CaseWare International Inc. — CaseWare Working Papers

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From the August 2008 Review of Engagement & Trial Balance Systems

CaseWare’s Working Papers program provides comprehensive tools for managing trial balance and other engagement processes digitally, with collaboration and security tools, document management functions, online review features, roll-forward capabilities, scanning, and additional options that help professional accounting practices streamline and standardize engagement processes and produce client-ready financial statements and reports. The program offers integration with an extensive array of accounting and tax packages, as well as document management systems.

The stand-alone Working Papers program is priced at $499 for a single-user license of the base system. Additional capabilities are offered through several add-on modules, including IFRS Financials, GAAP Financials, Connector, Audit, Review and Scenarios. CaseWare also offers solutions for data analysis, time-based tracking and billing, and benchmarking.

Ease of Use -- 4 Stars
Working Papers is, at its base, a powerful trial balance system built on databases that enable point-and-click drilldown access to workpapers in their original format. The program’s primary interface provides an excellent work area, with tabs that enable users to quickly move between documents, Trial Balance functions and other activities. Traditional pull-down menus across the top of the screen are accompanied by an icon-based toolbar and browser-style navigation options.

Within client folders, Working Papers organizes files into a menu with activity-based subfolders for reports, financial statement activities, planning documents, completion documents and others. This system allows users to quickly access all documents in their native formats. During setup processes, Working Papers provides a multitude of assistive features, including templates and drag-and-drop mapping for assigning client accounts to firm preferences, with subsequent properties of an account automatically completed. In addition to being completely customizable, engagement templates, settings and other preferences like report layouts can be saved and used across other clients. Overall, the system provides very intuitive navigation and many assistive features, but some training is advised in order to get the most out of its extensive feature set.

Data Import/Export/Integration -- 5 Stars
Working Papers provides complete integration with CaseWare’s other financial management programs and includes a setup wizard that can import client GL data from virtually all small and mid-sized business accounting packages and common file formats like Excel. It can export trial balance data into formats usable by most professional tax packages. The reporting utility in Working Papers enables editing of documents in Word and Excel, allowing the addition of graphical elements. The document management capabilities of the program can also be used to manage Outlook e-mail, contact data, notes and calendar items and maintain them within client engagement records. The program supports XBRL standards, including XBRL-GL.

Trial Balance Features -- 5 Stars
The strong trial balance functions found in Working Papers enables advanced grouping and sub-grouping of workpapers and the previously noted GL import capabilities. Lead schedules, ratio components, tax lines and other items can be easily mapped using the drag-and-drop system, with the program remembering these mappings and automatically routing future information. The program’s financial statement output options are enhanced by the $199 add-on Financials module.

Financial Statement Preparation -- 5 Stars
As the most noted result of trial balance tasking, financial statement preparation is critical. And with its add-on Financials module, CaseWare Working Papers clearly shines in this aspect by providing excellent templates and pre-built reports that comply with various regulatory requirements and can be generated in Word, Excel, PDF and other formats. The program’s document management capabilities add further strength, providing a centralized repository for all client workpapers, whether native digital or scanned documents.