Terms & Conditions

1. Turnaround Times: For requests you submit (preferrably via email), our goal turnaround times are as follows. However, there are numerous factors that could impact that time we are able to deliver, such as how long you've been a client, whether you have completed your Kickstart Transformation, and the complexity of the request: Tier 1 is five (5) days, Tier 2 is seven (7) days, and Tier 3 is nine (9) days.

2. Email Communication Preferences​: Email is the best way to communicate so we can thoroughly research your question(s) before responding. If you find yourself compiling numerous questions, we would be happy to discuss them all at once on your next virtual meeting call. Repeated phone calls, especially those within the calendar month but before your scheduled monthly meeting, may result in additional fees.

3. Software and Out-of-Pocket Costs: ​We are unable to bear the cost of any software or out-of-pocket costs. This includes (but is not limited to) QuickBooks, your job software such as BuilderTrend, BILL, Dext Prepare, Airtable, Bill.com, Melio, and any other tools deemed necessary for the success of your engagement with us. Invoices will be generated on a sporadic basis as costs become accounted for, not necessarily immediately when they are charged.​

4. We Are Not Auditing: ​It is your responsibility to provide all the information required for the preparation of complete and accurate accounting records. You represent that the information you provide will be accurate and complete to the best of your knowledge. We will not audit or otherwise verify the information provided, although we may ask for clarification if the information appears to be incorrect, inconsistent, or incomplete. Any reports we generate are for management use only and not to be presented to any bank or other financial institution as audited nor reviewed financial statements.​

5. Expiration and Termination of This Agreement​: We are able to honor the option offered herein for 14 days after the send date or until we revoke this offer, whichever occurs sooner. After that time, new pricing would have to be calculated. You or us may terminate this engagement at any time. Should you do so, however, you remain liable for all unpaid fees. We reserve the right to withdraw from this engagement at any time because of unpaid fees, the guidance of our professional standards, or for any other reason. We will notify you in advance of any decision by us to withdraw and will take all reasonable steps to assist in the orderly transfer of your accounting services. Otherwise, this engagement will continue monthly until further notice. In the event we are engaged for tax preparation and your returns are not e-filed, you will have final responsibility for mailing your returns to the applicable taxing authorities.​

6. What We Need from You:​ To perform our services, we will need to obtain information on a timely and periodic basis from you. These items include all the input such as check registers, bank statements, customer account information, customer invoices, sales ledgers and receipts, sales tax account information, vendor information, purchase orders and vendor invoices, federal tax ID number, payroll information, employee data, unemployment account information, and any other information that we may require to complete the work of this engagement. These items and any other items that we obtain from you will be based on information provided by you and will be used without any further verification or investigation on our part. You will automatically be prompted to upload new statements and it helps us tremendously if you can take care of these tasks within 24 hours. For each day we don't have materials we need, you can plan for an equal amount of time delay to receive your deliverable from us. If possible, we would love to be granted view-only online access to your business bank account so we can pull statements without bothering you.

7. Document Format: Whenever possible, please provide documents in their original source format, especially when dealing with Excel spreadsheets (as opposed to PDF or typed emails).

8. Payroll Setup: For a new employee payroll setup, please connect us with your new employee at least 10 days before their first pay day. Payroll is a complex and tedious process and almost always takes longer than expected.​

9. Document Retention​: You should retain all the documents, canceled checks and other data that form the basis of income, deductions, credits and payments shown on your tax return. These may be necessary to prove the accuracy and completeness of the returns to a taxing authority. We avoid retaining client documents to minimize risk of data hacking.​

10. Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts​: Certain entities may be required to electronically file Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) with the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Failure to comply with the filing requirements may result in significant civil and criminal penalties. Unless otherwise specifically agreed in writing, we will not prepare, file, or aid with this form. If you would like to add Form 114 (or any other forms or services) to this engagement, please use the Comments or Additional Requests space provided below.​

11. Confidentiality​: We strive to keep your data confidential and secure. You can expect client privilege, meaning we will only discuss your data with your designated representatives and no one else. Please assist us by limiting access to your electronic records and using secure passwords. Please change your passwords frequently and use words that are not in the dictionary.​

12. Scope Creep​: In our line of work, we find that clients frequently realize other ad hoc tasks that are valuable to them. These tasks, which are above and beyond the terms of our agreement, are defined as "Scope Creep" because it means the scope of our original agreement creeps into an expanded arrangement. We strive to meet all our clients' needs and expectations, but we must hold firm on providing what has been agreed-upon herein. Our preferred pricing agreements are based on time restrictions, and we must ensure we reserve capacity to serve all our clients and meet their expectations.
    Some examples of out-of-scope procedures include making significant changes to your Chart of Accounts, significant historical financial statements, repeated email requests for files already provided via email or Google Drive, and assistance with one-off grant applications (such as PPP).
    We are happy to entertain requests for services outside this letter and we will determine our capacity at the time of your request. If we can meet your needs, we will bill at an hourly rate of $250 per hour or we can agree to upgrade your service going forward so your new request continues on-going.​

13. Retrospective Accounting Adjustments​: Retrospective accounting adjustments for prior months are only available during onboarding, unless explicitly agreed upon in a separate engagement. This includes prior months that have been completed by us or any other person you may have worked with previously. Please carefully review your financial reports when they are issued to you so we can make any adjustments as soon as possible. Once the month is reconciled and closed, we assume you approve of the way things are recorded. If you later change your mind and request items to be reclassified, we reserve the right to quote those services under a separate engagement.​

14. Meeting Time Slots​: Your time is valuable and so is ours. As such, we follow a 24-hour cancellation/reschedule policy. We will make every effort to inform you at least 24 hours in advance of any necessary change to our meeting time and we appreciate your willingness to do as well. Click here to read more about Meetings in our Ops Manual.​

15. Changes to Terms​: We reserve the right to change the terms of the engagement at any time. We will always go above and beyond to provide exemplary client service, but we would like to remind you that you may terminate this agreement at any time should you not agree to the new terms. Any material changes to the terms will be communicated through email. ​

16. System Changes​: When you commence an engagement with us, we carefully consider the systems you have in place and how many resources our Firm needs to allocate to your engagement. Please consult with us before you change the systems you use. Some examples could include switching from BuilderTrend to CoConstruct, switching from Authorize.Net to Stripe, or switching from one bank to another. We will only be able to support one job software tool of your choice, so implementation of a new system has to be planned swiftly. Changes such as these will require us to re-estimate and re-price your engagement based on the new resources required.​

17. Kickstart​ Transformation: The kickstart transformation process is expected to take up to three months. The time cost of the kickstart is significant as we work to get you caught up and integrated into our systems. Sometimes, we find that we must backtrack to prior months and/or years to correct mistakes from other bookkeepers. As such, this process can take several months before you really start to realize the critical contributions we can make to your practice. Historical bookkeeping comes at a high cost of time and resources for our Firm. You may opt for us to ignore bookkeeping prior to the first day of your fiscal year (January 1, for most clients) but any year in which we do tax work will require a clean set of books in its entirety. If kickstart requires us to go above the standard hourly limitations, we will be forced to charge for the extra time.​

18. Travel Expense Policy​: We understand that you may need us to travel to your office for meetings, especially for onboarding. In order to cover the cost of airfare, mileage, meals, lodging, and clearing our calendar of other client meetings, we will require $1,500 for every day we spend at your office. Travel to your office is included on a pre-arranged basis for which both of our calendars align. If you need us to travel to your office on an urgent basis, we will do our best to accommodate your request, but we may not be able to do so without incurring additional charges. Please try to request our travel at least a month in advance. We appreciate your understanding of our travel expense policy.

19. Holidays and Personal Time Off​: In order to retain our team members, we must offer holidays and personal time off just like any other company. As such, you can expect us to observe all United States federal holidays. We will make every effort to deliver our work product as close to the deadline as possible, even with the holiday, but please be patient around this time so we can give our team members the time they deserve with their family. For personal time off, we will make every effort to cover our team members with a backup so you notice minimal disruption leading up to a deadline.​

20. Operations Manual​: In order to standardize your experience, we supplement this engagement letter with our Operations Manual ("Ops Manual"). The Ops Manual is a more extensive document that guides both you as the client and us as the practitioner in our day-to-day tasks. It is referred to frequently and updated often, feel free to check it out: Operations Manual​

21. Payment Terms​: The initial payment is due upon the start date of this proposal. The card/ACH used will continue to be billed automatically every month going forward, until either one of us notifies the other of cancellation. This stored payment method will also be used for any incidental charges that might arise out-of-scope of this agreement, such as Rush Fees. Work will cease immediately upon non-payment.

22. Verification of Engagement Inputs and Right to Re-Pricing or Termination: ​We strive to provide accurate and fair pricing based on the information you provide during the engagement pricing survey. To ensure the integrity and accuracy of this information, we will reserve the right to check the data input on your engagement letter pricing calculation at any time. If we have inaccurate data, we will recalculate the pricing based on the new data related to your account.

23. Background Checks and Public Information: We reserve the right to review background checks, court cases, and other public information as part of our engagement process.​

24. Term​: Our engagements are designed to operate on a calendar year basis. You can expect us to reach out within three months of year-end to collect your feedback on your service plan and offer new options for the coming year. In the event we don’t reach out or do not sign a new agreement, this one will continue on an automatic renewal basis on a weekly basis until either party requests changes, at which a new engagement letter will be proposed.

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