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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The engagement letter is required to be signed by those that are deemed authorized representatives of the engaging party. For an audit firm, the engagement letter should be signed by one of the partners of the firm.