Insert PPC s Practice Aids Documents into Caseware Open Documents Research and Guidance Materials... 6

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1 BEST PRACTICES PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware Table of Contents Insert PPC s Practice Aids Documents into Caseware... 3 Open Documents... 4 Research and Guidance Materials... 6 Integrating PPC s SMART Practice Aids... 7 Generate Planning Forms, Audit Programs, and Other Documents... 8 Automatically Populate Client Name and Engagement Date Insert Generated Practice Aids into Caseware Suggested SMART Practice Aids Rollforward Suggested Caseware Rollforward Integrating PPC s SMART Practice Aids Field Work... 16

2 Many CPA firms have enjoyed the benefits of using Checkpoint Tools for PPC documents with popular paperless engagement software packages. Although not as tightly integrated as CS Professional Suite Engagement CS and AdvanceFlow, packages such as CCH CasewareEngagement can also be used with Checkpoint Tools for PPC to maximize engagement efficiency. This document will walk through a number of best practices for working with Checkpoint Tools for PPC and Caseware Engagement to help firms get started with a successful implementation. This document is not intended to cover all training aspects of any one software application. Thomson Reuters provides a variety of training options for our products. Complete course offerings are available for Checkpoint Tools for PPC, SMART Practice Aids, and Checkpoint. For more information, or to register, please visit our website at: A thorough understanding of the software installation process and system specifications will ensure a successful implementation. For installation instructions and system specifications for Checkpoint Tools for PPC and SMART Practice Aids also visit our Customer Help Center at: For additional information on functionality of the engagement software you are using, please contact your engagement software vendor. Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 2

3 Insert PPC s Practice Aids Documents into Caseware Open a client engagement in Caseware and begin to add PPC s Practice Aid documents. Select a folder, then right-click and select New Document, PPC Content. Click OK. Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 3

4 From the Add PPC Content dialog, select the folder for the appropriate Practice Aid title that is licensed and installed, and then select the document. Click Add. Open Documents Once the document is added to the engagement, open the document. All Checkpoint Tools functionality on PPC menu in Word and Excel is available when opening a document within Caseware, including links to licensed content on Checkpoint. To insert engagement and trial balance data into Word and Excel documents, you will need Caseware Connector. All Caseware functionality is available on PPC s Practice Aids, including toolbar functions to link variables and formulas from Caseware Connector. Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 4

5 You can use the functionality of clicking on a link in the PPC s Practice Aids document and get directly to content specific guidance in Checkpoint. Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 5

6 Research and Guidance Materials The use of electronic workflow tools is not a substitute for the expert guidance included in PPC s Audit and Accounting Guides. The Guides are available in print and the industry leading Checkpoint online platform. These materials provide complete step-by-step how-to guidance on the audit approach and compliance with relevant applicable standards. One very useful piece of information that is included in the guides is List of Substantive Changes that details changes to chapter content as well as changes to practice aids from the previous year edition. Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 6

7 Integrating PPC s SMART Practice Aids PPC s SMART Practice Aids, a suite comprised of the following software modules, works in conjunction with Checkpoint Tools for PPC. PPC s SMART Practice Aids Risk Assessment is an innovative audit tool that brings advanced functionality to your licensed Practice Aids products allowing you to complete all your audit planning documentation, identify and capture audit risks affecting your engagement, select an audit strategy in response to your risk assessment and generate suggested audit programs automatically. PPC s SMART Practice Aids -Internal Control is an internal control evaluation and analysis tool that assists you in assessing control risk, on any size audit, whether or not you test controls. This module works in conjunction with PPC s SMART Practice Aids -Risk Assessment. PPC s SMART Practice Aids -Disclosure optimizes financial statement disclosure preparation and review. This module can be used alone or in conjunction with PPC s SMART Practice Aids -Risk Assessment. PPC s SMART Practice Aids IFRS Disclosure provides dynamic disclosure functionality for full IFRS or IFRS for Small and Medium-sized Entities (SMEs) requirements. License to PPC s SMART Practice Aids Disclosure also required. PPC s SMART Practice Aids Single Audit provides an automated process to accumulate federal awards and determine if a single audit or a program-specific audit is required, identify which award programs must be tested as major programs and determine if the auditee is low risk, sign off electronically and combine audit programs for multiple federal awards, prepare Schedule of Expenditure of Federal Awards. PPC s SMART Practice Aids Field Work executes the entire PPC audit process, from beginning to end, using SMART Navigator, Engagement Dashboard, SMART Audit Program Design. This module works in conjunction with PPC s SMART Practice Aids -Risk Assessment. PPC s SMART Practice Aids Compilation and Review provides increased efficiency using automated, industry tailored checklists and forms for the engagement planning and performance of your compilation and review engagements. SMART functionality provides automation to the complete PPC audit process that will help you be more efficient using PPC forms on your audit engagements. If you already use engagement software in your firm, you will continue with those current processes. SMART does not replace any engagement software. You will continue storing your completed PPC forms in your engagement software. SMART uses your engagement software s unique benefits such as trial balance, with SMART s equally unique features which allow you to organize and complete your audits in the most efficient manner possible. In-depth training courses and additional documentation is available separately for PPC s SMART Practice Aids. The best practices included in this document pertain to using the generated Practice Aids documents in the engagement software. For more information, visit our Customer Help Center at: Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 7

8 Generate Planning Forms, Audit Programs, and Other Documents This feature does not apply when using SMART Practice Aids Field Work. Refer to page 16 Create SMART Docs. Using SMART Practice Aids Risk Assessment, completed planning forms, tailored audit programs and other documents are generated out of the software application as Practice Aids documents. The Practice Aids documents are inserted into the client binder in the engagement software in the same manner as any other Word document. Firms have found that when reviewers perform a review of the planning forms and tailored audit programs in SMART Practice Aids before the engagement work begins, the process is streamlined and more efficient. Should it be necessary to make changes to the planning forms or audit programs after the engagement work beings, there are a few ways to accomplish this, depending on the complexity of the change. Please read this entire section to learn the benefits of using the Update SMART Engagement feature when making changes to generated audit programs. As a best practice, making changes in SMART Practice Aids ensures that client data is correct and complete for rollforward to next year. You can then generate one or more of the planning forms and audit programs. If the change affects information on planning forms, from Generate Planning Forms, simply select the forms that have changed using the green checkmarks, and create those selected Practice Aids documents. This will create new, updated planning forms. Follow the process to insert the documents into the client engagement binder. Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 8

9 If the change affects audit programs, from Generate Audit Programs, simply select the audit programs that have changed using the green checkmarks, and create those selected Practice Aids documents. This will create new, updated audit programs. Follow the process to insert the documents into the client engagement binder. Perhaps the change affects an audit program, but the engagement work is already in process and some procedures on that program have already been performed. The auditor should use their judgment to determine if it is appropriate to create a new, updated audit program, or to change procedures on the existing audit program. To generate documents in SMART Practice Aids, select Generation in the drop-down on the left-hand navigation. Select the type of document desired under Generate Documents in the left navigation pane, select one or more documents you wish to generate, and click Create Practice Aids. You are prompted for a path where your generated Practice Aids should be stored. You can type in the path or click Browse to select a folder or create a new folder, then click OK. Insert Generated Practice Aids into Client Binder Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 9

10 To insert a procedure in the existing audit program Practice Aid Word document created from SMART Practice Aids Risk Assessment, insert a row where the procedure should be added. To do this, position the cursor where the row should be inserted and select Table/Insert/Row Below (or Row Above). Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 10

11 Use the Open Workpaper in SMART Practice Aids icon when you have made changes to a Practice Aid audit program document generated by SMART Practice Aids and you want the changes applied to the version within SMART Practice Aids. You can initiate the update from the PPC menu within the document in Microsoft Word or from the Tools menu within SMART Practice Aids. Refer to the help topic Update SMART Engagement for more information. Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 11

12 Automatically Populate Client Name and Engagement Date This feature does not apply when using SMART Practice Aids Field Work. Refer to page 16 Create SMART Docs. With the Share Data feature, you can share information, such as the client's name and engagement date, with other documents in the same folder location. Select Share Data from the PPC menu in Word or Excel. Enter the Client Name and Engagement Date. If this information already exists in the location where the documents are being saved, it will be displayed, and the Engagement Folder Selection box will not be editable. Click OK. The Client Name and Engagement Date will automatically be updated on all documents saved in the same location. Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 12

13 Insert Generated Practice Aids into Caseware Open a client engagement in Caseware and begin to add PPC s Practice Aid documents. Right click where you want to insert the document and select New Document, Word Document and insert the documents generated from SMART. Even if you generate the SMART Practice Aids documents to the path where the Caseware client engagement documents are stored, you must still initially insert those documents in Caseware. If you subsequently re-generate documents from SMART, you can generate to the path where the Caseware client engagement documents are stored without re-inserting in Caseware. Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 13

14 Suggested SMART Practice Aids Rollforward Engagement software does provide functionality to roll forward documents and set up the next year folder with options to exclude, include, or replace individual documents. Note that the replace feature will replace an entire document with a completely new (i.e., blank) document. SMART Practice Aids takes the rollforward process a step further by providing sophisticated capabilities. This includes client set up and audit area information, answers to planning forms, custom audit procedures and optionally, identified risks and risk assessments and incorporates all of that client information onto the updated forms for the current year. This is one of the many time savings features built into SMART Practice Aids that is not available by using engagement software alone. In SMART Practice Aids, select File/Rollforward. Refer to Help menu in SMART for detailed information on the rollforward process. Consider SMART Practice Aids Rollforward Best Practices: Start with finalized engagement from prior period You can only rollforward an engagement using an equal or newer version of the Practice Aids title used to create the original engagement. Once the new engagement is created: o o o Update prior period information rolled forward (all prior period information rolled forward is highlighted). Use the Tools Affirm or Tools Affirm All menu functions (also available on right click mouse menu) to remove highlighting of prior period information that is still applicable for the current period, or edit any information necessary to change. A diagnostic will list any responses not yet affirmed. Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 14

15 Suggested Caseware Rollforward Since SMART Practice Aids provides a sophisticated rollforward process for PPC s Practice Aids used in SMART, best practices suggest that those documents be excluded from the rollforward of the client engagement in the engagement software. This allows the user to utilize SMART Practice Aids each year, and then insert those documents into the client engagement as previously directed. Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 15

16 Integrating PPC s SMART Practice Aids Field Work When using SMART Practice Aids Field Work with Caseware Engagement, you can continue to manage your engagement as you do now. You can also enjoy the benefits of a more seamless interaction between SMART Practice Aids and your engagement software. While utilizing Field Work you will be able to create SMART image documents (we refer to these as SMART Docs) to store in your engagement software. When you open a specific SMART Doc from your engagement software, you will see a read-only view of the PPC form created in SMART, and you have the ability to open the live version of the form in SMART, so that you can make all changes on PPC forms in SMART. Each time you change PPC forms in SMART, you will be prompted to create updated SMART Docs to store in your engagement software. Select Create SMART Docs from the Tools menu in SMART. Select one or more documents and click Create. You are prompted for a path where your generated Practice Aids should be stored. You can type in the path or click Browse to select a folder or create a new folder, then click OK. A flag icon next to the document name indicates that the document has never been created or has changed since the last time it was created, making it easy to stay in synch with workpapers stored in your engagement management software. Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 16

17 If documents have changed and you close the engagement without creating SMART Docs, you will receive a reminder. To insert SMART Docs into your engagement binder in Caseware Engagement, follow the steps indicated previously to Insert a New Workpaper from a File, or use Click and Drag functionality. When you open a SMART Doc, you will see a read-only view of the workpaper in Word as it existed at the time the SMART Doc was created. You can use any engagement software functionality, such as workpaper sign-off, on the SMART Doc. If you need to change the SMART Doc or do additional work in that area, select Open this workpaper in PPC s SMART Practice Aids from the PPC menu in Word. This function will open the client engagement in SMART, and launch you directly to that appropriate workpaper in SMART. All changes to PPC forms will be made in SMART. Best Practices PPC s Checkpoint Tools & SMART Practice Aids with Caseware 17