You sign it. You see all of it first.
A finished compensation figure reads the same whether the work behind it holds up or not, and your PTIN is on the return either way. So the derivation is open to you before you sign: every figure with the source it came from, every adjustment with the reason recorded at the time, and a Study that is not deliverable until you sign off on it.
Two bad options, and a third
Review usually comes down to two choices, and neither one is good.
You can accept the number because you know the preparer and the deadline is real. Or you can rebuild the analysis yourself, which is the only way to be certain and is time nobody is paying for. The first puts your licence behind work you did not inspect. The second turns review into preparation.
There is a third, and it is the only thing this page is arguing for: inspect the derivation without rebuilding it.
- Accept it
- You rely on the preparer’s judgment because the file looks finished. Nothing about a finished file tells you whether the occupation was right, whether the wage data fit the geography, or why a figure moved.
- Rebuild it
- You redo enough of the analysis to be satisfied. It works, and you do it again every year, on every file.
- Inspect it
- You open the figures, the sources behind them, and the reasons written down beside each adjustment, then decide. That is the design. The assembly is done for you. The conclusion is not.
TracePrep supports your judgment. The conclusion is yours, the signature is yours, and the record shows both were.
What is in front of you before you sign
Every figure, with where it came from
Each material figure carries its source: the wage dataset, the occupation, the geography, the period, and the transformation applied to get to the number on the page. You read the derivation instead of taking the total on faith.Every adjustment, with the reason written at the time
A Preparer cannot record an adjustment without a rationale. It is required at entry, it travels with the figure into the finished Study, and it is there when you open the file rather than reconstructed later because you asked.Last year’s Study, still in the Firm’s hands
Finalized Studies and their evidence belong to the Firm permanently, so the prior year is a file you can open and read against this one rather than a thing you reconstruct from memory.A record of who did what, and when
Study events are recorded in order as the work happens, each with the person and the time: the Study created, the roster changed, adjustments made, sign-off given. It accumulates during the engagement, so what you read is the sequence of the work rather than an account written afterwards.
A review pass, in the order you’d actually do it
Open the derivation
Start at the figure you would have questioned anyway. It shows the wage source behind it, the occupation and geography it was drawn from, the period, and what was done to it to reach the number in front of you. Nothing asks you to take the assembly on trust, because the assembly is on the page.
Read the adjustments and the reasons given
Where a Preparer moved a figure, the reason sits with it. You are reading what they were thinking when they did it, not an explanation composed after somebody questioned it.
Change what does not hold, in your own words
An adjustment cannot be entered without a rationale, and that includes yours. When you move a figure, your reason goes onto the record beside it and into the Study, so the file shows what you changed and why.
Sign off, and release it
Until you sign off, the Study is not final and not deliverable. Nothing reaches the client on a deadline, an assumption, or somebody else’s authority. You release it, or it does not go.
Where the line is
The platform assembles and records. You conclude. Saying plainly which is which is the only version of this that is any use to you.
| Step | Preparer | Reviewer | Firm |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Assembling | Runs the intake, gathers the wage evidence, and records a rationale with every adjustment made. | No action at this step | Sets the scope of the engagement the Study is produced under. |
| 2. Concluding | Answers questions on the file and records any further adjustment with its reason. | Inspects the derivation and signs off. The conclusion is yours, and nothing is deliverable until you reach it. | Carries the engagement the signature is given under. |
| 3. After sign-off | No action at this step | Releases the finished Study. The record carries the sign-off in your name, with the time it happened. | Keeps the finalized Study and its evidence permanently. The workpapers are the Firm’s. |
Questions a Reviewer actually asks
What am I actually signing?
Does this make the review faster?
What if I disagree with an adjustment the Preparer made?
Can a Study go out without me?
Open one and read the evidence
The honest test is a file you were already going to review this season. Walk the workflow first, or start a Study and read the derivation yourself. Either way you are reading how the figure was built, not a summary of it.