The client situation
Ledger Grove Advisory, a fictional accounting practice, wants to know how one bookkeeping team uses AI before agreeing staff rules. A partner asks for a short discovery engagement. No technical scanning, tax review or assurance opinion is in scope.
Agree a useful, bounded engagement
- Client sponsor and scope
- The engagement partner sponsors discovery of AI use in one bookkeeping team. Contractors are included only where the client authorizes their participation.
- Inputs requested
- Existing tool and account list, staff disclosures, current AI instructions and engagement restrictions. Ask for references or redacted descriptions; agree any sensitive evidence exchange separately.
- Work to perform
- Review disclosures, discuss one actual workflow with its owner, record uncertainty and agree follow-up responsibilities. Report which people and workflows were actually covered.
- Deliverables
- A scoped use inventory, findings with supporting references, an action list and a handover discussion. The client retains responsibility for approval and implementation.
- Completion criterion
- The sponsor has reviewed the findings, received the records and acknowledged the unresolved items. Missing disclosures remain explicitly outside the verified coverage.
Run the discussion
- Confirm the sponsor, purpose, boundaries and permission to examine the records.
- Ask a team member to describe one workflow, including tool account, inputs and output review.
- Compare that account with available instructions and evidence. Ask what remains unknown.
- Read the proposed finding back to the owner and agree its factual wording.
- Assign the next action, decision owner and review date, then confirm the handover.
A sample finding you could hand over
- Observation
- A staff member reports using an assistant to draft monthly commentary. The disclosure does not establish which account was used or whether client figures were entered.
- Evidence and limitation
- Staff disclosure D-03 and interview note I-01. Tool settings, actual inputs and engagement permission have not been verified. This is a reported use, not a confirmed data incident.
- Action
- The engagement partner should confirm the account, permitted inputs and client instruction before authorizing further client-data use. Continue work through the existing approved process while the review is pending.
- Owner and review
- Firm operations coordinates the information request. The partner reviews the decision at the agreed follow-up. Do not mark the action complete merely because the request was sent.
Draft your own scope
Use this worksheet to prepare a client discussion. It is a planning aid, not a services contract. Keep client confidential information out of these notes. Entries stay in this page. Save a work file before closing, then restore it here to carry on.
Check the handover
- State the actual scope, participants and evidence reviewed.
- Separate observed facts, reported use and unverified assumptions.
- Give each unresolved item an owner and agreed next review.
- Confirm who approves and maintains the client’s records.
- Explain how to save, reopen and back up delivered work.
- Provide the applicable client-use terms and support responsibilities.
Make this a repeatable client service
The Practitioner License adds the four working kits, industry examples, client package builder, editable delivery materials and defined rights to brand and deliver work for licensed client companies.
This free sampler may be used to evaluate the approach and prepare scope discussions. It does not grant rights to rebrand or redistribute Extrasphere’s paid kits. The paid license specifies client allocations, retained notices, client use and redistribution limits.
Deliver it to five client companies with the Practitioner License · $1,999