Chapter 6: Engagement Renewals

Summary

Aiwyn’s Engagement Renewal feature supports, expedites, and streamlines the renewal process, especially during the annual renewal season. Executed Engagements are eligible for renewal, as long as they have not yet been renewed.

Key Features

• Create Renewed Engagements: Create renewed engagements for review.
• Receive Engagement Renewal Email Reminders: You are notified about which engagements are ready to be renewed.
• Allow for Single and Batch Renewal Operations: Renew one or multiple engagements using an efficient workflow wizard.
• Update Pricing and Billing Details: You can adjust the price and billing schedule for each client service when renewing an engagement.

Included in this article:

• Renewing Engagements
• Engagement Renewal Workflow
  • Engagement Details
  • Engagement Clients
  • Engagement Scope of Services
  • Engagement Letter
• Email Notifications

Renewing Engagements

Any Engagement that is executed can be selected for renewal by any Engagements User. 

Steps to Renew an individual Engagement

1. In the Engagements section of the Firm Portal, an Engagements User or Admin may select any “executed” Engagement from the list
2. Select “Renew” button
3. The Engagement Renewal Workflow wizard opens, displaying two Engagements side by side
4. The original Engagement chosen for renewal appears on the left hand side of the screen, and the new draft Engagement appears on the right.
5. Scroll down through the two letter screens to compare the source with the draft renewal
6. The settings available match that of all Engagements:
   1. Engagement Details
   2. Engagement Clients
   3. Engagement Scope of Services
   4. Engagement Letter
7. Once the details of the renewal are complete, select "Review & Close"

Steps to Renew multiple Engagements

1. In the Engagements section of the Firm Portal, an Engagements User or Admin may select any “executed” Engagement from the list. 
2. Select multiple executed Engagements
3. Select “Renew” button to renew them all at once, one by one
4. The Engagement Renewal Workflow wizard opens, displaying the first Engagement's original and draft renewal. 
5. Continue the renewal process for the individual Engagement and once complete, select "Review & Next" to proceed to the next selected Engagement's renewal and the process begins again.

Upon Renewal

After completing the Engagement renewal process, renewed Engagements appear as Drafts on the main Engagements page.

Two fields on the engagement record track the relationship between the source Engagement chosen for renewal and the new Engagement created from the renewal process.

These fields can be found in the Engagements table and the Engagement Details side panel.

• • Renewed: Applies to the source engagement and is the date the source engagement was renewed.
  • Prior Engagement: Applies to the newly created engagement from the renewal process and lists the name of the source engagement it was created from.

Engagement Renewal Workflow

The Engagement Renewal Workflow wizard is broken out into sections of information that are practically identical to the drafting a new engagement.

• Engagement Details
• Engagement Clients
• Engagement Scope of Services
• Engagement Letter

Engagement Details

A side by side comparison of the details from the previous engagement to the new engagement is displayed.

During the renewal process, any of the Engagement Details settings may be edited, with the exception of the Primary Client, which cannot be changed.

The Fiscal Year for the new draft Engagement should be changed, as the selected Fiscal Year impacts the presented Job(s) listed in the Scope of Services section.

Engagement Clients

The Clients section lists all Clients within the same Client Group as the Primary Client. The Primary Client is checked by default and cannot be removed.

If desired, add additional Clients within or outside of the Client Group. By adding additional Clients, their Job(s) also become available for selection to add to the new Engagement.

Engagement Scope of Services

In the Scope of Services section, the previous Engagement's job(s), and their pricing if originally added, display and can be adjusted for the new draft engagement. 

Additionally, if you have Aiwyn Billing, you can also view key financial metrics (e.g., WIP value to date, total hours, realization, total billed) in the Scope of Services table for the previous engagement.

• • The list of client services (jobs) shown in the Scope of Services table for the renewal depends on a few criteria:
    • The service must be related to a client added to the engagement or a client within the same client group as the engagement’s primary client
    • The client related to the service must be active must be active
    • The services’s status must be active
    • The service is not present on another engagement
  • In some cases, the relationship between the client service listed on the renewal and the client service listed on the prior engagement might be known (this is dependent on your practice management system). In the cases where the relationship is known, the client service will be automatically selected in the renewal’s Scope of Services table.
  • You can also edit the service from within this renewal wizard. From within the Edit window, you are able to update service details, pricing, and the billing schedule. You can also select a prior job and have the option to copy the service details and pricing information from the prior service to the new service. Note that you cannot edit or copy over the service prepayment at this time from within the renewal wizard.

Engagement Letter

In the letter section, you can edit the templates, specific content in the letter itself, and add or remove signatories. You can also preview and compare the prior engagement letter to the renewal letter.

Email Notifications

The engagement partner and engagement manager are sent an email on the first day of the month with a count of engagements that are ready for renewal within the next 90 days or that are past due (which is based on the renewal date field).

Those engagements without a renewal date added can still be renewed (as long as it is executed). The renewal date field ensures that renewal is included in the reminder email sent to partners/managers as part of their monthly renewal reminder email.

The engagement renewal reminder email notification can be turned on or off from the Settings page.