Engagement Terms
ENGAGEMENT AGREEMENT –
Beccam Accounting Pty Ltd and Client name
1. Offer to enter Engagement Agreement
1.1. This engagement agreement is an offer to provide services to you in accordance with our engagement letter. If you accept this offer you will be regarded as having entered into this engagement agreement and you will be bound by the terms and conditions set out in this document, including being billed in accordance with it.
1.2. This engagement agreement is also designed to achieve a mutual understanding of the terms and objectives of our engagement and the nature and limitations of the services we will provide.
1.3. This engagement will continue until terminated by either party.
2. Definitions
“Client” or “you” means the entity, requesting services pursuant to this Engagement Agreement.
“Engagement Agreement” means this document including its terms and conditions, schedules and annexures.
“Services” means the work specified in the Proposal, Engagement Letter, or as varied in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.
“We”, “Our”, and “Us” means the accounting firm, Beccam Accounting Pty Ltd, providing services in accordance with this Engagement Letter.
3. Scope and Performance of Services.
3.1. We will provide services to you in accordance with the relevant professional and ethical standards.
3.2. Unless otherwise stated herein, the Services covered by this engagement do not include audit or review services, therefore, no assurance will be provided. Unless agreed with you, the Services will not include specific identification of fraud or other illegal acts. If we do identify such acts or omissions, we will inform you. Before doing so, we will notify you as soon as practicable that we have identified any instances of fraud or illegal acts / omissions.
4. Unanticipated and Additional Services
4.1. If there is additional work that you wish us to carry out which is not listed in the schedule, or an additional need arises (including, but not limited to, an audit, an amended tax return or personal financial statement required as part of a loan agreement), any additional work will be quoted to you before the additional services are provided. Once the quote and scope of the additional work is agreed upon, we will issue an additional or updated letter of engagement via our online proposal system.
4.2. You must sign the new engagement agreement before we commence any additional work beyond the scope of this engagement agreement.
5. Fixed Fee Services
5.1. If we offer you a fixed fee, our professional fees will be the advised fixed-fee amount.
5.2. A fixed-fee quote is not dependent on the time it takes us to ultimately complete the Work.
5.3. Please note that GST and charges such as search fees, banking charges, government revenue charges and lodgement or registration fees are not included in the fixed fee amounts unless specified otherwise, though we will try to provide you with notice of these prior to incurring them. You agree to pay all costs or charges reasonably incurred by us.
5.4. We may vary the fixed-fee quote with notice to you at any time at our complete discretion.
5.5. We may issue a bill to you for some components or parts during this engagement for an amount proportional to the total Work to be performed.
6. Rates for Non-Fixed Fee Services
6.1. In instances where our professional fees are time costed (i.e. not fixed fees, are based on an estimate or where we are engaged to perform tasks outside of the scope of the services), our professional fees are charged on the following basis:
Advisory $315 per hour
Compliance $210 per hour
Bookkeeping $100 per hour
6.2. These rates are exclusive of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and generally increase on 1 July each year.
6.3. We may also by written notice increase our hourly rates and office expenses. We will notify you of any changes to our rates and you agree to be bound by any changed rates from the date of the change.
6.4. We will charge based on the applicable hourly rate of the professional staff member involved calculated on 6-minute intervals. Each unit is therefore 1/10 of the hourly rate applicable to professional staff performing the Work.
6.5. We will charge for all attendances and work conducted by professional staff in their respective capacities. This includes, but is not limited to consultations, review of accounting records, email correspondence, telephone calls, personal meetings with you, advisors or agents, drafting documents, document production and any other necessary attendances.
6.6. Internal conferences between professional staff working on your file will be charged based on the rates for each staff member involved.
6.7. If a professional staff member is required to travel in the course of working on your file (e.g. to attend a meeting) then we may charge the travel time spent at the hourly rate applicable to the staff member.
6.8. We reserve our rights to withdraw and reissue any account for a higher amount pursuant to any itemised bill of costs requested by you.
7. Costs
7.1. You agree to pay all of our fees and costs, including any applicable GST of services performed for you.
7.2. We may request that you pay money into our trust account to cover our anticipated fees or costs.
7.3. We may incur costs as your agent which will or will not be inclusive of GST, which you will reimburse us.
7.4. If we incur costs, as your agent, which include GST then we will forward the relevant tax invoice to you so you may claim any tax input credits that may apply.
7.5. You agree to pay for any additional costs during the course of providing services for you, for example;
(a) search fees;
(b) document lodgement fees;
(c) travel and accommodation expenses;
(d) additional agent fees;
(e) outsourced consulting; or
(f) outsourced document production.
8. Concerns or Complaints
8.1. If you have any concerns about our costs or services, please speak to the person responsible for this engagement, who is identified in our engagement letter. To resolve your concerns we have policies and procedures in place to deal appropriately with complaints and will use best endeavors to resolve a complaint or dispute to the mutual satisfaction of the parties involved. We may require you to detail your complaint in writing to allow us to fully investigate any concerns that you raise.
8.2. Where your complaint concerns a tax agent service that we have provided, you also have the right to make a complaint to the Tax Practitioners Board in accordance with their complaints process described here https://www.tpb.gov.au/complaints.
9. Documents
9.1. On completion of services, we will retain any documents to which you are entitled for the relevant timeframe required by professional standards. You authorise us to destroy the file following this timeframe after the date of the final bill rendered by us in relation to this engagement agreement. We may elect to retain the documents in electronic form and destroy hard copies at any time.
9.2. Ownership of the documents produced as part of this engagement will vest in you. All other documentation produced by us in respect of the engagement will remain the property of our firm
9.3. You agree we can use your logos and trade marks for the sole purpose of providing advice to you in connection with the engagement, unless you tell us otherwise.
9.4. The firm has a policy of exploring a legal right of lien over any client documents in our possession in the event of a dispute and/or unpaid accounts. The firm has also established dispute resolution processes.
10. Lodgement Conditions
10.1. Lodgement of any returns or documents with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) or other regulatory bodies is incidental to the services provided and is not included as a standalone or guaranteed service. Lodgement will only be performed once:
10.1.1. All required information and documentation has been provided and verified,
10.1.2. All necessary declarations or approvals (including signed authority forms) have been received in full, and
10.1.3. All outstanding invoices relating to the work have been paid in full.
10.2. If any of these conditions are not met, lodgement will not occur, and Beccam Accounting Pty Ltd accepts no liability for any penalties, interest, or consequences resulting from non-lodgement. It is the client’s responsibility to ensure timely provision of documentation, approval, and payment to meet any lodgement deadlines.
11. Payment from money on account
11.1. We may ask you for payment of amounts into our trust account. If so, the money will be held on trust and you will be advised how it is used.
11.2. You authorise us to draw on the money to pay for expenses, payments to third parties and our professional fees as they become due in accordance with the applicable professional standards.
12. Client Responsibilities and Warranties
12.1. You will:
(a) provide us with timely, reliable, accurate and proper information regarding your financial affairs, including providing us with all relevant documents and accounting records.
(b) act reasonably and take reasonable care and steps to protect your own interests;
(c) obtain advice from appropriately qualified professionals in relation to matters that are outside the scope of work;
(d) comply with your obligations under this engagement agreement including payment for our services;
12.2. You acknowledge that any advice and information provided by our services is for your sole use and is not to be used for the benefit of a third party unless we have expressly agreed that a specified third party may use it.
12.3. You acknowledge that we will rely on the accuracy and completeness of any information you provide us in connection with the services we provide to you.
12.4. You agree to indemnify us against any loss, damage, claim or expense that you may suffer as a result of you providing us with inaccurate, incomplete, incorrect out of date or untimely accounting records, particulars or information.
12.5. You warrant that you have not relied on any representations or warranties made by us in respect of the Services which have not been expressly set out in this Engagement Agreement.
13. Professional obligations
13.1. We will comply with the professional and ethical standards of the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board, available at apesb.org.au. This includes APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including Independence Standards), which among other things contains provisions that apply if we become aware of any actual or potential ‘non-compliance with governing laws or regulations’ (NOCLAR). Where any such non-compliance poses substantial harm (such as serious adverse consequences to investors, creditors, employees, auditor, group auditor or the public), we may be required to disclose the matter to an appropriate authority.
14. Conflicts of interest
14.1. We will inform you if we become aware of any conflict of interest in our relationship with you (including between the various persons this engagement letter covers) or in our relationship with you and another client. Where conflicts are identified which cannot be managed in a way that protects your interests then we will be unable to provide further services to some or all of the persons to whom this engagement applies. If this arises, we will inform you promptly.
14.2. We may act for other clients whose interests are not the same as or are adverse to yours, subject to the obligations of conflicts of interest and confidentiality referred to above.
15. Outsourced Services
15.1. You acknowledge that we may involve third party contractors or outsourced service providers in providing various aspects of your accounting work. These services may include:
• Accounting file preparation and/ or Data entry into our accounting systems
• Auditing of accounts (including Self-Managed Super Funds)
• Hosting of data on cloud based servers
15.2. Acceptance of our services in conjunction with this Engagement Agreement indicates your acceptance of the use of outsourced services as described above. Where the outsourced service requires the disclosure of personal information to an overseas recipient, you consent to this and acknowledge that we will take reasonable steps in accordance with this Engagement Agreement.
16. Cloud Hosted Software
16.1. We use cloud-based accounting software that contains your personal and financial information. The database containing this information is located in multiple locations. The suppliers of this software have privacy policies that are consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.
17. Data Storage
17.1. We use data storage replicated to multiple locations. The providers of this storage have privacy policies that are consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.
17.2. Accepting our services as part of this engagement agreement indicates your acceptance of the use of outsourced services, cloud hosted software and outsourced data storage under the conditions outlined above.
17.3. If you would like a copy of our complete Privacy Policy, please request this by emailing us at info@beccamaccounting.com.au.
18. Limitation of Liability
18.1. Our liability is limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation. Further information on the scheme is available from the Professional Standards Councils’ website: https://www.psc.gov.au/.
18.2. You agree not to bring any claim against any of our [principals] [partners] [directors] [shareholders] or [employees] in their personal capacity.
18.3. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable to you for:
18.3.1. indirect, special or consequential losses or damages of any kind; or
18.3.2. liability arising due to the acts or omissions of any other person or circumstances outside our reasonable control, or your breach of these terms.
19. Limitation of third party rights
19.1. Our advice and information is for your sole use, and we accept no responsibility to any third party, unless we have expressly agreed in the engagement letter that a specified third party may rely on our work.
20. Termination of this Engagement Agreement
20.1. Subject to any statutory provisions that apply to the Services, and unless otherwise outlined in this Engagement Agreement, either party may terminate this Engagement Agreement at any time by giving 28 days written notice to the other.
20.2. Either party may terminate this engagement immediately if the other commits any material or persistent breach of its obligations under this agreement, in particular the Terms and Conditions set out in the Engagement Agreement(which, in the case of a breach capable of remedy, has not been remedied within 7 days of discovery by the party in breach), or if the other becomes insolvent.
20.3. If you do not pay an amount required by this engagement agreement, we may suspend work or cease providing services to you. This includes if we seek further money to be placed into trust by you from time to time in anticipation of future costs.
20.4. We will not continue to do the work and may terminate this Engagement Agreement if::
• you fail to pay our bills or deposit monies to our trust account as required
• You fail to provide us with requested information
• you fail to provide us with adequate instructions within a reasonable timeframe;
• You deliberately provide us with instructions that are false or intentionally misleading;
• You request that we act in a manner that we believe to be unethical
• your instructions involve acting contrary to the interests of another client;
• we, on reasonable grounds believe a conflict of interest has arisen, is likely to arise, or it is not appropriate for us to continue to act on your behalf;
• we are or will no longer be able to provide all or part of the Services to you because of applicable auditor independence rules or legislation without ceasing to be independent in relation to an audit client; or
• for any other reasonable and just cause.
20.5. Where this Engagement Agreement is terminated by either you or us, you will be required to pay our professional fees, outlays and disbursements up to the date of termination, including any expenses incurred in connection with the early termination of this Engagement Agreement.
20.6. Termination of this Engagement Agreement is without prejudice to any rights that may have accrued before termination. The Terms and Conditions of this Engagement Agreement which expressly or by implication are intended to survive termination or expiry will survive and continue to bind the parties.
21. Force majeure
21.1. Neither party will be liable to the other for any delay or failure to fulfil their obligations under this Engagement Agreement if that delay and/or failure arises from causes beyond their control, including but not limited to fire, floods, acts of God, acts or regulations of any government or supranational authority, war, riot, terrorist activities, strikes, lockouts and industrial disputes.
22. Lien Charge
22.1. You agree and acknowledge that we are entitled to retain possession of your file, documents and trust money while there is money owing to us for our professional fees, by way of a ‘accountant’s lien’ and on any other basis available to us, in additional to any other rights we may have at law.
22.2. We may require payment of our professional fees and costs incurred in providing the file or documents as a condition of doing so. We may provide the file or documents in electronic or hard copy format at our complete discretion.
22.3. You hereby charge in favour of Beccam Accounting Pty Ltd all your estate and interest in any land and any other assets, whether tangible or intangible, freehold of leasehold, in which it now has any legal or beneficial interest or in which it later acquires any such interest, with payment of all monies owed by you under this agreement and consents to the lodging by Beccam Accounting Pty Ltd of a caveat or caveats which note its interest in or over any such land or caveatable property. If you are entering into this agreement in your capacity as trustee of a trust then you charge your property in your personal capacity and all trust property of the trust with payment of all monies owing to Beccam Accounting Pty Ltd.
23. Personal Guarantee
23.1. In consideration of Beccam Accounting Pty Ltd offering to enter into the engagement agreement with Client name at the request of the Guarantor, the Guarantor hereby agrees as follows:
• The Guarantor guarantees:
o The payment of all monies payable to the Beccam Accounting Pty Ltd
o Performance by the Client of the Client’s obligations; and
o The payment of all loss and damage recoverable by the firm from the Client.
• This guarantee will be a continuing guarantee and will not be affected or voided in any way by:
o Any agreement or arrangement made between Beccam Accounting Pty Ltd and Client name;
o Any alterations or variations to the rights and obligations of either Beccam Accounting Pty Ltd and Client name;
o the granting of any time or other indulgence or forbearance by Beccam Accounting Pty Ltd to Client name or to the Guarantor;
o The making of any composition with or waiver of any breach or default by you;
o The neglect or forbearance of Beccam Accounting Pty Ltd to enforce the provisions of this Engagement Letter or those of this guarantee;
o The avoidance for any reason whatsoever by statute or otherwise of any payment by or on behalf of Client name or any Guarantor to Beccam Accounting Pty Ltd;
o The insolvency, bankruptcy, liquidation or winding up of the Client or any change in the Client’s constitution;
o Any moratorium or other period staying or suspending by statute;
o The order of any government or authority; or
o Any further guarantee being given to Beccam Accounting Pty Ltd by any person,
23.2. It being the intention that this guarantee be unconditional and absolute in any and all circumstances.
23.3. The Guarantor is in respects a principal debtor and we may take action first against the Guarantor without proceeding against the Client, including but not limited to an event where a term of this engagement agreement is not enforceable against the Client as principal whether by reason of any legal limitation, disability or incapacity, or by reason of any liquidator of the Client disclaiming this engagement agreement.
23.4. The Guarantor charges, in favour of us, all of the Guarantor’s present and future, real and personal property to secure payment of all monies payable and which may become payable by the Client to us. The Guarantor further agrees that for as long as any fees or costs remain unpaid to us under this engagement agreement, the Guarantor may not raise any right of set-off or counterclaim that the Guarantor or the Client may have against us.
23.5. Please note that the Guarantor promises above to pay amounts owed by the Client to us and secures payment of those amounts with the Guarantor’s property.
24. Notices and Electronic Communications
24.1. You agree that we will communicate with each other by electronic means such as e-mail, SMS etc. We and you each recognise that e-mail and the internet are inherently insecure and that emails and data can become corrupted, are not always delivered promptly (or at all) and that other methods of communication may be appropriate. In addition, the internet is prone to viruses. We and you each recognise these hazards and so each of us will be responsible for protecting our own systems and interests and neither of you nor we will be responsible to the other on any basis for any loss or damage in any way arising from the use of electronic communication.
25. Cyber Alert – Funds Transfer Critical information
25.1. Please note that people across Australia have lost money when hackers have impersonated an accounting firm by altering electronic communications including email and documents (including PDF).
25.2. You agree not to act on any electronic communication (whether received by email, fax or other electronic means) to transfer funds exceeding $5,000 to us or a third party in respect of this matter without first making telephone contact with us via a verified phone number (do not rely upon any phone number in the apparent electronic communication) and confirming the relevant bank account details.
25.3. We will not act on any instruction to transfer money (exceeding $10,000) from our trust account to you until we are able to verify by verbal confirmation any bank account details that are contained in an electronic communication from you or your associates
26. Billing, Payments, and Interest
26.1. We may issue accounts at any time on the basis of fees and costs incurred to date. Accounts are payable within 14 days of receipt. Receipt will be deemed to have occurred on the day it is emailed, faxed or hand delivered or two days after it is sent by post to you by post.
26.2. You agree and request that any accounts we issue to you may be sent to you by email.
26.3. In the event that payment is not received according to the agreement this will constitute a default under the agreement, and:
(a) all money owed by you to us will become immediately due and payable from you to the Firm;
(b) we may charge you interest on overdue amounts. Interest will be calculated on daily balances of overdue invoices from the day following the date upon which payment should have been made at the rate of 18% per annum; and
(c) you agree that interest on any overdue invoice shall automatically accrue on all overdue amounts and continue to accrue until payment is made in full to the Firm.
26.4. In the event of a default by you under the agreement, you agree to indemnify us for all costs that we may incur arising from, relating to or in connection with, the default, including:
(a) all legal costs (on an indemnity basis) incurred by us obtaining advice in respect of our rights under this agreement and enforcing our rights under this agreement against you;
(b) all legal costs (on an indemnity basis) incurred by us in attempting to recover moneys owed by you to the Firm under this agreement; and
(c) any other disbursements that we may reasonably become liable for.
26.5. You agree that until all money owed (or claim to be owed) by you to us is paid in full, you may not raise any defence available to it or exercise any right of set-off or make a counterclaim or cross-demand against us in reduction of your liability under this agreement. Your right to raise any defence, set off, cross demand or counterclaim is wholly suspended until such time as the monies owed (or claim to be owed by you to us) is paid in full to the Firm.
26.6. You agree that at any time you make a payment to us, irrespective of whether the payment is made under or in connection with agreement, that we may apply that payment in any manner that we see fit, including by applying any payment firstly to interest and legal costs.
27. Privacy
27.1. We may collect and use Personal Information about you, your representatives, your clients and others for the purposes of:
(a) Performing work for you;
(b) Internal business operations and related communication within our firm;
(c) Complying with the law of any relevant State or Territory or the Commonwealth.
27.2. You agree to work with us to ensure that we both meet the obligations that we each may have under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act). The obligations may include notifying the relevant person to whom the personal information relates who we are and how we propose to use their personal information. Where you have collected personal information, you confirm that you have collected the personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act, that you are entitled to provide this personal information to us and that we may use and disclose the personal information for the purpose/s we provide our services to you. We will handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act.
27.3. We will ensure that the security and privacy of your data is protected and follows the notifiable data breaches scheme as outlined in the Privacy Act 1988
28. Confidentiality
28.1. We will take all reasonable steps to keep your information confidential, except where:
28.2. we need to disclose your information to our service providers (including auditors of client monies if applicable) or regulatory bodies in performing the services, our professional advisers or insurers or as part of an external peer review from time to time. Our files may also be subject to review as part of the quality review program of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand [and insert other bodies as appropriate]. By accepting this engagement you acknowledge that, if requested, our files relating to this engagement will be made available under this program. We will take reasonable steps to ensure any such recipient (other than a regulatory body) keeps such information confidential on the same basis;
28.3. we are required by law, regulation, a court of competent authority, or those professional obligations referred to in section 8 above, to disclose the information;
28.4. we provide limited information (but only to the extent reasonably necessary) to potential purchasers (or their professional advisors) of our practice but we will take reasonable steps to ensure that any such recipient keeps the disclosed information confidential;
28.5. we use the information for training purposes, in the development of products or technology, in research or as source material for industry or other benchmarking data or studies; or
28.6. you give us permission to disclose the information.
28.7. We may retain your information during and after our engagement to comply with our legal requirements or as part of our regular IT back-up and archiving practices. We will continue to hold such information confidentially.
28.8. Where we use the information for training purposes, product or technology development, research or as source material for industry or other benchmarking data or studies, the identity of any individual or entity to which such information relates will not be identifiable from the output of the activity for which the information is to be used or disclosed.
28.9. We may mention that you are a client for promotional purposes.
29. ATO Communication Preferences
29.1. As part of the Australian Taxation Office’s commitment to improving online services, a new service known as communication preferences has been introduced.
29.2. With your written authorisation, this service will allow agents to set which ATO communications are sent to our practice digitally (on your behalf) and which communications are sent directly to you.
29.3. Communication preferences will be set on your behalf based on your instructions. To allow us to set your communication preferences I will need your express written authority.
29.4. We recommend that the following communication types are sent directly to you directly:
• Income Tax
• Superannuation
• Study and Trade Support Loans
• Activity Statement related
• Debt
• Employer and business obligations
29.5. By accepting this engagement you agree to the ATO sending digitally enabled communications for the above communication types to your myGov inbox, or business portal as appropriate.
30. Register of Tax Agents and BAS Agents available for you to search
30.1. The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) maintains a register with details of registered, suspended and deregistered tax and BAS agents. This register is available to the public to search at https://www.tpb.gov.au/public-register.
30.2. We are obliged to advise clients of certain events which may influence your decision to engage us as your tax agent.
30.2.1. There are no current issues about which are obliged to advise you
30.3. We are also obliged to advise you whether there are any conditions attached to our registration.
30.3.1. There are no current conditions attached to our registration
31. Your rights under Taxation Laws (including Tax Agent Services Act and the Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination)
31.1. Please refer to the attached fact sheet published by the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) summarising your obligations to the ATO and your tax practitioner, and your tax practitioner’s obligations to you, the TPB and ATO.
31.2. The fact sheet is here: https://www.tpb.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-03/Information%20for%20clients%20factsheet%202025_0.pdf
32. General
32.1. If any part of this engagement agreement is void or voidable that part is severed and the remainder of this engagement agreement has full force and effect.
32.2. You authorise us to take instructions from any client or their spouse or any signatories to this engagement agreement in any capacity in relation to your file. If the client is a company, you authorise us to take instructions from either of the directors.
32.3. The law of Queensland will apply to this engagement agreement.
33. Counterparts
33.1. This engagement agreement may be executed in any number of counterparts. Each counterpart is an original, but the counterparts together are one and the same document.
33.2. This engagement agreement is binding on a party (the “Bound Party”) upon the receipt by any other party (the “Recipient”) of a counterpart executed by the Bound Party and sent by email or other electronic means.
33.3. The Recipient may treat an executed copy of a counterpart sent by email or any other electronic means as an original executed counterpart.
(Last updated 28 June 2025)