At some place on the road to automated document management, engagement and workpaper software became one of the most popular types of document management applications. It wasn't meant to be that way. Vendors will even tell you the products weren't designed for that purpose.

A few years ago, these users made Thomson Reuters' Engagement CS the best selling package in the CS Professional Suite one year. I don't know if that was the case for long, but I'd bet those looking for document management on the cheap kept sales brisk.

A partner at one firm noted that his organization had been putting all documents in CCH's ProSystem fx Engagement. About two years ago, it acquired a true document management system and started removing documents that weren't involved in audit or trial balance. Now, partners are asking for some of those documents to be put back in Engagement.

The partners like the ease of use. They are accustomed to using Engagement and in particular like its structure. If CCH and other vendors could just bring a few more features to workpaper products, producing a hybrid application, it would be really nice, he mused.

I suspect if enough customers want it. They'll get it. After all, nobody is going to turn away those sales of workpaper products even if technically they aren't being used for what they were designed for.