Perform the acceptance and continuance

This topic applies to Caseware ReviewCompTax.

Learn more about Caseware ReviewCompTax

Most of the engagement work in Caseware ReviewCompTax is completed via checklists. To perform acceptance or continuance procedures, complete the Planning Optimiser checklist.

The Planning Optimiser consists of a set of questions designed to determine the scope and nature of your engagement. It also includes an Instructions tab that describes the purpose and scope of the document as it relates to regulatory standards.

As you provide responses, further documents are added to the engagement. Once you respond to the last question, the Next step section displays with a link to the document that you'll need to complete next.

For example, if you've specified that:

  • the engagement type is Review and Corporation Tax,
  • this is not their first year of operations and
  • you did perform their engagement last year,

then the following documents are available in the Documents page for client acceptance/continuance:

  • 1-20 Existing engagement - Continuance, a checklist confirming your firm's readiness and suitability to perform the engagement work.

  • 1-50 Review engagement letter, a letter to be completed and given to your client to sign.

  • 1-55 Client queries - Engagement letter, where your client will upload their signed copy of the engagement letter.

Note that:

  • If you're working on a compilation engagement and want to implement the 4200 Compilation standards, make sure you respond Yes to the question Would you like to include the new 4200 CSRS standards? To learn more, see Implement the 4200 Compilation standards.

  • The Select if any of the following mapping groups apply to your engagement question prompts you to select the applicable mapping groups for your engagement. For example, if you select Farming, then only account groupings relevant to farming will be available in the engagement, while other groupings will be hidden. To learn more, see Assign accounts to groups in the Data page.

You can view a list of the current documents in the engagement by selecting the folder icon (). A panel opens on the right side showing the available documents grouped by phase. You can also select a document to open it. Once you open a document, you can pin it for quick access using the pin icon ().

To sign off on the Engagement Setup document, select Sign Off at the top-right corner of the document and choose the applicable role for your signoff. To learn more, see Manage the engagement documents.

Note that you can change the signoff workflow for the document and create custom signoff roles if needed. To learn more, see Define signoff roles and Set up signoff schemes.

To learn more about checklist documents, see Add a checklist.

Notify the document's reviewer

To notify the staff member acting as the reviewer that the engagement acceptance document is ready for review, create an issue and assign it to them.

To add an issue:

  1. With the document open, select the Issue icon ().

  2. Enter a message for the staff member.

    3. Tip: You can also tag a member by entering (@) followed by the member name. If they have access to the document, their name appears in the Quick List dialog.

  3. Select their name to tag them in the issue's description.

  4. Choose the issue type and select Create Issue.

  5. The issue displays in the document. It also displays in the Issues page or on the Documents page.

Once all roles sign off on a document, the green check mark displays next to the document () on the Documents page. The progress indicator for the Planning phase is also updated.

Review and edit the engagement letter

The draft version of your engagement letter is automatically generated based on your responses in the Planning Optimiser, as well as your firm's Cloud profile.

Note: You must accept the Partner/practitioner assessment section in either the 1-20 Existing engagement - Continuance and the 1-10 New engagement - Acceptance checklist document or both (if both are available in the engagement) to view the Next step section, which provides a direct link to the draft engagement letter.

Notes and guidance information are available in the letter at the section marked with a lightbulb icon (). This section is visible by default but it's excluded when you print the letter. You can hide this section by selecting More Actions () | Guidance | Off or More Actions () | Guidance | Collapsed.

To edit the letter content, select Edit (). See Edit the engagement letter for more details.

Once you're satisfied with the contents of the engagement letter, select Sign Off to perform the appropriate sign off. Once the content is reviewed, you can send a copy to your client.

Send the engagement letter to clients for review and signature

To obtain the client signature, you can send your draft directly to clients using query documents in Caseware ReviewCompTax. Query documents are intended for client collaboration, such as:

  • Requesting information from clients (send inquires).

  • Requesting documents (ask the client to upload one or more files).

  • Sending deliverables to the client to sign and return.

    Note: Simple Electronic Signature is available in select queries. Clients can electronically accept the engagement letter and other documents. To learn more, see Simple Electronic Signature response type in queries.

Once client contacts sign in to Cloud, they can directly respond to queries.

To send the engagement letter to your clients:

  1. Open the 1-55 Client queries - engagement letter document.

  2. In the top-right corner of the document, select SEND.

    3. The Open Query dialog opens.

  3. Select a Query Due Date.

  4. Specify the contacts assigned to the engagement (or simply assign it to all contacts associated with the entity)

  5. Enter an appropriate email message.

  6. Select OK.

    7. Contacts receive an email with your message and a link to the engagement, where they can download a PDF version of the letter, sign and upload the signed copy.

To learn more about the staff-contact collaboration workflow, see Staff-contact collaboration (Queries) in Caseware RCT.