Questions checklist

The twenty questions in order, each with its one line version and a box for the answer and for where that answer is written in the engagement letter. The file is a tagged, accessible PDF with real text. It is sized so that it prints without scaling on A4 and on US Letter paper.

Ask every adviser the same questions and write the answers down as they are given. The useful test of an answer is whether you can find it in the engagement letter afterwards; an answer that lives only in a meeting is not yet a term. Each box carries the address of the question page, which says what a good answer sounds like and what should make you ask more.

If you are running a formal process, the checklist is the questionnaire: send it with the request for proposal template and ask for written answers by a date. If you are meeting one adviser, take it to the meeting and the preparing for adviser meetings guide says how to use the time.

Page one carries the publisher disclosure and the scripts and templates disclaimer, then the questions begin. The questions are the same as the pages on this site, word for word, and the file is rebuilt when they change; the version number is on every page.

• Questions to ask, with the pages behind each question
• Engagement letter checklist and the proposal scorecard
• How to choose an R&D tax adviser