Rolling Forward an Engagement

Rolling forward an engagement creates a new engagement for a new period. The year-end date increases by one year in the new engagement.

You can roll forward an engagement up to six times, giving you up to seven prior years of data.

Note: You cannot roll forward a multi-tier consolidated engagement until the end of 2024.

Tell me how the data from the original engagement is handled in the new engagement.

• The current year balances from the original engagement is moved to the prior period balance.

• If tax groups are available for the new year, they are updated automatically. If they are not yet available, the current groups and assignments are retained.

Note: An option to update the tax groups displays when new tax groups become available. You cannot import data into CCH iFirm Tax return until the tax groups have been updated to the current year.

• Group assignments for accounts in the financial and tax trial balances are retained in the new engagement.

• Journal entries are not rolled forward by default. You can select to roll forward journal entries with amounts, without amounts, or reverse the amounts. The roll forward option is in the add/edit journal entry pane and in the roll forward process.

• If the client name or the Client ID.Sub ID has changed in the CCH iFirm database since the original engagement was created, the new engagement will use the updated information. The original engagement will remain the same. A message displays if a difference is detected and used in the new engagement.

• Trial balance reports are retained in the new engagement.

Note: If the trial balance report was created with tax groups, then the tax groups will be updated automatically if available for the new year; otherwise they will be updated later when new tax groups become available.

You cannot roll forward an engagement without either importing the trial balance data or adding accounts manually.

To roll forward an engagement, do the following:

1. Locate the engagement on the Engagement List page.

   Note: See Using the Engagement List Page for information about using the pagination and search features to locate an engagement in the grid.

2. Click in the Actions column for the engagement and select Roll forward.
3. Enter a name for the new engagement. The engagement name must be unique for the client.

4. Enter the engagement description if needed, up to 32 characters. This field is optional.

5. Enter the charge code if needed, up to 50 characters. This field is optional.

6. Enter the due date if needed. This field is optional.

7. Select the responsible staff if needed from the drop-down list. As you type, the staff list opens and filters based on the characters you type. This field is optional.

8. Click Next.
9. For each journal entry, select an option to indicate if journal entry amounts should be rolled forward. By default, journal entries are not rolled forward.
• Do not include. The journal entry is not rolled forward.
• Recurring with same amounts. The journal entry, including amounts, is rolled forward.
• Recurring clear amounts. The journal entry is rolled forward with no amounts.
• Reversing. The journal entry is rolled forward, but with debit and credit amounts reversed.

10. Click Next.

11. For each workpaper, select whether it should be included or excluded from the new engagement. By default, files in the following formats will be set to roll forward:
    • Microsoft® Excel® (XLS and XLSX)
    • Microsoft® Word (DOC and DOCX)
    • Text files (TXT)

    All other file formats are set to not roll forward by default.

12. Click Next.

13. Under Form List, select roll forward options for each form.
    • Roll Forward Setting. If there is an updated version of the form, select whether to roll forward the version in the original engagement or to replace it with the updated version.
    • Responses. Select whether your responses in each form for the original engagement should be rolled forward or if the responses should be reset.
14. Click Finish.

The new engagement is added to the Engagement List page immediately, but is not accessible until the roll forward process completes successfully. You can view progress information in the status message in the top right of the window, or by hovering your pointer over the information badge next to the new engagement.

If the process fails, the status message in the top right will indicate that you should retry the job, and the newly created engagement is removed from the Engagement List page.