Terms of Engagement
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Introduction
Miller Gale & Winter Limited has been asked by you to act as your accountants and business advisers. These terms of engagement set out the conditions upon which we accept that appointment.
a) We agree to prepare Financial Statements and tax returns for you and any individuals or other entities associated with you from time to time as required.
b) We will not undertake an Audit or Review of the information you provide to us. Accordingly the Compilation Report disclaimer will apply to any reports we prepare for you.
c) It will remain your responsibility to ensure that the information you provide to us is accurate and correct, and that you provide us with the information we need in a timely manner. This includes advice of shareholding changes where we keep statutory records on your behalf as these can have unintended tax consequences for which we cannot accept liability if advice is not sought.
d) We agree to provide general business advice when requested by you, or when we believe that it will benefit you.
e) Where we prepare your GST returns you agree that we cannot be held responsible for incomplete or erroneous information provided by you. Where we file these GST returns you also agree that we file these on your behalf as agent and not as principal.
f) It will remain your responsibility to ensure that you have adequate insurance and ACC cover.
g) You agree to indemnify us for all costs incurred on your behalf in good faith.
h) You agree that this engagement is not relied upon to disclose internal control weakness, errors, illegal acts or other irregularities, for example, fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations applicable to you and any individuals or other entities associated with you.
i) You authorise us to communicate with the Inland Revenue Department about all of your tax affairs and those of your associated entities.
j) You also authorise us to communicate with your Bank and any other persons for the purpose of obtaining necessary information to complete your tax returns and financial statements.
k) You agree that your records and information in our possession which support our working papers relating to your entity’s affairs may be required by the Institute of Chartered Accountants for the purpose of the Institute’s quality assurance function.
l) You also agree that any working papers prepared by us in relation to this engagement remain the property of Miller Gale & Winter Limited.
In carrying out the engagement for you we will:
a) Keep you informed of all significant developments and information relating to you.
b) Take all reasonable care and skill.
c) Comply with our ethical obligations to you.
d) Use our best efforts to deliver the desired outcomes within agreed or anticipated timeframes and costings (see attached schedule).
e) Advise you which Director and/or team member will be providing the services to you. We will assign an appropriately qualified and skilled team member to carry out the engagement. Every engagement will be under the supervision of a Miller Gale & Winter Limited Director.
At the commencement of any additional work outside the scope of what we customarily perform for you we will send you a letter recording:
a) Our understanding of the services you require Miller Gale & Winter Limited to deliver to you. The scope of our professional responsibilities to you will extend only to these matters and for the duration of the additional work.
b) Our expected or agreed timeframes for delivery of those services, or particular parts of them, to you.
c) Our quoted or estimated fees for the services (if applicable) or the hourly rates that will be the basis for calculation of our fees.
d) We will assign an appropriately qualified and skilled team member to carry out the engagement. Every engagement will be under the supervision of a Miller Gale & Winter Limited Director.
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Fees and Charges
Our fees will be calculated in accordance with our estimate or quotation (if applicable).
a) All work done by this firm will be charged in units of a quarter of an hour, at the rates appropriate for the personnel working on the engagement.
b) While we offer a range of hourly fees for various assignments undertaken we are more than happy to discuss a fixed or capped fee with you should you prefer this option.
c) Any travel or other extraordinary charges incurred on your account will be charged to you along with your monthly fees, and are payable on the same terms. Where possible, these will be shared between more than one client, on the basis of time spent with each client during that trip.
d) A Nominal disbursements fee will be on-charged to you for small items such as postage, photocopying, Companies Office searches etc.
- Payment Terms
a) Payment of all fees is due by the 20th of the month after the date of invoice.
b) We reserve the right to charge interest at 1.5% per month, cumulative on any unpaid accounts where a satisfactory arrangement for settlement has not been reached.
c) In the event that our invoice(s) are overdue, we reserve the right to suspend the engagement until the invoices are paid, require payment for future fees in advance or terminate the engagement.
d) In the event we need to take recovery action from you, you will be liable to reimburse us our actual costs of taking that action (e.g. lawyers or debt collection fees).
e) We reserve the right to disclose your name and address to a credit agency to perform a credit reference or to undertake credit management processes if we deem necessary.
f) I personally accept responsibility for and guarantee payment in full of fees billed by Miller Gale & Winter Limited to me and any other associated entities or parties.
- Authorisations
I hereby nominate that Miller Gale & Winter Limited or any agent acting on their behalf can elect on my/our behalf that any document(s) is a tax advice document(s) for the purposes of the right of non-disclosure to Inland Revenue Department.
- General
If you have any concerns or complaints about our services please raise them as soon as possible with the Director responsible for the matter. We will endeavour in good faith to resolve the matter with you in a way that is fair to you and to Miller Gale & Winter Limited.
We may terminate the engagement and refer you to another accountancy firm where we believe that we are or might be placed in a conflict of interest situation.
Our relationship is one involving a very high degree of trust and confidence between us. Either you or Miller Gale & Winter Limited may terminate the engagement at any time if either of us believe that relationship has been undermined for any reason.