Chapter 4: Creating & Sending Engagement Letters

Summary

Create new engagements one at a time, with one or more clients on the individual letter. Or create new engagements through a batch, with or without existing client jobs. For both actions, certain items must be selected, including the engagement letter template.

These templates are created, updated, and managed by engagement administrators (those granted permission). While engagement users, or those who need to send engagements to clients, use the existing engagement letter templates to begin the engagement creation process, described in detail in this chapter.

Establish the engagement's details including possible adjustments from the default data such as chosen contact(s), partner and manager selections, job pricing, job prepayment requirements, signatory parameters, the engagement name, and start/renewal dates. All topics covered in the previous chapters of this user guide.

Once created, view the status of an engagement and refine the list to display engagements with certain statuses or other preferred criteria.

Included in this article:

• Create New Engagement
  • Steps to Create a New Engagement
  • Steps to Create a Batch Engagement
• Engagement Details
• Scope of Services
  • Add Existing Project of Client on an Engagement
  • Create a Pricing Structure for a Project
  • Create a Required Prepayment for a Project
• Override Template Content
• Engagement Letter Contacts
• Engagement Statuses
  • Revising Payment Method Prompt
• Engagement Review & Approve
• Manual Engagements
  • Steps to Send Manual Engagement
  • Steps to Manually Execute an Engagement
• Resend Engagements

Create New Engagement

The process of creating a new single Engagement Letter, begins by first selecting the Client. Then, their Contact(s), and associated Client Partner and Client Manager populate as default selections, all of which can be changed before sending the Letter.

When creating a new Engagement, you will also then choose the appropriate Letter Template, Job(s), prepayment(s), payment method setup parameters, signatory parameters, the Engagement Name, and the Start and Renewal dates for the Engagement.

Steps to Create a New Single Engagement Letter

1. Go to Engagements from the Firm Portal
2. Select "New Engagement..." button
3. Search for and select the Client (their name and client ID will show in a drop down list)
4. For the Primary Contact, select the appropriate Client Contact from the list or keep as default
5. For the Billing Contact, select the appropriate Client Contact from the list or keep as default. 
6. You can choose which Address to include on the Letter, either the Primary Contact's address as it comes from your Practice Management System, or the Client Address as it comes from your Practice Management System.
7. Choose to either Require Payment in order to execute the Engagement, provide optional Payment prompting, or do not include Payment prompting when the client receives the Engagement
8. The Client's Partner is selected by default, change this to a different staff member as appropriate. This is who will be attributed as the author of the letter
9. The Client's Manager is selected by default, change this to a different staff member as appropriate. This is the primary contact for the Engagement and is the "Sender" of the Engagement Email seen by Client recipient(s)
10. Add one or more "Collaborators" from your Staff list as additional recipients of the signed engagement letter PDF.
11. Choose the appropriate Engagement Letter Template from the drop down
12. Choose the Fiscal Year
13. Edit the Engagement Name as desired
14. Choose the Start Date (specific date, or choose to start on date client signs the letter)
15. If you would like to automate the renewal for this Engagement for this Client, enter the Renewal Date
16. Select "Save" to proceed to adding Job(s) and editing the Letter (steps to Add Job(s) and Edit Letter below)

Steps to Create Batch Engagement

1. Go to Engagements from the Firm Portal
2. Select the "Batch Create" button
3. Choose to create the batch using Existing Projects already added to Clients in your Practice Management System or Without Project.

Batch Create from Existing Project(s)

1. Select the Letter Template
2. Choose the additional Engagement Details
   1. Select "Include all clients in client group" to create a single letter with multiple clients on it
3. Click "Next" to proceed to next step

4. 

5. Select the existing Projects(s) associated to the Clients. You can search/sort/filter based on any parameter, such as Client Group, Project Name, Service Line, Partner/Manager, Office, Status, etc.
6. Click "Next"
7. If any of the selected Clients are missing Engagement Details, these will show up under "Engagements with Errors" and the missing data is highlighted in red.
8. 
9. Click "Edit" next to the client engagement with errors to update the information
10. Click the small (-) icon to remove the Client from the Batch if the error cannot be addressed at this time
11. Select "Batch Create Engagement" - this will not send the letter yet
12. The batch will get prepared, navigate away from Engagements and back to Engagements to view the Engagement Batch
13. Edit the drafts as needed.
14. Send through Review & Approve process, if in use.
15. When ready to Send, select the Engagement Letter draft from the list of Draft Engagements list (a unique Batch ID number is provided)
16. Click "Send to Client..." to send the selected Client(s) the Engagement Letters

Batch Create Without Projects(s)

You can use this option to either prepare a batch without projects and add them later, or to create engagements that don't need any projects added at all.

1. Select the Letter Template
2. Choose the additional Engagement Details
3. Click "Next" to proceed to next step
4. Enter the Client IDs of the Clients to include for this batch
5. Click "Next"
6. If any of the selected Clients are missing Engagement Details, these will show up under "Engagements with Errors" and the missing data is highlighted in red.
7. Click "Edit" next to the client engagement with errors to update the information
8. Click the small (-) icon to remove the Client from the Batch if the error cannot be addressed at this time
9. Select "Batch Create Engagement" - this will not send the letter yet
10. The batch will get prepared, navigate away from Engagements and back to Engagements to view the Engagement Batch. Can make additional edits to each letter from this point.
11. Send through Review & Approve process, if in use.
12. To send, select the Engagements from the list of Draft Engagements list (a unique Batch ID number is provided)
13. Click "Send to Client..." to send the Clients their Letter for that Batch

Engagement Details

The Engagement Details determines which Client Contact(s) receive the letter, who the letter is "from" (the Client Partner selected), if payment is offered or required, the Letter Template, the Engagement Name, the Start date of the Engagement, and the Renewal Date if desired.

Additional information is located in Chapter 1: Engagement Details & Settings, click to jump there now.

Scope of Services

Use of Jobs in your Practice Management System (also known as Projects, Engagements, or Events in certain Practice Management Systems) is required in order to use Jobs in Aiwyn. 

Once the Engagement Details have been entered on a draft Engagement, you can add Job(s) to the Engagement and determine the Pricing Structure, Prepayment Amount, and Billing Schedule if desired.

The Job's Short and/or Long Description Placeholder Variables can also be further edited.

Job(s) are not required to use in your system at all, nor are they required for Engagements in general. Additional information is located in Chapter 3: Jobs and Prepayments, click to jump there now.

Add Existing Project of Client on an Engagement

A Project is not required for Engagements. The steps below are for those Engagements and/or firms using and requiring Jobs.

1. Complete the steps to create an new Engagement, and complete the Engagement details, click Save
2. Select the "Add Projects" button 
3. Select one or more of the existing Projects(s)

The Projects displayed in the Add Projects window include:

• Projects of the Primary Client
• Projects of the other Client(s) in the Primary Client's Client Group
• Projects of the other Client(s) added to the letter, even if not within Primary Client's Client Group
• Projects of the other Client(s) within the same Client Group of any Client added, even if not within Primary Client's Client Group

Create a Pricing Structure for a Project

1. Complete the steps to add Project(s) to the Engagement and then you will be viewing the Jobs (under Scope of Services)

2. Select a Project from the list

3. In the right hand panel, under "Pricing Structure" select "Edit" button

4. Choose "Fixed Fee" or "Hourly" and enter price(s)

Example of Entering Price for a Fixed Fee Project

Example of Entering Price for an Hourly Project

5. Save changes.

6. You're guided back to the Scope of Services and viewing the list of Project(s).

Example of Prices added to Projects of a Client Engagement (draft)

Create a Required Prepayment for a Project

With the same "Billing Details" area of an existing Project already added to an Engagement, you can also add a Prepayment amount.

With Project Pricing and Prepayment amount added to the Project's Billing Details, these values are now available to merge into the letter using the Section Content Placeholder Variables.

Once Project(s) and their Billing Details have been added, this is what your screen will look like. Adjust the columns to pull into view the data you would like to see:

Select "Engagement Letter" to preview the letter. Click "Edit Letter" to make further adjustments. 

Example Draft Engagement Letter Preview, showing the Scope of Services section that includes Placeholders for Project Name and Price and Total Prepayment Amount

Additional information regarding Projects, Pricing, and Prepayment is located in the previous chapter, click here to jump there now.

Override Template Content

When creating a new Engagement, sections that are unlocked could be further edited by the user if desired. 

Steps to Edit an Engagement Letter's Contents

Once the Engagement details screen is completed, the main letter draft page is displayed, presenting the Clients, Scope of Services, Engagement Letter, and Contacts tabs. 

Select the Engagement Letter tab. To edit the contents of the letter, select the "Edit letter..." button.

Section(s) may be locked from editing in one or two ways: 

• Cannot change the Section Template in use for that Section Type (drop down is grey)
• Cannot edit the content of the selected Section Template (edit button is grey)
• Both, either, or neither may be employed
• To edit the content as needed or required, select the edit button next to the Section 

Edit the section content, using any of the available tools including adding placeholder variables, creating bullet point or numeric lists, indent/outdent, adjusting text alignment, inserting an image, creating/editing tables, inserting/forcing a page break, clearing all text formatting, and adjusting source code.

Once the edits to the content for the section are complete, select "Override Template Content" to apply the changes.

• If the Engagement User does not have Engagement Template permissions enabled, the options to apply current changes to the Section Template itself, or create a new Section Template are greyed out and cannot be selected.
• Engagement administrative users with the correct template editing permissions enabled will see those options available for selection.

The letter preview will update to reflect the changes made.

Engagement Letter Contacts

With each draft Engagement, you can view the Contact(s) added to the letter.

These contacts could include:

• Primary Contact - Required signer. Only one contact of the client may be the Primary Contact. While the Primary Contact will populate for the Client by default (or will attempt to), the Primary Contact may be changed before sending the letter. All contacts associated with the Client and other clients in the same Client Group will be shown.
• Billing Contact - Not a required signer. Is the Contact responsible for making a prepayment, saving a payment method, or opting out of saving a payment method, if applicable. The Billing Contact receives a copy of the Engagement Letter to "review" - but not necessarily sign unless added as an Additional Signatory.
• Additional Signatories - Any Client Contact(s) other than the Primary who should also receive the Engagement Letter via email for a chance to review and sign (optionally or required) must be added as an Additional Signatory, shown when drafting the Engagement Letter.

Engagement Letter Email Recipients

Before sending the Engagement Letter, you can view the Contact(s) of the Engagement by selecting the "Contacts" from the sub-tabs along the top of the draft letter.

Each of the contacts added (Primary, Billing, and Additional Signatory) will receive the request to Sign (or just Review) the Engagement Letter.

From the example screenshot above, notice how "Signed" column is NULL for our Billing Contact. This indicates that the contact will not be offered a place to sign when they are reviewing the Engagement. 

Engagement Statuses

Once you create a new Engagement (single or batch) it remains in a "draft" status until it's status is changed as part of the Review & Approve process (if in use) or once it is sent to the client. When viewing the main Engagements page, you can toggle your view to show All Engagements, or just your Engagements.

To filter the list, click on the column you would like to filter on and select the three horizontal lines to open the column edit/filter tool. Select the filter icon, enter your filter parameter (it is case sensitive) and click Apply to filter the list.

Select a column to drag and drop to adjust the order of the columns shown. 

You can use the "Group By" function to group Engagements on one or more of the columns. For example you can group by Engagement Status, then Engagement Partner.

You can also filter the list based on status, so that you always see just the letters you want to see. Filters stays with your user until you change it.

Select the three horizontal lines in the Status column (shown when hovering over the column name).

Select the funnel icon and the uncheck any statuses you do not want to see. Select "Apply", and the screen will refresh to show you just the Engagements with statuses you have selected.

Engagement Statuses

• Draft - An Engagement (from single or batch) that has not yet been sent (or sent for review and approve)
• Pending Review* - An Engagement awaiting Review from assigned Reviewer
• Pending Approval* - An Engagement awaiting Approval from assigned Approver
• Ready to Send* - An Engagement approved by Approver and can be sent
• Sent - An Engagement (single or batch) that has been sent and is not yet executed
• Under Revision - A previously sent Engagement that is undergoing revisions (client cannot view or sign an Engagement that is Under Revision)
• Canceled - An Engagement of any status may be Canceled. This action cannot be reversed.
• Executed - A sent and signed Engagement
• Archived - An Engagement with Draft, Sent, Under Revision, and Executed statuses can be "Archived". Canceled Engagements cannot be Archived. Archived Engagements may be restored.

* Status available if "Engagement Review & Approve" feature is enabled. Reach out to support@aiwyn.ai or contact your Customer Service Manager for more information or to get this enabled for your system.

Engagement Types

A column on the Engagements page includes "Type" referring to the type of engagement a particular engagement is, specifically these are:

• Electronic Engagement - An engagement letter sent to Client signatory/ies through Aiwyn directly. No icon shown under Type column if this was an Electronic Engagement.
• Manual Engagement - An engagement set up and executed in Aiwyn but the actual letter was sent to the Client outside of Aiwyn as well as Signed by Client outside of Aiwyn. Indicated with the icon shown below.

Edit Draft Engagement

All details and information of a Draft Engagement can be edited.

1. Click on the Draft Engagement from the list of Engagements
2. Edit the Engagement Details
3. Add Client(s) from within or outside of Primary Client's Client Group
4. Remove any additional Client(s) if desired (except for the Primary Client)
5. Add/Edit Job(s)
6. Add/Edit Job Price and Prepayment Amount
7. Edit Letter contents
8. Add/Edit Signatories
9. Send letter when ready through Aiwyn OR choose to send and execute manually outside of Aiwyn

Edit Sent Engagement

Once an Engagement has been sent, all details and information can still be edited. Upon selecting to edit a sent Engagement, the status updates to "Under Revision" automatically.

Edit Under Revision Engagement

All details and information can be edited, however the client will be unable to review or sign the letter when it remains in the Under Revision status.

Revising Payment Method Prompt

On "sent" but not Executed Engagement Letters, you can edit the Payment Method Prompt without fully revising the letter or having to resend it.

1. In the firm portal Engagements section, go to a "Sent" letter
2. In the Engagement Details area, select the small "Edit..." link next to the Payment Method detail to change the payment method prompt from what it originally was to something else.

Leverage this feature to help get the Engagement Letter fully executed if the Client has signed the letter but has not put in their Payment Method as originally requested.

• If the payment method setting is changed from “Required” or “Optional” to “Not Prompted” and all other required tasks have been completed, the engagement automatically transitions to the executed status.
• If the payment method setting is changed to changed to “Optional”, the billing contact is notified of the Engagement, and they can select "Set (payment method) up later" or exit the window.
• If the payment method setting is “Not Prompted” or “Optional” and is changed to “Required”, the billing contact will receive an email notification.

Edit Executed Engagement

Once an Engagement is signed by the Client, it is "Executed". Only minor changes can be edited on an executed Engagement:

• Update the Contact(s)
• Update the Partner or Manager
• Update the Fiscal Year
• Update the Start and Renewal Date(s)

Engagement Review & Approve

Review & Approve is an optional feature you can choose to have enabled for your system. 

This feature allows you to assign unsent letters to a Reviewer and a separate Approver, before a letter can be marked as "ready to send" and send to the client. Engagements are automatically routed to the appropriate individuals for review and approval based on their assigned roles within the firm.

By default, the following roles are assigned:

• Drafter: Staff person who created the letter
• Reviewer: The Engagement's assigned Engagement Manager
• Approver: The Engagement's assigned Engagement Partner
• Sender: The drafter is automatically the assigned sender

Firm users may change any of the above default roles for an Engagement except for the “Drafter” role, which will always be the user that created the engagement record. 

To modify the staff assigned to a role, a firm user with the correct permissions may navigate into an Engagement record and select “Edit Roles...” on the Engagement Details side panel (right-hand side). 

For each role, firm users may select from a picklist of all active firm staff.

Steps for Drafter to send letter to Reviewer

Once the details of the Engagement Letter are prepared and the letter is drafted and furth customized, if warranted, the drafter will select "Request Review" button. Upon doing so, it will be assigned to the Reviewer.

The drafter can choose to leave the Reviewer an internal note before selecting "Request Review"

Steps for Reviewer to send letter to Approver

Once the letter has been assigned to the Reviewer, it will show to the firm user under "Assigned to me" with the status "Pending Review". Select the Engagement you wish to review.

The Reviewer can choose to make changes to the Engagement Details, add or remove Clients to the Engagement (other than the Primary Client), change the Primary or Billing Contacts, add additional signatories, and edit the contents of the letter (based on their permissions and your locked content). 

The Reviewer can choose to send the letter back to the drafter to make further changes if desired by changing the status to "Draft" and select "Send back to draft", where it will go back to the Drafter.

When ready, the Reviewer will select "Request Approval" and the letter is then assigned to the Approver.

Steps for Approver to mark letter ready to send

Once the letter has been assigned to the Approver, it will show to the firm user under "Assigned to me" with the status "Pending Approval". Select the Engagement you wish to review.

The Approver can choose to send the letter back to the Drafter, who could make further changes if desired. The Approver can do so by changing the status to "Draft" and select "Send back to draft", where it will go back to the Drafter.

When ready, the Approver will select "Mark Ready to Send" where the assigned "Sender" is then assigned to send the letter.

Ready to send letters

Once a letter is marked as "Ready to Send", that means the Engagement Letter has been fully edited, reviewed, and approved, and can now be sent to the Client. 

Staff assigned to send the letters will see those letters with "Ready to Send" status from their assigned Engagements.

Select one or more letters and select to send to client.

Manual Engagements

Once an Engagement Letter has been created, either one off or through a batch, you can choose the method by which you are sending an individual Engagement Letter to the Client, either through Aiwyn directly, the "Electronic Engagement" method, or through other external methods, referred to as a "Manual Engagement".

With the Manual Engagement feature, you are able to do the following in Aiwyn firm portal:

• manually update the engagement status to "executed"
• manually update important engagement details
• filter and find manually executed engagements
• upload a signed pdf to the engagement record
• view the uploaded signed pdf

Steps to send Manual Engagement Letter

1. Go to Engagements from the firm portal
2. Select a single Engagement that is with the status of Draft or Executed from the list
3. Select "Send to Client" button
4. Choose the bullet point "Manual Engagement"
5. Select "send to client" to indicate you are sending (or have already sent) the Client this engagement outside of Aiwyn.

Steps to manually Execute an Engagement

Once an Engagement Letter was "sent manually", follow the steps to Execute the Engagement:

1. Select the Sent Manual Engagement from the list.
2. Select "Execute Manually"
3. Upload PDF of their signed engagement
4. Enter any internal notes as desired
5. Update or add signatories from the Client's available Contacts
6. Indicate if signature was collected and the date it was signed
7. Click "Save"
8. Engagement will now appear as executed.

Resend Engagements

Engagements in Sent or Executed status may be resent to the client. They can be resent from either the individual contact section of an Engagement, or from the main Engagements page.

Steps to resend Engagement from main Engagements page

1. Firm portal user with "Edit Engagement" permissions can resend the Engagement
2. Navigate to the Engagements tab of the firm portal
3. Find the Engagement you want to resend, it must be either in "Sent" or "Executed" status
4. Under the Actions column, select the three small dots, and select "Resend"
5. If the Engagement is in Sent status, it resends the request for the Client to sign
6. If the Engagement is in Executed status, it resends a copy of the signed Engagement Letter PDF to the Client contact.
7. The Resend will send to all original Engagement Contacts added to the Engagement

Steps to resend Engagement to an Engagement Contact

1. Firm portal user with "Edit Engagement" permissions can resend the Engagement
2. Navigate to the Engagements tab of the firm portal
3. Find the Engagement you want to resend, it must be either in "Sent" or "Executed" status
4. Select the Engagement to open the full page
5. Navigate to the Engagement's Contacts tab
6. For the contact you want to resend the Engagement to, under the Actions columns select the three small dots and select "Resend"
7. The Resent Engagement will send just to the Contact you selected to send it to

Next: Chapter 5: Client experience