Frequently asked questions

Awa is an AI-powered document management platform built specifically for audit firms. It handles the PBC (Prepared by Client) lifecycle — from requesting documents to classifying, confirming, filing, and retrieving them. Your clients upload to a simple portal, the AI classifies everything, and your team retrieves documents via chat or dashboard.

About 5 minutes. Create your firm account, set up your first engagement, import your PBC list from a CSV or template, and share the portal link with your client. The first document can be uploaded within minutes of signing up.

No. Clients access their portal via magic links — no passwords, no accounts, no training. They click the link, see what's outstanding, upload their files, and they're done.

Yes. Every engagement gets a unique email address (like awa-7K3M@in.tryawa.com). Clients can email documents directly and the AI processes them the same way as portal uploads.

When a document is uploaded, Awa's AI reads the actual content — not just the filename — and matches it to items on your PBC list. It assigns a confidence score and asks the client to confirm. High-confidence classifications are usually correct; lower confidence ones get flagged for review. Every classification is logged in the audit trail.

The client can correct it during the confirmation step, or your team can reclassify it at any time. The full classification history is maintained — you can always see what the AI originally suggested and any changes that were made.

Your audit team can ask Awa for documents in plain English. "Pull me everything for bank and cash." "What did the client send overnight?" "Show me all outstanding items." Awa finds, packages, and delivers the files. No folder navigation needed.

Locked engagements preserve all documents and their audit trail. Documents can't be added, modified, or removed. If you need to unlock (for subsequent events or quality review findings), a partner or admin can unlock with a controlled reason, which is logged.

An engagement is active from when you create it until you lock or archive it. Locked or archived engagements don't count toward your slot limit. So last year's completed engagements are free — you only pay for engagements you're currently working on.

Yes, at any time. Upgrades take effect immediately with prorated billing. Downgrades take effect at the end of your billing cycle. You can't downgrade if you have more active engagements than the target plan allows — lock or archive some first.

Sign up, choose your plan, and you can have your first engagement set up in under 5 minutes. Import your PBC list from a CSV or template, share the portal link with your client, and documents can start flowing immediately.

Your subscription continues until the end of your billing period. After that, you keep read-only access to your data for 30 days. We never delete your data without notice — you'll always have time to export what you need.

Not yet, but it's coming soon. If you're interested, get in touch at hello@tryawa.com.

All data is hosted in Supabase's Sydney region (AP-Southeast-2). Documents are stored in encrypted cloud storage with row-level security ensuring strict firm isolation.

No. Every database query is scoped to your firm through row-level security policies. The AI's tools are scoped to the current engagement. There is no mechanism — even theoretically — for the AI to access data across firm boundaries.

No. Awa's AI can only send data to email addresses that have been manually registered by a human user on that engagement. This is enforced at the code level, not the prompt level. Even a fully compromised AI cannot send data outside the engagement boundary.

Awa's workflows are designed to support ISQM 1 compliance — engagement locking with controlled unlock reasons, full audit trails, role-based access control, and document integrity preservation. We're also on a SOC 2 certification pathway.

Yes. We use a 5-layer security architecture: input sanitisation, prompt architecture with untrusted data delimiters, output validation against real PBC item lists, access control enforcement, and monitoring with security event logging. AI outputs are validated before any action is taken.

Email us at hello@tryawa.com. Professional and Business plan customers get priority support.

Business plan customers get dedicated onboarding support including custom PBC template setup. All customers get access to our documentation and email support.