All features/Pre-engagement & independence

Phase 1 · Pre-engagement

Acceptance, independence and the engagement letter — done properly, gated properly.

Phase 1 decides whether the engagement should exist at all — and proves the firm is independent before anyone touches the file. Audit Intelligence runs the whole program: acceptance, independence, the engagement letter, and the courtesies the standards require.

Two ways in

First-year lead, or continuing client.

A brand-new client starts with initial information gathering: AuditBot performs the internet and ASIC search and pre-populates ten risk indicators — client integrity, operations, external risk — for the auditor to confirm or override, ending in a clear next step: proceed, follow up, or decline. A continuing client runs the continuance program instead, with prior-year answers pulled forward for re-assessment.

  • Entity-type assessment routes the file: PIE, non-PIE corporate, or non-PIE non-corporate.
  • That classification drives the EQR requirement, partner rotation and fee thresholds.
  • Changes in engagement terms are assessed per ASA 210 for continuing clients.
app.audit-intel.com/engagements/acme-fy2025/pre-engagement
AI background search (web + ASIC)10 indicators pre-filled
Client integrityNo adverse findings
Fee evaluationRisk-scored
DecisionProceed to acceptance
Independence

Eighteen sections. Every threat worked, not ticked.

The partner — and every team member — completes the independence questionnaire matched to the entity type: financial interests, loans and guarantees, fee dependence, personal and family relationships, gifts and hospitality, acting in a management capacity (strictly prohibited), long association and rotation, network firm independence, and self-reporting. Answer yes to anything and the working paper expands: document the threat, the safeguards, and the conclusion. Prohibited circumstances stop the engagement.

  • Non-assurance services: 18+ service categories, each through the five-step test — management responsibility, threat evaluation, specific requirements, safeguards, reasonable-party test.
  • Self-reporting: AI pre-populates the assessment from the independence answers; breaches route to notification obligations.
  • Issues block file access and alert the partner immediately.
app.audit-intel.com/engagements/acme-fy2025/independence
Financial interestsCleared
Fees — % of firm revenueThreat documented + safeguards
Management capacityProhibited — none identified
Rotation / long associationYear 3 of 7
Hard gate: no team member can open the audit file until their independence and confidentiality declarations are signed.
Engagement letter

Drafted by the system. Checked by AI. Signed off by you.

Audit Intelligence drafts the ASA 210 engagement letter from the engagement data, and assesses whether a continuing client needs a fresh one. Then the AI letter check goes further: paste your draft letter, and AuditBot works it against the full Australian compliance checklist — ASA 210, APES 305, CAANZ PS 3 (2024), APES 110 including NOCLAR, ASQM 1 and 2, and the Corporations Act — marking every requirement met, unclear, missing or not applicable, quoting the letter as evidence and suggesting wording where something is short.

  • Scoping rules apply conditional sections automatically — group entities, Corporations Act entities.
  • The signed letter uploads against the working paper, linked like all evidence.
app.audit-intel.com/engagements/acme-fy2025/engagement-letter
RequirementStatus
Objective & scope (ASA 210.10a)Met
Fees & billing basis (PS 3 R2.4)Unclear — quote shown
Cloud / AI service providers (PS 3 R2.7)Missing — wording suggested
Corporations Act sectionN/A — not a Corps Act entity
AI output is a suggestion with quoted evidence — the auditor reviews, decides and signs off. Every run is logged.
Professional courtesies

The predecessor letter, handled.

For first-year engagements, the platform drafts the letter to the predecessor auditor — addressed from your firm, referencing the client and year-end — once the client's written permission is on file from the information-gathering work. The auditor reviews, tailors and sends it, and tracks the response on the file.

  • Public-company auditor appointment, removal and resignation working papers where applicable.
  • Team assignment completes the phase: questionnaires go out, the independence gate arms itself.
app.audit-intel.com/engagements/acme-fy2025/pre-engagement
Client permission to contactOn file
Letter to predecessorDrafted — ready to review
ResponseAwaiting reply
Gate: acceptance is the decision point — accept, decline, or accept with conditions. Accepting creates the engagement and the audit file.

See it on your own engagements.

Start your firm free, or book a demo and we will walk you through the platform on a real audit file.

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