Accountant’s letter

Please read this if you are required to provide a letter from a Certified Public Accountant.

I am pleased to provide accountant’s letters for various purposes. It may be a verification for litigation support or another type of legal proceeding, a letter for a mortgage lender, a bank loan or an employment issue. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants calls this an “Agreed-Upon Procedure” as part of a “Consulting Service“. (The links are provided for reference to the underlying authority covered in this blog post).

This web page in intended to explain that I must follow the prescribed professional standards in all cases. Specifically, please consider:

1. There is no such thing as a ‘simple and quick’ accountant’s letter. It takes time and is expensive.
2. I must have a signed engagement agreement from you before issuing my letter.
3. All letters must be prepared in accordance with the applicable AICPA Statement of Standards.
4. The least amount of work  time that this requires is 6 to 8 hours.
5. A special temporary work permit may be required from your state.  The fee is typically $25. This fee is included in the price I offer.
6. I may be required to file an income tax return in your state, if I am not doing so already, as a result of this work.
7. All letters are subject to peer review which means that they are subject to inspection and review by another accountant. The fee for this service varies but can be a substantial part of the fee that you pay.
8. As a result of all of the above the lowest total fee that I could possibly charge for an accountant’s letter is $1,500.
9. The consequences of not following these rules are severe; do not ask me to make exceptions.
10. Finally, please don’t even think about asking me to write something that is not true.

See also this short video: https://tonynovak.com/three-nonnegotiable-points-on-cpa-verification-letters/