About History and Milestones
History and Milestones is a feature for recording events in the client file and document version control. Use this feature to track and log events in the client file and take snapshots of documents during an engagement.
How it Works
There are a number of events you can record in the client file, such as when a client file is accessed, or when a document is modified. These are called History events and you can set Working Papers to record these events for logging purposes or to satisfy a general firm policy. Furthermore, you can record the current state of any document in the client file using milestones. When you mark a document milestone, a copy of the document in its current state is saved - this is referred to as a document snapshot. Use milestones to mark any major completion of work to a document that you may want to reference against in the future.
History events
Each history event includes details on the time and date of an event in the client file, including information on the user performing the event. The user information is derived from either the user name entered in the login screen for a file with protection turned on, or by the information filled in the User Identification dialog the first time a Working Papers file is accessed on a computer.
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Client file
The types of actions recorded can be set on a file-by-file basis. Some of the events such as changes to the Engagement Properties, client file access, Sign In/Sign Out of the client file are recorded on a client file level.
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Documents
Other events, such as document access or modification of any properties, Check In or Check Out, completion of roles, or changes to commentary text, are recorded at the document level.
Milestones
Milestones are copies of a document for a particular time. When you save a milestone for a document, a static copy is saved to the Working Papers file and you can access this copy at any time to reference older data or compare a document to a previous version. You can save a milestone for any document type, including Microsoft Word and Excel documents, CaseView, and automatic documents.
Additionally, a built-in milestone comparison tool is available for CaseView and automatic documents. You can quickly compare these types of documents to their milestones from within Working Papers. You must use an external comparison tool for other types of documents.
There are three types of milestones:
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Milestones
Save milestones on individual documents on the Document Manager. A single copy of the document is made and saved to the Working Papers file.
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Milestone Sets
Generate milestones for every document on the Document Manager in a milestone set. A copy of each document is made and saved to the Working Papers file under the same label. All copies are taken at the same time.
Note: This feature is not available in SmartSync versions of Working Papers.
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Automatic Milestones
Automatically generate a milestone when a history event takes place in the client file. Certain history events have an option where you can specify to Working Papers to automatically generate a milestone when the history event occurs.
Note: This feature is limited in SmartSync versions of Working Papers.
Other Considerations
Year-end Close and Cleanup
On a year-end close, history items are rolled forward into the new file as part of the year-end close process. History items can be cleared from a file by running a Cleanup process and choosing the option to clear history from your file. For more information, see History Database file size.
SmartSync
Some of the options for this feature are not available in Working Papers with SmartSync.
