Terms of Engagement

This page is a plain-language summary, not a contract. Nothing on this website forms an agreement between us.

The binding document is the engagement letter for your engagement. Where this page and that letter differ, the letter governs — and if you spot a difference, tell us, because one of the two is wrong.

Everything here is information about a professional practice. It is not an offer, not advice, and not a promise of a particular result. Reading it creates no relationship between us, and neither does sending us an enquiry — that starts a conversation.

An engagement begins when both sides sign an engagement letter, and not before.

Every engagement, at every posture, has one, and it names at least these things:

• The scope — what we do, and what stays with your team. Anything not named is not in scope.
• Who signs off. Your management, at every posture — a named person on your side. We never sign off on the books or on any deliverable: that belongs to an attest engagement, which we do not perform — we get you ready for one and support you through it.
• The cadence and the cut-off — when we are due, and when you are.
• The fee, the basis it is calculated on, and what triggers a change to it.
• How either side ends it, and what happens to your records when they do.

How the three postures differ →

We do not perform audits, reviews, or compilations. Those are attest engagements and have to come from your independent accountants. Getting you ready for one and supporting you through it is what we do; performing it is not.

We do not provide legal advice, and we are not a signatory on your accounts. Where a question needs a lawyer or a tax specialist, we will say so rather than answer it.

The assistant on our ask page answers accounting questions as general information. Its answers are generated by a language model: they are not advice about your situation, not a service we have agreed to provide you, and not an engagement — nobody at the firm reads them before you do, and they can be wrong. Nothing it says is an offer, a quote or a commitment by Accounting Advisor, and a decision taken on an answer is yours. Where a number matters, engage an accountant — which can be us, under an engagement letter.

About the firm, the assistant is given the same published words as this website, including the published price list. Where it and a page of this site differ, the page is right; where either differs from an engagement letter, the letter governs.

The books are yours, and so are the underlying facts. We work from what you give us and what your systems hold; we are not able to verify that every transaction described to us happened as described, and an engagement is not designed to detect fraud.

Getting us complete records on the agreed cadence is the single thing that most determines whether a close lands on its date.

Automate Accounting is built and licensed by a separate company under shared ownership with ours. If you license it, that agreement is between you and them, under their own terms. Our engagement letter covers our work and does not license, warrant, or support their software.

Neither is a condition of the other. The full disclosure →

The firm operates from the State of Arizona. Questions about this page go to contact@accounting-advisor.com, or by post to 2828 N Central Ave, Suite 1000, Phoenix, AZ 85004.