What happens after you enquire

Enquiring is not engaging. Nothing below commits you to anything until the engagement step, and we say plainly at which point that happens.

1. Conversation

You tell us what you are planning — the activity, and how you expect the business to be owned. That is normally enough for us to say what we would look at first and whether there is an obvious complication worth knowing about early. If we need more detail to answer sensibly, we ask for it then, and not before.

You can do this in writing or on a short call, whichever suits. No account and no full intake form is needed at this stage.

2. Scope

Once the situation is clear, we set out what the work involves: what we will do, what we will not do, what we need from you, and what we are assuming. Scope is written down rather than left to be inferred, because most disputes about professional work are really disputes about scope.

3. Quotation

The professional fee for the agreed scope is quoted as a figure, and government filing charges are identified separately from it so you can see which is which. Work outside the agreed scope is not started without your written confirmation of the additional work and any fee change.

4. Engagement

If the scope and fee suit you, we issue an engagement letter. It records the scope, the fee, the assumptions and the terms. The engagement begins when we receive it countersigned, or your written instruction to begin — whichever comes first. This is the point at which you are committed, and not before it.

5. Delivery

We prepare the documents, review them, and take the filing or application through to the relevant office. You are told where the matter stands and what, if anything, is waiting on you. When something depends on a government body, we tell you that it does rather than presenting their timetable as ours.