While we are all working hard to support our clients during this crisis please ensure that you are considering mitigating your risk. These are difficult times for many organizations, which means we need to be aware of personal and professional pressures that our clients face. It becomes easier to rationalize a few tweaks here and there when peoples livelihoods are at stake. So whether you are assisting clients in the application for the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) or advising on the availability of funding such as qualification for the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) ensure that you consider the following risk mitigation steps:
- Stay up to date on all legislation and interpretations (sign up for Clearline CPAs newsletter)
- Obtain an executed engagement letter (including scope of services and limitation of liability)
- Retain client provided support upon which you based your conclusions or calculations
- Obtain client sign-off that information provided was accurate (such as the CRA attestation letter)
- Provide all advice in writing (yes an email works) and include a disclaimer
If you are in need of a sample engagement letter for CEWS applications, which can be easily modified for other COVID related consultations, we have provided a template that can be easily modified for your firm specific requirements which you can obtain here.