Work with Queries

Queries is a CaseWare Cloud app that links to desktop engagement files, enabling your organization to collaborate with clients on an engagement directly from Working Papers.

With Queries, you can:

  • Communicate and share documents with clients in a single, secure environment
  • Easily manage your work flow with automatic status tracking
  • Drag and drop documents between a Queries file and the Document Manager
  • Align client queries with the engagement status

To get your organization started with Queries, you require a CaseWare Cloud account with the Queries app, and you must integrate Working Papers with Cloud. You can also store your Working Papers files on Cloud by publishing them to a Cloud entity. Published files are accessible from any location where you can log in to your Cloud account, and can be immediately linked to a Queries file.

Integrate a File with a Cloud Entity

In Cloud, client data is stored in entities. When you create a file in Working Papers, you can integrate it with an entity to automatically populate client information in Cloud. Entity integration is required to integrate the file with Queries.

To integrate a file with a Cloud entity:

  1. In Working Papers, open the file that you want to integrate.
  2. On the ribbon, click Engagement | Engagement Properties.
  3. On the Name/Address tab, click the Cloud Entity field. Enter the name of the entity you want to integrate the file with, or click the drop-down menu then New to create a new entity. If you have already published your Working Papers file to Cloud, the Cloud Entity field is automatically populated.
  4. To automatically synchronize changes to the file's properties with the newly integrated Cloud entity, select Always synchronize Engagement Properties with Cloud Entity. See Synchronize Metadata with Cloud for more information on synchronized properties. Click OK.

The Working Papers file is integrated with the Cloud entity. The Queries Setup dialog displays automatically to help you get started with creating or linking to an existing Queries file.

Link to a Queries File

After integrating your Working Papers file with a Cloud entity, you can link it to a Queries file to start collaborating with your clients.

To link to a Queries file:

  1. In Working Papers, open a file that is synchronized with a client entity in Cloud.
  2. On the ribbon, click Cloud | Open. The Queries Setup dialog displays.
  3. If applicable, select the Queries template that you want to use.
  4. Select Create New to create a new Queries file. If you've already created a Queries file in Cloud and want to link it to the Working Papers file, select Select Existing and click the drop-down menu to select the Queries file. Click OK.

The file is linked to the Queries file and the Queries pane displays.

Notes:

  • By default, new Queries files will use the most current version of the Queries template. You must create the Queries file from Cloud if you want to use a different template version, then link it afterward.
  • If you want to unlink a Working Papers file from a Queries file, on the ribbon, click Cloud | Unlink. You must be working online to unlink a Queries file.
  • New Queries files include default content. Complete the Optimizer document to add or remove content based on the nature of your engagement.

Create a Query

Create queries in the Queries file to share documents or other information with your clients. Some default queries are included in the Queries file to help you get started. For information on creating a query, see Request information from a client.

In the new or existing query, you can add relevant documents to send to your client. If you add an automatic document to a query, it is automatically converted to a PDF.

To add a document to a query:

  1. Ensure you have both the Document Manager and the Queries pane open.
  2. In the Document Manager, select the document that you want to add.
  3. Drag the document from the Document Manager into the Queries file.

The document is added to the Queries file. Click Send to send the query to your client. When a client receives a query, a notification is delivered to them by email with a link to the query's details. The client can upload their own documents and comment on the query if required.

When a client completes a query, you can Accept or Decline the submission. Accepted submissions are automatically added to the Documents page of the Queries file for easy access. Declined submissions are reopened for further assessment. As queries are fulfilled, the status of your engagement progresses automatically.

Complete a Query

When all the queries are complete, you can drag and drop the updated documents from each query to the Document Manager. Content authors can automate this process by directly linking the documents in the query to the Document Manager using an Author ID.

Notes:

  • You must first Accept new documents in a query before they can be added to the Document Manager.
  • Document names cannot contain special characters.

To link a document in the Document Manager to an Author ID:

  1. In the Queries app, ensure you have added an Author ID to the document.
  2. In Working Papers, locate the associated document or placeholder in the Document Manager. Right-click the document and click Properties.
  3. In the Document Properties dialog, click the Template tab.
  4. In the Queries Author ID field, enter the corresponding Author ID from the Queries file. Click OK.

The document in the Document Manager is linked to the Queries file using an Author ID. To update the Document Manager copy with any updates from the query, on the ribbon, click Cloud | Receive.