Overview of Milestones in

EY Canvas
September 2016

What is a Milestone?

Milestones are tools used in project management to mark specific points along a project timeline. Our experience has
shown that the most successful audit teams improve performance by executing the right tasks, at the right time by the
right person. With EY Canvas our teams have powerful easy-to-use Task and Milestones (key dates) functionality that
supports the execution of this concept

What are the benefits of using Milestones? Importance of creating tasks to better manage the audit

► Better quality of audit documentation
► Timely executive review and coaching sessions that
improve team motivation and better client service
► Reduction of frustration from re-work and last
minute issues as each person is aware of assigned
tasks and timing
► More efficient audits
► To enable the tracking and reporting of Milestones,
teams need to first consider their Task structure in EY
Canvas
► Teams should create a Task for each of their
measurable activities, as Tasks should represent
detailed audit procedures that together comprise the
audit program for the audit
► Creating detailed audit programs will not only help
teams execute the audit as designed, but also clearly
communicate responsibilities and expectations to all
team members

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 Overview of Milestones in EY Canvas

Setting up Milestones in EY Canvas

From the engagement dashboard click on the Audit Plan. The first build step is Determine when tasks will be performed.
Click on the “Add Time Phase” button to add a new time phase or click on any of the already created time phases to
associate it with a Milestone

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 Overview of Milestones in EY Canvas
Setting up Milestones in EY Canvas

Once the Task structure has been appropriately designed to support the audit strategy, teams will need to relate each Task
in their EY Canvas engagement to a Time Phase. There are a variety of ways to relate a Task to a Time Phase:

► From within any given Task, directly below the
Task title, click on the “clock” button to select a
Time Phase
► From the All Tasks view, a team member can
filter by Task type (e.g. walkthrough tasks), and
select one or more Tasks and apply the
Walkthrough Time Phase by clicking the watch
button

► Teams may also use the other Task Lists (e.g.,

Scope & Strategy or Execution) to multi-select
Tasks and assign them to specific Time Phases

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 Overview of Milestones in EY Canvas
Monitoring Milestones
On-demand team monitoring is facilitated through the available dashboards within EY Canvas and through the use of the
Reporting Hub. By using the Time Phases, teams at any time can get an immediate view of their progress in completing
Milestones every time they enter the engagement and access the Canvas Dashboard – All Engagement Summary.

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 Overview of Milestones in EY Canvas
Monitoring Milestones – the Milestone Report
► Teams can use the Milestone Report to track the status of Tasks assigned to the respective Milestone.
► The Milestone Report has two different tabs:
► The Milestone Dashboard. It provides an overview of the progress for all standard Milestones
► The Milestone Report. Click the “Show Details” button on the Milestone Dashboard to access the Milestone
Report and see additional information that can help you track the progress of the Milestone, including details
of the tasks within the Milestone, task assignment and status, as well as the associated evidence

► Milestone Dashboard ► Milestone Report

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 Overview of Milestones in EY Canvas
Additional things to know

Once Milestones are set up in the engagement, teams can focus on executing their work while allowing EY Canvas to track
the overall status of each Milestone

► Assign Tasks to the appropriate team member —
team members with assigned Tasks should
promptly use the hand-off feature when their
preparation or review is complete to alert
reviewers that Tasks are ready for review
► Marking Tasks complete - is the official
determination that a Task is complete
► It measures used when determining the
percentage of completion of a Milestone

► It enables teams to generate accurate reporting of ► It measures completion as displayed on the:

the specific status of incomplete Tasks under the
► dashboard completion dials
Milestone Program
► completion bars on the All Engagement
Summary Dashboard.

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