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Engagement rollforward

Types of Rollforward

The SMART Practice Aids
Rollforward
 feature provides two ways to create a new client engagement and transfer prior-period engagement answers and customizations into it:
  • Rollforward to a new client engagement
  • Merge with a master engagement

Rollforward the Client Engagement to a New Client Engagement

This option is considered the typical rollforward method. It creates a new engagement based on an equal or newer version of the Practice Aid title used to create the original engagement, then transfers the selected prior-period engagement data into it.

Merge the Client Engagement with a Master Engagement

This option is useful for firms that want to begin with a master engagement (created and maintained by the firm), but want the new engagement to include responses and other data from the prior-period engagement. It allows firms to effectively use master engagements without losing documentation that was created in the prior period client engagement. When this option is chosen, the selected master engagement and prior-period client engagement are merged as follows to form the new client engagement.
Planning forms
 – Planning forms present in either the master engagement or prior-period client engagement will be included in the new engagement. If a planning form is present in both the master and prior-period engagement, the title of the form will be as it appears in the master engagement unless you modified the form’s title in the prior-period engagement. In that event, the form’s title will be the prior-period engagement’s modified form title.
Planning form responses
 – Any planning form responses contained in the master engagement will appear in the new engagement. However, if you choose the option to roll forward planning form responses from the prior-period engagement, the master engagement responses will be replaced by the prior-period engagement responses.
Identified risks
 – Identified risks from the master engagement will appear in the new engagement. If you choose the option to roll forward identified risks from the prior-period engagement, those risks also will appear.
Included audit (or financial statement) areas
 – Areas selected for inclusion in either the master or prior-period engagement will be selected for inclusion in the new engagement. If you modified the name of an area in the prior period, the modified name will be used in the new engagement.
Responses to setup questions
 – Engagement setup questions, such as “Is the engagement a DOL limited-scope audit?” and “Do Uniform Guidance (Single Audit) requirements apply to this engagement?,” vary by title. Generally, the setup question responses for the prior-period client engagement and the master engagement must match or the merge will not continue. An exception is that the “Is this an initial audit?” setup question responses may differ.
Best practice tip
– If you wish to maintain master engagements and use the Merge with Master Engagement rollforward feature, create separate master engagements for each type of engagement your firm’s clients may need. For example, create a defined benefit plan master that is not a DOL limited-scope audit and another defined benefit plan master that is. Then rollforward the prior-period engagement by merging with the appropriate master engagement.
Risk assessments and audit programs
 – You must specify for each audit area how risk assessments and audit programs in the new engagement will be determined.
Best Practice Tip
– Typically, you would use the Merge with a Master rollforward feature only if you intend to use the Master Engagement’s programs for one or more areas.