Tax prep your firm can check, entry by entry
Your partner needs the same standard in March as in January. Your preparer needs each K-1 value tied to the page it came from, and your reviewer needs to see that page before signing. TracePrep puts all three on one file.
Three jobs, one file
The same file has to satisfy three different people. Here is what each of them asks of it.
For the partner
You put the firm behind every return it prepares, and you want each entry reached the same way regardless of who keyed it. Every entry names the fact or identity field behind it, and every change names who made it.
For the preparer
You want every value you key to point back to its page, and you want the file to clear review on the first pass. You enter each fact from its source page and confirm it beside the source image, and the entry list gives you every value your tax software needs, in entry order.
For the reviewer
You want to check the entries before you sign, rather than accept them on faith or key them again yourself. Every entry opens to its source in at most two clicks, and you sign only after every row is read back against the tax software.
One client folder, start to finish
One Preparer, one Reviewer, one client folder. Here is the path the file takes from upload to the firm's own records.
The Preparer turns the folder into cited facts
Split the folder and name each document, enter each fact from its page, and confirm it beside the source image. Nothing reaches the entry list until its document is confirmed.
A person keys the tax software and reads it back
From the entry list, row by row, each row beside its source page. A row that does not match is marked with the value the software shows, and review waits until it is fixed.
The Reviewer signs, and the firm keeps the file
The Reviewer checks entries against their pages, raises written exceptions, and signs. The Workbook and the workpaper go into your firm's own file.
What your firm keeps
A workpaper is only worth producing if it is still yours, and still legible, long after the engagement closes.
The workpaper belongs to the firm
Source documents, facts with their history, entries, readback, and sign-off. It is the firm's own record of how every number got there, exported as a structured file.A Workbook anyone at the firm can open
Every entry by form, with its value and its source citation, in a spreadsheet-readable file. It names the Reviewer of record and their role, and never a credential.An audit log of who did what, and when
Who uploaded, who confirmed each document, who corrected what, who marked each row read back, and who signed. That is what a partner is buying: the ability to answer a question asked two years after the return was filed.Nothing computed behind your back
No entry is a total or a tax figure. Your tax software computes the return. Your people file it.
Questions to expect
Do we have to change tax software?
Who at the firm signs off?
Does TracePrep file returns or contact our clients?
Can two preparers work the same way without us writing a manual?
Reasonable Compensation Studies for S-corporation clients
The same discipline runs the S-corporation Reasonable Compensation Study. Intake is structured, wage evidence comes from public data and is pinned to a named release, and the workpaper assembles as you work.
Every figure links to the public source it came from, and every judgment call carries its written rationale beside it.
The Study, the evidence behind it, and its exhibits are your firm's work product. Finalized Studies remain downloadable in TracePrep for three years from the date the subscription ends, for any reason.
Run one Study and judge it from the file
The quickest honest test is a live client you were already going to work on this season.
Every entry, checked against its page
Join the waitlist for the TracePrep app and the TracePrep plugin. One list, and you choose which.
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.