I was recently engaged to review and give the Board of Directors my opinion about a client's internal control environment related to accounting for client funds. As a
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Talk to your attorney. There are more clauses needed in your engagement letter than just this one line.
Jennifer,
Wayne makes a subtle point here; there are at least two levels of protection that you'll need:
-In the opinion letter (your work product), there are a series of disclaimers that will specify the limitations of permissable use of your work. Additionally, you'll indicate limitations on scope, and that whatever is outside of that might be material but you didn't address it.
-In the engagement letter (the contract) you'll want protections, at a minimum a no-warranty clause, and avoidance of *any* indemnification of them (at best, they'll indemnify you if you get sued because of what they do).
And, yes, this is generally an Attorney question. It is worth a few bucks to have it honed to your situation (job specifics, client specifics, state, etc)
KP
Also check with your state board of accountancy. You may find that your state has specific rules. This can save you money as well as all an attorney is going to do is check with your state board as to your attest rules, disclosures, and limitations (as a CPA myself, I have found it is less a legal issue than an ethics rules question).
As a
As your client to document their need for the engagement so you can interpret it.
Agree to all the comments. The point I was trying to make, is under certain circumstances, a CPA is not able to take off their CPA hat. It's similar to if a doctor tells you, "Well, I'm going to tell you this, but this isn't considered medical advice." Fully disclosed by the doctor, but wouldn't hold up in a court of law. A little bit of a reaching analogy, but my point is the rules are fairly complex for CPAs in terms of engagements they enter into.
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