Engagements & workflow overview
An engagement is one piece of work Assure Pro tracks for a client — a 1040 return for the 2025 tax year, a monthly bookkeeping run, a SOC 2 audit, an R&D tax credit study.
Engagements are the unit you assign work against, set deadlines on, attach documents to, and ultimately bill from.
The three concepts to know
| Concept | What it is | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement | One piece of work for a client | Kanban card, table row, sidebar link |
| Pipeline | A reusable sequence of stages an engagement moves through | The column headers on the kanban board |
| Task | A discrete step inside an engagement (often auto-generated from a stage template) | Tasks tab, task board, engagement drawer |
In one sentence: engagements live on pipelines and contain tasks.
Where to find them
| Page | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Workflow (sidebar) | The kanban and table views of every engagement in the firm. Default landing page for most preparers. |
| Tasks (sidebar) | Just the tasks — across engagements — assigned to you (or filtered to anyone). |
| Pipeline builder (sidebar) | The editor for customizing your firm’s pipelines. Usually admin-only. |
| Client detail → Engagements tab | All engagements for a specific client. |
| Engagement detail page | One engagement’s full state — every task, blocker, comment, activity entry. |
How service lines and engagement types fit together
Assure Pro separates the kind of practice domain from the specific work product:
- Service line: a top-level practice area. Three are seeded for every firm:
- Tax — tax returns, tax planning, tax resolution.
- Accounting — bookkeeping, payroll, controller/CFO services.
- Audit & Assurance — audits, reviews, compilations, attestations.
- Engagement type: a specific work product within a service line. Each engagement type belongs to exactly one service line.
52 engagement types ship by default — Form 1040, Monthly Bookkeeping, Form 1120-S, SOC 1/SOC 2 Audit, R&D Tax Credit Study, and so on. See Engagement types & service lines for the full list.
You can customize both — add new types, hide unused ones, change labels — from Settings → Engagement types.
What an engagement holds
| Field | What it is |
|---|---|
| Client | The single client this engagement belongs to. Can’t be moved between clients. |
| Engagement type | One of the 52 default types (or a firm-custom type). Determines the default task templates. |
| Tax year / period | ”2025 tax year”, “March 2026 bookkeeping”. |
| Pipeline | Which pipeline this engagement runs on. Default pipeline per service line; can be overridden per engagement. |
| Current stage | The current column on the pipeline. |
| Status | Active, On hold, Completed, Cancelled, or Archived. |
| Priority | Low, Medium, High, or Urgent — affects sort order and visual emphasis. |
| Due date | Filing deadline or internal target. |
| Assignees | Preparer, reviewer, and partner — separate from the client-level assignments. |
| Tasks | The work items inside (often auto-generated by stage). |
| Blockers | Dependencies that prevent stage advancement (K-1 from another engagement, missing docs, pending payment, pending signature, manual). |
| Comments | A threaded discussion attached to the engagement (for internal team coordination). |
| Documents | Documents linked to this engagement (a subset of the client’s full library). |
| Activity | A timeline of stage changes, document uploads, task completions, messages, and reminders. |
How the pipeline works
Most firms run their tax engagements through a pipeline like:
Awaiting docs → Docs received → In prep → In review → Awaiting signature → Filed
Each column is a stage. Each card is an engagement. Cards advance left-to-right as work completes.
Some advances happen automatically — when all documents on the checklist match, the card moves itself from Awaiting docs to Docs received. Some require a manual move — clicking Move to next stage on the card. See Stages & gates.
Choosing a pipeline view
Assure Pro shows the same engagement data in three views — pick whichever you think in:
| View | Best for | Switch via |
|---|---|---|
| Kanban | Visual progress, drag-and-drop stage moves | Default workflow view |
| Table | Sorting by deadline, filtering by assignee, exporting | View menu → Table |
| Calendar | Deadline-driven planning | View menu → Calendar |
See Pipeline views.
How engagements connect to other modules
| Other module | Engagement’s relationship |
|---|---|
| Clients | Each engagement belongs to exactly one client. |
| Intake | Sending intake creates an intake instance tied to the engagement. |
| Documents | Documents can be linked to an engagement (filed under that engagement’s subfolder). |
| E-sign | Engagement letters and 8879 signing packages are tied to an engagement. |
| Billing | Invoices itemize against engagements. |
| Communications | Conversations can be linked to an engagement. |
| Tasks | Tasks belong to engagements (or stand alone if firm-level admin tasks). |
The engagement is the dependency hub for one piece of client work.
What this section covers
| Page | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Creating an engagement | ”How do I start a new engagement for a client?” |
| Engagement types & service lines | ”What are all the kinds of engagements I can create?” |
| Priorities & statuses | ”What does each status mean? When do I pause vs cancel?” |
| Pipeline views | ”Kanban, table, or calendar — when do I use which?” |
| Custom pipelines | ”How do I edit our pipeline stages?” |
| Stages & gates | ”When does Assure Pro advance a stage automatically vs ask me?” |
| Due dates & deadlines | ”How are deadlines calculated and surfaced?” |
| The engagement detail page | ”What’s on the engagement view?” |
| Blockers | ”What’s stopping this engagement from moving?” |
| Tasks | ”How do tasks work inside an engagement?” |