We've updated our engagement letter, and because you'll be asked to sign the new version, we want you to know what actually changed before reviewing. This guide covers every change that matters, compared against the letter you signed. It's written to be read, not skimmed, but if you only have two minutes, the section headings will carry you through.
One housekeeping note up front: this guide is a summary for your convenience. The engagement letter itself is the agreement, and where this guide and the letter differ, the letter governs.This summary does not omit your obligation to review the engagement letter. If anything here raises a question, ask us.
WHY WE UPDATED IT
The old letter had some problems that only showed up over time: a few terms were vague enough that they could be read differently, elimination of some discrepancies, and several things we actually do — like recording meetings for accurate notes — weren't described at all. The new letter says what we do, plainly, and in one place. Much of what follows makes existing practice explicit rather than changing it. Where something genuinely changed, we say so directly.
THE CHANGES THAT ASK SOMETHING OF YOU
We'll start with these, because they're the ones you'd most want to know about.
The finance charge on late balances is now stated exactly: 18% per year, 1.5% per month, on balances more than 30 days past due, calculated from the original due date. The old letter said finance charges "will be assessed" without saying how much, which wasn't fair to anyone. Now you know the number. This likely won't affect you, as billing is automatic.
Payroll data is due Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. The old letter said timecards and tip reports were due "36 hours prior to payroll submission cut-off," which required math and an assumption. Now it's a fixed time you can put on the wall by the office computer. If data comes in late, we run payroll at the soonest practical opportunity — but a late Tuesday can mean a late pay date, and the letter now says plainly that the consequences of that sit with the timing of the data, not with us.
Month-end requests are due one business day before the close deadline. Previously "within 24 hours," which broke down around weekends. Same idea, clearer clock. Relatedly, the letter now says out loud what was always true in practice: if unanswered requests cause a filing, payroll, or reporting deadline to be missed, that consequence follows from the missing information.
We book what you send us — so guard your channels. A new section states plainly that we rely on the information, invoices, approvals, and payment instructions that come through your established channels — Hubdoc, your email, your people — without independently verifying them. That's what makes bookkeeping affordable; we're not a fraud-detection service. The place this matters most: vendor payment changes. If a "vendor" emails new bank details, we are entitled to rely on it if it arrives through your channels — so the person who should verify that change with a phone call to a number you already trust is you, before it reaches us. This is the single most common fraud in restaurants right now, and the letter now assigns the checking of it where it can actually happen.
You'll purchase your scanner, and it's yours. Previously we "issued" a ScanSnap, which left ownership murky. Now you buy the model we specify, we help you set it up, and it's your property — you maintain it and replace it if it's damaged. When the engagement ends, you can keep it or return it in working condition for a $250 credit on your final invoice.
Advisory meetings have clear rules now. What counts as a missed meeting is defined: cancelling with less than 12 hours' notice, not joining within 10 minutes, or rescheduling the same meeting more than once. A month where you simply don't book a meeting is not a missed meeting. If two meetings are missed in a rolling three months, we may switch you from a standing appointment to scheduling each month's meeting yourself — the meeting is still yours every month either way. And to be equally clear in the other direction: fees don't change based on whether you attend, so an unused meeting is money on the table. Book them.
Multiple Tip Pools are ripe for errors. One tip pool is easy, three creates a bunch of issues. With every additional pool and employee, there is an mathematically exponential increase in the risk of error thanks to a simple formula error. It's a risk we simply cannot take anymore, so if there is more than one tip pool, we will ask you to use a tip management software.
Advisory Services no longer include Budgets or Projections: These services are still available, but some clients never used them, other clients used them multiple times a year, and it takes a considerable amount of time to produce and input, so we have moved them to OOS services.
The letter now says when we can stop immediately. Either of us can still end the engagement with sixty days' notice — that hasn't changed — and we can now also end or pause specific services rather than everything at once. What's new is a short list of situations where we may terminate or suspend immediately: sustained nonpayment, and fraudulent, unlawful, or dishonest conduct. We'd rather never use it, and if you're the kind of client reading this guide, it likely will never apply to you — but a professional services agreement should say where its edges are.
THE CHANGES THAT PROTECT YOU
We removed our blanket right to use your name in marketing. The old letter said PFA "reserves the right to use clients' names in marketing materials.” Using your name or your story is now governed by our confidentiality obligations, with anything beyond the basics requiring a conversation with you first.
Out of scope billing process is more clearly defined. If we need to do some work outside of the scope of our engagement, we will confirm via email with an estimated time allotment. If we come up against that allotment we’ll let you know.
If your information is ever involved in a security incident, we tell you. The new letter commits us to notifying you promptly if information of yours in our possession is subject to unauthorized access, with what we know and what we're doing about it.
We disclose how we're paid by software vendors. We participate in accountant and partner programs with some of the platforms you use — Gusto, QuickBooks, and others — and may receive discounts or referral compensation from them. The new letter says so outright, along with the two things that matter: it costs you nothing, and it doesn't drive our recommendations. Suitability for your business is what is most important. You can ask us about these arrangements any time.
No more cards on file with us for subscriptions. The old letter required a credit card number for apps we paid on your behalf. That's gone. You subscribe to your platforms directly — QuickBooks Online, Gusto, BILL, 7shifts, your point of sale — at the vendor's own price, billed straight to you. We pay for Hubdoc and Shogo ourselves; they're included in your quoted fee and never billed to you. If we ever agree to pick up some other cost for you, it's rebilled at our actual cost, with your written approval before we spend it.
Who can see your information is now spelled out. The old confidentiality clause named your bankers, attorneys, and accountants. The new one adds, honestly, the other category that was always true: our own employees, contractors, technology providers, insurers, and professional advisors, but only where they reasonably need it to serve you.
Your agreed thresholds are written down where you can get them. Your reserve cash level and the materiality thresholds we use when flagging variances are recorded in your accounting profile, provided to you on request, and changed only when both of us confirm in writing. No more relying on the memory of an onboarding call.
Your records come back to you, on a schedule. If the engagement ends, everything you own comes back within 90 days, in digital form, at no charge which was true before and stays true. What's new is precision about afterward: once your records are returned, keeping them is your responsibility, and we retain an archival copy for the balance of the seven-year retention period for our own professional obligations. Speaking of which, the seven-year retention now explicitly includes email correspondence about your engagement, not just documents.
THE CHANGES THAT DESCRIBE HOW THE WORK ACTUALLY RUNS
Cash and credit card reconciliation: weekly. The old letter managed to say two different things — "monthly" in one sentence and "twice-weekly" in another. The new letter settles it: reconciliation runs weekly, contingent on your bank feeds, with the same monthly detailed reconciliation report you can hand to your tax preparer at year end. One cadence, stated once.
Bill payments run through a payment platform. The letter now describes how accounts payable actually operates: a third-party payment provider executes the payments — mailed checks on the weekly schedule, and now also electronic payments (ACH and virtual card) — paying vendor invoices on their terms as cash flow allows, with vendor statements reconciled against invoices. Same service, described the way it really works, with electronic payment options the old letter never mentioned.
Meetings may be recorded and transcribed — with your agreement, every time. We use meeting software that produces transcripts and summaries so that what we agreed on a call doesn't depend on anyone's memory. The new letter describes this: recording is announced at the start of a meeting, anyone can object and we'll take written notes instead, recordings are confidential engagement records, and we will never use one in marketing or external training materials without your separate written permission.
Your books are kept on the accrual basis, structured to be consistent with GAAP with our deviations from GAAP noted. Bookkeeping at a monthly cadence involves standing simplifications — in how depreciation, inventory, leases, and a few other items are treated — because the GAAP treatment requires information only you hold. Each departure is documented, and we maintain a written policy describing all of them and their effects, available to you whenever you'd like it. Your statements are excellent for running your restaurant. What we won't do is represent them as audited or GAAP-compliant to anyone, because they aren't — and the letter now says exactly that instead of implying otherwise.
What we advise on — and what we don't. A new Scope of Advice section draws the line plainly: bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, and related advisory is our lane. We don't provide legal advice, employment law advice, benefits, investment, or insurance advice, and the letter says so, so nobody mistakes a conversation for coverage. When your situation needs one of those professionals, we'll tell you — and happily work alongside them.
Reports going to your lender, landlord, or investor follow a defined path. Statements we prepare are for your internal use. When you need them to go to a third party, we arrange it — with our written permission, and with a disclosure on the face of the report stating that the statements are unaudited and prepared from information you supplied. That disclosure protects both of us, and the letter asks that it never be removed or separated from the report. If a lender wants to formally rely on our work, that's a separate conversation with its own process — send them to us.
Payroll is on Gusto. The old letter said "Gusto or other PFA approved payroll platform," which invited a negotiation the letter never resolved. The new one is direct: Gusto is the platform, and any exception has to be approved by us in writing before it takes effect. Custom reports beyond your standard package work the same way as other extras — if a report takes meaningful time to build, it's billed hourly, and we tell you and get your written go-ahead before starting.
The engagement renews automatically on a schedule you can see. A new Term and Renewal section sets the rhythm: the engagement renews each October 1, with a revised proposal in your hands at least 30 days beforehand — so fee changes arrive as a document you can read, on a date you can predict, never as a surprise on an invoice. There is an annual escalation clause of up to 5% that does not require a reissuance of the engagement letter. During renewal season someone at our firm spent an entire month chasing down clients to resign an engagement letter without any material change.
Text messages are now a separate, optional choice. The old letter bundled texting consent into the engagement itself. We've pulled it out: if you'd like text reminders and notices from us, there's a short standalone consent form presented upon signing your engagement, entirely optional, and declining it changes nothing about your service or fees. The full program terms live at prixfixe.accountants/smsprivacyterms.
WHAT TO DO
Nothing, until your renewal — the new letter comes with your next proposal, alongside the optional text-message consent. Read it; this guide should make that quicker. If anything in it doesn't match your understanding of how we work together, tell your accountant before you sign, not after. That's the whole point of writing things down.