The Reviewer's Readback: Checking AI-Prepared Entries Before Sign-Off

An entry list built with help from an AI tool looks finished. Every line has a figure, a label, and often a neat citation. A right entry and a wrong one look identical on the list.

At sign-off, the question is whether each entry can be read back to the page it came from. A complete-looking list doesn't answer it.

This piece is a readback routine for the Reviewer who signs a return a Preparer built with an AI tool's help. It covers the order of the readback, what to sample and what to read in full, what sends an entry back, and how to record it. How the Preparer gets citations at extraction time is covered in the citation piece. Which tool suits which task is covered in the tool-fit piece. Here, the tool gets one line: whatever produced the draft, the readback reads the entries, not the tool.

What a readback is

A readback is reading each entry against its cited source page before you sign. Open the entry. Open the page it cites. Read the figure on the page, then the figure in the entry. Confirm they match. Then confirm the client, the document, and the period.

Read out loud with the Preparer on a call, or go line by line alone. Either way, mark every row you read.

The readback isn't a re-prep. You aren't rebuilding the return from the folder. You're testing the link between each entry and its page, which a finished list doesn't show on its face.

The order of the readback

Read the entries that carry judgment first. That's where a tidy citation can sit beside a figure the page doesn't directly show.

1. Judgment entries, in full. Allocations, classifications, and any entry combined from two or more documents. Read every one. For a combined entry, open each source page and confirm the note explains how the parts became the whole.
2. "Could not find it" entries, in full. Every row the Preparer flagged as missing. Confirm the flag is still open, or that a later row resolves it with its own citation. A flag that quietly disappeared between drafts goes back.
3. Plain copies, by sample. Entries copied straight from one line on one page. Read a sample, under the rule the Firm set.

Write the sample rule down before review starts, not after the list looks clean. The Firm decides how the sample is drawn, how large it is, and what happens when a sampled row fails. One option: once a sampled row fails, widen the read to every plain copy from the same document. Whatever rule the Firm picks, apply it as written and record it.

For a worked example of a Study-specific review list, see the reasonable compensation review checklist. The readback here is the general routine. That checklist shows what one looks like for a single workflow.

What sends an entry back to the Preparer

Send an entry back when any of these five holds. Send each one to the Preparer to correct or explain, and record what you decided.

• No citation. The entry has a figure and no source row.
• The cited page doesn't show the figure. The page is real, but the figure isn't on it, or a different figure is.
• A combined figure without a note. Two or more sources were added, netted, or split, and nothing says how. Ask for the note.
• Wrong period or wrong client document. The page shows the figure, but it belongs to another period, another entity, or another person. A Doe Holdings entry citing a Jane Doe document goes back unless a note explains why that document supports the entity.
• A blank filled with an estimate. The Preparer's draft said "could not find it," and the final shows a figure with no new source.

Send each one back with the entry, the reason, and the page you opened. The Preparer fixes it and returns it with a citation or note that answers the reason. Then read that entry again, in full, wherever it sat in the order.

An entry that comes back clean is still the Reviewer's call. The readback checks the link between entry and page. Whether the treatment is right is your judgment, and it stays yours.

Recording the readback

Record the readback as you go, not after, so the next person who opens the file can see what was read.

Keep the record with the workpaper. Name who read back which entries and when. Mark which rows were read in full and which were sampled, and state the sample rule used. List each entry sent back, the reason, and the date it came back resolved.

Keep a returned entry open in the record until you note what you decided about it. Finish this record before you weigh sign-off; whether the whole review supports signing is still your call. What a Reviewer needs from the file before signing is laid out at for reviewers.

A one-screen readback checklist

Adapt this to your Firm's review procedures before you use it in a return file. Replace the Doe names with the client and Preparer on the file.

1. Confirm the client (Jane Doe or Doe Holdings), the period, and the Preparer named on the entry list.
2. Confirm the Firm's written sample rule is in the file before you open the first entry.
3. Read every judgment entry in full: allocations, classifications, and combined figures. Open each cited page.
4. For each combined figure, confirm a note explains how the parts became the total.
5. Read every "could not find it" entry in full. Confirm it is still flagged, or resolved with its own citation.
6. Read the plain-copy sample under the Firm's rule. Apply the rule's step for a failed row.
7. For each entry read, check that the page shows the figure, from the right client document and the right period.
8. Send back any entry with no citation or a cited page that doesn't show the figure. Send back a combined figure without a note, the wrong period or document, or an estimate in a blank.
9. Read every returned entry again, in full.
10. Record who read back what, when, what went back, and when it came back resolved.
11. Finish the record and note your decision on each returned entry. Whether the whole review supports signing is your call.

Where TracePrep fits

In TracePrep's Reasonable Compensation Study, every figure traces to its source, occupation, geography, and period, at field level. A Reviewer signs off on each Study, and the audit log records who prepared it, who changed what, and who approved it. Finalized evidence stays with the Firm.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Your licensed professional and your Firm's Reviewer are responsible for every return and every conclusion. Keep client data inside the systems your Firm has approved. As general guidance only, not advice: if you use an AI tool with client data, firms generally look for a business or commercial plan whose terms cover how that data is handled; read the vendor's current terms before you do.

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