> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://zenorent.com/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Practice > Recurring service engagements for accounting and bookkeeping clients Practice tracks the recurring services you deliver to clients — quarterly sales tax filings, monthly bookkeeping, annual returns. Each period of work is an **engagement**: one client, one service, one calendar period, one billable deliverable that moves from prep through signature, invoice, and payment. ## Sidebar | Item | What it's for | | - | - | | **Today** | What needs you now — worklist, by-stage queues, and the 30-day deadline glance | | **Clients** | Individuals associated with one or more businesses | | **Businesses** | Business entity customers (LLCs, S-corps) | | **Engagements** | Full engagement list, filters, and kanban board | | **Workload board** | Active engagements, one column per assignee | | **Receivable** | Invoices issued from engagements | | **Payments** | Client payments applied to invoices | | **Services** | The firm's service templates with frequency, revenue account, and reminder cadence | | **Scheduling** | Appointments and staff availability | ## Engagements vs tasks Engagements and tasks share a lot of surface area — assignee, due date, status, comments. They aren't the same thing. | | Engagement | Task | | - | - | - | | **What it is** | One period of service delivery | A unit of work | | **Tied to** | One client and one service | Anything (or nothing) | | **Period-bound** | Yes (Q3 2025, March 2026) | No | | **Workflow** | Staged workflow, audited | Pending → Done | | **Bills the client** | Yes | No | | **History** | Append-only audit log | Activity feed | The rule: **if it's billable and tied to a calendar period, it's an engagement. Otherwise it's a task.** A task can live under an engagement. The engagement detail page has a **Tasks** card that lists every task linked to that engagement — pull bank statements, send the client the questionnaire, reconcile the cash account. Closing the engagement doesn't auto-close those tasks; mark them done as you go. See [Tasks & Notes](https://zenorent.com/docs/workflow/tasks.md) for everything tasks can do. Quick decisions: * **One client, recurring, billable** → engagement. * **Something to do that doesn't bill anyone** → task. * **A step inside an engagement** → task linked to the engagement. ## Services **Practice → Services** lists every service your firm offers, grouped by category. Each service carries a frequency (every 3 months, every year), a default revenue account, and the reminder cadence used when an engagement comes due. Services are templates. They don't bill anything on their own — they describe a kind of work. Engagements reference a service so each filing or run inherits the right cadence, category, and revenue account. ## Engagement statuses Engagements run on a work-axis state machine — preparation and filing. Billing (invoiced / paid) is a separate axis derived from the linked invoice, so an invoice can be issued at any work stage. | Status | Meaning | | - | - | | **Awaiting docs** | Waiting on the client to send intake documents | | **Working** | The rep is preparing the deliverable | | **Ready for signature** | Prep is done; signature needed before filing | | **Awaiting signature** | E-signature request sent to the client | | **Ready to file** | Client signed; ready to file with the IRS | | **Filed** | Filed in external tax software | | **Complete** | Non-filing work is done; billing still to settle | | **Closed** | Final (work done and billing settled) | | **Void** | Cancelled or written off | Filing services run the full flow: Awaiting docs → Working → Ready for signature → Awaiting signature → Ready to file → Filed → Closed. Non-filing services (bookkeeping, advisory) skip signature and filing: Working → Complete → Closed. Awaiting docs appears only when the service has an intake step. The rep moves the engagement through the early stages from the engagement page; signature and filing transitions are driven by integration events. ## Engagement detail Open an engagement to see every record that belongs to one period of work: * **Status stepper** — current stage with the full workflow * **Action panel** — the buttons available from the current status * **Info** — client, service, period dates, due date, assigned rep * **Work items** — the steps of the service, each with its own assignee * **Tasks** — sub-tasks linked to this engagement * **Invoice** — the invoice issued for this engagement * **Time** — hours logged against this engagement * **Documents** — files collected for this engagement * **Emails** — anything sent or received about this engagement * **History** — every status change with timestamp and source ## Notifications Practice rings your bell when a step is up next for you, a work item or engagement is handed to you, someone @mentions you, something is due today, an engagement you work on changes status, and when a client uploads files on a document request or presses **Done** on it. Client uploads reach everyone on the engagement, the client's account owner, and whoever sent the request. Each one can also email you: turn it on under **Settings → Notifications**. Several files on one request make a single bell entry with a running count, and files sent close together (within half an hour of each other) make a single email. A later batch on the same request emails you again, whether or not you opened the entry. With **Daily digest** on, each batch puts the entry in the next morning summary instead. ## Today **Practice → Today** is the landing page, and it answers "what do I do next" rather than showing everyone's queue. It opens on a pulse strip of urgency lenses, a prioritized worklist banded by the next action each engagement needs, by-stage queues, a 30-day deadline glance, and a workload summary across staff. The **My work / Whole practice** toggle re-scopes the whole page, so it serves a preparer's own day and a partner's portfolio from the same screen. ## Workload board **Practice → Workload board** shows the book as who-needs-to-act: one column per assignee, each holding the engagement cards in that person's queue. An engagement lives in exactly one column. Reassign, reschedule, and advance state from the card; **Pass to** on a card's avatar re-files an engagement to a colleague, so it leaves your column and appears in theirs. Selecting a card traces its journey in the rail above. ## Engagements, Businesses, and Clients **Practice → Engagements** is the full list with filters and the kanban board view. **Practice → Businesses** lists business entity customers (LLCs, S-corps); **Practice → Clients** lists the people associated with them. A business can have multiple contacts, and a person can be tied to multiple businesses. An engagement attaches to either a business or a person, depending on which the service was set up for. ## Scheduling **Practice → Scheduling** runs client appointments on three tabs. * **Appointment types** — the kinds of meeting you take, each with its own duration. Create one before you can take bookings; deactivate a type to stop offering it without losing its history. * **Availability** — per-provider hours. Pick a provider, then set the windows they can be booked in. * **Appointments** — what's booked, with status on each one. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.