One Vocabulary for AI-Drafted Work: Drafted, Edited, Checked, Signed

A file note says "reviewed." The status board says "self-reviewed." The handoff note says "mostly done." Three people wrote about the same client file, and nobody can tell from the words alone whether anyone has compared the entries to the source.

A shared status vocabulary for AI-drafted work fixes that in the words themselves. The Firm agrees on four of them (drafted, edited, checked, signed), writes down who may set each one and what has to be true first, and then uses only those words in every file note, board row and handoff. The plugin drafts, the Firm's preparer prepares, and the Reviewer signs off. The four words name those steps and nothing more.

This piece gives a glossary table the Firm can paste into its procedures, a one-paragraph house rule, and a short list of loose words to retire.

Why status words drift

Each person picks the word that makes sense to them in the moment. "Reviewed" can mean a Preparer read the list once, or that the Reviewer finished. "Done" can mean drafted, or it can mean signed. Each writer is being honest. The trouble is that the reader fills in the meaning.

The gap shows up at the seams: when a file changes hands, when a manager reads the board, when the Reviewer opens a file and has to work out which entries a person has already compared to the source. A fixed vocabulary takes that question out of the reader's head and puts it into a definition the Firm wrote once.

The four words

The Firm can define four words for the state of AI-drafted work and use them for a single entry, a section or a whole file. Each word records that one step has happened. The table below is one version the Firm can adapt.

Edited is the one word an item can skip. An entry nobody changed goes straight from drafted to checked. The other three run in order, and a later word isn't written until the earlier ones are true.

The gap that matters most is the one between checked and signed. Checked means a Preparer compared the work to the source. It isn't a review, and it isn't a sign-off. Signed belongs to the Reviewer. Every file ends with the Reviewer's sign-off, and nobody else writes the word.

How each word is written

The Firm can fix the form as well as the word. One form that works across every surface: the word, then the scope, then the name and the day. "Checked: entry list rows 1-12, Jane Doe, Tuesday." "Signed: whole file, Pat Doe, Friday."

The scope matters as much as the word. "Checked" with no scope invites the reader to assume the whole file. Under this form, a partial scope is spelled out, and the whole file is written as "whole file."

The name is the person who did the step. Under the Firm's rule, nobody writes a word on someone else's behalf. Jane writes the checked note for the rows she checked; the Reviewer reviews every file, signs off and writes signed.

What moves a word backward

The words describe the current state, so they move back when the work changes. Two rules cover it:

A change after checked. Any change to a checked item puts it back to edited, and it gets checked again.

A change after signed. Any change to a signed file goes back to the Reviewer. The changed work reads edited until the Preparer checks it again; the file then reads checked until the Reviewer reviews the updated file and signs off again.

Moving a word backward is part of the vocabulary. A note that still says checked after an edit is exactly the drift the four words are meant to stop.

Words to retire

A vocabulary works partly through what it leaves out. The Firm can list the loose words it retires and the word to write instead:

A retired word isn't wrong in conversation. It just doesn't go in a note, on a board or in a handoff.

Where the words appear

The point is one set of words in every place the Firm writes about status, so the same word means the same thing everywhere it's read.

File notes. Each note that reports progress opens with one of the four words, its scope, a name and a day.

The status board. A board can keep its own stage names. The status board for AI-drafted files tracks where each file sits, and under this approach each stage is defined in the four words, so a stage called pass run reads as drafted, not checked.

Handoff notes. A handoff note can state progress in the same words and scopes, so the incoming Preparer knows which rows are checked and which are only drafted.

Entry lists. Row-level marks for hand edits record who set each value. The four words sit one level up and say how far the work on those rows has gone.

The house rule

The Firm can put the whole vocabulary into one paragraph and add it to its procedures:

House rule. In every file note, board row and handoff note, we state the status of AI-drafted work with one of four words: drafted, edited, checked or signed. Each word is followed by its scope, the name of the person who did the step, and the day. Only the person who did a step writes its word, and only the Reviewer writes signed. Every file ends with the Reviewer's sign-off. A change after checked sends the item back to edited; a change after signed sends the file back to the Reviewer. We don't use done, reviewed, final, approved or almost done to report status.

The Firm can rename any of the four words, but the Reviewer's sign-off stays the last step on every file. Under this approach, the Firm keeps one definition per word in its glossary and updates the glossary and house rule together, so everyone reads the same version.

A Doe example

The names, file and counts below are made up for illustration.

Jane Doe, a Preparer at Doe & Co. CPA, runs the AI pass on the synthetic Doe Holdings file. The entry list has 18 rows. Her first note reads: "Drafted: entry list, 18 rows, Jane Doe, Monday."

On Tuesday, Jane compares rows 1 to 12 to their source pages, changes 3 of them and checks those 3 again before recording that scope as checked; the file still awaits the Reviewer's review and sign-off. Her note reads: "Checked: rows 1-12, 3 edited, Jane Doe, Tuesday. Rows 13-18 drafted, not checked."

On Wednesday Jane moves to another file and Sam Doe takes this one. The handoff note uses the same words, so Sam starts at row 13 instead of rereading the whole list. Sam, the incoming Preparer, checks rows 13 to 18, changes 1 and checks that row again before recording that scope as checked; the file still awaits the Reviewer's review and sign-off. His note: "Checked: rows 13-18, 1 edited, Sam Doe, Thursday." Twelve rows plus six rows is 18; the file retains Jane's scoped checked note dated Tuesday and Sam's scoped checked note dated Thursday, and still awaits the Reviewer's review and sign-off.

Pat Doe, the Reviewer, reads the file back on Friday. She sends back one row nobody had edited, with a note. Sam changes it, the row reads edited, and he checks it again. That makes 5 edited rows in all. Pat then signs off in the file: "Signed: whole file, Pat Doe, Friday." The board row moves to match the note.

Under the old habit, Tuesday's note might have said "reviewed the big ones," and Sam would have had to guess which rows that covered.

Where TracePrep fits

We've built a TracePrep plugin that drafts these steps in your Firm's workflow, while your preparer decides and your Reviewer signs off. Join the waitlist and we'll tell you when plugin access opens.

Get on the list for plugin access

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. In TracePrep's workflow, the plugin drafts, the Firm's preparer prepares, and the Firm's Reviewer signs off. Access to the plugin is by waitlist. Keep client data inside the systems your Firm has approved.