Engagement letters¶

An engagement letter says what your firm will do for a client, what you need from them, and your fees. In Firmdesk you write it from one of your templates, see it as the client will, and send it: the client reads it in their portal and signs it there, with the same e-signature as your other documents. Once it's signed, Firmdesk can set up what it says: the client's services and their deadlines, a recurring invoice for the monthly fees, and a draft invoice for the one-time ones. A proposal works the same way: it's a letter the client hasn't signed yet.

Engagement letters come with the Firm plan, and with a trial Firmdesk gives your firm. On another plan, the letters you sent before stay under Letters, can be emailed again or withdrawn, and your clients can still sign them; new ones can't be sent.

Letters carry your fees, so partners, managers, owners and admins see them (Letters, in the sidebar); the templates are for owners and admins. The letter's PDF, and its signed copy, are among the client's documents for them only: the rest of your team doesn't see them there. A letter is signed as the letter, from Letters: its PDF can't be sent to sign from the documents pages.

Your templates¶

Every firm starts with three templates, written to be adapted: Corporate year-end and T2 (a compilation engagement under CSRS 4200), Personal tax return (T1) and Monthly bookkeeping. Each says what you'll do and won't, what the client is responsible for, the deadlines and what happens when the CRA asks questions, your fees and billing, their records, their authorization for you with the CRA (and Revenu Québec), privacy and confidentiality, your liability, how either of you ends it, and that they sign and get documents electronically. The year-end letter also records what CSRS 4200 asks an engagement letter to: the year it's for, what the financial statements are for, the basis of accounting the client selects (a note to the statements describes it), the client's responsibilities and yours, and what your Compilation Engagement Report will say.

The templates are a starting point, not legal or professional advice: read them through as your professional standards expect, and make them yours before you use them. In particular:

The fees, and the line on your hourly rates for extra work.
Our liability: it limits your liability to the fees for the work a claim is about, where the law and your professional rules allow it. Confirm it with your professional liability insurer, or delete it. Québec's CPA code of ethics doesn't let a CPA limit their liability: the French model below has no such clause.
The dates you ask for: March 31 for a T1's slips and receipts (May 15 for the self-employed), and the 10th of the month for the bookkeeping's records. And the 30 days' notice to end the bookkeeping.
What the financial statements are for: the year-end letter says the corporation's management and shareholders, and its tax returns. Change it for a client whose lender or investors will read them.
Who can do a compilation: the year-end letter is for a firm allowed to perform compilation engagements under CSRS 4200 in its province. If yours isn't, don't use it as it is.
Go to Letters › Templates.
Click a template to change it, or New template.
Give it a Name (how your firm knows it), a Title for the client and the letter itself under Body.
Under Fees, add a row for each fee: a Description, the Service it's for, the Amount before sales tax, and How often: Once, or every month, 3 months, 6 months or year.
Under Services it sets up, tick the services to set up once a letter made from it is signed, and choose their settings, as you do when you set up a service for a client.
Click Save template (Add template for a new one).

A letter made from a template is its own copy: changing the template later doesn't change it.

Writing the letter¶

The body is plain text, and three things change how it looks:

A blank line starts a new paragraph.
A line that starts with # and a space is a heading.
A line that starts with - and a space is a bullet. Bullets in a row make a list.

Nothing else is interpreted: what you type is what the client reads.

Fields¶

A word in braces, like {client}, is filled in when the letter is sent. The list is beside the letter:

Field	Becomes
`{client}`	The client's name
`{operating_name}`	The name the client does business under, when it has one
`{client_type}`	What the client is: a corporation, an individual…
`{business_number}`	The client's business number
`{year_end}`	The client's year-end, like December 31
`{fiscal_year_end}`	The year-end the letter is for, with its year, like December 31, 2025: the first whose T2 isn't due yet (6 months after it) on the letter's date
`{first_name}`, `{contact_name}`	The first name and the full name of the person who signs
`{address}`	The client's address: the signer's, else the primary contact's
`{firm}`, `{firm_legal_name}`, `{firm_address}`	Your firm's name, its legal name (from the invoice settings) and its address
`{partner}`	The client's partner at your firm
`{date}`, `{year}`	The letter's date, like September 29, 2026, and its year
`{services}`	The services it sets up

A line whose field has nothing to fill in is left out: Your business number is {business_number}. disappears for an individual. So keep a field that may be empty on a line of its own. A misspelled field, like {clinet}, is pointed out when you save. The fields work in the title and the Message to the client too. A title can be at most 200 characters once its fields are filled in.

Send a letter¶

Go to Letters › New letter, or on the client's page, Services and deadlines › New engagement letter.
Choose the Client and where to Start from: one of your templates, or A blank letter. Click Continue.
Change anything you like: the title, the letter, the Message to the client (shown with it in the portal and in the email), the fees.
Under Who signs, choose the person. Only the client's contacts who can sign in to its portal are listed. When nobody can yet, Give Jane portal access gives it to a contact with an email address: the letter's email lets them choose their password. If your portal doesn't email clients, or they turned its emails off, send them their invite link from the client's portal page instead. A client with no contact yet (a prospect, often): save the draft, add the contact on the client's People tab, then come back to choose them.
Choose a To sign by date if you like: the day after it, the letter expires and can't be signed. Signed for the firm by is the name typed on the letter for your firm; left empty, it's the client's partner, else whoever sends it.
Under When it's signed, choose what happens once they sign (below).
Click Save and preview. The letter's page shows it as the client will read it, with the fields filled in. Open the PDF shows the letter they'll sign.
Click Send to sign.

Sending fills in the fields for good: the letter is now the words the client reads and signs, and it can't change. Firmdesk keeps the words as you typed them too, for Duplicate. Its PDF is added to the client's documents, under Letters & reports, shared with them, and the signer is emailed a Review and sign link. The PDF has your letterhead, the date, the client's name and address, the letter, the fees with a total for each frequency, and the signatures: yours typed, theirs completed by the e-signature.

What your client does¶

They click Review and sign in the email, or find the letter under Needed from you › To sign on their portal's overview, named Engagement letter.
The Sign page shows the letter itself, readable on a phone, with its fees at the end. Open it as a PDF shows the same letter as a PDF.
They sign it as they sign any document: they agree to sign electronically, confirm they've read it, type their name (and their title, for a business), then enter the code emailed to them. See E-signatures.

If it isn't right, they click Decline to sign and say why. You're emailed their note, and the letter shows Declined. To send a new version, open it, click Duplicate, change what they asked, and send the new one.

When it's signed¶

The moment the client signs, Firmdesk does what you chose under When it's signed, once:

Make … an active client: for a prospect, or an inactive client coming back, so its services get their deadlines and its recurring invoices run. For a spouse or a dependant, their household's main client is made active too when it isn't. Left off, the services get no deadlines and the recurring invoices are set up stopped until the client is active: the letter says so.
Set up the services ticked below: each service is added with the settings you chose, and its deadlines are worked out, as when you add a service on the client's page. A service the client has already is left as it is, and one that isn't for this client (a T1 for a corporation) isn't added.
Start the recurring invoices on the First recurring invoice on date: one recurring invoice for each frequency of your fees (a monthly one for the monthly fees, say), which leaves a draft invoice for you on each date. If the client signs after that date, the period in progress is billed first (signed October 3 with a start of October 1, October's invoice is made within the hour), never the ones before it.
Draft an invoice for the one-time fees: a draft, dated the day it's signed, for you to review and send.

The invoices are for the client's household's main client when the letter is for a spouse or a dependant. The letter's page then says what was done, like “Set up T2 and GST/HST; started a monthly recurring invoice of $450.00 from Nov 1; drafted invoice 1043 for $1,200.00.”, and you're emailed the same: the people assigned to the client who see billing (else the owners and admins), and whoever sent it. The signed copy, with its certificate, is with the client's documents. An automation can take the next step: A client signs an engagement letter.

Follow a letter¶

Letters lists your letters, the newest first, and each client's are on its Services and deadlines tab. A letter is a Draft, Waiting for signature, Signed, Declined, Withdrawn or Expired. A client with a letter waiting shows it on its Overview.

On a letter's page:

Where it stands lists what happened: when it was written, sent, emailed, opened and signed.
Email again sends the signer the email again, while it waits.
Withdraw it stops it: the client can't sign it any more, nothing it sets up happens, and its PDF leaves the client's documents (it stays with yours). Stopping its signature from the document's page, making the document firm only, deleting it, or removing the signer's portal access withdraws it too.
Duplicate makes a new draft from it, with the words as you typed them: its fields fill in again for the new draft's signer and date. To send a new version, or the same letter next year.
Delete draft deletes a letter that wasn't sent. A letter that was sent stays.

A letter with a To sign by date can't be signed from the day after it: the client's Sign page says so, the letter expires within the hour, its signature is no longer asked for, and its PDF leaves the client's documents.

Québec clients¶

Québec's Charter of the French language, as Bill 96 amended it in 2022, asks that a standard-form contract, which an engagement letter usually is, be given to the client in French first; only then can the client choose to be bound by a version in another language. For a Québec client, write a French template and send the French letter, or send the French one first. Ask your professional order or a lawyer how this applies to your firm.

Québec's CPA code of ethics doesn't let a CPA limit or exclude their liability: the model below has no Our liability clause, and a template you use for Québec clients shouldn't have one either if the code applies to you. Revenu Québec has its own conditions for signing its forms electronically, such as the TP-1000.TR-V: check them before you have one signed in the portal (E-signatures).

The words Firmdesk adds around your letter (the fees table, the signature blocks, the email, the portal) are in English. Here's a model to start your French template from, for a personal tax return. It follows the Personal tax return (T1) template, adapted for a client who lives in Québec:

A French model: Lettre de mission pour votre déclaration de revenus

Bonjour {first_name},

Merci d'avoir choisi {firm}. Cette lettre précise ce que nous ferons pour vous, ce dont nous avons besoin de votre part et nos honoraires. Elle vise la prochaine déclaration de revenus que nous préparerons pour vous, et celles des années suivantes, jusqu'à ce que l'un de nous y mette fin ou que nous convenions par écrit de nouvelles conditions.

# Ce que nous ferons
- Préparer votre déclaration de revenus et de prestations fédérale (T1) et votre déclaration de revenus du Québec (TP-1), à partir des feuillets, des reçus et des renseignements que vous nous remettez.
- Les transmettre par voie électronique, une fois que vous les aurez examinées et que vous aurez signé les autorisations (formulaires T183 et TP-1000.TR-V) que nous vous enverrons dans votre portail client.
- Vous indiquer votre remboursement ou le solde à payer, et sa date d'échéance.
- Faire les choix et les demandes qui conviennent à votre situation et que vous nous demandez, comme le fractionnement du revenu de pension avec votre conjoint.
- Examiner vos avis de cotisation à leur réception, et vous signaler tout écart avec vos déclarations.

# Ce que nous ne ferons pas
Nous ne vérifierons pas les renseignements que vous nous remettez. Sont en sus, sauf entente écrite : les déclarations des autres membres de votre ménage, la planification fiscale, les déclarations des années passées, la modification d'une déclaration déjà transmise, les réponses à un examen, à une vérification ou à une opposition de l'Agence du revenu du Canada ou de Revenu Québec, et les déclarations de taxes ou de retenues à la source d'une entreprise. Nous vous indiquerons leurs honoraires, ou leur mode de calcul, avant de commencer.

# Vos responsabilités
Vous êtes responsable des renseignements qui figurent dans vos déclarations, même si nous les préparons. Vous nous remettrez tous vos feuillets et reçus de l'année, et vous nous informerez :
- de tout revenu sans feuillet, comme un revenu de travail autonome, de location, de source étrangère ou de cryptoactifs;
- de la vente de tout bien, y compris votre maison : la vente d'une résidence principale doit aussi être déclarée;
- de vos biens à l'étranger dont le coût total dépasse 100 000 $;
- du revenu net de votre conjoint, dont dépendent certains crédits et prestations;
- de tout changement d'état civil, de personnes à charge, d'adresse ou de résidence au cours de l'année;
- des acomptes provisionnels que vous avez versés, et de toute lettre de l'Agence du revenu du Canada ou de Revenu Québec.

Vous examinerez vos déclarations avant leur transmission.

# Échéances, et questions des autorités fiscales
Vos déclarations doivent être produites au plus tard le 30 avril, ou le 15 juin si vous ou votre conjoint avez exploité une entreprise dans l'année; tout solde à payer reste exigible le 30 avril. Remettez-nous tout avant le 31 mars (le 15 mai si vous êtes travailleur autonome) pour que nous puissions les transmettre à temps. Si vos renseignements nous parviennent plus tard, vos déclarations pourraient être en retard, et les pénalités et les intérêts éventuels seront à votre charge.

L'Agence du revenu du Canada et Revenu Québec peuvent examiner vos déclarations et établir une nouvelle cotisation pendant plusieurs années après leur production. Nous vous aiderons à leur répondre au sujet d'une déclaration que nous avons préparée. Ce travail est en sus, facturé à nos taux horaires, sauf s'il découle d'une erreur de notre part.

# Honoraires et facturation
Nos honoraires figurent dans le tableau à la fin de cette lettre, taxes en sus, pour une déclaration comme celle dont nous avons discuté. Une déclaration plus complexe que prévu (vente d'un bien, travail autonome, revenus de source étrangère) peut coûter davantage : nous vous en informerons avant de faire le travail. Les factures sont payables sur réception.

# Vos documents
Conservez vos feuillets et reçus pendant six ans après la fin de l'année qu'ils visent : l'Agence du revenu du Canada et Revenu Québec peuvent les demander. Nous vous rendrons tout document que vous nous prêtez, et conserverons une copie de ce que nous préparons et transmettons, comme la loi et nos normes professionnelles l'exigent.

# Votre autorisation auprès de l'Agence du revenu du Canada et de Revenu Québec
Pour que nous puissions communiquer avec l'Agence du revenu du Canada et Revenu Québec au sujet de vos déclarations, et consulter les renseignements qu'ils ont sur vous, comme vos feuillets, nous demanderons votre autorisation : auprès de l'Agence, par son service Représenter un client, que vous confirmerez comme elle le demande, habituellement dans Mon dossier; auprès de Revenu Québec, par le formulaire MR-69 ou ses services en ligne. Vous pouvez révoquer ces autorisations en tout temps, et nous les révoquerons nous-mêmes à la fin de cette mission.

# Confidentialité
Nous protégeons vos renseignements personnels, comme l'exigent nos obligations professionnelles et les lois sur la protection des renseignements personnels. Nous ne les utilisons que pour vous rendre ces services, et ne les communiquons qu'aux gouvernements pour vos déclarations, à nos fournisseurs de services tenus à la même confidentialité, lorsque la loi l'exige, ou avec votre consentement. Certains de nos fournisseurs, comme ceux qui hébergent nos fichiers, acheminent nos courriels ou traitent les paiements, peuvent conserver ou traiter vos renseignements à l'extérieur du Québec ou du Canada, où les tribunaux et les autorités de l'endroit peuvent y avoir accès en vertu des lois qui s'y appliquent.

# Fin de la mission
L'un ou l'autre peut mettre fin à cette mission en tout temps, par écrit. Nous pouvons aussi y mettre fin si nous ne recevons pas les renseignements dont nous avons besoin, ou si la poursuivre allait à l'encontre de nos obligations professionnelles ou légales. Vous payez les travaux faits jusque-là.

# Signature et transmission électroniques
Vous pouvez signer cette lettre électroniquement dans votre portail client. En la signant, vous acceptez que votre signature électronique vous engage autant qu'une signature manuscrite, et que nous vous transmettions documents, déclarations et factures par voie électronique : nous déposons les documents dans votre portail client plutôt que de les joindre à des courriels, et nous vous écrivons quand il y a du nouveau. Vous pouvez demander des copies papier à la place.

{partner} est responsable de votre dossier chez {firm}.

Si cette lettre correspond à ce que vous attendez de nous, signez-la. Nous avons hâte de travailler avec vous.