A renewal is not a copy. Aiwyn prefills a new engagement from an old one and then asks you to confirm each part — because the parts age at different rates. Contacts and staff assignments usually hold from year to year. Prices rarely do. This year's projects may not exist yet.
What prefills
Engagement details, clients and scope of services arrive prefilled from the source engagement and can be changed. The letter cannot be customized during renewal.
One exception: the primary client is fixed. A renewal is for the same client, or it is a new engagement.
The previously used letter template is prefilled. The letter sender must confirm that template or choose a different one for the renewal.
Which projects you are offered
The scope of services list is not simply last year's projects. A project appears only if all four of these hold:
- It belongs to a client on the engagement, or to a client in the primary client's client group.
- The client is active.
- The project is active.
- The project is not already on another engagement.
That last condition is the common surprise. If a colleague has already pulled this year's project onto a different letter, it will not appear here.
What Aiwyn selects for you
Where the relationship between last year's project and this year's is known, Aiwyn preselects it. Whether that relationship exists depends on your practice management system — some carry a link between annual projects, some do not. Where it is unknown, nothing is preselected.
What does not carry forward
- Prepayments. You cannot copy or edit a project prepayment inside the renewal wizard. Add it to the draft afterwards if the new engagement needs one.
- The fiscal year. It does not advance on its own. Change it before you reach scope of services, or you will be choosing from last year's projects.
What happens to the letter content on a dynamic template
On a dynamic letter template the renewed letter is generated again from the template, not copied from last year's document. Every block's variants are re-evaluated against this year's data: the fiscal year you set, the projects and prices you choose in the renewal, the client's current type and custom fields. That is usually what you want, because a client whose circumstances changed gets the right paragraphs without anyone noticing the change.
Two consequences follow:
- One-off edits do not carry forward. A block that was flattened or overridden on last year's letter starts clean on the renewal. If the same customization is needed again, make it again on the new draft.
- Template updates land automatically. If your engagement admin changed a block since last year, the renewal uses the current wording.
What gets recorded
Two fields track the relationship, visible in the engagements table and the engagement details panel:
- Renewed — on the source engagement, the date it was renewed.
- Prior engagement — on the new engagement, the name of the source it came from.
If you have Aiwyn Billing
The scope of services table also shows financial metrics for the prior engagement — WIP value to date, total hours, realization, total billed. This is the point of the side-by-side layout: you can price this year against what last year actually cost to deliver, rather than against what you quoted.
Related
- Renew an engagement letter
- Engagement email notifications