Free template

An engagement letter template you can adapt this afternoon

Most templates are either a one-page stub that settles nothing or forty pages of boilerplate nobody reads. This one is the middle: short enough to send, specific enough to rely on.

The version below is deliberately generic, because the clauses that change between a bookkeeping engagement and an audit are fewer than you would think. Scope, exclusions, fees, records, termination and confidentiality carry almost all the weight in any professional engagement.

What makes a template work is not its length. It is whether the person sending it edits the scope paragraph properly, and whether the client signs it before the work starts rather than after the invoice is queried.

Free download

Engagement letter template

The full letter as a PDF, written for Canada, with the parts you fill in marked.

Download the PDF

No email required. Or fill one in and we will complete it for you.

How to adapt it without breaking it

Four edits turn this from a template into your letter. The rest can stay as written for most engagements.

1

Replace the scope paragraph entirely

This is the one paragraph you should never reuse verbatim. Name the service, the entity, the period and the deliverable. If you cannot write it in one plain sentence, the engagement is not defined yet.
2

Write exclusions from your last three arguments

The best source of exclusions is your own history: whatever a client assumed was included last year goes in the list this year. That is how a template becomes a firm's template.
3

Set a records deadline you will actually enforce

A date with no consequence attached is decoration. Say what happens when records arrive late — the deadline moves, or the fee changes, or both.
4

Check the retention period against your own obligations

The template says a number of years. Yours is set by your professional body, by PIPEDA or its provincial equivalent and sometimes by the engagement itself, and it is usually longer than firms expect.

The template, in full

Written for Canada. The download is the same text as a PDF you can put on your letterhead.

[Firm letterhead]

[Date]

[Client name]
[Client address]

Dear [Client contact],

What this letter does

This letter records the terms on which [Firm name] will act for [Client name]. It takes effect when you return a signed copy, or when we begin the work described below with your agreement, whichever is first.

The work

We will [service, entity, period, deliverable — one plain sentence].

We are not providing [exclusions]. Nothing in this letter obliges us to perform work outside that description, and we will not begin any until it is agreed in writing.

What we need from you

You will provide complete and accurate records by [date], and tell us promptly about anything that changes the picture. We rely on what you give us and do not audit it unless the scope above says we do.

Fees and billing

[Fixed fee of / hourly rate of] [amount] in Canadian dollars, invoiced [when], payable within [number] days. Work outside the scope is quoted separately before it starts.

Standards we work to

We perform this engagement in accordance with the CPA Canada Handbook and the ethical requirements of our profession.

Ending it, and your records

Either of us may end this engagement on [number] days' written notice. Fees for work already done remain payable. We return your records on request; our working papers remain ours.

Confidentiality and data

We keep your information confidential except where the law or our professional body requires disclosure, hold it in accordance with PIPEDA or its provincial equivalent, and retain it for [number] years.

Your agreement

Please return one signed copy.

[Name], [Firm name]

Agreed for [Client name]:

Signature ______________________ Date ____________

Before you use this

Supplied as-is, with no guarantee. These templates are general information, not legal advice, and not a substitute for it. Have your own legal adviser review and adapt one to your practice and your jurisdiction before you put it in front of a client. FirmHello accepts no responsibility or liability for any use made of them.

Three ways a good template still fails

Sent as an attachment nobody opens

A letter in a PDF attached to a long email is a letter that will be read in six months, during the argument. Put it somewhere the client has to act on it.

Edited in Word, then lost

The signed version and the draft end up in the same folder with similar names. Two years later nobody can say which one was agreed.

Never revisited when the work changes

The engagement grows through the year — a second entity, an extra filing, some advisory work. The letter describes January and the work describes November.

Other engagement letters

What it is Engagement letters Bookkeeping Bookkeeping Accounting Accounting

Questions about using the template

Can I use this template commercially, in my own practice?

Yes. Adapt it, put it on your letterhead, use it with as many clients as you like. There is no attribution requirement and no licence to accept. We would rather firms sent a decent letter than no letter.

Is it specific to my country?

The edition you are reading is written for Canada and refers to the CPA Canada Handbook and PIPEDA or its provincial equivalent. Use the country picker if you need another edition.

Does it work for a one-off piece of work?

Yes, and that is where it matters most. Recurring clients tolerate a vague letter for years; a one-off engagement is where an undefined scope turns into an unpaid invoice.

Should I have a lawyer look at it?

Yes, before you use it. It is a starting point written by people who build software for firms, not legal advice, and your own adviser will know what your jurisdiction and your professional body require.

The letter is the easy half

Sending it, getting it back signed, and finding it again in two years is the half that eats the week. That is what the portal is for.

No card and no sales call. If you would rather tell us about your firm first, use the longer form.