Engagement fee increase letter prompt: free ChatGPT template
Updated · By Robert Breen
Use this when your firm is raising fees for next season and each client needs a letter. Clients take an increase better when it is specific and early: old fee, new fee, start date and what they get. AI drafts tend to over-explain, apologize, or reach for reasons like "rising costs across the industry" that you never gave. This prompt uses only your reasons and ends with a clear next step, such as signing an updated engagement letter.
Have a professional review it. This prompt helps you draft, not decide. AI can get the law wrong and doesn’t know your jurisdiction or your facts, so have a licensed attorney review anything legal before you send or sign it.
The prompt
Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every [BLANK] with your own details. It uses the four parts from Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task and Format.
Role: You are the owner of [FIRM], an accounting firm, writing to a long-standing client about a fee change. Context: The client: [CLIENT]. Current service and fee: [CURRENT SERVICE]. New fee and start date: [NEW FEE]. My reasons: [REASONS]. What the client does next: [NEXT STEP]. Add no reasons, statistics or comparisons with other firms, and offer no discount. Task: Write a letter that thanks them, states the current fee, new fee and start date in the first paragraph, gives my reasons in two or three plain sentences, says what stays the same, explains the next step and invites a call. No apology and no pressure. Format: Plain text letter under 220 words, short paragraphs, with the old fee, new fee and start date repeated as a three-line block. Signed as [SIGNATURE]. No emoji.
Fill in the blanks
[FIRM]- Your firm's name.
[CLIENT]- The client's name and how long they have been with you.
[CURRENT SERVICE]- The service and today's fee, as in their engagement letter.
[NEW FEE]- The new fee and the first engagement or month it applies to.
[REASONS]- Your real reasons, as you would say them in person.
[NEXT STEP]- What they do now, such as sign an updated engagement letter by a date.
[SIGNATURE]- The name and firm that sign.
Example, filled in
A made-up example from the free lesson Reply Faster to Clients Chasing Their Refund: ChatGPT for Tax and Bookkeeping Firms. Northgate Tax & Bookkeeping is the made-up firm from the client refund email lesson, which finishes a return within five business days of getting every document and posts it to the client portal to review and e-sign. Here Priya writes to Greg and Lena Alvarez, the lesson's made-up clients. The fees are made up.
Role: You are the owner of Northgate Tax & Bookkeeping, an accounting firm, writing to a long-standing client about a fee change. Context: The client: Greg and Lena Alvarez, clients since 2021. Current service and fee: preparing and e-filing their federal and state individual return each spring, $425. New fee and start date: $475, starting with the 2026 return we prepare in early 2027. My reasons: we now finish every return within five business days of the last document, and we added the secure client portal for uploads, review and e-signing. Both take more staff time. What the client does next: sign the updated engagement letter in the portal by January 15; nothing else changes. Add no reasons, statistics or comparisons with other firms, and offer no discount. Task: Write a letter that thanks them, states the current fee, new fee and start date in the first paragraph, gives my reasons in two or three plain sentences, says what stays the same, explains the next step and invites a call. No apology and no pressure. Format: Plain text letter under 220 words, short paragraphs, with the old fee, new fee and start date repeated as a three-line block. Signed as Priya, Northgate Tax & Bookkeeping. No emoji.
What a good answer looks like
- $425, $475 and "starting with your 2026 return" in the first paragraph and the block.
- Exactly two reasons, the five-day turnaround and the portal, with no talk of inflation or other firms.
- A plain next step: sign in the portal by January 15.
- A warm close inviting a call, with no "we hope you understand".
How to check it before you use it
An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the Reply Faster lesson: check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out.
- Confirm both fees against the old and new engagement letters. A typo here is a promise.
- Check whether your engagement letter requires notice before a fee change, and send in time.
- If you mail-merge this to many clients, open a few finished letters and check names and fees.
- If the new engagement letter changes terms beyond the fee, have an attorney review it.
Why this prompt works
The fee lives in the engagement letter, so this letter's real job is to get the new one signed. Tying the reasons to things the client sees, like the client portal and e-signature, makes the increase feel earned.
Practice it in the free lesson
Reply Faster to Clients Chasing Their Refund: ChatGPT for Tax and Bookkeeping Firms: A client wants a refund date while two tax forms are still missing. Give ChatGPT the thread and your firm's facts, catch the date it shouldn't promise, and send a calm, clear reply from Gmail. You do every step yourself in a practice copy of ChatGPT, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Also useful: Turn a Client Meeting into Action Items and a Follow-Up Email (Accounting Firms)
Terms used here
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