter is drafted and, in most cases, signed by the firm, therefore there is clear evidence of the agreement of the contents of the letter on the firm's side.
Engagement letters are typically created and signed at the beginning of a client relationship, though they may be reviewed, updated, and signed at a regular interval (often annually) for long-term relationships. New engagement letters may also be created for an existing client if the scope of work changes.