Skip to main content
An Engagement is a long-lived service relationship between your firm and a client for a defined service type — for example “Acme Ltd — VAT Compliance” or “Acme Ltd — Statutory Audit”. It defines what service you provide and how often. A Period is a specific occurrence of work under an Engagement — “VAT Q1 2026”, “March 2026 Accounting”, “FY2026 Audit”. The Period is the operational unit: it carries the request items, the internal tasks, and all documents and evidence.

​
Lifecycle

An engagement moves through a simple lifecycle:
1

Draft

Set up but not yet sent — invisible to the client. You add or adjust request items here.
2

Active

Sent to the client and actively collecting. Draft request items become requested and the client is notified.
3

Done

All work complete and closed. For recurring services, closing one period can generate the next.

​
Recurring services

For recurring work (monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, annual), Clivanta can chain periods: when you close one, the next planned period is generated as a draft, carrying the same structure forward. History is the set of periods with the same service type for a client.
Active engagements count toward your plan’s active-engagement limit. Drafts don’t consume quota — only sending/activating an engagement does.