Stages & gates

A pipeline is a sequence of stages. An engagement is at exactly one stage at any moment. Stages have gates — rules that control when an engagement can move to the next stage.

Three things move engagements between stages:

Trigger	Example
Auto-advance	All documents matched → move from Awaiting docs to Docs received.
Manual move	Preparer drags the card from In prep to In review.
Override	Admin force-moves a card past a gate that says “no” (rare).

Gate modes

Each stage has a gate mode that defines how strict the advance rule is.

Gate mode	Behavior	When to use
Strict	Engagement can only leave this stage if every required task in the stage is complete AND every active blocker is resolved.	Stages where partial work would be a real problem — In review, Awaiting signature.
Flexible	Required tasks aren’t enforced — anyone with Edit engagements permission can move the card forward, but Assure Pro shows a warning (“3 tasks still incomplete — move anyway?”).	Most working stages — In prep, Fieldwork. The preparer often knows the right time to advance even with stragglers.
None	No checks. Cards can move forward and backward freely.	Informational stages, prospect funnels, early planning.

Default gate modes for the seeded pipelines:

Tax pipeline: Awaiting docs (Flexible), Docs received (Flexible), In prep (Flexible), In review (Strict), Awaiting signature (Strict), Filed (None).
Accounting pipeline: all Flexible by default.
Audit pipeline: Planning (None), Fieldwork (Flexible), Review (Strict), Wrap-up (Strict), Issued (None), Documented (None).

Change per stage from the Pipeline builder.

When Assure Pro moves a card for you

Each stage can declare an auto-advance condition. When the condition is met for an active engagement at that stage, Assure Pro automatically moves it to the next stage. The move shows in the activity timeline as an automatic advance.

Conditions Assure Pro can watch for

Condition	Example use
All checklist items matched	When the AI document checklist is 100% complete, move from Awaiting docs to Docs received.
All required tasks completed	When every task tagged “required for advance” finishes, move stage.
Specific task completed	When the task “Send 8879” is marked complete, move from In review to Awaiting signature.
Signature received	When a tied signing package is fully signed, move forward (for example, from Awaiting signature to Filed).
Payment received	When a tied invoice is marked paid, move forward.
Days since entered	After N days at a stage, auto-advance (useful for cooldown stages).

Conditions are configured per stage in the Pipeline builder. A stage can have multiple conditions — Assure Pro advances when any of them fires.

What auto-advance does

Moves the card to the next stage.
Creates any stage-template tasks on the new stage (if they don’t already exist).
Logs the move in the activity timeline, with the reason.
Notifies the engagement’s preparer and reviewer.

What auto-advance doesn’t do

It doesn’t move backward — auto-advance is one-way.
It doesn’t override a Strict gate. If the next stage’s entry has required-task gates, auto-advance still respects them.
It doesn’t fire for engagements that are On hold or Completed.

Moving an engagement manually

The most common way an engagement advances. Three ways to trigger:

Where	How
Kanban view	Drag the card to a new column.
Engagement detail page	Click the stage breadcrumb, pick a new stage from the dropdown.
Keyboard	`Cmd+Enter` on the focused card (next stage) or `Shift+Enter` (previous stage).

When you start a manual move, Assure Pro checks the destination’s gates:

Strict with unresolved required tasks or active blockers: the move is blocked. A dialog appears explaining why. You can click View blockers or Resolve tasks to address; or Override (if you have permission).
Flexible: a warning dialog appears. Click Move anyway to proceed, Cancel to abort.
None: the move happens immediately.

Overriding a gate

Sometimes you need to move an engagement past a gate that says “no” — the blocker is resolved in real life but Assure Pro hasn’t been told yet, the required task was actually unnecessary for this engagement, and so on.

To override:

Start the move as normal (drag, click, or keyboard).
In the gate-block dialog, click Override.
Enter a reason — required, free text. (“K-1 for this engagement is exempt — owner waived. Confirmed by partner.”)
Click Confirm override.

The move proceeds. Assure Pro:

Logs the override and the reason in the activity timeline.
Marks the move as an override in stage history.
Sends a notification to the engagement’s reviewer and partner.

Rolling an engagement back

You can move an engagement to an earlier stage. Common reasons:

The preparer caught an error mid-review and the engagement needs more prep work.
The signed engagement letter turned out to be the wrong version — back to the drawing board.
Client uploaded a document late and now an Awaiting docs re-check is needed.

To roll back:

From the engagement detail page, click the stage breadcrumb.
Pick the earlier stage.
Confirm in the dialog (which warns: “Moving backward — tasks tied to the later stages will be marked needs-attention”).

Rollbacks are logged as such. Tasks generated by later stages aren’t deleted — they’re marked Needs attention so you can review and act.

Reviewing stage history

Every move (auto, manual, override, rollback) is recorded. View the full history from the engagement detail page → Activity tab → filter to Stage changes.

Each entry shows:

The stage transition (from → to).
Who initiated (or “Assure Pro (auto)” for auto-advances).
When.
The reason (for overrides and rollbacks).
The duration spent at the previous stage.

This is useful for retrospectives: “How long does our prep stage typically take?” — filter to stage history for completed engagements and inspect the average.

Common patterns

”Stuck at Awaiting docs”

A common pipeline pathology: cards sit at Awaiting docs for weeks because the client never uploads. Configure the stage to auto-advance to a Stalled — chasing client column after 14 days with no progress, with auto-generated tasks for the preparer to call.

”Reviewer is the bottleneck”

If reviewers consistently take longer than preparers, add an Awaiting reviewer assignment micro-stage between In prep and In review so the reviewer’s queue is visible separately from the prep queue.

”Filing got rejected by IRS”

When an e-file gets rejected, roll back the engagement from Filed to In prep. Assure Pro preserves the prior filed-stage history; the rollback notice and reason explain why for any auditor reviewing the engagement timeline.

Permissions summary

Action	Required permission
Move stage (within gate rules)	Edit engagements
Override gate	Override stage gates
Roll back to earlier stage	Edit engagements (rollbacks aren’t override-gated)
Edit gate mode or auto-advance	Edit pipelines

By default, Owners and admins have override permission. Reviewers and signers also have it (they’re senior enough to make the call). Preparers don’t, by default. Add or remove per team in Settings → Teams.

Custom pipelines — defining the stages and gate modes.
Blockers — what stops a card from leaving a strict stage.
Tasks — the work units that gate strict moves.