Working papers are the record of how a set of accounts was prepared and checked: which balances were agreed to what, what the reviewer asked, and the checklist the firm works through before anything is filed. In Tax Optimiser they sit on top of the client’s trial balance, so the evidence is attached to the figure it supports instead of living in a separate folder.
The feature is for accountant firms and is off until the firm switches it on.
What a working paper holds
Each accounting period of each client has one working paper, with two parts:
- Trial Balance — every balance in the period beside last year’s, with a tick to confirm it, a note, supporting documents and review points.
- Working Paper Questions — the firm’s checklist, grouped into sets such as planning, each accounts area, completion and disclosure, answered Yes, No or N/A with a comment.
Around that are a status that shows where the job has got to, a list of every working paper in the firm, and a report to print or save as a PDF for the file.
Switch working papers on
- In the firm menu, open Firm Settings and choose Firm.
- Open the Companies House tab.
- Tick Enable Working Papers and click Save.
The setting applies to the whole firm and every client. You can untick it later; the notes, documents and answers already recorded are kept.
What changes once it is on
- Working Papers appears in the firm menu. It lists every client period with its status and progress.
- Working Paper Questions appears under Firm Settings. This is where the firm’s checklist is built.
- Inside a client’s accounting period, Working Papers appears in the period menu, between Trial Balance and View Accounts.
- The Trial Balance screen gains three icons at the end of every line: a note, a review point and supporting documents with a count.
The icons on the trial balance and the working paper itself are two views of the same records. A note added in one shows in the other.
The order to set things up
- Switch working papers on, as above.
- Create the firm’s questions from a pack: Question sets and packs. Do this before anyone opens a working paper, because a period takes its questions the first time its working paper is opened.
- Open a client’s period and start work: Working through the trial balance.