Engagement letter software for accountants
- Expected total for the year
- $8,635
- Computed on this page from the inputs below
- Each instalment
- $683.33
- Computed on this page from the inputs below
- Deposit on signing
- $820
- Computed on this page from the inputs below
- Out-of-scope work, at the named rate
- $435
- Computed on this page from the inputs below
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs entered, by the method stated below it. Tickmarko publishes no fee scale, no tax rate and no professional standard: the hours, the rate, the discount and the late-fee percentage are yours, and the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own figures.
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The figures above start from a worked example ($8,635). Change any input and the answer updates as you type.
Download the Engagement letter software for accountants worked example (CSV)
An engagement letter is the document that decides how the year goes. Not the boilerplate half, which your professional body's template already handles, but the fee schedule: the fixed fee for the work in scope, how it is paid, what is due on signing, what happens when the client asks for something outside the scope, and what a late payment costs. Those five figures are what people argue about in March, and they are the ones most letters state vaguely. This worksheet works them out from your own numbers so the letter can name them exactly: the installment, the deposit, the out of scope rate applied to the hours you actually expect, the expected total for the year, and the late fee on one overdue installment.
The fee, and how it is actually paid
An $8,200 annual fee over twelve installments is $683.33 each, with $820 due on signing at a 10% deposit. Those three numbers are what a client remembers from the letter, and a letter that names them exactly is a letter nobody has to interpret in month seven.
Out of scope work, priced before it happens
Naming the out of scope rate is what stops the argument; seeing what it comes to is what makes you name it. Three expected extra hours at $145 is $435, so an $8,200 engagement is really an $8,635 year. If that number surprises you now, it will surprise the client more in March.
What being late costs, stated rather than implied
A late fee of 8% a year on a $683.33 installment thirty days overdue is $4.49. Small, and that is worth knowing: the value of the clause is that it exists and is named, not that it funds anything. Whether you can charge it, and whether you want to, is between you and your advisers.
Engagement letter software for accountants: common questions
Is this an engagement letter I can send?
No, and it is important to be clear about that. This is the fee schedule that goes into your engagement letter. The letter itself, its scope wording and its professional clauses should come from your own professional body's template, which is written for your jurisdiction and kept up to date in a way a calculator cannot be.
Why price out of scope hours you have not done yet?
Because naming the rate in the letter is what stops the argument, and seeing the likely cost is what makes you name it. On the worked example, three expected extra hours at $145 is $435, which turns an $8,200 engagement into an $8,635 year. If that surprises you, it will surprise the client more in March.
What late fee should I charge?
That is your decision and, in some jurisdictions, a regulated one. The sheet takes a percentage a year and applies it pro rata to the days overdue: on the worked example, 8% a year on a $683.33 installment thirty days late is $4.49. Whether you can charge it, and whether you want to, is between you and your advisers.