Creating an Engagement

There are three ways to create engagements:

Create an engagement from scratch. Use this option to create a new engagement with the standard groupings. See the procedure below for instructions. If you need to create a consolidated engagement, see Creating a Consolidated Engagement.
Create an engagement from a template. Use this option to create a new engagement from an existing engagement template. This option is ideal for reusing engagement structure setup by the firm for consistency. It allows you to reuse folder structure and custom groups and sub-groups. At this time you cannot create engagement templates for Knowledge Coach.
Copy an existing engagement. Use this option to copy information from an existing engagement to a new engagement. This option is ideal for similar engagements or for re-using custom grouping lists. See Copying an Engagement for instructions. At this time, you cannot copy a multi-tier consolidated engagement to create a new engagement.At this time, you cannot copy a multi-tier consolidated engagement to create a new engagement.

Verify that the client you are creating an engagement for has been added to Client Manager in CCH Axcess Dashboard before proceeding. Clients cannot be added from Engagement.

To create an engagement from scratch, do the following:

Click on the navigation bar to go to the Engagement List page.
On the Engagement List page, click the arrow next to the Create New Engagement from Template button and click Start New Engagement.
Enter the Client name or ID. As you type, the client list from the CCH Axcess Common Client database opens and filters based on the characters you type.

Note: You cannot add a new client from Engagement. You must go to Client Manager in the CCH Axcess Dashboard to add new clients.

Enter the engagement name. The engagement name, ID and year-end date must be unique for a client.
Enter the ID if needed, this field is optional.
The Country field will default based the application URL. You can select any value available in the drop-down list. This is a required field.
The Currency field will default based on the country selected. You can select any value available in the drop-down list. This is a required field.
Enter the engagement description if needed, up to 32 characters. This field is optional.
Enter the charge code if needed, up to 50 characters. This field is optional.
Enter the due date if needed. This field is optional.
Select the responsible staff if needed from the drop-down list. As you type, the staff list from the CCH Axcess Common Staff database opens and filters based on the characters you type. This field is optional.
Select Year-end date.
Select Period start and Period end dates.
Note: Only annual periods are allowed.
Select the engagement type from the list.
Select the module that you would like to use for the engagement. See CCH Axcess Engagement Licenses for more information about the modules.

For the Essentials and Pro modules:

Select a Tax entity type from the list. This selection determines which tax grouping list displays in the tax trial balance and is used when sending balances to the tax return.

Note: The tax entities below have tax grouping lists for tax years 2017 and later. If the selected tax entity type does not have a tax grouping list. Then, the tax group shows as Unassigned for all accounts in the Tax trial balance.

Corporation (1120)
Partnership/LLC (1065)
S Corporation (1120S)
Non-Profit/Tax Exempt (990)
Individual/Sole Proprietorship (1040)

Decide if you want to use the system-provided financial groups, create a new list from scratch, or from a grouping list template. The system grouping list which can be customized by adding or deleting groups in this list.
- Select Yes if you want to use the system-provided financial groups and you want the system to automatically assign the groups to accounts during import. See Managing Financial Groups for more information.
- Select No if you want to create your own financial grouping list or use a grouping list template. Select No if you want to create your own financial grouping list or use a grouping list template
  Note: If you will be importing the trial balance from a CCH® ProSystem fx® Trial Balance Excel file, then select No; otherwise, you will get a mix of system-provided financial groups and leads from CCH® ProSystem fx® Trial Balance. See Importing from CCH® ProSystem fx® Trial Balance.
Select Yes if this will be a consolidated engagement. Consolidated engagements are made up of subsidiary trial balances with the amounts rolled up to consolidated totals.

For Knowledge Coach modules:

Select the Knowledge Coach title from the list that you would like to use in the engagement.

For all modules:

Click Create.

The new engagement is added to the Engagement List page immediately but is not accessible until the create process completes successfully. You can view progress information in the status message in the top right of the window, or by hovering your pointer over the information badge next to the new engagement.

If the process fails, the status message in the top right will indicate that you should retry creating the engagement, and the newly created engagement is removed from the Engagement List page.

To create an engagement from a template, do the following:

Click on the navigation bar to go to the Engagement List page.
On the Engagement List page, click Create New Engagement from Template.
Select the engagement template you wish to use.
Click Next.
Select a client.
Enter an engagement name. The engagement name, ID and year-end date must be unique for a client.
Enter the ID if needed, this field is optional.
Enter the engagement description if needed, up to 32 characters. This field is optional.
Enter the charge code if needed, up to 50 characters. This field is optional.
Enter the due date if needed. This field is optional.
Select the responsible staff if needed from the drop-down list. As you type, the staff list from the CCH Axcess Common Staff database opens and filters based on the characters you type. This field is optional.
Select a different year-end date, period start date, and period end date, if needed.
Select the engagement type from the list.

Note: The tax entity type and modules cannot be changed.
If you are copying a Pro engagement and the firm also has licenses for Essentials, you can deselect Pro and select Essentials.

Note: When you change an engagement from Pro to Essentials the following functionality will no longer be available for the newly created engagement: lock/unlock workpapers, leadsheet comments, lock/unlock the engagement, the Dates tab of the Engagement Properties which includes the Document Completion Date and the Retention Period End Date.
Click Next.
On the Options page, select the check box for each item you want to copy from the original engagement. See the information at the top of this topic for details about what is copied for each option.

Note: If you exclude the chart of accounts from the copy, you must import the trial balance when you open the new engagement.
Select Unlock workpapers in new engagement if you selected to copy workpapers and want the copied workpapers to be unlocked.

Note: The option to unlock workpapers is only available in a Pro engagement (lock workpapers is only available in a Pro engagement).
Click Next.
Click Next.

For Essential and Pro Modules:

Review the message on the Tax Groups page that indicates if tax groups were copied to the new engagement. If the tax groups in the source engagement are not current, you must choose either to continue without copying the tax groups and assignments, or to cancel the copy process so you can update the tax groups before copying.

Tell me more about when tax groups are copied to the new engagement.

Note: The Send to Tax selections for tax groups are retained in the new engagement.

Click Finish.

The new engagement is added to the Engagement List page immediately, but is not accessible until the copy process completes successfully. You can view progress information in the status message in the top right of the window, or by hovering your pointer over the information badge next to the new engagement.

If the process fails, the status message in the top right will indicate that you should retry the job, and the newly created engagement is removed from the Engagement List page.

Note: You cannot create engagement templates with Knowledge Coach at this time.