Watts Price Accounts – Terms of Engagement

This document is to confirm our understanding of the terms of our engagement and the nature and limitations of the services that we provide.

 

  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.

 

  1. Term

This TE will commence at the time you indicate acceptance and will continue until revoked by us or you or at the conclusion of the scope of work specified.

 

  1. Scope of Service

We will provide you with professional accounting services in compliance with APES Standard 110 Code of Ethics (Code), as outlined on the cover sheet and within the agreed timeframes.

  • If we are requested to provide other specific service(s) they will be the subject of a separate engagement letter and thus a separate fee.
  • We will provide the scope of work output within the specified timeframe or within a reasonable period considering the context of the services.
  • Unless otherwise specified in this TE or letter of engagement, audit and assurance or review are not included in this engagement.
  • We acknowledge that you may authorise an Accredited Data Recipient under the Consumer Data Right (‘CDR’) to provide CDR data to us via a Trusted Adviser Insight. We confirm that for this purpose you may nominate a Trusted Adviser and that they comply with the definition of a Trusted Adviser under the Competition and Consumer (Consumer Data Right) Amendments Rules (No. 1) 2021.

 

  1. Our Promise
  • 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.
  • We will seek to understand your requirements and provide you services confidentially and professionally. Any information pertaining to your affairs, whether it be provided by you, or through a Trusted Adviser Insight via the CDR, will be utilised and stored in an appropriate manner to maintain our professional standards and obligations.
  • We will document sufficient and appropriate records of the procedures performed for the TE, which may be subject to quality review by CPA Australia under APES 320 Quality Control for Firms.

 

  1. Our obligations
  • 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.
  • We have a duty to act in your best interests, unless this duty is inconsistent with our duty to act in the public interest.
  • We are responsible for maintaining records for a period of 7 years unless otherwise required by legislation.
  • If this TE involves taxation services, we will inform you:
    • of your (or your employer’s) rights and obligations available under taxation law, including any rights that might be available to seek a private ruling and the lodging of objections and appeals against adverse positions adopted by revenue authorities
    • of any possible penalties and other legal tax consequences to enable you to make an informed decision.
  • If the TE includes financial reporting, we have a duty to identify non-compliance that may materially impact your business’s financial integrity. We will first discuss our concerns with you, your internal auditor, management or governance office holders.  We may also decide, based on the imminence of a breach likely to cause substantial harm to third parties including the public, to notify a regulatory authority without raising our concerns with you first.

 

  1. Your obligations
  • You are responsible for full disclosure of all relevant information.
  • You are responsible for your own record keeping relating to your affairs.
  • You provided us with the appropriate information required to complete the tax records relating to your affairs.
  • You are responsible for the reliability, accuracy and completeness of the particulars and information provided to us, and, if the TE includes financial reporting, the accounting records and disclosures of all material and relevant information provided to us. Accordingly, any advice given to you is only an opinion based on our knowledge or your particular circumstances.
  • You are responsible for retaining paperwork for as long as legally required.
  • If the TE includes taxation services:
    • you have obligations under self-assessment to keep full and proper records in order to facilitate the preparation of accurate returns
    • you must retain paperwork for a period of five years after the assessment as you may be subject to an Australian Taxation Office review
    • you are responsible for checking the assessment before submission to ensure accuracy.

 

  1. Third Party Involvement
  • 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.
  • We will seek your consent if third party involvement is likely to exceed the fixed price (if applicable).

 

  1. Fees and Billing
  • If the engagement involves the use of trust monies, we will manage those funds in accordance with APES 310 Dealing with Client Monies and as authorised by you.
  • Our fees, which will be billed as work progresses, are based on the time required by the individuals assigned to the engagement plus direct out-of-pocket expenses.
  • Any additional fee for an additional service not covered in the scope of this engagement will be the subject of a separate engagement letter under separate fee arrangements.
  • Accounts for services provided will be forwarded to you as work in progress. Payment of any account is required to be made within 14 days, unless special alternative arrangements are made with us prior to the due date.
  • It is our requirement that the owners/directors of the business personally guarantee the payment of all accounts for professional fees, including out-of-pocket expenses rendered by us from time to time.
  • Our invoices may also include disbursements paid by us. These may include software fees, registration fees or fees for other professionals. These may be in addition to the fixed engagement price.

 

  1. Ownership of materials
  • You own all original materials given to us.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

 

  1. Privacy
  • Our collection use and disclosure of your personal information (PI) may be subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and accordingly we will only collect PI about you that relates to the TE. We may disclose PI about you with your implied consent 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 contact us on 5382 3001 or mail@wattsprice.com.au.
  • 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 1988 (Cth).
  • 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.

 

  1. Confidentiality
  • We have an ethical duty of confidentiality, which means we must not share or disclose your details of this TE to anyone without your consent unless required to by law.
  • 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.

 

  1. Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII)
  • We hold professional indemnity insurance of at least the minimum amount prescribed in the CPA Australia Ltd By-Laws or as required by law.

 

  1. Professional Standards Scheme & Limitation of Liability
  • We participate in the CPA Australia Ltd Professional Standards Scheme (Scheme), which facilitates the improvement of professional standards to protect consumers and may limit our liability to you in a cause of action.
  • The Scheme applies to professional accounting services including accounting, bookkeeping, taxation, auditing and assurance, insolvency and corporate reconstruction, management accounting, management consulting, forensic accounting, valuation services.

 

  1. Other
  • This letter will be effective for future years unless we advise you of its amendment or replacement, or the engagement is terminated.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Price
Gabi Freijah
Grant Kuchel
Lee O’Grady