Engagement letters set expectations for both the client and the party providing the service, it specifies the exact service or task to be performed by the firm and the information to be provided by the client. All engagement letters also generally contain various deadlines for each sub-task.
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.
The service provider typically prepares the Letter of Engagement, be it a law firm, accounting agency, consultancy, or any professional offering services.
The internal auditor and the auditee should agree on the terms of the engagement before commencement. The agreed terms would need to be recorded in an engagement letter.
The service provider typically prepares the Letter of Engagement, be it a law firm, accounting agency, consultancy, or any professional offering services.
When should the engagement letter be sent and signed? The audit engagement letter should be sent after verbal confirmation of the appointment of you as the auditor and ideally signed before the start of any audit work.
It is in the interests of both the entity and the auditor that the auditor sends an audit engagement letter before the commencement of the audit to help avoid misunderstandings with respect to the audit.
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.
An engagement letter is a written agreement between a company and a client. It describes the business relationship that is to be entered into between these two parties. The letter will contain details about the scope of the agreement, its costs, and the terms.
The engagement letter is a legally binding document and the purpose of the engagement letter is to: Specify the parties of the audit engagement. Define the scope of the audit, including the in-scope services and systems. Specify the timeline of the audit and related deliverables.