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This article applies to:

  • Product: SMART Practice Aids

Create a Client Engagement

PPC’s SMART Practice Aids
®
 is an innovative tool that brings advanced functionality to your licensed PPC’s Practice Aids products to optimize the overall engagement process.
note
This topic covers the steps for creating regular client engagements. To create a SMART Start engagement, see the Create a SMART Start Client Engagement topic.
You can create a client engagement from a
PPC Title
 or from a
Master Engagement.
  • Creating an engagement from a PPC Title creates a blank engagement based on the PPC title you select.
  • Creating an engagement from a Master Engagement imports any information from the previously generated master engagement into the new client engagement.
Refer to the Engagement Setup Questions topics for helpful information about the engagement setup options.
Create a new client engagement from a PPC Title
  1. On the
    File
     menu, click
    New
    .
  2. Click
    Client Engagement (from PPC Title)
    .
    The Create Client Engagement window appears:
  3. Enter the appropriate information for the engagement:
    • Select the database. (Use the
      Browse
       button to locate a remote machine/database.)
    • Enter the client name (or select the client from the drop-down list).
    • Enter a name for the engagement.
    • Enter the engagement date, or click
      Date
       to select from a calendar.
    • Select an engagement type from the drop down. Depending on your selection of the engagement type, another drop down may appear.
      note
      The Select Review Type drop-down comes with a
      Help me decide
       link to help you decide what review type to choose. Similar to the
      Select Review Type
       drop-down, a
      Select Compilation Type
       drop-down appears if you select the Compilation engagement type.
    • In case of the Review engagement type or Compilation engagement type, select a review type or compilation type as appropriate.
  4. Click
    Next
    .
  5. On the next window, select a practice aid title for this engagement. (Only licensed and installed practice aid titles are listed.)
    If you select a practice aids title with SMART Start data, you may see an option ‘Use SMART Start?’ which you can answer with ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. (The default is set to ‘No’.)
    note
    Click the
    Help me decide
     link for a summary of benefits, cautions, and other considerations when using SMART Start.
  6. Select the SMART Practice Aid
    modules
     to include in the engagement. (A module must be installed before it can be included in an engagement.)
    note
    Risk Assessment
     must be selected along with
    Internal Control
     or
    Field Work
    , but
    Disclosure
     can be selected on its own if needed.
    The modules available to include in the engagement depend on the engagement type you choose (in Step 3), and the system automatically selects modules, disables modules or provides the ability to enable modules based on the practice aid title you choose (in Step 5) for the engagement. For example, in a Review or Compilation engagement type, only
    Compilation and Review
     and
    Disclosure
     modules are available.
  7. Answer the question for Engagement Management Software. You can click on the 'Help me decide' link for more information. (See Engagement Setup Fieldwork.)
  8. Click
    Next
    .
  9. On the next window, select the areas to include in the engagement by selecting the appropriate check boxes in the
    Include
     column.
    note
    You can add a new area by entering the name in the field at the bottom of the window and then clicking the
    Add Area
     button. To delete an area, right-click the area name and then click
    Delete Area
    .
  1. Click
    Next
    .
  2. Answer the setup questions displayed by selecting ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as appropriate. You may click on the ‘Explain’ link to help you answer the question or click on the icon to add a comment. (See SMART Engagement Setup Questions.)
  3. Click
    Finish
    .
    During the setup, if you selected to manage your engagement using external engagement management software, you will see a window that presents information about workpapers and SMART docs. To close the window, you must select to either
    Create SMART Docs Later
     or
    Create SMART Docs Now.
    When the engagement opens, you should see all three panes, including the
    Navigation
     pane. However, if you indicated during engagement setup that you plan to use external engagement management software to manage your engagement, SMART Practice Aids assumes that you will access SMART Practice Aids documents through your engagement management software. Thus, the
    Navigation
     pane is disabled. To enable the
    Navigation
     pane functionality at any time, click
    Enable Full Navigation
     on the
    View
     menu.
Create a new client engagement from a Master Engagement
note
SMART Audit Essential does not provide the option to create a client engagement from a master engagement.
  1. On the
    File
     menu, click
    New
    .
  2. Click
    Client Engagement (from Master)
    .
  3. Enter the appropriate information for the engagement:
    • Select the database. (Use the
      Browse
       button to locate a remote machine/database.)
    • Enter the client name (or select the client from the drop-down list).
    • Enter a name for the engagement.
    • Enter the engagement date, or click
      Date
       to select from a calendar.
    • Select the master engagement you want to use to create this engagement from the drop-down list.
  4. Click the
    Master Engagement Setup Assumptions
     link in the lower right corner to view the master engagement's setup features.
  5. Click
    OK
     to generate the new client engagement.