Tax prep where every number has a source.
TracePrep turns a client's folder of tax documents into cited facts, an entry list for your tax software, and a Reviewer-signed workpaper your Firm owns. Your tax software computes the return. Your people file it.
The Preparer confirms each fact beside the page it came from. The Reviewer signs only after every entry is read back against the tax software. What your firm keeps is the proof of where each number came from.
Line art in two panels, no photography and no people. Left: a ruled line captioned entry, then a vertical rail with three rungs, each rung followed by a labelled ruled line reading form, value, source citation. Right: a ruled line captioned source page, then ruled lines with one line drawn heavier than the rest. No number is drawn in either panel.
What does TracePrep do for tax prep?
A finished return reads the same whether its inputs hold up or not.
A client sends a folder. W-2s, 1099s, a stack of K-1s with footnotes, a phone photo or two. Someone reads every page, keys every box, and the return comes out the other side looking finished.
Three things go wrong.
- Preparer time.
- Reading K-1 boxes and codes page by page, then keying them by hand. Across a season of individual returns, that is a real line on your payroll.
- Reviewer trust.
- Your Reviewer sees the input screens, not the pages behind them. They either pull the documents and check again, or sign on faith. Neither one is a control.
- The two-year question.
- A client or an examiner asks where a figure came from. The preparer who keyed it has moved on, and the folder holds forty pages with nothing pointing at the one that mattered.
Faster keying retires neither of the last two. A source on every entry does, and so does a Reviewer who checks each entry against its page before signing.
Line-art comparison in two panels, no photography. Left, drawn at reduced contrast: a three-sided open box with a dashed line and an arrowhead running off it to nothing, captioned input screen beneath. Right, at full contrast: a horizontal spine carrying three solid nodes with a tick between each pair, labelled entry, fact, page beneath. Neither panel draws a number.
Six steps, from folder to signed workpaper.
Your firm runs the whole flow. TracePrep does not compute the tax and does not file the return. Your tax software computes. Your people file, sign, and collect payment.
A horizontal strip of six markers on one baseline, each marker carrying its own numeral from one to six. The fourth marker is drawn filled and larger than the other five, and the baseline thickens through it to mark the control point. Short ticks sit between adjacent markers. Line art only: nothing is drawn inside the markers except the numerals, and no step names appear.
Folder.
The Preparer drops in the client's documents, then splits and names each one.
Cited facts.
The Preparer enters each fact from its source document, and TracePrep ties it to the page it came from. The Preparer confirms each fact beside the page.
Entry and readback.
A person keys your tax software from the entry list and marks each row read back against it.
Review. Control point
The Reviewer signs only after every row is read back.
Workbook.
Every entry by form, with its value and its source citation.
Workpaper.
Source documents, facts, entries, readback. Hash-chained and owned by your Firm.
What your firm gets that a stack of input screens cannot give you.
Four square tiles of line art in a two-by-two grid, each over a ruled texture, with no words drawn in any tile. First: two open nodes joined by connectors that end in two short ruled rows. Second: a horizontal spine with three nodes, the last one left unfilled, each marked by a tick. Third: a dashed boundary enclosing a small solid block beside three ruled rows. Fourth: two columns of three rules with one right-hand rule thickened against its neighbour.
Traceable evidence.
Every fact is tied to its source: the page it came from, or the Preparer's written reason. Every entry names the one fact or identity field behind it.
Reviewer sign-off.
Your Reviewer sees each entry beside its source, filters to the values that were corrected or keyed by hand, and signs only after every row is read back.
Firm-owned workpapers.
Behind the sign-off sits a workpaper your Firm owns: source documents, facts, entries, readback. The tax file stays complete on your side of the line.
No computed figures.
An entry is the value of one fact or identity field, unchanged. No entry is a total or a tax figure. Your tax software does the computing.
The discipline is the product.
Two returns can look identical on screen while only one has numbers that hold up. What separates them is whether anyone can still inspect how each one got there.
The return belongs to your firm. Your tax software computes it. Your people review it, sign it, and file it.
TracePrep keeps the proof behind each entry. You never get an entry without a fact or identity field behind it, and you never get a fact without its source: the page it came from, or the Preparer's written reason. A corrected value keeps the value it replaced, who changed it, and when. And the Reviewer cannot sign while a single row is unread against the tax software.
That is a narrow promise on purpose. The judgment stays yours. The proof of where each number came from should never be the part you have to reconstruct.
A single line-art diagram. A small ruled card at the left sits on a path that runs the full width, crossed by three tall frames the record passes through, each numbered above it and marked by a tick below. The third frame is drawn in a different colour from the first two. Beneath the drawing, three labels read source or written reason, every row read back, Reviewer signs. Authored illustration, no photography and no people.
Your AI assistant, and the TracePrep plugin.
TracePrep offers a plugin of tax-prep skills for tax professionals who use Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Codex or ChatGPT.
Your AI assistant also works with TracePrep through MCP, for Reasonable Compensation Studies. Authorized by a signed-in member of your Firm, it lists and reads Studies and workpapers, creates intake, ingests evidence, pulls PDFs, and reads audit history. Sign-off stays with a person. A machine caller cannot sign.
Neither one computes or files a return. Your Preparer and your Reviewer still do the work that carries their names.
Also in TracePrep: the Reasonable Compensation Study
TracePrep produces the Reasonable Compensation Study: traceable evidence, Reviewer sign-off, and workpapers the Firm owns.
Every figure in a reasonable compensation study traces to its source, occupation, geography, and period. The interview flags its own contradictions before anyone reviews it. Year two is a deltas job. Prior-year facts carry forward with a change analysis attached.
Finalized Studies remain downloadable in TracePrep for three years from the date the subscription ends, for any reason.
Working a reasonable compensation file now?
Start a Study, or walk the six steps first and see what your Reviewer would be signing.
Questions firms ask
Does TracePrep compute the tax or file the return?
How do the values get into our tax software?
Where does each fact come from?
Who signs off on the workpaper?
What does our firm keep?
What is a reasonable compensation study?
What happens to our studies if we stop subscribing?
Every number has a source. Join the waitlist.
The TracePrep app and the TracePrep plugin share one waitlist. Choose the app, the plugin, or both.
TracePrep is a software product from TracePrep Inc., not a CPA firm. This content is operator experience for educational purposes; it is not tax advice and has not been reviewed by a licensed CPA. Consult a qualified tax professional for guidance on your specific situation. Source citations in TracePrep workpapers support audit defense but do not guarantee IRS outcomes.