Clients and engagements
Engagement letters
Raise the engagement letter from a template, send it for signature, and record a paper signature.
The engagement letter is the document the client signs. Orin raises it from a template your firm keeps, fills in the particulars from the engagement, and sends it to the client to sign online or on paper. An engagement cannot be activated until its letter is signed.
Before you start
- Your firm needs an active engagement letter template. Templates are kept in Settings, under Templates.
- Sending a letter and recording a paper signature need permission to manage letters.
- The client needs a primary contact with an email address, unless you type a different recipient when you send.
Steps at a glance
Step 01
Prepare the template
In Templates, open a letter under Engagement letters. The template is ordinary prose with merge fields in it: placeholders such as Legal name or Year end that Orin fills from the engagement. Use Field to insert one and Proof to preview the result. The selector beside Save sets which kind of client the template is for.
An engagement letter template. 1: Field inserts a merge field. 2: Proof previews the letter. Changing a template changes letters raised after you save it. Letters already raised keep their wording.
Step 02
Raise the letter
You do not create the letter separately. When an engagement is submitted for review, you choose the Letter template in the submit dialog and Orin raises the letter from it. When the approver selects Mark as reviewed, the letter is signed on the firm's behalf and is ready to send. See Engagements and periods.
Step 03
Send it to the client
On a reviewed engagement, select Send for client approval. The dialog says the letter goes to the client's primary contact and offers Preview the letter. Select Send for approval to email the client a secure signing link.
The confirmation before a letter goes to the client. For more control, open the engagement's Letters tab and select Send. Choose Online, via a signing link or Offline, sign and return the PDF, and type an address in Send to if it should not go to the primary contact. Select Send letter. Orin emails the client either way.
Choose how the client signs. Sending again replaces the link the client already has, and the earlier one stops working. Send again only when you mean the client to use the new link.
The final send was not pressed on the demo business, because it emails the client. The engagement then reads Awaiting client, and the client signs in their browser without needing an account.
Step 04
Record a paper signature
If the client signs on paper, open the Letters tab and select Mark as signed by client. Attach the signed copy and record who signed and when. This marks the letter signed, closes its signing link, and files the scan in Documents.
The Letters tab. 1: Send. 2: Mark as signed by client. Re-issue link gives the client a fresh link; New version replaces the letter. Step 05
Activate the engagement
When the letter is signed, the engagement's main button becomes Activate. Activating creates the engagement's tasks.
What success looks like
On the Letters tab the letter shows it was signed by the client, and the engagement offers Activate. The tab keeps every version of the letter, newest first, with History for each.
Next steps
- Letter templates and Forms: maintaining your templates.
- Onboarding evidence and confirmations: what else a new client owes you.
Common questions
The client says the link does not work. Signing links expire; the Letters tab shows the date the link is valid until. Select Re-issue link to send a fresh one.
A letter has a blank where a value should be. The engagement or the client record is missing that value, not the template. Fill it in, then raise a New version of the letter.
The client declined the letter. The engagement can go back to draft so you can change its terms, then be reviewed and sent again.
Should I forward a signing link? No. A signing link is specific to one person and one document; forwarding it forwards the ability to sign.