What firms ask us about PrepDesk: how it works, where your clients’ data is kept, what the AI sees, and what it costs. Ask your own question, or browse by topic.
Answers come from our FAQ, not AI. We keep the questions asked to improve them, so please leave out personal details. Privacy
PrepDesk is software for Australian accounting and tax practices. It reads your clients’ tax documents, such as rental statements, loan statements, depreciation schedules, receipts and ATO pre-fill reports, and prepares review-ready workpapers. Every figure links to the page and line it came from, so a reviewer can check it in one click.
It prepares the work; a person at your firm reviews it, signs it off and lodges the return in your own tax software.
Australian accounting and tax practices, from sole practitioners to firms of around 50 people, that prepare individual returns with rental properties and work-related deductions. It’s built for the people who prepare and review workpapers, not for taxpayers doing their own return.
PrepDesk opens to founding firms first. Join the waitlist and we’ll email you when founding firms start. There are no payment details to give, and founding firms get early pricing.
Yes. Book a demo from the contact page and a person from PrepDesk will walk you through it with made-up documents.
There’s nothing to install: PrepDesk runs in the browser. You invite your team, import your client list (from a CSV file or Xero Practice Manager) and, if you want exports in your own layout, upload your Excel template and map its cells once. Then you can drop in a client’s documents.
As many as you like. Every plan includes unlimited users and every feature. Admins manage members, billing, retention and support access; everyone signs in with a password and an authenticator app.
Drop a client’s documents in, in any order, or forward them by email. PrepDesk reads each page, removes tax file numbers, works out what each document is and whose it is, and files it to the right client and year. It then prepares the workpaper: every figure with a link to its source page, and the lines it can’t settle flagged first with a reason and a suggestion.
You review from the keyboard or the mouse, accept, edit or query each flagged line, and sign off. Exports go to your Excel template, PrepDesk’s standard workbook, a PDF binder with the source pages highlighted, a keying sheet or CSV.
Rental properties, individual deductions and individual return summaries. Company, trust and BAS workpapers aren’t in the first version.
Property manager annual and monthly statements, loan statements and interest summaries, depreciation schedules, council rates notices, water bills, landlord insurance, strata or body corporate levies, repair and maintenance invoices, land tax assessments, settlement statements, ATO pre-fill reports, bank interest summaries, dividend statements, private health insurance statements, work-related receipts and invoices, and donation receipts.
Photos of paper documents work too. Other documents, such as a notice of assessment or an engagement letter, can be filed and kept against the client without being read into a workpaper.
PDF, JPEG, PNG and TIFF, up to 50 MB each, are read into workpapers. Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), CSV and email (.eml and .msg) files are accepted for keeping: they’re turned into a plain PDF without running anything inside them, and an email’s attachments become separate documents. Older .doc and .xls files, zip archives and HEIC photos aren’t accepted.
Every file is checked by its content, not its name, and scanned for malware before anything reads it.
No. Drop the pile as it came, or a whole folder, with no client picked first. PrepDesk names each document and files it to the client group it matches. It files a document on its own only on one strong, unique match, such as a full name with a property address; when it isn’t sure whose it is, it asks you.
Yes. Each client group gets its own forwarding address, so you or your client can email documents straight in. You can also connect an Outlook or Gmail mailbox: PrepDesk lists emails with attachments from your known client contacts, and nothing is filed until a person picks it.
Anything it can’t settle from the documents, each with its reason and a suggestion. For example: an invoice that mentions “replace”, which may be capital rather than a repair; a bill dated after 30 June; interest on a loan that may not be for the rental; a private-use or part-year period; a figure that differs from the ATO pre-fill; or a big movement from last year. Tax calls, like repair or improvement, always stay with you.
The lines that need you come first, each with its reason; the rest are folded into one row that says they match their source. Move between flagged lines with j and k, and accept, edit or query with a, e or q, or use the mouse. Select any figure to see its source page with the line highlighted. Nothing counts as reviewed until a person signs off, and every edit and sign-off is recorded with who, when and why.
Each owner gets their own workpaper for the property, split by their ownership share, and an edit applies to every owner’s copy. Shares always add back to the property’s total. The property is charged once a year, even when both owners are your clients.
With ordinary code, not AI. PrepDesk reads the dates printed on a document and applies the Australian income year (1 July to 30 June): receipts go by the date paid. A year it can’t determine goes to a person, flagged. A document for an earlier year that nobody asked for is held for a person to file or discard.
Yes. Each client group keeps its documents, workpapers and history across years. “Get ready for next year” builds draft document requests, with the reason for each item, and opening balances from last year’s signed-off work, such as borrowing costs and depreciation. It doesn’t ask for what a multi-year schedule already covers or what the ATO pre-fill supplies. You approve the drafts; nothing is sent automatically.
Yes. PrepDesk searches the text of every stored page for your firm, with tax file numbers already removed, and shows the document, the page and a snippet.
Yes. Ask PrepDesk answers questions from your firm’s stored workpaper data, with sources, and can prepare routine actions such as drafting a document request, refiling a document or raising a query. It shows you what it will do, and nothing happens until you confirm. It never signs off, sends an email, gives advice or computes figures.
Yes. An admin uploads your template once and maps it, and exports fill the mapped cells and leave your layout alone. There’s also a standard workbook, a PDF binder with highlighted source pages, a keying sheet and CSV.
PrepDesk doesn’t lodge anything with the ATO. Your firm lodges in its own tax software. PrepDesk doesn’t connect directly to tax software yet; its keying sheet sets the figures out ready to copy, alongside the Excel, PDF and CSV exports.
Anything exported before sign-off is marked DRAFT, NOT REVIEWED on every tab. Only a person can sign off, and every export is recorded in the audit trail.
Every figure in a PrepDesk workpaper keeps the document, page and line it was read from. Select it and the page opens beside it with the exact line highlighted. A figure with no page behind it, such as a manual adjustment, carries a written reason instead. Exports keep the link too: the PDF binder includes the highlighted source pages.
No. Your clients use a secure page for your firm, opened from an emailed link with a one-time code. It works on a phone, lists exactly what you asked for, and lets them upload, answer your questions and say when something isn’t needed. It never shows figures, workpapers or advice. Client emails are drafted by PrepDesk and sent only when someone at your firm approves them.
Only when someone at your firm approves it. PrepDesk drafts document requests, reminders and questions, and you read and approve each one before it’s sent. Client emails never quote figures or give advice.
That’s for your firm to decide with its own adviser, in line with your obligations as a tax practitioner. To help, PrepDesk records each client group’s consent to AI processing (the date, how it was given and who recorded it) and reminds you where it’s missing. Settings includes suggested engagement-letter wording, as a starting point to check with your adviser.
PrepDesk can import your client list from Xero Practice Manager, or from a CSV file exported from any practice manager. PrepDesk keeps each client group’s tax documents, workpapers and history across years; jobs, time, billing and your other firm files stay in your practice management and document systems.
Here is what we promise. Your clients’ documents and data are stored and processed only in Australia. Tax file numbers are removed automatically and never stored. No other firm can ever see your data, and our staff can see it only when you approve, for a set time, with a record kept. Your data is never used to train AI. Deleted means permanently deleted. And if something goes wrong, we tell you quickly and help you meet your own obligations.
PrepDesk doesn’t hold security certifications yet; the security page explains, in plain words, how each promise is kept.
In Australia. Documents, workpapers and every record are stored in Sydney: files and background processing on Amazon Web Services (ap-southeast-2), the database on Neon in Sydney, and the web app on Vercel’s Sydney region. The AI that reads documents (Claude, through Amazon Bedrock’s Australian profile) runs in Australia too, in Sydney or Melbourne.
They’re removed automatically and never stored. Each page is first read into text in Sydney; tax file numbers are then found and removed before the redacted page is stored and before any text goes to the AI. If removal can’t run, processing stops. The original upload is deleted as soon as its redacted pages are stored, and a tax file number typed into a note is replaced with “[TFN removed]”.
No other firm can see it: every firm’s data is walled off in our code and in the database itself, and files are encrypted with a key for your firm. Our staff can look only if an admin at your firm grants access for a specific reason: read only, for at most 72 hours, with every view recorded and shown to your firm.
With a password plus a code from an authenticator app, for everyone, with no exceptions. There are no text-message or email codes and no “trust this device”. People are signed out after 30 minutes idle, and after 12 hours at most.
Tax documents and workpapers are kept for 5 years after the year’s latest sign-off by default, in line with record-keeping duties, and that’s included in the price. An admin can shorten it, with a warning that the TPB Code expects 5 years. Documents tied to a property, such as purchase, settlement and depreciation records, are kept until 5 years after the property is sold. An admin can place a hold on a client group, which stops all deletion until it’s released.
Not yet. PrepDesk doesn’t hold security certifications such as ISO 27001 or SOC 2, and we won’t show a badge we haven’t earned. The security page sets out in plain words how data is handled, and if you need more for your own due diligence, write to us and a person will answer.
We have a written incident plan. If your data is affected, we tell you within 72 hours of confirming it, explain what happened, and help you meet your own obligations, including under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.
On the privacy page. It covers the waitlist, firm users and the client documents PrepDesk processes on a firm’s behalf, and how to make a privacy request or a complaint.
Text only, never page images. Each page is first read into text (by Amazon Textract, in Sydney); tax file numbers are then found and removed before the text goes to the AI (Claude). If removal can’t run, processing stops. The AI sorts documents and finds figures; the tax rules and arithmetic are plain code. Your data is never used to train AI models.
No. Not your documents or figures, and not data from Xero or a connected mailbox. PrepDesk uses Claude, by Anthropic, through Amazon Bedrock’s Australian profile, and our code refuses any model that isn’t on that Australian list.
Every figure is a suggestion until a person reviews it, and every one links to its source page, so checking takes a click. PrepDesk checks each figure against the document it came from and flags what it can’t settle. Tax rules and arithmetic are plain code, not AI, and every figure records the model and prompt version that produced it. Nothing counts as reviewed until a person signs off.
On made-up documents, not customers. In our accuracy harness run of 24 September 2026, 14 packs of made-up rental and individual documents went through the full pipeline with misreads deliberately injected: 97.3% of figures were correct with no edit, no wrong figure went through without a flag, and 100% of figures were linked to a source page or a written reason. Reading was simulated from answer keys, so those figures test PrepDesk’s checks and flags, not live AI reading. We’ll publish customer results only once a pilot reports them.
PrepDesk is built to cut preparation time by around 30–40 minutes per workpaper. That’s a design goal, not a measured customer average; the pricing page has a calculator to estimate what it could be worth for your firm.
You are. PrepDesk prepares workpapers for your review; its output is always a suggestion. Your registered tax agent reviews, decides and lodges. PrepDesk doesn’t give tax advice and doesn’t lodge anything with the ATO. Anything exported before sign-off is marked DRAFT, NOT REVIEWED.
Planned pricing, in Australian dollars: A$24 per rental property a year and A$18 per client return (one person’s deductions and return summary for the year). Pay as you go is A$49 a month plus the work you prepare; Annual is a fixed monthly amount from A$250, with work at 20% off. Every feature and unlimited users are included. These are planned prices and may change before PrepDesk opens, and founding firms get early pricing.
Founding firms are the first to use PrepDesk, and they get early pricing. Join the waitlist and we’ll email you when founding firms start.
Yes. On Pay as you go, your admin sets a monthly spend cap and preparing pauses when it’s reached. On Annual, you pay the same amount every month, unused balance carries over to the end of the plan year, and extra work is billed at the Annual rate. Above A$5,000 a month, we’ll quote.
No. PrepDesk includes made-up sample documents so you can see a workpaper prepared from start to finish. Sample workpapers are marked “(sample)” and are never charged.
Not at the moment. PrepDesk isn’t registered for GST yet, so no GST is charged on your plan.
Cancel in the app at any time. Access continues to the end of the paid month; then you have 30 days to export everything, after which your firm’s data is permanently deleted and we confirm it in writing. Backup copies expire within 35 days.
Yes, at any time, not only when you leave. Any member can download a document’s redacted copy. An admin can request “Download everything” once a day: an archive of your firm’s documents and workpapers, split into parts if it’s large, kept for 7 days.
PrepDesk is an Australian company: EasyFlowAI Pty Ltd (ABN 31 686 450 206), trading as PrepDesk. You can write to us at malakye@prepdesk.com.au and a person replies.
Email malakye@prepdesk.com.au or use the contact page to book a demo, ask about your clients’ data, or make a privacy request. A person replies. If you’ve found a security problem, please email us the details and give us a chance to fix it before telling anyone else.
The question box searches this page’s answers in your browser; it doesn’t use AI. When you ask, we keep the question, with email addresses and long numbers (such as tax file numbers or phone numbers) removed first, to see what people want to know and improve our answers. It isn’t stored with your IP address. Please don’t include personal details.
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