If you prepare accounts for clients, you already know the pattern. You open TaxOptimiser to work on the trial balance, then flick to a spreadsheet for your lead schedules, then to another app for review points, then to a shared drive for the supporting documents. Each tool is fine on its own. Together, they slow you down and create version-control headaches that nobody enjoys at 6pm on a filing day.
So we have built Working Papers directly into TaxOptimiser. They sit inside the Trial Balance validation screen you already use, which means your evidence, your review notes and your numbers finally live in one place.
What this means for your practice
You no longer need a parallel set of spreadsheets that any team member can overwrite by accident. You no longer need a second app open alongside TaxOptimiser while you prepare the accounts. The working file and the accounts file are the same file.
For partners and reviewers, that changes the day-to-day in a few practical ways:
- Every balance on the trial balance can have its own supporting documents attached.
- Review points sit against the figure they relate to, not in a separate tracker.
- Notes, queries and sign-offs follow the work, so nothing gets lost in email.
- Junior staff see exactly what evidence is expected before a file comes up for review.
The working file and the accounts file are now the same file. One source of truth, with the evidence sat next to the numbers it supports.
Attach documents straight to a balance
Pick any line on the trial balance and add the supporting document to it. Bank statements against cash. Lease agreements against motor vehicles. Stock sheets against inventory. HMRC correspondence against the tax accounts.
When the reviewer opens that balance, the evidence is already there. There is no hunting through a shared drive, no asking the preparer where they saved the PDF, and no risk of someone working from last month's version.
Review points and notes, in context
Reviewers can raise points directly against the balance, the schedule or the question they relate to. The preparer sees the point in the same place they did the work, clears it, and the trail stays with the file.
It is a small change on paper. In practice, it removes a lot of the back-and-forth that eats up review time, especially on jobs being prepared by less experienced staff.
Use our Working Paper Packs, or build your own
We have included a set of Working Paper Packs you can use out of the box. They cover the usual ground you would expect for a small company or a sole trader file: questions to confirm completeness, prompts for cut-off, reminders about related parties, and so on.
If you would rather work to your own house style, you can. Question sets are fully customisable. You can:
- Build your own packs from scratch.
- Edit our packs to match your firm's methodology.
- Create different packs for different client types - micro-entity, small company, sole trader, landlord.
- Set required evidence for each question so junior staff know what to attach.
Once a pack is set up, it is reusable across every job that fits that profile.
Heads up - Working Papers are built into the Trial Balance validation screen. If you already use that screen to finalise a set of accounts, you do not need to learn a new module - the working papers appear alongside the balances you are already validating.
Built into the workflow you already use
This is the part we are most pleased with. Working Papers are not a separate tab, a separate login or a separate product. They sit inside the Trial Balance validation screen in TaxOptimiser, which is where you finalise the figures anyway.
That means the steps look like this:
- Bring the trial balance into TaxOptimiser as you normally would.
- Work down the balances, attaching documents and answering the questions in your pack as you go.
- Raise or clear review points against the balances themselves.
- Sign off and move on to the accounts and tax return.
One screen, one file, one audit trail.
No extra charge
Working Papers are included in your existing TaxOptimiser credits. There is no separate module to buy, no per-user uplift and no add-on subscription. If you already use TaxOptimiser to prepare accounts and tax returns, you already have this.
We have taken this approach on purpose. Working papers are not an optional extra - they are part of doing the job properly. Charging twice for the same piece of work did not feel right.
Getting started
The quickest way to try it is on your next small company or sole trader file. Open the Trial Balance validation screen, pick one of our Working Paper Packs, and walk through it as you would your normal review checklist. You will get a feel for what to customise after one or two jobs.
If you want to roll it out across the firm, we would suggest building your house pack first, then setting it as the default for new jobs. That way every preparer starts from the same point and reviewers see a consistent file every time.
A quieter way to work
None of this changes the standards you work to. It just removes the friction around meeting them. The evidence sits with the numbers. The review points sit with the work. The questions are answered in the same place the figures are finalised. And it is all included in what you already pay for.
If you would like a walk-through for your team, get in touch and we will set one up.