How Engagements Work

Terms in writing, before findings

No detailed findings change hands before the engagement is agreed in writing. The written engagement fixes the scope you authorise, the fee as defined in the fee definition, and the records the work needs. A named, accountable person signs your agreement, and signs every finding.

The sequence

1. One look. You point at one area, and I reply, free, on whether it looks worth digging. That reply is a scoping answer, not a finding.
2. The engagement. If it is worth pursuing, we agree the terms in writing first: scope, records, and the fee as defined in the fee definition, signed before the dig begins. The one look is that engagement. Nothing is upfront, and if no saving is verified, nothing is owed for the look.
3. The dig. Records you authorise are reviewed line by line. You provide records in readable form; you stay in control of your business and of every decision.
4. The finding. Each final finding identifies the records reviewed, the review period, the baseline, the method, the assumptions, the calculation, the action proposed, the specialist review required, and the benefit's status: identified, projected, realized, or verified. A person reviews every client-facing finding for accuracy, support, scope, and specialist referral before it is delivered.
5. The landing. You decide whether to act. Where a license is required, the route below applies. On savings work, fees are billed only on verified savings.

Full visibility of the numbers

From the first day of a signed engagement, the working numbers are yours to see: the records relied on, the baseline, the method, and the calculation behind every figure in a finding or a fee statement. A finding is not a claim; it is a document you can check.

Licensed work, licensed hands

This firm is a business consultancy. It is not a law firm, an accounting firm, a tax preparer, a customs broker, or a lender. Where work requires a license or specialist judgment, a licensed specialist does that work: regulated work is done by licensed professionals you engage directly — a CPA signs tax, a licensed broker handles customs, a banker makes the loan. You engage and pay each specialist directly. The firm recommends and coordinates; it does not hire or pay specialists on your behalf. Each specialist is responsible for their own work, opinion, licenses, and filings. Before you act on a matter that requires a license, you obtain review and approval from your own qualified specialist or one you engage for that purpose. On savings and recovery work, our job is finding the money, preparing the questions for your specialist, and checking that an approved action actually landed.

The firm takes no fee, commission, referral payment, or other compensation from any specialist or vendor. Specialists are paid by you, and only by you.

Your money never passes through us

Recoveries are paid to you by whoever owes them. Refunds, credits, and reduced bills land in your accounts, not ours. On savings work, the only money you pay this firm is the fee on a verified benefit, after it is verified, against a fee statement you can check line by line. Growth work is billed only as set out in its own written quote. Whatever the work, we never hold your money.

Growth engagements

Growth work (revenue, sales strategy, marketing, advertising, startups) runs on the same trust devices, in a different sequence:

1. Conversation. We talk through what you want to grow and what it is worth.
2. Written scope and quote. The work, the order, and the price are fixed in writing before anything starts. Nothing is billed that you have not agreed.
3. The work. Done in the open, with the numbers visible as they move.
4. Review points. Agreed checkpoints where you see what changed, what it cost, and whether to continue.

If it ends

Either side may end the engagement as the written agreement provides. At termination, the records in our working file are returned or made available to you, subject to the archival copy described in How Your Information Is Handled. If a written finding was delivered before termination and you later use it to obtain a benefit during the tail period stated in your schedule, the fee remains payable when that benefit becomes verified.

This page summarises the firm's standard engagement in plain English. It is not the engagement itself, and where this summary and a signed engagement differ, the signed engagement governs.