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This is a separate duty from your terms of engagement, and it is the one most likely to be missed. Clause 4.2 says that where a member or firm determines an output cannot reasonably be used for its intended purpose, they must communicate that conclusion to the client in writing, together with their written reasoning or a summary of it.

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What triggers it

Your Overall reliability conclusion, not just the decision you picked.
  • A Rejected decision where you concluded the output could not reasonably be used does trigger the duty.
  • A Modified decision where you concluded the output, as amended, can reasonably be used does not.
  • A Rejected decision because you simply preferred your own wording, where reliability was never in question, is not a negative conclusion in the clause 4.2 sense.
Read your own conclusion. If it says the output cannot reasonably be used for what it was meant for, the client has to be told.

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What guardbook does

In the Oversight Log. Open any Rejected decision and guardbook reminds you that clause 4.2 requires the client to be told in writing. Once you have told them, choose Mark as communicated to client. The date is recorded on the decision and in the audit trail. In dip sampling. When a sample finds an issue, you cannot sign it off without saying whether a client needs to be told, and the date you told them if so. See dip sampling.

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What guardbook does not do

guardbook does not write to the client for you. The duty is discharged by you, in writing.

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When no letter is needed

The reminder appears on every Rejected decision. If you rejected an output for a reason that had nothing to do with reliability, for example you preferred your own wording, there is nothing to tell the client. Choose No client letter needed, give a short reason (at least 10 characters), and save. The reminder is replaced by your reason and the date, and the choice is written to the audit trail. It cannot be undone, so be sure before you save.

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Doing it properly

1

Write to the client

Email or letter. It has to be in writing.
2

Say what you concluded

That the output could not reasonably be used for its intended purpose. Plainly.
3

Give your reasoning, or a summary of it

Your Oversight Log entry already contains it. The concerns, the reasons and the conclusion are usually most of the letter.
4

Mark it and keep a copy

Choose Mark as communicated to client in guardbook, and keep a copy of what you sent against the job. An assessor asking about a rejected output will want to see both.
Firms sometimes worry this reads as an admission of a problem. It reads as the opposite. A firm that tells a client “we used AI here, we checked it, it was not good enough, so we did not rely on it” is showing exactly the professional scepticism the standard asks for.