Thomson Reuters — Engagement CS

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From the July 2010 Review of Trial Balance and Engagement Management Systems.

Engagement CS is the audit engagement component of the CS Professional Suite from Thomson Reuters, providing a workflow and process management solution that includes comprehensive trial balance capabilities along with multi-professional collaboration tools, advanced document archiving, integrated research and confirmation services, and additional practice tools.

BASIC SYSTEM FUNCTIONS:
Engagement CS is available as either a locally installed or remotely hosted application, both of which share the standard interface for the CS Suite, providing intuitive navigation and multi-paned access to key system programs and features. The system uses the same database across all programs, which further ensures that client data is accurate across all modules and eases data flow between the different programs. Core to the Engagement CS system is that it provides full trial balance capabilities, including the ability to customize balance definitions and the sequence of columns when laying out the accounts. Users can also automatically post adjusting journal entries to the trial balance in real time and see the immediate effects of adjustments or changes to the basis of financial statements via a split-screen view. Budget journal entries can also be easily created as necessary based on GASB requirements.

Additional customization options are available for setting workpaper references and tickmarks. Accounts can be assigned to up to five grouping codes and subcodes for reporting, leadsheet and workpaper preparation. Templates and wizards are available for initiating engagements and tracking engagement processes.

ENGAGEMENT MANAGEMENT:
Managerial oversight of engagements is aided by advanced notifications and review functions that help to standardize procedures, along with tracking and reporting options that include signoff administration, note tracking, tick marks, interactive review notes and diagnostics, while management tools offer additional monitoring. The Wrap-Up wizard goes a step further, aiding in finalizing engagements and wrapping up year-end processes, including clearing and deleting review notes, reviewing potential journal entries, and finalizing engagement documents and workpapers.
Documents can be archived individually or bound into organized PDF binders that retain folder structures of working documents.