From a folder to a pack.
One job, start to finish. This is the same order as the walkthrough, which plays it on a made-up client.
Drop the folder
A client’s documents come out of your document system as they are: dozens of files, some scanned in parts, some with names like 539357.pdf. Drop the lot. No sorting and no renaming first.
It reads each file
Each file is checked, has tax file numbers removed, and is read. You can walk away while it works. Parts of the same statement are joined, so a folder of files becomes a shorter list of documents.
It asks who it’s for
PrepDesk reads who the documents belong to and which income year. When a folder names two people, it asks: one job for both, or a job each? A job is one client for one income year.
The job is a workbook
The job opens on its Index: every tab, its total, what’s left to check and who reviewed it. Then one tab per workpaper, and each tab is one table.
Every row has the same seven things: item, amount, source, treatment, note, status and pack page.
A figure and its page
Click a figure and the page it came from opens beside it. A figure with no page behind it carries a written reason instead.
Items left out of the year are not deleted. They are listed with the reason.
Questions in one list
When something needs judgement, such as an invoice that may be a new asset and not a repair, the row is marked Check and a question goes on the job’s Questions tab, linked to the row it is about.
A person at your firm answers. The row moves, and the totals and checks follow. PrepDesk doesn’t make the call.
Review is a name on the tab
Each row is OK, Check or Left out. Each tab shows who prepared it and who reviewed it. There is no separate review screen to learn.
Until a person has reviewed it, anything exported is marked DRAFT, NOT REVIEWED.
Get the pack back
Two files. One ordered PDF with a lead sheet that says where everything is, and the workbook as Excel. Put them wherever your team works.
The documents also stay with the client in PrepDesk, year by year, as a second copy beside your own system.
Made for individual returns first.
Clients with rental properties, where a job is a folder of documents and not a ledger. Sole traders are next, and business jobs are coming.
The work is reading documents
An individual with a rental has no ledger. They have a folder: an agent’s annual summary, loan statements, rates, insurance, invoices, dividend and interest statements.
The hours go on opening each file, working out what it is and building the schedule. That is the part PrepDesk does. No ledger is needed, and there is nothing to set up per client.
A rental schedule per property
One tab per property: income, deductions before interest, interest, and net rent. Each row shows where it came from and how it was treated.
- A figure spread over several statements is added up, with a note saying so.
- An invoice that may be capital and not a repair is marked Check and becomes a question.
- Items that don’t belong in the year are left out and listed with the reason.
Sole traders
In build. For sole traders who don’t use accounting software, the bank statements are the books. The workpaper for them is being built now and isn’t available yet.
Business jobs
Planned. Company and trust jobs start from a ledger, not a folder, and are different work. They are coming, and we won’t describe them here until they exist.
The judgement stays yours
What PrepDesk reads is a suggestion. It doesn’t give tax advice and it doesn’t lodge anything. Your people review each tab, decide what’s doubtful, and lodge in your own tax software.