Tools built to do the work.

• The engagement process, as a flow chartFreei
  Pick the kind of client — business, not-for-profit, government, or one with a single audit — and the level of service, and it draws the engagement step by step: what happens, what the client provides, and the standard behind each step (AU-C, AR-C, the Yellow Book, 2 CFR 200 and GASB). Print it or save it as a PDF, SVG or PNG for a proposal or a board packet. Free, no account needed.
• Audit workbook from a trial balanceFreei
  Give it the client’s trial balance and it builds the Excel workbook — a workpaper for every account with preparer and reviewer sign-offs, a sheet for proposed adjustments, and a summary of where the work stands. Free, no account needed, and the figures never leave your computer.
• Bank statement workbookFreei
  Give it a year of bank statements and it builds the Excel workbook — every transaction, each month proved to the bank’s own ending balance, the checks in number order with the gaps, totals by category and a reconciliation. Free, no account needed, and the statements never leave your computer.
• Confirmations and UCC searchesFreei
  The ASC and auditing-standard requirements for cash and receivable confirmations and UCC lien searches, then the documents themselves — a confirmation for every bank, one for each customer in a repeatable sample, and the UCC information request — downloaded as Word, with an Excel log to track each one out and back. Free, and nothing leaves your computer.
• Internal control documentation — flowcharts, narratives, control matrices and dutiesFreei
  Enter the steps of a cycle once and get the swimlane flowchart, the narrative, the risk and control matrix and a segregation of duties grid that flags conflicts. Templates for the standard cycles and for fuel distributors, contractors, nonprofits and clubs, and governments. Replaces the Visio drawing. Free, no account needed, and nothing leaves your browser.
• Goodwill, intangibles and going concern — lessons from PCAOB enforcementFreei
  What the recent PCAOB orders found wrong — including the November 2026 Macias Gini & O’Connell order — in audits of goodwill, acquired intangibles and going concern. A screener for the warning signs, a checklist of the procedures those files were missing with the PCAOB and AICPA references, and a test that the forecasts behind every estimate agree. Free, and nothing leaves your browser.

Industry risk

Where jobbers and contractors actually go wrong, and what that means for the plan.

• Risk analysis for petroleum jobbersSubscriptionIn developmenti
  The risks a jobber actually carries — inventory that evaporates and moves in price, fuel tax exposure, tanks in the ground, credit extended to haulers.
• Risk analysis for construction companiesSubscriptionIn developmenti
  Contract accounting is where contractors go wrong: estimates to complete, over- and under-billings, retention, and the job that was profitable until the last change order.

Government and single audits

Audits of governments and of the nonprofits that spend federal money sit under more rules than any other audit — the auditing standards, the Yellow Book and the federal regulations at once.

• The federal single auditFreei
  Who needs one — $1,000,000 of federal awards expended — and what counts toward it; how GAAS, the Yellow Book and 2 CFR 200 Subpart F fit together; what the auditee must prepare, the SEFA included; the four steps that pick the major programs, with the Type A table and the low-risk auditee test; the twelve compliance requirements and the Compliance Supplement; what must be reported as a finding; the reporting package and the Federal Audit Clearinghouse deadline; and what is changing now.
• Major programs from the SEFAFreei
  Enter or import the schedule of expenditures of federal awards and it sorts the programs into Type A and Type B, takes your risk assessment of each — low-risk Type A, high-risk Type B by the §200.519 criteria — applies the low-risk auditee test and the coverage rule, and names the major programs to audit under §200.518. The working downloads as an Excel workbook for the file. Free, no account needed, and the figures never leave your computer.

Coming next: materiality; audit sampling; fraud risk under AU-C 240; the auditor’s report.

• Jobber financials: who reads them, and whySubscriptionIn developmenti
  Who actually reads a jobber’s statements — suppliers, lenders, sureties — and why the footnotes carry the particular schedules they expect to find.
• Contractor financials: who reads them, and whySubscriptionIn developmenti
  The surety reads a contractor’s statements differently from the bank. What each is looking for, and why the supporting schedules take the shape they do.

Coming next: independence and the impairment disclosure; omitting substantially all disclosures.

• System and engagement reviewsFreei
  What each type of review covers, who needs which one by highest level of service, and the must-select engagements: Yellow Book and single audits, benefit plans, FDICIA, broker-dealers and SOC reports.
• Which review does the firm need?Freei
  Check the services the firm performed in the review year and it tells you system review, engagement review or none, and which must-select engagements the reviewer will include.
• The peer review processFreei
  Ten steps from enrollment and the due date through choosing a reviewer, scheduling, planning, fieldwork, findings for further consideration, the report, acceptance and remediation.
• Find a peer reviewer — current listsFreei
  Links to the lists kept current by the program itself: the AICPA Reviewer Search (only reviewers whose own firm passed), the CalCPA Directory of Reviewers for California, and the AICPA Peer Review Public File to check any firm’s status — plus the questions to ask before you hire one.
• Ratings: pass, pass with deficiencies, failFreei
  How a checklist matter becomes a finding, a deficiency or a significant deficiency, what each rating says, and what follows a deficient report.
• California CBA requirementsFreei
  Who must have a review, the preparation-only exception, the 18-month rule for a firm’s first engagement, Form PR-1 at renewal and the 45-day rule for a fail.
• What reviewers findFreei
  The deficiencies that keep showing up: engagement letters, risk assessment, independence, reports, disclosures, estimates, specialized engagements and quality management.
• Preparing for the review — checklistFreei
  Twenty-six steps in four stages: months ahead, quality management, engagement files, and during and after the review. Saves progress, prints and exports to CSV.

• Quality management systemSubscriptioni
  The firm-level quality management system the standards now expect: quality objectives, the risks to them and the firm’s responses, who is responsible for each, and the annual evaluation — kept as a live system rather than a binder nobody opens.
• Staff, licenses and CPESubscriptioni
  Everyone in the firm with their roles and licenses, and their continuing education tracked against the rules that apply — state board, Yellow Book and firm policy — with certificates read in and a worksheet for renewal. Drop a folder of PDF certificates on the screen and the records write themselves — see what the reader takes off a certificate, and what it refuses to guess at.
• Client acceptance, independence and engagement lettersSubscriptioni
  For each client: the acceptance and continuance risk assessment, independence, locations, going concern, industry questions and the engagement budget, and the engagement letter written from what was recorded.
• Engagement plan and workpapersSubscriptioni
  An audit or a review, step by step: the plan, materiality, hours, staffing and fee; the predecessor auditor; understanding and walkthroughs; trial balance, lead schedules and adjusting entries; confirmations, sampling, capital assets, inventory and equity; statements and the disclosure checklist; letters to lawyers; subsequent events; review notes; the representation and governance letters; and assembly of the file. Each page checks itself against the trial balance, materiality and the report date.
• Government and single auditsSubscriptioni
  Funds, the major fund test and budget to actual; the government-wide conversion; Government Auditing Standards compliance tests and findings; the appropriations limit and the State Controller report; the schedule of expenditures of federal awards and major program determination; single audit findings and the data collection form.
• ConfirmationsSubscriptioni
  Tracks every confirmation out and back — bank, receivable, payable and debt — prints the letters, and shows coverage and exceptions against the trial balance, so nothing sits unanswered until the week before the deadline.

The applications marked Subscription are in the portal now. Those marked In development are not open yet, and each one says so. You will be told what a subscription costs before you are asked for a card.

Free downloads

Not everything needs a subscription. Programs that stand on their own get posted here as downloads, free, for anyone with an account.

• CPA Quality Management — desktopFreeOpening sooni
  The firm’s system of quality management under SQMS Nos. 1 and 2 — objectives, risks, responses, monitoring, remediation and the annual evaluation — kept as a working file instead of a binder nobody opens. It also tracks CPE for every member of staff against their own state’s rules and their own licence cycle, and says who may be assigned to which client. Windows, macOS and Linux. Needs a MariaDB or MySQL server it can reach; it builds its own database on first run and loads a demo firm so you can see it working before you enter anything real. It records the work and tells you what is missing. It does not reach the conclusion for you — designing a system appropriate to your firm, and concluding on it each year, stays with the person who holds ultimate responsibility for it.
• The download libraryFreeOpening sooni
  Free utilities, posted as they are finished. Sign in to the portal and they are on the Software page.

Have something you keep rebuilding in Excel every season? Tell me — that is usually what the next one turns out to be.