Create an FS engagement

Who does this: FS Preparer · Senior Accountant · Platform Admin When: You are starting a new financial-statements engagement for a client — annual at year-end, or interim mid-period. Result: An FsEngagement row in DRAFT, the engagement's URL settles to /dashboard/financial-statements/<engagementId>, and the Upload Trial Balance CTA is enabled.

Each engagement is one financial year (or interim period) for one client. Many engagements per client coexist — keep one per (clientId, financialYear). Create FY2024 then FY2025 separately rather than reusing one row.

Before you start

• [ ] Client exists with Financial Statements in enabledProducts.
• [ ] Client.fsConfig is populated: defaultReportingStandard (SFRS_SE or FULL_SFRS), baseCurrency, fyEndMonth, roundingConvention, uen, registeredAddress, principalActivities. Audit the green Setup health gauge on the client detail page.
• [ ] You hold MANAGE_FS_ENGAGEMENT — FS_PREPARER, FS_REVIEWER, SENIOR_ACCOUNTANT, or PLATFORM_ADMIN.

Steps

1. Open Financial Statements in the staff dashboard sidebar.
2. Click New engagement in the top right.
3. In the form:
   • Client — pick from the dropdown (only clients with FS enabled appear).
   • Financial year label — free-form. Use the firm convention; commonly FY<year> matching the year-end year, e.g. FY2024 for a 31 December 2024 year-end.
   • Year-end date — YYYY-MM-DD. Must be consistent with fsConfig.fyEndMonth (a warning appears if you cross years).
   • Reporting standard — defaults from fsConfig.defaultReportingStandard. Override per engagement if the entity has moved between standards.
   • Functional currency — defaults from fsConfig.baseCurrency.
   • Has prior year — true if the TB will include comparatives. Default false.
4. Click Create.

The engagement opens at status DRAFT. The Mapping / Statements / Notes / Export tabs are visible but disabled — they light up once the TB lands.

How to know it worked

Three checkpoints:

1. The engagement appears at the top of the Financial Statements list with status DRAFT.
2. The activity log on the engagement detail page shows fs.engagement.created with you as the actor.
3. Navigating away and back to the engagement loads the same row.

Common situations

If you see…	It means…	What to do
Duplicate-engagement error (409 Conflict)	An engagement for (clientId, financialYear) already exists	Open the existing engagement and continue from where it left off
"Client does not have FINANCIAL_STATEMENTS enabled"	The client master has not been opted into the FS module	Open Clients → client detail → enabled products; add FS
Year-end-date warning ("inconsistent with fyEndMonth")	The engagement-level date does not match the client-level default month	Verify with the engagement partner; the date is the source of truth
The reporting-standard dropdown does not match what you expected	fsConfig.defaultReportingStandard is wrong on the client	Fix fsConfig on the client; existing engagements are unaffected

Related runbooks

• Upload a trial balance — next step after the engagement is created
• Configure fsConfig for a client — when the client's defaults need editing
• FS-01 userflow — API trace, DB verification, negative cases
• Financial Statements SOP §6 / Step 1.0