Skip to main content

Best Practices for Firm Users

  • Updated

Follow these guidelines to deliver the best team and client experience.

1. Define and Standardize Your Workflow

  • Leverage AuditDashboard’s Workflow Aid as inspiration to define your processes and ideal client experience.
  • Tailor the process to meet specific client needs and requirements.

2. High-Quality Request Lists = Great Team and Client Experiences

  • The best engagements occur when information is requested early and received on time.
  • Create separate engagements for interim and year-end engagements.
  • Create requests with specific, concise and complete titles, references, and descriptions so clients clearly understand what to provide without having to ask follow-up questions.
  • Create separate requests for specific items to establish a clear feedback loop.
  • When selecting samples, attach your list of samples to one line item (e.g. “Revenue Samples”). When the client misses some information or you need additional support, create a new request with a detailed description so it’s easy to track what remains outstanding.
  • Use due dates to communicate expectations, such as when the requests need to be submitted and track what's overdue.
  • Use the assign-to-firm-user and assign-to-client-user fields to assign ownership. This helps populate dashboards and ensures that the correct individuals receive the right notifications. Requests with due dates and users assigned have shorter turnaround times.
  • Use 2- or 3-digit numbering (e.g., 01, 02... 99 or 001, 002... 999) to help sort the list chronologically in a predetermined order (e.g. to delineate priority and/or sequence of say, the financial statements). If you want to add or modify reference numbers, export your request list, and use Excel’s concat function to modify the request list.
  • Use references that align with sections of the engagement and/or financial statement line items that are relevant to your client.

Pro-Tip: Each request line has a unique URL and request ID, making it easy to download, modify and re-upload your request list. Learn more about modifying requests in bulk.

3. Review Your Request List Before Adding Clients to Collaborate

  • “Draft” the engagement for internal review before making it visible to the client.
  • Efficient engagements (1) have complete request lists to give your client a clear picture of what you require, (2) have concise request lists that only ask for the information you require, and (3) are accurate. Managers should complete a review to ensure all three criteria are met.
  • Once reviewed, change the engagement’s status to “In-Progress”, making it visible to Client Users.
  • If you’re rolling forward a prior engagement, be sure to update the request list to reflect any new requirements or changes.

4. Client Introduction

5. Notifications and Activity Monitoring

  • Modified requests become bold to draw your attention to new activities that you haven't seen.
  • Customize your instant notification settings so you can stay informed and respond promptly. For example, we recommend subscribing to notifications for document uploads after most files have been provided.
  • Use the activity feed view in your Dashboard to monitor an engagement’s progress.
  • Flag requests to leave yourself a reminder for your next team discussions or client meetings. Flags are private and visible only to the user who creates them.

6. Complete and Close Engagements

  • Mark engagements as Complete to remove them from dashboards, stop notifications, and restrict client access.
  • Close engagements promptly to ensure your focus remains on active projects.

Have more questions?

Contact Support