Client Standing Terms | The Financial Smith

Last updated: Sep 30, 2026

These Standing Terms apply to every accounting, bookkeeping, tax and consulting engagement with The Financial Smith (“we”, “us”). They are incorporated by reference into your engagement letter. Where your engagement letter says something different, the engagement letter controls.

1. Scope

Your engagement letter lists the outcomes you have engaged us to deliver and the fee for each. Anything not listed there is not part of your engagement. If you want work added, we will price it and you will sign an amendment before that work begins. You will not receive an invoice for work you did not agree to.

2. What we do not do

No audit, review or compilation. Our services are accounting, bookkeeping, tax and consulting services. We do not perform attest services and do not express an opinion or any form of assurance on your financial statements.
Management’s responsibility. You are responsible for your financial statements, for your internal control, for adopting sound accounting policies, and for the accuracy and completeness of the records and information you give us.
Independence. Where we maintain your books we are not independent of your organization, so your audit or review stays with your independent accountant. Audit and review assistance, where engaged, is assistance to them.
Tax filings are limited to the returns named in your engagement letter. Any other federal, state or local return requires a separate engagement.
No custody of funds. We do not hold custody of client funds, sign checks, or hold signature authority on your bank accounts. All payroll disbursements are processed directly through third-party platforms (for example, Gusto) based on client-approved payroll data and authorization.
Detection of fraud. Our work is not designed to detect fraud, error or illegal acts, although we will tell you promptly if we become aware of any.

3. What we need from you

Our fees are fixed because the work stays current, and that depends on a few things from you. Your engagement letter states the specifics. In general we need timely replies to weekly transaction confirmations, maintained read-only access to the accounts and systems named in your engagement letter, requested documents within a reasonable period, and a single point of contact authorized to answer questions about how transactions should be recorded.

If these do not happen, we will tell you in writing and give you a reasonable opportunity to correct it. If a delay materially changes the work, we will propose a revised fee in writing before performing that work, and you may decline it.

4. Fees, payment and term

Fees are stated in your engagement letter as an annual amount for each outcome, and are collected in twelve equal monthly payments by ACH from the account you authorize.
Fees are not contingent on the outcome of any filing, audit or funding decision.
Your accounting software subscription is included in our fee and paid by us. The account is yours — you can sign in and export your data at any time — and if the engagement ends we transfer the subscription into your name rather than closing it. Any other third-party software, including payroll, is billed to you by its vendor unless your engagement letter says otherwise.
Either party may end the engagement with 30 days’ written notice. Fees are earned for months in which services were performed and payments for those months are not refundable. Work agreed but not yet performed at the termination date is not charged.
Your engagement letter states whether and how it renews, and the notice required. We will send any change in fees before a renewal takes effect.
If a payment fails, we will contact you before taking any other step. Repeated non-payment is grounds for suspending work on written notice.

5. Confidentiality

Your work is performed by Kisean Smith, CPA, who is bound by the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and by the confidentiality obligations that apply to a CPA. We will not disclose your information to anyone without your permission, except where disclosure is required by law or by professional standards.

6. Technology and artificial intelligence

Your books are kept in Digits. Weekly transaction confirmations run on Voice Confirmations, software we built and operate.

When your contact sends a voice note, it is transcribed by an automated service and the transcript is used to draft proposed changes to how transactions are recorded.
Voice recordings are deleted after 12 months. The transcript and the record of what was recorded are retained with your books.
Our service providers are contractually prohibited from using your information to train their models.

In scheduled consulting sessions we use Gemini (Google AI) to take notes, so the conversation gets our attention rather than a keyboard. The notes are kept with your file, are subject to the same confidentiality as everything else here, and are not used to train AI models. Tell us if you would rather we did not, and we will take notes by hand.

Full detail is in our Privacy Policy and our Data Processing Addendum.

7. Your records

Your books and records remain yours. Our workpapers are ours, and we retain them for seven years. Your accounting software account is in your organization’s name, so you can sign in and export your transactions, reports and financial statements whenever you want, without asking us.

On request, and on termination, we will return your records, transfer the software subscription into your name, and provide a written hand-off to your next accountant, at no charge.

8. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability to you for any claim arising out of or relating to an engagement is limited to the fees you paid us for the services giving rise to the claim during the twelve months preceding the event. Neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, or for lost profits. Nothing in this section limits liability for fraud, willful misconduct, or any liability that cannot be limited under Georgia law or applicable professional standards.

Any claim must be brought within one year of the date you knew or reasonably should have known of the facts giving rise to it, or within the period required by law if that period is longer and cannot be shortened by agreement.

9. Disputes and governing law

These terms and your engagement are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, without regard to its conflict of laws rules.

If a dispute arises, both parties will first attempt to resolve it in good faith through direct discussion. If that does not resolve it within 30 days, the parties will submit the dispute to non-binding mediation in Fulton County, Georgia, sharing the mediator’s fees equally.

If mediation does not resolve it, the dispute will be settled by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules, before a single arbitrator, seated in Fulton County, Georgia. The arbitrator’s award is final and judgment on it may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. The parties share the arbitrator’s fees equally and each bears its own attorneys’ fees unless the arbitrator decides otherwise. The arbitration and its award are confidential.

Two exceptions. A claim of $15,000 or less may instead be brought in the Magistrate Court of Fulton County, Georgia. And either party may ask a court for an injunction to protect confidential information or records without first mediating or arbitrating.

10. General

Entire agreement. Your engagement letter, these Standing Terms, and any signed amendment are the whole agreement between us and replace anything discussed beforehand.
Changes. These Standing Terms may be updated for engagements entered into or renewed after the date of the update. The version in effect when you signed your engagement letter governs that engagement term.
Electronic signature. A signature delivered electronically is as binding as an original.
Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
Assignment. Neither party may assign an engagement without the other’s written consent, except to a successor to substantially all of its business.

11. Contact

Questions about these terms: hello@thefinancialsmith.com.