Workpaper software for Australian accounting firms: what actually matters

Published 23 August 2026. Last reviewed 23 August 2026. Technically reviewed by the Taxpartna tax team.

There is no single workpaper setup that suits every Australian accounting firm. The right system depends on how your team prepares jobs, where your client data sits, how much flexibility your accountants need, how reviewers work and what evidence you want to retain on the client file.

This guide looks at the main approaches and what a firm should consider before changing its workpaper process.

Preparation software, document management and Taxpartna review are three different layers. A firm needs to be clear about which system owns each stage of the job.

What workpaper software is actually trying to solve

A good workpaper system does more than hold calculations. It should help the firm show how the final accounts and tax position were reached, what evidence was considered, what adjustments were made and who prepared and reviewed the work.

For Australian tax practices this is increasingly important. The Tax Practitioners Board requires registered tax practitioners to keep proper client records that show the nature, scope and outcome of the service, reference information considered and retain relevant advice and reasoning. The TPB specifically gives working papers as an example of records that may form part of the file. Our overview of the TPB quality management system for tax agents explains how record keeping fits within a firm's wider quality obligations.

In practical terms, a workpaper system usually needs to deal with five things:

• Preparation: calculations, reconciliations, tax adjustments and supporting schedules.
• Source evidence: bank statements, invoices, contracts, loan statements, trust resolutions, reports and correspondence.
• Navigation: a clear index or structure so another person can find the support for a balance or conclusion quickly.
• Review: preparer and reviewer sign-off, review notes, queries and evidence that issues were resolved.
• Retention: a final record that can be retrieved later without reconstructing the job from emails and local files.

The main workpaper approaches used by accounting firms

Australian firms generally fall into one of four broad models. In reality, many use a combination.

1. Dedicated cloud workpaper platforms

Dedicated workpaper platforms are designed to bring the trial balance, schedules, supporting documents, adjustments, review notes and sign-off into one structured workflow.

Current examples in the Australian market include Xero Workpapers, Active Workpapers, MyWorkpapers, Workpapers Sorted, Cimplico Workpapers and Fetch Workpapers. The products are not identical. Some are browser based, some retain a strong Excel experience, and some are built to replace spreadsheet workpapers almost entirely.

Xero Workpapers

Xero now has a new Workpapers product powered by BGL as well as its classic Workpapers product. The new product is designed around a connected compliance workflow, with client data flowing from Xero into the working trial balance, support for calculations and attachments, customisable checklists, workpaper statuses, preparer and reviewer assignment, notes, queries and pack completion. Xero also describes mapping from workpapers through to tax as part of the connected workflow.

For a firm already centred on Xero Practice Manager, Xero Tax and Xero client ledgers, the attraction is obvious. The workpaper process sits closer to the rest of the Xero practice stack and can reduce exports and re-keying.

The trade-off is that firms need to assess whether the available workpapers, calculations, integrations and workflow suit the way they actually prepare jobs. A firm with years of highly developed Excel templates may value flexibility differently from a firm trying to standardise everything inside one cloud platform.

Active Workpapers

Active Workpapers takes a different approach. It is cloud based but is deeply integrated with Microsoft Excel. Its Xero integration can bring the trial balance into workpapers, refresh data, post journals back to the client file and connect source documents to the job. In Australia it also promotes ATO integration for items such as BAS data and wage reconciliation. Completed workpapers can be exported into a single PDF.

That model can suit firms that want more automation and standardisation without asking accountants to give up Excel as the working environment.

Other workpaper platforms worth knowing about

The Australian Xero ecosystem now includes several other workpaper products. MyWorkpapers is a cloud workpaper and document workflow platform with Xero trial balance integration. Workpapers Sorted integrates with Xero, Excel, FYI and the ATO and offers a library of workpapers. Cimplico Workpapers is positioned as a cloud platform for firms moving beyond spreadsheets, with Xero and FYI integrations and built-in calculations. Fetch Workpapers is deliberately Excel native and brings Xero trial balance data into structured workbooks with source links and review sign-offs.

The important point is not that one of these approaches is automatically better. The market now ranges from Excel-first systems through to fully cloud-native platforms. Firms should decide which operating model they want before comparing feature lists.

2. Excel workpapers

Excel is still a legitimate workpaper system when it is used deliberately. Many experienced tax teams prefer it because it is flexible, familiar and capable of handling calculations that do not fit neatly into a standard template.

A well-designed Excel workpaper can include a front-page index, trial balance, leadsheets, supporting schedules, tax reconciliation, review status, preparer and reviewer initials, hyperlinks to source documents and links between schedules. It can also be rolled forward each year with the firm's preferred structure preserved.

The problem is not Excel itself. The problem is uncontrolled Excel.

Common weaknesses include:

• Multiple versions of the same workbook.
• Broken external links.
• Hard-coded figures with no explanation of source.
• Workpapers saved on desktops or Downloads folders.
• Inconsistent naming between staff.
• No clear preparer or reviewer sign-off.
• Supporting documents stored somewhere else with no link back to the calculation.
• Prior-year formulas or assumptions carried forward without being reconsidered.

If a firm stays with Excel, the objective should be to make it controlled and traceable rather than to replace it simply because it is a spreadsheet.

3. PDF workpaper packs and indexing

PDF remains useful because it creates a stable final record of the file. A firm may prepare schedules in Excel, obtain source documents in PDF, print reports from Xero or other systems, then assemble the completed job into an indexed PDF pack for review or archiving.

This approach can work very well when the PDF is organised properly. A reviewer should be able to open the index and move quickly to the trial balance, financial statements, tax reconciliation, key schedules and supporting evidence.

A typical year-end file might use sections such as:

• A. Permanent and entity information
• B. Trial balance and financial statements
• C. Cash and bank
• D. Debtors and creditors
• E. Fixed assets and depreciation
• F. Loans and related parties
• G. Income and expense support
• H. Tax reconciliation and tax workpapers
• I. Trust, company or entity-specific tax matters
• J. Final returns, resolutions and sign-off

The exact letters do not matter. Consistency does. If every preparer and reviewer knows that a particular class of evidence sits in the same place, review becomes much faster.

The weakness of a PDF-only process is that the file is static. It does not automatically pull ledger data, manage calculations or provide a live workflow. For many firms the best use of PDF is as the final indexed evidence pack rather than the main preparation tool.

4. SharePoint, SuiteFiles and document management

Workpaper preparation and document management are related but they are not the same thing. A workpaper system helps the team prepare and reconcile the job. A document management system helps the firm store, retrieve, version and control the files that sit around that work.

Microsoft SharePoint can be used directly as the document layer. Firms can build client libraries, job folders, permissions, version control and metadata on top of Microsoft 365. The advantage is flexibility and integration with Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams. The challenge is that SharePoint is a platform rather than an accounting practice workflow out of the box. Firms need to design the structure, permissions and filing rules properly.

SuiteFiles builds on Microsoft SharePoint and is designed specifically for professional services firms, including accounting practices. It integrates with Xero Practice Manager, can create client and job folders, provides document search and version control, and allows firms to access SuiteFiles documents from the XPM client view. SuiteFiles also lists an integration for downloading Xero Workpapers into SuiteFiles.

That creates a common hybrid workflow: prepare the job in a workpaper system or Excel, assemble the supporting documents, then retain the final file in SuiteFiles or SharePoint as the firm's document record.

A practical comparison

What should a firm look for in workpaper software?

A product demonstration can make almost any system look clean. The better test is to take one ordinary company job and one messy real-world job and ask how the system handles both.

• Trial balance integration: Can balances be refreshed from the ledger without re-keying or stale exports?
• Mapping: Can accounts be grouped consistently into leadsheets, reports and tax outputs?
• Adjustments: Can journals and tax adjustments be prepared, reviewed and traced?
• Source documents: Can a reviewer move from a balance or calculation to the evidence supporting it?
• Indexing: Is there a clear structure that another accountant can understand without knowing the client?
• Roll forward: What comes forward next year, and what must be actively reconsidered?
• Preparer and reviewer sign-off: Can the firm see who completed and reviewed each area?
• Review notes and queries: Are issues kept with the job and can the reviewer see how they were resolved?
• Locking and finalisation: Can a completed pack be locked or otherwise preserved as the final record?
• Export and retention: Can the firm retain a readable final file outside the vendor if needed?
• Document management integration: How does the system work with SharePoint, SuiteFiles, FYI or the firm's existing client folders?
• Excel flexibility: If the team still needs Excel for some calculations, is that easy or awkward?
• Permissions and security: Can sensitive client documents be restricted appropriately?
• Search and retrieval: Could the firm retrieve the evidence for a 2025 job several years later?
• Practice fit: Does the system improve the firm's actual workflow or simply move the same steps into another screen?

Workpapers should be designed for the reviewer, not just the preparer

A preparer may know exactly where a number came from because they built the schedule. The reviewer does not have that advantage. Good workpapers shorten the distance between a figure, its source and the conclusion reached.

That is why indexing and source linking matter. The reviewer should not have to search three folders, open an email archive and then ask the preparer where the bank statement was saved just to verify a balance. A structured tax return review checklist can help standardise what the reviewer checks on every job.

The same principle applies whether the firm uses Xero Workpapers, Active Workpapers, Excel or a custom SharePoint structure. The system should make the file understandable to someone who did not prepare it.

Where Taxpartna fits

Taxpartna is not intended to replace Xero Workpapers, Active Workpapers, Excel, SuiteFiles, SharePoint or another workpaper system. Those tools help the firm prepare, organise or store the job.

Taxpartna sits after preparation and before final practitioner sign-off. It reads the submitted workpapers and supporting documents, compares information across the file and runs defined tax quality checks to help the reviewer identify matters that may need attention. This is the focus of our dedicated tax workpaper review software page.

That distinction matters. A well-prepared workpaper can still contain an inconsistency. A figure can agree within one Excel schedule but differ from the tax return. A loan balance can appear in the financial statements without the expected supporting material elsewhere in the file. A tax reconciliation can be mathematically correct while another document carries an older amount.

Taxpartna is designed to help with that cross-document review. It works with the firm's existing file rather than requiring the firm to rebuild the preparation process around a new workpaper product. To understand the technology behind this, see our overview of AI tax software Australia.

A sensible workpaper stack for many firms

For many Australian practices the answer will not be one product. A practical stack can look like this:

• Ledger and source accounting data: Xero or another client accounting platform.
• Preparation: Xero Workpapers, Active Workpapers, another dedicated platform, or structured Excel workpapers.
• Supporting evidence: PDFs and source documents attached to the workpaper or stored in a controlled client folder.
• Document management: SuiteFiles, SharePoint, FYI or another firm-wide document system.
• Review: preparer and reviewer sign-off inside the workpaper process, plus Taxpartna for cross-document tax QA where the firm chooses to use it.
• Final record: a locked or clearly identified final workpaper pack, tax return, financial statements and review evidence retained under the firm's document retention process.

The important part is that the hand-offs between those systems are clear. A firm should know which system is the source of truth at each stage and where the final evidence is retained.

Do accounting firms need dedicated workpaper software?

Not necessarily. A small firm can operate a strong workpaper process using Excel, PDFs and a well-managed document system. A dedicated platform becomes more attractive as the firm wants greater standardisation, live ledger integration, centralised templates, workflow visibility and consistent sign-off across a larger team.

The decision should be based on control and efficiency rather than the age of the technology. A disciplined Excel system can be better than a poorly implemented cloud platform. Equally, a firm that is constantly fixing broken spreadsheets and hunting for source documents may have outgrown its existing process. When assessing any cloud system, review how it handles security and data protection for sensitive client documents.

Authoritative sources

The vendor and regulatory references below should be checked against the current source pages immediately before this page is published or materially updated, because product features can change.

• Taxpartna - Tax workpaper review software
• Xero Workpapers
• Xero Central - About Xero Workpapers
• Xero Central - Workpapers and Xero Tax explained
• Xero App Store - Active Workpapers
• Xero App Store - Workpapers Sorted
• Xero App Store - Cimplico Workpapers
• Xero App Store - Fetch Workpapers
• Xero App Store - MyWorkpapers
• SuiteFiles - Accounting document management
• SuiteFiles - Xero integration
• TPB - Obligation to keep proper client records
• APESB - Quality management for firms

Frequently asked questions

Important information. This page provides general information about workpaper systems and practice workflows. It does not constitute tax, legal or professional advice. Firms should assess their own professional obligations, quality management system, information security requirements and software arrangements. Taxpartna is a quality assurance assistance platform and is not a workpaper preparation or document management system.