Read a finished Study before you build one

Every Number Has a Source. That is a promise about a file, and a file is the only honest way to show it. So here is one: a sample Reasonable Compensation Study, built the way your firm would build one, with placeholder values standing in for the specifics.

What you get to look at

Three parts of the sample file, and only three. A preview of the whole report would be the working file handed to anyone who asked, so this one stops at the shape.

Illustration of a sample Study cover page
Illustrative sample data
Illustration of a table of contents page, its entries shown as blank rules
Illustrative sample data

Who asks for this

Mostly people who know what a reasonable compensation position costs to defend, and want to see the paperwork first.

  1. Owners weighing whether to bring this work in house

    You have been buying studies, or writing memos, or quietly hoping the question stays away. The sample shows you what this file contains before you pick one of those.
  2. Tax partners who end up reviewing it

    You are the one signing off, so the question is not whether the number looks plausible. It is whether you can test it. Look at the evidence page first.
  3. Firms with an S-corp book that keeps growing

    One study a year is a memo. Thirty is a process, and a process needs a file that looks the same for every client, every year.

Ask for the sample

Two fields, and only the first is required. We send the sample to the address you give, and answer questions about how the file is built. That is the whole use.

What you give
A work email, and optionally your firm size. Nothing else is asked for.
What you get
The redacted sample, by email, at that address. No account, nothing to install.

Ask for the sample

Two fields, and only the first is required. We send the sample to the address you give. It is built from invented facts. It is not tax advice and not a real client file.

It tells us which questions to answer first. Skipping it changes nothing.

When does the sample arrive?

By email, usually within a few minutes of asking. There is no download button here, and that is deliberate. The sample goes to a real address, so you can forward it to whoever else at the firm needs to read it.

About this sample

This is a sample. It is built from invented facts and round placeholder figures, it is not tax advice, and it is not a real engagement or a real client file. Read it for the structure, not for the numbers.

The entity is invented, the figures are round, and the sources on the evidence page are placeholders. A qualified Reviewer at the Firm signs off on the finished Study, and the Firm keeps and owns the workpapers. That part is not illustrative. It is how a real engagement ends.

Most of what the sample raises has been asked before.

More in the FAQ

Illustration of a redacted evidence page citing a public source
Illustrative sample data

Questions about the sample

Why is the sample redacted?
Because a full copy of a finished Study is the working file, not a preview of one. The cover, the table of contents and one evidence page are enough to judge how the file is built, without publishing the method behind it.
Can I download it here instead?
No. It arrives by email, at the address you give on this page. That keeps one copy going to one person who can pass it around the firm.
Is it based on a real client?
No. The entity, the role, the period and every figure in the sample are invented for it. No client file, and no part of one, is in there.
Who signs off on a real Study?
Your firm does. A qualified Reviewer at the Firm signs off on the finished Study, and the Firm keeps and owns the workpapers. That holds while you are a customer and after you stop being one.

Read the sample. Then build one for a client.

Same structure, your engagement, your Reviewer.