Say “set up the audit” - and get a complete file.

Upload the engagement letter, or tell your assistant the client, period, and engagement type. The bot creates the client, picks the exact template for the work, attaches the add-ons, and scaffolds the whole file: sections, standards-referenced procedures, budget, and communications. Prefer the old way? The same template picker is right there in the app.

Illustrative engagement: Hudson & Vale CPAs, LLP (Albany, NY) auditing Riverbend Community Services, Inc. (Rochester, NY) - a NYS-funded nonprofit, GAAS audit, FYE December 31, 2025, with a NYS CFRDec25 Examination add-on. Fictional firm, client, and data.

The AI path

From engagement letter to scaffolded file

Claude - chat with WorkpaperOS connector

Here's the signed engagement letter for Riverbend Community Services - calendar-2025 GAAS audit. They're OPWDD/OMH-funded and file a CFR, so we'll need the examination too. Set it up.

Created Riverbend Community Services, Inc. (NFP, Rochester NY) and the engagement: Audit, FYE 2025-12-31, from US_GAAS_NFP_Audit_MainTemplate (84 sections, standards-referenced procedures), with the NYS_CFRDec25_Examination add-on attached - its CFRA sections, WT&IC, R&M, Analytics, and Reports workspaces are live. Engagement Standards set to GAAS audit. Next: connect Google Drive and seed the PBC list?

The bot does the heavy lifting

Reads the accounting and auditing basis straight from the engagement letter - US GAAP or IFRS; GAAS, GAS/Yellow Book, Single Audit, ISA, SSARS - and sets the engagement up on what the letter actually says. Nothing is selected by silent default.
Picks the main template that exactly matches the engagement type × entity type the letter describes.
Attaches the add-ons the letter calls for (CFR examination, Yellow Book, Single Audit) and prunes what it doesn't.

You stay in control

You confirm the setup summary before fieldwork starts.
The New Engagement screen offers the same template picker, manually - the bot and the app share one backend.
Engagement standards, letterhead, and team assignments stay firm decisions.

The manual path

The same picker, in the app

Every engagement starts from a main template matched to the engagement type and entity, with optional add-ons layered on. What the bot does through MCP, you can do by hand.

attestwork.workpaperos.com/engagements?action=new

New Engagement

Client

Riverbend Community Services, Inc. (NFP) ▾

Engagement template

US_GAAS_NFP_Audit_MainTemplate ✓

US GAAS / AICPA AU-C main audit template for not-for-profit financial statement audits · 84 sections

US_SSARS_NFP_Review_MainTemplate

US SSARS / AICPA AR-C 90 main review template

Add-on templates (optional)

☑

NYS_CFRDec25_Examination (Add-on)

For NYS-funded service providers. Built from the January 2025 - December 2025 NYS Consolidated Fiscal Report Manuals.

☐

SingleAuditAddon (Add-on)

☐

YellowBookChapter1 (Add-on)

Templates as content, not code

When the guide changes, your file changes in hours - not vendor-years

Every auditor has lived this: a compliance framework updates - the Department of Education revises the Title IV audit guide, Albany reissues the CFR manuals - and your audit software still ships the old procedures. The deadline doesn't move while you wait on a vendor roadmap.

WorkpaperOS treats templates as content, not code. Upload the new guide or manual, and the AI bots - working with our CPA team - turn it into an add-on engagement template in a few hours: procedures, references, and documentation requirements mapped to the guide itself. The NYS CFRDec25 Examination add-on in this demo was built exactly that way, from the January-December 2025 CFR manuals.

Your firm's own templates get the same treatment: attach your Excel workpapers once - a PP&E rollforward, a lead-schedule layout - and the bots rebuild them inside the app for every engagement that needs them. You'll see that in Part 6.

Guardrail: Template updates never rewrite an open engagement behind your back. New engagements scaffold from the updated template; existing files change only when your firm chooses to roll them forward.

▶ Watch: engagement letter in, complete file out

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Connect your AI

PBC, Drive, and evidence

Screens on this page are illustrative: Hudson & Vale CPAs and Riverbend Community Services, Inc. are fictional.