Legal

Terms and conditions

Last updated 11 September 2026

1. Who these terms are between

Ochil Ledger Accountancy of 14 Mill Brae, Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire FK13 6AA, and you, the client named in your engagement letter. Where these terms and the engagement letter disagree, the engagement letter wins.

2. The fee is the fee

Your monthly fee is agreed in writing before any work starts and is fixed for twelve months from the day you join. It is reviewed each April, and we tell you about any change at least one month before it takes effect.

Inside that fee: the work listed against your plan, plus asking us questions. Ringing us does not cost anything. Emailing a question does not cost anything. A meeting does not cost anything. There is no hourly rate anywhere in this practice and no invoice will ever arrive for a five-minute conversation.

All fees exclude VAT at 20%.

3. What changes the fee

Only the work genuinely changing. Registering for VAT, taking on your first employee, buying more property, moving from sole trader to limited company, or a volume of transactions well beyond what we quoted on. When that happens we tell you the new figure before we start that work, never on the invoice afterwards. If you would rather not proceed at the new figure, you do not have to.

One-off work, a catch-up on prior years or a company formation, is quoted separately as a fixed sum before it begins.

4. Paying

Monthly by direct debit, taken on the same day each month, or by bank transfer if you would rather. One-off fees are payable on completion of that piece of work.

If a payment fails we will tell you and give you fourteen days to put it right. If fees remain unpaid after thirty days we may pause work, and we will say so in writing first rather than simply going quiet. We do not add interest to a small overdue balance, but we reserve the statutory right to do so where an account is seriously overdue.

5. What we do, and what stays yours

We prepare and file the returns listed in your engagement letter, from the records and information you give us. We do not audit those records and we are not required to: the responsibility for the completeness and accuracy of what you give us is yours, and it is a legal responsibility, not a formality.

You keep the responsibility for retaining your underlying records for the periods HMRC requires, and for paying your own tax by the due date. We will tell you what is due and when, in good time, and the payment itself is yours to make.

6. Deadlines and what we need from you

Every deadline that applies to you is diarised the day you join and we chase you well before it matters. To file on time we need your records by the date set out in your engagement letter, which is normally at least six weeks before the deadline.

If records arrive later than that we will still do our best, and we will tell you honestly whether the deadline is still reachable. Where a filing is late because the information did not reach us in time, the resulting penalty is yours. Where it is late because of something we did or failed to do, it is ours, and we will deal with HMRC about it.

7. Advice

Advice is given on the law and HMRC practice as they stand at the time, and on the facts you have given us. Tax law changes, sometimes retrospectively. We are not obliged to keep past advice under review unless you ask us to, and we will confirm anything material in writing so you have it later.

We do not give investment advice, mortgage advice or legal advice, and we are not authorised to. Where you need those we will say so and, if it helps, point you at someone who is.

8. Ending it

Either of us can end the engagement with one month’s notice in writing. Fees are payable up to the end of the notice period, and any work already in progress is either finished and charged as agreed, or stopped and billed for what has been done.

If you move to another accountant we will provide professional clearance and hand over your records promptly. We do not hold records back over a disputed fee where the law does not allow it, and we do not charge a leaving fee.

9. Money laundering and identity

As an accountancy practice we are required by the Money Laundering Regulations to verify the identity of every client and of anyone who controls a client company, before we act. We cannot waive this, and we cannot begin work until it is done. We are also required by law to report certain suspicions to the National Crime Agency, and the law prevents us from telling you if we do.

10. Liability

We carry professional indemnity insurance. Our liability to you for any one matter is limited to the amount of cover in force, and the figure is stated in your engagement letter. We are not liable for a loss caused by information you gave us that was incomplete or wrong, nor for a loss that was not reasonably foreseeable.

Nothing here limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow to be limited.

11. Complaints

Tell whoever you have been dealing with first, because most things are a misunderstanding that takes ten minutes to sort out. If that does not settle it, write to the practice owner at 14 Mill Brae and you will get a written answer within fourteen days.

12. Law

These terms are governed by the law of Scotland, and the Scottish courts have jurisdiction.

13. This website

The fee figures on the home page are the practice’s published starting fees and the running total you build there is an estimate, not a quote. The quote is the one-page document that arrives after the free half-hour, and that is the number that is binding. Sending the enquiry form does not create an engagement and does not oblige either of us to anything.