Create an engagement with advanced planning

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 4 minutes to read

    • Use the advanced planning capabilities to create an engagement that automatically creates an engagement project. After an engagement project is created, you can add resource plans and cost plans to the engagement. The values of these plans roll up to the engagement and to the audit plan.

    Before you begin

    To use the advanced planning feature, you must activate the following store applications and plugins:
    • GRC Advanced Audit plugin (com.sn_audit_advanced)
    • GRC Profiles
    • GRC Policy and Compliance Management
    • GRC Risk Management
    • GRC Advanced Core
    • GRC Advanced Risk
    • GRC Audit Management
    • Project Portfolio Management Standard
    You can choose to create audit plans for the engagement.
    Note:
    To know more about the applications in GRC module, see Governance, Risk, and Compliance.

    Role required: sn_audit.manager

    Procedure

    1. Navigate to All > Audit > Engagements > Create New.
    2. On the form, fill in the fields.
      Table 1. Engagement form
      Field Description
      Number Unique identification number of the engagement.
      Name Name of the engagement.
      Type Type of engagement. The choices are as follows:
      • None
      • Internal Audit
      • External Audit
      • SOX Audit
      • IT Audit
      • Financial Audit
      • Compliance Audit
      • Certification Audit
      • Regulatory Audit
      • Operational Audit
      • Continuous Audit
      • Vendor Audit
      • Customer Audit
      • Store Audit
      • Quality Audit
      • Project Audit
      Note:
      For more information on the types of audits, see Audit types.
      Assigned to User assigned to the engagement.
      State State of the engagement. The choices are as follows:
      • Scope
      • Validate
      • Fieldwork
      • Awaiting Approval
      • Follow Up
      • Closed Complete
      • Closed Incomplete
      Note:
      For more information on each of these states, see Manage engagements.
      Percent complete Percentage of the engagement that is complete.
      Auditors Auditors assigned to the engagement.
      Approvers Approvers assigned to the engagement.
      Description General description of the engagement.
      Objectives Stated objectives of the engagement.
      Schedule
      Engagement planned start Estimated start date of the engagement.
      Engagement starts Choice to automatically determine the start date of the engagement. The choices are as follows:
      • Scope
      • Validate
      • Fieldwork
      Engagement actual start Actual date when the engagement begins.
      Engagement planned end Estimated end date of the engagement.
      Engagement ends Choice to automatically determine the end date of the engagement. The choices are as follows:
      • Follow Up
      • Closed
      Note:
      For more information on the Follow Up and Closed states, see Manage engagements.
      Engagement actual end Actual date the engagement ends.
      Fieldwork planned start Estimated start date of the fieldwork.
      Fieldwork planned end Planned end date that was originally set in the engagement.
      Note:
      This field is automatically set to one day after the planned start date for fieldwork.
      Fieldwork planned duration Number of days and hours planned for fieldwork. The duration and planned start date of fieldwork are used to calculate the planned end date. If audit tasks are defined, this field is automatically set to the longest planned duration from the audit tasks.
      Fieldwork actual start Actual start date of the fieldwork. If audit tasks are defined, this field is automatically set to the earliest actual start date from the audit tasks.
      Fieldwork actual end Actual end date of the fieldwork. If audit tasks are defined, this field is automatically set to the latest actual end date from the audit tasks.
      Fieldwork actual duration Duration of fieldwork start date and end date.
      Results
      Result Results of the engagement. The choices are as follows:
      • Satisfactory
      • Adequate
      • Inadequate
      Opinion Justification for the selected result.
      Report
      Knowledge base Knowledge base to use to select the report template.
      Report template Template that is used to generate the knowledge base article which reports the engagement results.
      KB article Recently generated knowledge base article which contains the engagement results.
      Activity
      Additional comments Comments that are viewable by customers.
      Work notes Comments that are viewable by the administrator and by the audit manager.
      Plan Details
      Parent plan Plan to associate the engagement with.
      Confidentiality
      Confidential Option to enable confidentiality of the record. Only the assigned confidential users or confidential groups of users can access the record.

      For more information on confidential option, see Confidentiality flag for audit and compliance records.
      Expenses and Resources
      Budgeted expenses Budgeted expenses for the engagement.
      Planned expenses Estimated expenses for the engagement. If the cost plan is defined, this field automatically displays the estimated expenses.
      Remaining budgeted expenses Difference between Budgeted expenses and Planned expenses. This field is automatically set.
      Actual expenses Actual expenses incurred. If timecards are defined, this field is automatically set.
      Budgeted resources Budgeted resources for the engagement, in hours.
      Planned resources Estimated resources for the engagement, in hours. If resource plans are defined, this field is automatically set.
      Actual resources Actual resources for the engagement, in hours. If timecards are defined, this field is automatically set.
      Project Details
      Project Automatically created engagement project. This field is populated when you click Validate and Plan.
      Note:
      This field also gets populated when you click Enable Advanced Planning on the engagement, in the Validate or Fieldwork state. This field also gets populated if any of the following are true:
      • The field is already linked to a plan with advanced planning capabilities.
      • The user has the required roles.
      • The engagement is in the correct state.
      Time card approver Person assigned to the engagement. You can also change the approver in this field.
      Note:
      If more than one user is selected, then everyone on the list must approve the time cards.
    3. Click Validate and Plan.
      Note:
      The Validate and Plan button only appears if the Advanced Audit plugin is activated.
      The project details are populated.
    4. Click Enable Advanced Planning.

    Result

    An engagement project is created in the background for the engagement. The Resource Plan and Cost Plan related lists also appear.

    What to do next

    Create a resource plan and Create a cost plan.