Engagement letters signed on paper
What a firm should do when a client insists on signing its engagement letter on paper: recording it as signed, filing the scan and checking what it set up.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
The firm sends its engagement letter for electronic signature, and the chairman of the client's board sends it back with a note: "We sign contracts in ink." Or the client's lawyer wants to mark up the letter by hand. Or the director is happiest signing at the meeting where the firm presents its proposal, pen in hand, across the table. Paper has not gone away, and a firm that cannot handle it gracefully will sometimes find itself working without a signed letter at all.
Achekam handles a paper-signed letter as a recorded fact rather than as an exception. This article explains how to record it, where the signed copy goes, what the signature sets in motion and how to keep the paper and electronic records from drifting apart.
When paper still happens
Firms meet paper signatures for a handful of reasons:
- a board or trustee body whose own rules or habits require handwritten signatures;
- a signatory who distrusts electronic signatures or has never used one;
- a lawyer reviewing the letter who amends it by hand;
- a meeting where signing on the spot is the natural close.
For the second group, an explanation often helps. Electronic signatures have broad legal recognition, and many national laws draw on international models; UNCITRAL's Model Law on Electronic Signatures sets reliability criteria for treating electronic signatures as equivalent to handwritten ones and has been a basis for many national e-signature laws. Achekam's own e-signing lets staff add signers, approvers and copied recipients in order, and each signer signs from an e-mailed link without an Achekam account. But if the client still prefers paper, accept paper; the point is a signed letter, not a particular method.
Recording the letter as signed
In Achekam, a client opens a proposal from a link and can accept or decline it. Acceptance is recorded with the client's name and the time, is not an electronic signature, and raises the engagement letter for the client to sign. Letters are tracked under CRM & SALES > Engagement Letters / Contracts, and a letter can be recorded there as signed on paper.
Record it on the day the signed original arrives, not when someone gets round to it. Before recording, check the paper itself:
- Every page is present, and initialled if the firm's letter asks for initials.
- The signatory has authority to bind the client, such as a director for a company or a trustee for a trust.
- The signature is dated, and the date makes sense.
- The document signed is the document sent. Compare it with the version issued, especially the fee and scope sections.
- Handwritten changes are spotted. Any amendment, however small, goes to the engagement partner before the letter is recorded as agreed.
If the client has amended the letter and the partner accepts the change, issue a clean version reflecting it for the file, so the record does not depend on deciphering handwriting.
Filing the scanned copy
Scan the signed original in full and file it in the client's folder in the Document Centre. The vault keeps a folder per client and lead, with versions, tags, and archive and restore with a reason, and it is searchable.
A few practical rules:
- Scan all pages into one PDF, in order, rather than a file per page.
- Name it so it can be found: client, engagement and year.
- Tag it as an engagement letter.
- If a corrected or countersigned copy arrives later, upload it as a new version of the same document, not as a separate file.
- Decide where the paper original is kept, and by whom, and note it in the file.
What the signed letter sets up
A signed engagement letter is not only a record. In Achekam, signing turns the lead into a client, activates a service for each quotation line that is mapped to one of the firm's services, and drafts, but does not issue, the invoice. Recurring lines go on a schedule. A line that is not mapped to a service is recorded as unmapped.
There is one gap to plan around: no screen shows everything a signed contract created, or lets staff retry a step that failed, although the server has routes for it. After recording a paper signature, open the client and confirm:
| Check | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Client record | The lead has become a client |
| Services | One active service per mapped quotation line; note any unmapped lines |
| Invoice | A draft invoice matching the agreed fees, not yet issued |
| Recurring fees | Recurring lines scheduled as agreed |
If anything is missing, deal with it before work starts, while the letter is fresh. The full path from proposal to signed letter is described in from proposal to signed engagement letter.
Keeping one source of truth
The risk with paper is two versions: one signed on paper and recorded, another sent electronically and left half-signed. Or a paper letter signed but never recorded, so Achekam still shows the letter as outstanding and the services never started.
Avoid both. If the client chooses paper after an electronic envelope was sent, tell every signer in writing that the paper copy replaces it, so nobody signs a second version, and record the paper signature as the one that counts. If the letter is later replaced, the new letter, signed either way, becomes the record, and the old scan stays in the vault as an earlier version. What the letter says is still governed by the same wording checks as any other; see guardrails on proposals and engagement letters.
A worked example in words: a school's board of governors signs the firm's audit engagement letter at its meeting. The chair initials each page and signs; the bursar brings it to the firm the next day. The manager checks every page and the signatory, finds no amendments, scans the letter into the school's folder, records it as signed on paper, and then opens the client to confirm the audit service and the draft invoice for the first fee instalment are in place.
Make paper routine, not awkward
Add "recorded as signed on paper, scan filed, services checked" to your onboarding checklist as a standard route alongside electronic signature. Clients who prefer paper should cost the firm a few minutes of care, not a missing letter.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
