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For accountants

Before you sign that engagement letter or firm offer, check these three things.

Accountants sign engagement letters with clients and employment or partner agreements with firms. The terms that matter are about scope, liability and clients: what the fee covers, what you answer for, and whether clients can follow you.

Engagement Letter.pdfPage 1 of 4
Example
Medium risk— a few terms deserve a closer look

This engagement letter adds advisory work on request and sets no limit on liability.

Lower riskHigher risk
Against youHigh · Liability

No limit on liability to the client

The letter says in terms that there is no limit, so exposure is not tied to the fee for the engagement.

Ask for

Look for whether the letter limits what you may owe the client, and ask for a stated amount.

  • Advisory work added on requestLow · Scope
  • Hourly rates are statedLow · Payment
See the full sample analysis →

The numbers

In May 2025, there were 1,449,500 wage and salary jobs for accountants and auditors in the U.S., with a median annual wage of $83,680.

Median hourly wage, U.S., May 2025: accountants and auditors ($40.23) and 28 other occupations these pages cover. Each dot is one occupation's median.

These figures count jobs, not people, and do not include self-employed work — so they say little about how many accountants and auditors work freelance or run their own business.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025, national estimates for SOC 13-2011. Public domain.

Engagement scope, liability and client rules

  1. Scope of the engagement — Check that the letter lists the services included, so extra work is priced as extra.
  2. Limitation of liability — Look for whether the letter limits what you may owe the client, and to what amount.
  3. Client non-solicitation — Firm agreements can restrict serving clients after you leave. Check its length and scope.

Check the paperwork before the busy season

An engagement letter is a contract, and it can be checked like one. Free: one analysis every 30 days, no card. Each analysis gives a risk read of the key clauses, quotes the contract's own words for its findings, and turns each flagged clause into a specific ask.

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