Previous: General 6/7: Creating groups

In the previous lesson we covered groups in Workpapers, including what they are, how to create them and how to manage them!

We're finally onto workpapers, the main component of Cimplico Workpapers! After completing this lesson you'll be ready to jump into the Learn Workpapers - Preparing a workpaper course. 

Before we proceed with setting up a workpaper, make sure you've completed General 1/7: What is a workpaper? for information on what a workpaper is and how they're handled in Cimplico Workpapers. 

To see your current workpapers and to create new ones, head to the Workpapers tab in the Firm Management section. 

Note: Workpapers can also be created from the entity overview screen shown in Setup 5/8: Creating entities, and the group overview screen in Setup 6/8: Creating groups.

Workpapers can be added by clicking the New Workpaper button in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Workpapers page

When you click the New Workpaper button you'll see the following form:

Figure 2: New workpaper form - Step 1

There a 3 steps in the workpaper form:

1. Entity selection & trial balance source
2. Workpaper information
3. Assigning users

Step 1: Entity selection & trial balance source

The first step asks you to select the entity you'd like to create the workpaper for.

Note: If you create a new workpaper from the entity overview screen the entity will be pre-selected for you.

When selecting your trial balance source you'll have the option to select Xero or Import. 

Xero

If you select the Xero option, you don't have to do anything further for this step and can go ahead and click the Next button to proceed to Step 2.

Note: If you have not linked the entity to Xero you will be unable to select the Xero option.

Import

If you select Import, you will be able to download a trial balance csv template that you can fill-out and upload.

The csv template will request the following fields be populated:

• Code: The account code (e.g. 200)
• Description: The account's description/name (e.g. Sales)
• Type: The account type (e.g. Current, Fixed)
• Class: The class of the account (i.e. Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, Expense)
• Report Code: A code to assist mapping the account to checklist items (e.g. EXP.DIS)
• Debit TY: The debit amount for the current year or blank
• Credit TY: The credit amount for the current year or blank
• Debit LY: The debit amount for the previous year or blank
• Credit LY: The credit amount for the previous year or blank

Once you have completed the csv you can upload it to the form (See Figure 3). If there are any issues with the file we'll notify you on upload.

Figure 3: New workpaper form - Step 1 - Trial balance Import

As we add more integrations you may see additional sources appear in this section. Be sure to follow our development roadmap to stay up-to-date with what we're working on. 

When you're finished and the upload is accepted, click the Next button to proceed to step 2.

Step 2: Workpaper information

Once you have completed Step 1 and clicked the Next button, you will see the following form:

Figure 4: New workpaper form - Step 2

As seen in Figure 4, the following fields are required to configure the workpaper:

• Workpaper Period End Date: The end date the workpaper data relates to, starting from the financial year (e.g. If the entity has a 30 June FY end, and the Workpaper Period End Date is 31 December 2022, the current year data within the workpaper would be from 01 July 2022-31 December 2022)
• Workpaper Due Date: The ideal end date of the workpaper. This date is used for workpaper progress tracking shown on the workpaper dashboard. This is covered more in Workpaper x/y: Dashboard.
• Workpaper Name: A unique name for your workpaper.
• Procedure Template: The procedure template to use for this workpaper
• Checklist Template: The checklist template to use for this workpaper.
• Materiality Limit (Optional): A monetary amount of the current year amount or percentage change from the last year amount to exclude (E.g. 5% materiality would exclude accounts that have a 5% or less change from the last year). This is the first of many planned rules to assist in filtering down the work to the most relevant items requiring your attention. We'll explore excluding accounts further in Workpaper x/y: Trial Balance.

When the above information is completed, you can proceed to the last step: Assigning users.

Step 3: Assigning users

The final step is to assign staff to the relevant roles within the workpaper. In a workpaper there are 3 key roles:

• Preparer: One or more staff members responsible for preparing the workpaper, with no reviewing privileges.
• Reviewer: One or more senior staff responsible for reviewing the prepared work. Usually a manager in the firm.
• Approver: The final approver of the workpaper before it can be finalised and completed. Usually a partner of the firm.

With roles, the higher role inherits the privileges of the lower role, plus their additional privileges. Therefore:

• A reviewer can do everything a preparer can do, plus review worksheets and certify the workpaper as a reviewer. 
• An approver can do everything a reviewer can do, plus approve a workpaper and certify the workpaper as an approver.

Note: Anyone can prepare a workpaper, whether they are assigned or not; however, the assigned preparers are the primary contact on the workpaper and are the only ones who can certify the workpaper as a preparer.

The below form (Figure 5) asks you to select your roles for the workpaper.

Note: A workpaper requires a minimum of one approver.

Figure 5: New workpaper form - Step 3

Once you've selected your approver(s), reviewer(s), and preparer(s) for the workpaper, you can go ahead and click the Create Workpaper button to complete the process. After clicking the button, the workpaper will be created and you will be launched into it.

Congratulations, you've just created your first workpaper! 

We plan to streamline this process and continue to add more rules to further simplify the preparation of workpapers. Be sure to follow our development roadmap to stay up-to-date with what we're working on.

Next: Preparing a workpaper 1/19: What's involved in a workpaper? [Coming Soon]

You're now able to create workpapers, awesome! Let's jump into your newly-created workpaper and go over what's involved in taking a workpaper from creation to completion.