Terms and Conditions of Engagement

Last Updated: February 2025

Welcome to The Accounting Hub. By engaging our services, you agree to the following terms and conditions. If you have any questions, please contact us.

1. Who may instruct us

You confirm that you, and any other person you nominate in writing from time to time (provided we have acknowledged such nomination), are authorised to give us instructions and information on behalf of all persons we are acting for and to receive our advice and documents on their behalf.

If we are acting for a business or other organisation and we receive conflicting advice, information or instructions from different persons, we may refer the matter to the board of directors, partners, trustees or proprietors (as applicable) and act only as requested by them.

 2. Family and business relationships

• If acting for you and your spouse/partner, we may discuss financial matters with either of you unless instructed otherwise.
• If working with your business, we may correspond with employees or representatives as necessary. Let us know if any information should be confidential from certain individuals.

3. Know your customer

From 1 October 2018, all New Zealand accounting practices became subject to New Zealand’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009. Where we are required to conduct customer due diligence, this Act does not allow us to act, or continue to act, for our clients unless we have conducted that due diligence.

Accordingly, we may be required to verify your identity for the purposes of the anti-money laundering laws. We may request from you such information as we require for these purposes and make searches of appropriate databases.

4. Your responsibilities

You must provide us with all information necessary (including by reconciling your Xero file if applicable) for dealing with your affairs including information which we reasonably request, in sufficient time to enable our services to be completed before any applicable deadline. We will rely on such information being true, correct and complete and will not audit the information.

You authorise us to approach such third parties as may be appropriate for information that we consider necessary to deal with your affairs.

You must keep us informed on a timely basis of changes in your circumstances that may affect our services.

Slow or non-provision of information leads to additional time spent by us in completing the work and we reserve the right to charge additional fees on a time incurred basis to cover time spent following up on information requests.

5. Qualifications on our services

To the extent our services involve the performance of services established by law, nothing in the engagement letter or these terms reduce our obligations under such law.

You must not act on advice given by us on an earlier occasion without first confirming with us that the advice is still valid.

Our services are limited exclusively to those you have engaged us to perform. Unless otherwise specified in the engagement letter, our services cannot be relied upon to disclose irregularities and errors, including fraud and other illegal acts, in your affairs. Neither an audit nor a review will be conducted and, accordingly, no assurance will be expressed. Where  we are providing accounting services for a trust, these services do not include trustee services, trust administration services nor advising on these matters and for the avoidance of doubt our firm does not offer those services.

Where our engagement is recurring, we may amend our engagement letter and these terms where we consider it is necessary or appropriate to do so. If you do not accept such amendments, you must notify us promptly in which case you may terminate our engagement in accordance with section 18 below and those amendments will not apply prior to such termination.

6. Reliance on advice

We will endeavour to record all advice on important matters in writing. Advice given verbally is not intended to be relied upon unless confirmed in writing. If we provide verbal advice (for example during a meeting or telephone conversation) that you wish to rely on, you must ask us to confirm the advice in writing.

7. Investment and financial advisory advice

We are prohibited from providing you with investment or financial advice regulated under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, as amended by the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Act 2019. 

8. Professional obligations and confidentiality

We are required to comply with all applicable by-laws, rules, regulations, professional and ethical standards and guidelines of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA).

These requirements include the NZICA Code of Ethics, which among other things contains confidentiality requirements. In accordance with these requirements, we will not disclose information we obtain in the course of this engagement to other parties, without your express consent, except as required by: 

• laws and regulations (for example, disclosures required under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (including to a third party auditor) and as required by the Common Reporting Standard) 
•  professional obligations including
  • the provisions of the NZICA Code of Ethics that apply if we become aware of actual or potential ‘non-compliance with laws and regulations’ (NOCLAR). Where any such non-compliance poses substantial harm (such as adverse consequences to investors, creditors, employees or the public), we may be required to disclose the matter to an appropriate level of management or those charged with governance and/or an appropriate authority.
  • the provisions of the NZICA Rules and Professional Standards that subject us to practice review, trust account audits, investigations and disciplinary procedures. These rules require us to disclose to NZICA, its practice reviewers and/or its disciplinary bodies our files and workpapers including client information. In accepting this engagement you acknowledge that, if requested, our files related to this engagement, may be made available to NZICA, its practice reviewers and/or its disciplinary bodies. Employees and contractors of NZICA are also bound by confidentiality under contract and by the NZICA Code of Ethics.

9. Conflicts of interest

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 or you do not consent to the way in which we propose to manage the conflict 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.

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.

10. Fees and payment

Our fees are based on the complexity, responsibility, skill level, and time required for the services provided, as well as the level of risk. If we have provided you with an estimate of our fees for any specific work, this is an estimate only and our actual fees may vary. We may provide a fixed fee for the provision of specific services. If it becomes apparent to us, due to unforeseen circumstances, that a fixed fee is inadequate, we may notify you of a revised figure and seek your agreement to it.

We will bill monthly or when a piece of work is finished and our invoices are due for payment within 7 days of issue. Our fees set out in our engagement letter are exclusive of GST which will be added to our invoice where it is chargeable. Any disbursements and expenses we incur in the course of performing our services will be added to our invoices where appropriate.

For our monthly billing service, we will review our fees charged periodically. The level of the monthly payment will be adjusted for factors including but not limited to:

• inflation
• increase in business or organisation scale and activity
• unanticipated time spent by us in doing the work

Every year we will revise our hourly rates in line with the market and the experience and skills gained by the team members.

Unless otherwise agreed to the contrary, our fees do not include the costs of any counsel, or other professionals or third parties engaged with your approval. 

We may charge interest on late paid invoices at the rate of 2% above the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cash rate. 

We may also suspend our services or to cease to act for you on giving written notice if payment of any fees is unduly delayed. We intend to exercise these rights only where it is fair and reasonable to do so.

In the event that you do not pay according to this agreement, we reserve the right to use a third party debt collection service. Any costs associated with this service are your responsibility.

In the unfortunate circumstance that a disagreement arises between us over our fees, and if the matter cannot be resolved amicably by discussion (which is the preferred option) then we both agree to use the Fees Resolution Service of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand to resolve the matter. Details of this Service are available from the Institute

11. Lien

If permitted by law and not prohibited by professional standards or guidelines, we may exercise a lien over all
materials or records in our possession relating to all engagements for you until all outstanding fees and
disbursements are paid in full.

12. Disclosure permissions

In accepting this engagement, you provide us with your express consent to disclose your information to:

• our software service providers (see clause 22) or regulatory bodies to the extent required to perform our services in respect to this engagement;
• our professional advisors or insurers to the extent required to protect our interests in respect to this engagement;
• our external peer reviewer to the extent required to
• review this engagement; and

We will take reasonable steps to ensure any such recipient (other than a regulatory body) keeps such information confidential on the same basis we maintain in respect to your information (see clause 8).

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 and also for professional reasons (e.g. to perform the work under this engagement or to comply with our professional and ethical obligations). We will continue to hold such information confidentially.

We may mention that you are a client for promotional purposes. 

13. Privacy

We may collect, store, use and disclose your personal information for the purposes of providing the services described in the engagement letter to you and to comply with our obligations in section 9 above and in accordance with the disclosure exceptions outlined in section 8 above. 

We will comply with the Privacy Act 2020 when collecting, storing, using and sharing your personal information. Our Privacy Policy provides further details of our privacy practices and our obligations to you.

14. Ownership of materials

We own the copyright and all other intellectual property rights in everything we create in connection with this engagement. Unless we agree otherwise, anything we create in connection with this agreement may be used by you only for the purpose for which you have engaged us. All working papers prepared by us (in any form whatsoever, including physical and electronic) remain our property. We will retain these papers in accordance with our normal record keeping practices in accordance with our professional and legal obligations. If your affairs at some time in the future are handled by you or another accountant, we will make available such information regarding your affairs that is essential to enable you or your new accountant to perform the services we previously provided including any Xero subscription held by us. You agree we can use your logos and trademarks for the sole purpose of providing advice to you in connection with the engagement, unless you tell us otherwise

15. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our maximum aggregate liability (including of all our principals, partners, directors and team members) under or in connection with this engagement letter or its subject matter is limited to five times the fees paid for the service. 

You agree not to bring any claim against any of our principals, directors or employees in their personal capacity. 

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable to you for:

• indirect, special or consequential losses or damages of any kind; or 
• liability arising due to the acts or omissions of any other person or circumstances outside our reasonable control, or your breach of these terms.

16. Limitation of third party rights

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.

17. Termination

Each of us may terminate this agreement by giving not less than 21 days’ notice in writing to the other party except where a conflict of interest has arisen, you fail to cooperate with us or we have reason to believe that you have provided us or any other person with misleading or factually inaccurate information, in which case we may terminate this agreement immediately. 

For our fixed fee monthly plan services – these are based around an annual service package including 1 year’s annual accounts and income tax returns, GST returns, provisional tax reminders and, if agreed in advance, calculations for provisional tax using the Accounting Information Method (AIM).  The plan can be cancelled at any time.  Because there is significant setup work with a new client as well as work that we perform during the year related to that plan, we will charge on an hourly basis if the plan is cancelled before each 12 month period is up.  There is no entitlement to a completed set of accounts or tax returns if the plan is cancelled before the 12-month period is complete or to a refund of monies paid towards that plan, however we will complete a fee washup to ensure that you are aware of how many payments have been made for each 12 month period and what work has been completed and we will give an opportunity for you to receive that completed work from us either based on payment of the remaining instalments for the fixed fee monthly plan or by completing the remaining work on a time incurred basis if that will be more economical for you.

18. Communication

You must advise of any changes to your contact details. We may send any communications to the last contact details you have provided. Unless you instruct us otherwise we may, where appropriate, communicate with you and with third parties via email or by other electronic means. The recipient is responsible for virus checking emails and any attachments. There is a risk of non-receipt, delayed receipt, inadvertent misdirection or interception by third parties in any form of communication, whether electronic, postal or otherwise. We are not responsible for any such matters beyond our control.  

19. Applicable Law

Our engagement is governed by New Zealand law. The New Zealand courts have non-exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any dispute between us.

20. Interpretation

If any provision of the engagement letter or these terms is void, that provision will be severed and the remainder will continue to apply. If there is any conflict between the engagement letter and these terms, these terms prevail. 

21. Disputes and complaints

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 endeavours 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.

22. Use of cloud based software services & outsourced services

We may utilise third parties services, including those detailed below and other third parties from time to time and as separately notified to you, to perform the services. In utilising these third party services, we provide these third parties with access to your data to the extent this is required to perform the services. This requires information being sent to our service providers in accordance with our Privacy Policy. 

We may outsource some aspects of our services to carefully selected third-party providers, including administrative support, software integration, and specialist advisory services. These providers may operate in New Zealand or overseas. We take reasonable steps to ensure that all outsourced providers adhere to confidentiality obligations and professional standards consistent with those required by CA ANZ.