The situation
Finished research on client questions, drafted by advisors in two offices
Your firm has offices in London and Rotterdam and 30 advisors. Letters go out in four layouts, two with an outdated reliance clause, and the Rotterdam office still uses a disclaimer written before the last change to the engagement terms. You noticed when a client compared two letters side by side.
The advice in each letter is usually sound. The time goes on everything around it: reformatting drafts, checking the disclaimer, adding the date at which the law is stated, catching the letter that went out on last year’s template. A partner should be reviewing the advice, not the margins.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- State the facts and the date
- An advice letter is only as good as the facts it rests on and the law at the date given. Each letter should list the facts relied on and say at what date the law is stated.
- Limit reliance in the same words
- Who may rely on the letter, for what purpose and what it does not cover belong in approved wording the firm controls. Wording that drifts between offices and advisors weakens it.
- Two offices, two sets of terms
- Advisors in London and Rotterdam may answer to different professional bodies and work under different engagement terms. The letter should carry the wording that matches the office and the client’s engagement.
- Keep the research with the letter
- If the advice is questioned later, the firm needs the research behind it. Keeping the cited research in the same file as the letter makes that file complete.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Using the research above on the VAT treatment of services from our client’s UK company, draft an advice letter to the finance director of the Rotterdam BV. List the facts we relied on, state the law at today’s date and keep the reliance and scope paragraphs from our standard template.
You start with
Finished research on client questions, drafted by advisors in two offices
- 01
Draft from the research
Ask azta to turn the cited research into a client letter with facts relied on, advice and scope. Edit it in Canvas and select any passage to re-tone or shorten it.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro - 02
Apply the firm’s template
On Enterprise, firm templates apply your letterhead, fonts and approved disclaimers to every letter, whichever advisor drafts it.
Firm templates· Enterprise - 03
Keep each client’s file together
On Enterprise, a shared workspace per client keeps the documents, research and letters together, with access by membership.
Workspaces· Enterprise - 04
Export and sign
Export the letter to Word for the partner’s review and signature. The citations stay with the research in the workspace.
Word export· Pro You send
Client advice letters on the firm’s letterhead with its standard disclaimers
What you get
Client advice letters on the firm’s letterhead with its standard disclaimers
Advice letter · draft
VAT on services from your UK company
Facts relied on. This letter is based on the facts in your email of 3 October and on the service agreement you sent us. If any of those facts are incomplete or change, please tell us, as our advice may then change.
Our advice. The services your UK company supplies to the Rotterdam BV are treated as supplied in the Netherlands, where the BV accounts for the Dutch VAT under the reverse charge. The UK company does not charge Dutch VAT on its invoices.
Scope and reliance. This letter states the law as at 23 October 2026. It is addressed to the BV for its own use in this matter and may not be relied on by anyone else. It does not cover the UK company’s own tax position.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
9 minutes a month
At €200 an hour, that is all the time Pro (€27 a month) has to take off your desk to cover its price.
Example figures. Replace them with your own.
- Hours back a year
- 108
- Capacity at your rate
- €21,600
- More advice letters a quarter
- 13.5
- Return on Pro
- 66.7×
- Research
- Drafting
- Your review
A scenario you set, not a promise. The hours that come back go to another client, or deeper into this one.
Want these numbers on your team’s real workload?
Book a demoSources azta searches here
- legislation.gov.uk
- wetten.overheid.nl
- Belastingdienst
- Rechtspraak.nl
What stays with you
- The firm’s disclaimers and reliance wording, approved by you.
- The advice in each letter and the partner’s review of it.
- Deciding who may sign which letters.
Frequently asked questions
- What does a firm template control?
- On Enterprise, firm templates apply your letterhead, fonts and disclaimers to every document drafted in azta, so letters from both offices leave in the same form.
- Who can see a client’s file?
- On Enterprise, shared workspaces give access by membership, so a client’s documents, research and drafts are visible to the people working on it.
- Is client material used for training?
- No. Client data is never used for training on any plan, and it stays in the EU/EEA. Enterprise runs in a sealed tenant with SSO.
