Understanding Engagement Letters in ProConnect Tax

Table of contents:

What is an Engagement Letter?

An engagement letter is one designed to connect with your client for the upcoming year. Many preparers will send these out in the fall, to ensure their contact infomation for clients is still accurate.

Some preparers will also include a signature line and request the client sign and return it to confirm they will be returning to the preparer for the upcoming tax season.

How do I send an Engagement Letter?

There are several different ways to send an engagement letter. Many firms use fuctions available in ProConnect Tax to send the organizers, but some also use outside solutions.

Using Intuit Link

If you use Link, you can include the Engagement Letter alongside the Quesionnaire and Checklist for the items you send to your client. The engagement letter will be available for them to view in their To Do items, with the option to download it as a PDF.

When completing the item in Link, the taxpayer will be prompted to type in their name, and either Accept or Decline the letter.

Using eSignature

To send an Engagement Letter using eSignature:

1. Create a PDF of the Engagement Letter
   • If you created the Engagement Letter in the Organizer, you can print a Partial Organizer to PDF and select only the Engagement Letter to include.
2. Select the desired client on the client list
3. Select the E-File menu
4. Select Intuit eSignature
5. Select Request eSignature
6. Uncheck all checkboxes for the signature forms
7. Select Next
8. Select Engagement Letter from the Select document type dropdown
9. Select Browse, and browse to your PDF
10. Select Next, and follow the wizard to send the e-Signature.

Other methods

Some firms prefer to use other services for managing their communication with clients. This can be functions of a client portal service they use, or can be an outside email service such as Mailchimp.

How do I create an Engagement Letter?

Engagement letters can be created in an outside program such as Microsoft Word or Google Sheets, or from inside ProConnect Tax.

In Intuit Link

With the addition of Link, a second location was created for Engagement Letters specific to Link.

1. Select a client from the client list
2. Select Intuit Link on the left panel.
3. Select Edit under the Engagement Letter section
4. Select the desired letter from the dropdown, or use Add to create a new one.
   • When first accessed, Link copies the Engagement Letters from the ones created in the Organizer.

Outside of ProConnect Tax

Some firms prefer to use outside programs to generate the Engagement Letter to leverage additional functions. While ProConnect Tax offers the ability to generate Engagement Letters, it does not have all the same features as a dedicated document creation program such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs.

Microsoft Office is able to perform a Mail Merge to combine an Excel document of client information such as names and addresses, with your document created in Word.

While Google Docs does not natively support it, there are addons available to perform a mail merge.