All States Consulting Accountants Pty Ltd

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Terms of Engagement

TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT FOR PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTING SERVICES

Between All States Consulting Accountants (us or we or our) and The Client (you or your) as defined by a signed Service Agreement for the term specified.

  1. Purpose

This Terms of Engagement for public Business and Accounting Services (TE) confirm our understanding of the engagement and the nature, and limitations of the services provided.

  1. Term

2.1       This Terms of Engagement and provision of services will commence at the time you indicate acceptance of our services (as per signed service agreement and payment of initial invoice), and require a commitment for a minimum of 12 months, continuing for each financial year thereafter, unless services are ceased by either party, in writing, beyond the minimum engagement obligation, or the conclusion of the scope of work is fulfilled.

The scope of work will commence immediately to meet the current financial year compliance deadlines where required and agreed. We will not deal with earlier periods unless specified by the client and agreed by the service provider

  1. Objectives and Scope of work

3.1       We will provide you with professional accounting and business services in compliance with APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including Independence Standards) (the Code), and as indicated in the attached agreed scope of work outlined in your signed Service Agreement.

3.2       We will provide you with the stated tasks as outlined in the Service Agreement within the agreed time frames.

3.3       We will provide the scope of work output within the specified timeframe or within a reasonable period considering the context of the services.

3.4       Unless otherwise specified in this TE or Service Agreement, audit and assurance or review are not included in this engagement.

  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 (Fundamental Principles).
  • 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 Consumer Data Right (CDR), will be utilised and stored in an appropriate manner to maintain our professional standards and obligations.  Further information on privacy is noted in section 10 of this letter.
  • We will document sufficient and appropriate records of the procedures performed for the TE, which may be subject to the CPA Australia Best Practice Program assessment under APES 320 Quality Control for Firms.
  1. Our obligations
    • Our Obligations are as stated in the Terms of Engagement and Service Agreement in accordance with stated scope of work.
    • 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 to comply with industry legislative requirements.
  • During the course of our engagement, if we identify or suspect that Non-Compliance with Laws or Regulations (NOCLAR) has occurred or may occur, which may have a direct effect on material amounts or disclosures in the financial statements or compliance and may be fundamental to the clients ability to continue its business or to avoid material penalty, we may:
    • discuss the matter with the appropriate level of management, those charged with governance or the internal auditor, as appropriate
    • communicate the non-compliance or suspected non-compliance with the client’s external auditor, unless prohibited by law or regulation
    • disclose the matter to an appropriate authority even when there is no legal or regulatory requirement to do so; and/or
    • withdraw from the engagement and the professional relationship where permitted by law or regulation
  • Where appropriate, we will inform you of our intention to disclose the matter to an appropriate authority before disclosing the matter. However, if we have reason to believe that the actual or intended conduct would constitute an imminent breach of a law or regulation that would cause substantial harm to the general public, we may immediately disclose the matter to an appropriate authority to prevent or mitigate the consequences of such imminent breach of law or regulation.
  1. Your obligations
  • Your Obligations are in accordance, and as stated, in the Terms of Engagement and signed Service Agreement.
  • You are responsible for full disclosure of all relevant information.
  • You are responsible for your own record keeping relating to your affairs.
  • You provide us with information records relating to your affairs for completion of scope of works as outlined in the Service Agreement
  • You are responsible for the reliability, accuracy and completeness of the particulars and information provided to us.
  • You are responsible for retaining paperwork for as long as legally required.
  1. Third Party Involvement

7.1       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.

7.2       We will seek your consent if third party involvement is likely to exceed, or extend the scope of work, included in the fixed price for services provided (if applicable).

7.3       Acceptance of our services in conjunction with this engagement document indicates your acceptance of the use of outsourced services as described above.

  1. Fees, Billing & Trust Monies
  • If the engagement involves the use of trust monies, we will manage those funds in accordance with APES 310 Client Monies and as authorised by you in the Trust Account Authority Letter (if applicable) or as otherwise instructed by you.
  • Our professional fees will be calculated on a fixed fee or time-cost basis, which will be specified in the Service Agreement.
  • Our invoices may also include disbursements paid by us. These may include subscriptions, external audit fees, ASIC compliance, photocopying charges, telephone and facsimile transmission charges, travel fares and expenses, stamp duty and fees paid to third parties such as couriers, registration fees or fees for other professionals.  These may be in addition to the fixed price (if applicable).
  • Unless other payment terms are agreed in writing, each invoice is payable weekly, in advance, for reoccurring service provision arrangements or within 14 days of receipt, or as otherwise stated on the invoice. Cancellation of service agreements outside of the minimum contract period will be ceased at the end of the current weekly payment cycle and incur the full cost of the weekly fee.
  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 line 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 service provider, and the materials are required by your new service provider.
  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 for the primary purpose of this TE or to third parties by express consent or as required by law.
  • 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).  Your obligations may include ensuring your privacy policy and contracts include a reference to your collection practices, how you will use the PI and that you may disclose the PI to an agent for public accounting services.
  • Where an outsourced service requires the disclosure of PI to an overseas recipient, we take care to ensure that other third parties outside Australia to whom we disclose PI are subject to contractual obligations relating to privacy and the handling of your personal information and can only use the information for the purposes stipulated by us.
  • In providing services to you, we utilise accredited industry providers and systems using cloud computing and we rely on their security measures. We also store client information as per industry legislative requirement and subject to the Privacy Act 1988.
  • 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, except as otherwise specified in this clause, 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. You acknowledge, by engaging our services, information related to the scope of work may be made available under this assessment 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.

APPENDIX 1

The application of the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) is a determination that each public accounting service provider should determine for their own business and then provide advice to their own clients based on this determination.

The considerations and determinations you should make and the type of information you may wish to include in your terms of engagement:

  1. If your personal information 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 and the member collection notice.

Please note the above is general advice only. You, as a public accounting service provider, should consider whether the advice is suitable for you and your circumstances, and seek your own independent privacy advice.

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