CPA firm client newsletter content ideas: four data licensing blurbs with disclosure

What can a CPA firm put in a client newsletter about data licensing?

Four short blurbs, each inviting the reader to reply to the firm rather than apply blindly, plus a disclosure line to run beside any of them. A newsletter is a recommendation to your clients, so the safest pattern is educational copy first, the firm's relationship to the program stated plainly, and any next step routed through a conversation with the engagement partner.

Use this page as a copy bank for the monthly or quarterly client letter. Pick one blurb per issue; do not run all four together.

Check your own rules before anything goes out

Before drafting, settle whether the firm may mention a paid referral program to a given client at all. Under the AICPA Code, a firm that also performs attest work for a client faces limits on taking a commission for recommending a product or service to that client, and any permitted referral fee has to be disclosed. Read the current AICPA Code text and your state board's version, which can be stricter.

The Federal Trade Commission's endorsement guidance points the same way on tone: a connection between the person recommending and the business that pays should be disclosed clearly and close to the recommendation. See the FTC Endorsement Guides for the text.

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your firm's ethics partner, your state board and counsel before acting.

A simple gate works well: send the newsletter only to clients for whom the firm provides no attest service, unless the ethics partner clears it in writing.

The four blurbs

Each blurb is written for a CPA firm voice. Replace the placeholders in braces.

Blurb 1, the explainer (about 70 words)

Blurb 2, the year-end angle

Blurb 3, the owner-succession angle

Blurb 4, the disclosure-first version

How to fit them into the letter

Put the disclosure in the same issue, close to the blurb, not in a separate page of terms. A footer on every issue is stronger than a one-off line.

Who should receive it

A client is worth including when the answer to most of these is yes:

• The company has 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded).
• It has several years of documented operations, in more than one system.
• The owner or an authorized executive could decide on a license.
• The firm does not provide attest services to the client, or the ethics partner has cleared it.
• The records are mainly the company's own rather than its clients' or consumers'.

The who qualifies page sets out the full baseline, and the company fit checker lets an owner run a non-binding screen without giving contact details. Staffing and other service businesses on your client list often hold records for other people, which is covered in the staffing firm recognition guide.

What to do when a client replies

1. Thank them and ask a single question: what systems has the company kept for five or more years?
2. Offer to introduce them, and wait for a yes in writing before sharing any contact details.
3. Use the introduction email builder to draft the note, then send it from the firm.
4. Keep your role to the introduction. Do not ask the client to send you records, and never describe confidential data to SourceX.
5. Log the introduction in your CRM with date and permission.

For a longer list of ways to speak to this audience, see the accountant partner page, and for subject lines see the introduction email subject-line guide. The related DPA checklist helps clients whose records include customer data.

What never goes in the newsletter

• Any dollar amount or percentage for the partner reward. Program figures live in the published terms.
• A promise that a client will be paid or approved. Nothing is binding until the company agrees price and terms and signs.
• Client names or examples drawn from real engagements.
• Language that suggests the firm has seen or will handle client records.

How rewards work for a firm

Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company. The reward is paid only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee; an introduction, meeting or signed agreement alone does not trigger payment, and no reward is guaranteed. The reward is a share of SourceX's fee and is never deducted from what the company receives. Check your firm's own policies and professional rules first, and read the program terms.

Next step

Choose one blurb, get the disclosure line approved, then register as a partner so the firm has a referral link ready when a client replies.