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Ignition vs. AbakusIgnition on its own, or built around your firm.

Ignition (formerly Practice Ignition) is proposal, engagement letter, and payments software built for accounting and professional services firms.

Book a free audit Ignition on its own vs. with Abakus
Ignition logoIgnition Abakus
Made by
Ignition
Category
Engagement letters, proposals & billing

The short answer

Ignition handles proposals and signatures well. For a tax firm, though, the letter is only one step: scope depends on which forms a client needs, fees depend on that scope, and signing should start the work. We built exactly this for Wicklow Expat Tax inside their own platform, and the same engine works for any firm and any return type.

Built for Wicklow Expat TaxWicklow's engagement letters, e-signatures, and multi-currency invoices run inside their own client portal, generated per client and tied to each return's pipeline. No separate proposal tool, and changes ship in hours. We can build the same for your firm, for any return type. Read the case study

What Ignition does well

  • Proposals and engagement letters designed for accounting firms
  • Automatic billing and payment collection once a client accepts
  • Integrations with popular practice management and accounting tools

Where firms hit its limits

  • Scope and fees are assembled by hand for each client, even when they follow directly from the client's situation (foreign accounts, foreign income, rental property, K-1s).
  • What happens after signing (opening the job, requesting documents, invoicing) depends on integrations or manual steps.
  • One more subscription and one more place client data lives, built to serve many firms or industries at once.

Ignition on its own vs. with Abakus

Ignition on its own

Off the shelf, built for every firm

Ignition + Abakus

Rules designed around your firm

Letter scope

Letter scope

Generic templates you edit for each client.

Letter scope

Built from the client's intake: a client with foreign accounts gets FBAR and Form 8938 in scope automatically; a US-only client gets a standard 1040 letter.

Fees & invoices

Fees & invoices

Fees typed into each document.

Fees & invoices

Fees calculated from the forms in scope and invoiced in the client's currency.

After signing

After signing

Integrations or manual steps to start the job.

After signing

Job opened, documents requested, and first invoice issued automatically.

Changes

Changes

Whatever the tool's settings allow.

Changes

New services, clauses, or prices live within hours.

What we build around Ignition

Typical automations for firms that use Ignition. Each one follows your firm's rules, keeps a human review step where professional judgment matters, and changes in hours when you need something different.

01

Scope and pricing rules that follow your firm's fee schedule, including expat and multi-entity add-ons

02

Letters and invoices in the client's language and currency

03

Acceptance that kicks off intake, document requests, and the return pipeline

04

One client record across letters, documents, email, and billing

Ignition: common questions

Can Abakus replace Ignition?
Yes, and that's usually the goal. For Wicklow Expat Tax we built engagement letters, e-signature, and multi-currency invoicing directly into their client portal, so they don't need a separate proposal tool. If Ignition works well for you, we can connect it to the rest of your stack instead.
Does this only work for expat returns?
No. Wicklow's letters are built for expat engagements, where scope can include FBAR, Form 8938, Form 2555, or the Section 962 election. The engine simply maps a client's situation to scope and fees, so the same setup works for 1040s with Schedule C or E, partnership and S corp returns, bookkeeping retainers, or advisory work.
Can we keep our existing letter templates?
Yes. We start from your current letters, terms, and price list, and turn them into templates that fill themselves in from each client's details. Changes to wording or pricing are live within hours.

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Ignition is a trademark of Ignition. Abakus Automations is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Ignition. Product details are summarized from public information and may change.

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