The workpapers are the foundation beneath the estimate, the preparation and the final comparison. Here's how Lunar Papers builds them: the conventions, the tabs, and the checks. Download the sample workbook to see it in Excel.
Estimated balance due of $955, against a $3,534 refund last year. Lower withholding on the new job and a smaller Schedule C loss drive the swing.
| Total income | 184,210 | 171,880 |
| Total tax | 27,415 | 24,066 |
| Payments | 26,460 | 27,600 |
| Refund / (owed) | (955) | 3,534 |
The workpapers carry the return's full computation, from total income through payments. Once the file is complete, you have an estimated refund or balance due beside last year's, before anyone opens the tax software.
That moves the client conversations earlier: the estimate, the extension, the missing 1099. When the prepared return comes back, the comparison ties it to the same figure.
The estimate is provisional until every open item is cleared, and your preparer makes every determination on the return.
Most errors on a return are continuity errors: a carryforward that quietly dropped, a payer that vanished, a basis schedule nobody rolled. So the engine reproduces the prior-year return line by line from its own schedules before it touches the current year. Every figure it can trace becomes the expected pattern for this year. Every figure it can't becomes an Open Item with the unexplained dollars on it.
From the prior year it derives what the file should contain, a K-1 per entity, a W-2 per employer, a 1099 per payer, and compares that to what you uploaded. Expected and missing is an Open Item naming the exact document. New with no prior-year counterpart gets a write-up.
Then the carryforward manifest: PAL by activity, capital loss, NOL, QBI, §1231 lookback, charitable, FTC, AMT credit, EBIE, disallowed §179, basis per entity, each one rolled, released, or flagged as missing. A carryforward that doesn't land is listed as a finding.
Arial 10, like every workpaper you've reviewed. Rounded at the summary level, source precision below it. Thin rule on subtotals, double rule on bottom lines. SSNs masked. And on every tab, at least one check that prints its own verdict.
Transcribed from the document at its own precision. W-2 box 1, K-1 box 2, the 1099 to the cent.
Live links to the proven prior year and between tabs, so a changed figure carries through.
The return amount is computed, never typed. Rounding happens once, at the line.
Estimates, placeholders and preparer calls, each with an Open Item and the document that resolves it.
Formulas that print ✓ or ✗. The workbook isn't finished until every one says ✓ and a recalc shows zero errors.
Ordered by exposure, each naming the form, the line, the sign and who has the answer.
Tabs with nothing in them are left out and listed as omitted on the Cover. The last tabs are the ones you work from: the Open Items for your reviewer, the PBC request for your client, the issue memo for the file.
It's as complete as the file. The workbook computes the return from what the client sent and says plainly what it's missing: every expected document that hasn't arrived is an Open Item, and the result is marked provisional until they're cleared. Once the file is complete, the return comparison ties the prepared return back to it line by line. Your preparer makes every determination.
No. It builds the workpaper workbook your preparer keys from and your reviewer ties to: the file that should exist before anyone opens the tax software. Data entry and the return itself stay with you; once the return is prepared, upload it and it's compared with the workpapers line by line.
That's the normal case. The prior year is proven from its own schedules whoever prepared it. Where it looks wrong, the workpaper stays correct and the difference is flagged; a predecessor's error is never silently perpetuated or silently fixed.
Totals by Form 8949 box, A through F, tied to the broker's summary page, plus §1256 and capital-gain distributions on their own rows. The lot detail is read for issues (wash sales, missing basis, corrected forms) and written up, but the workpaper shows category totals.
Your firm and the engine. Nobody at Lunar Papers opens a file unless you ask for help with that engagement. Documents are deleted on your retention schedule after delivery. The security page has the details.
Yes. Firm settings carry your materiality threshold for open items, tab preferences, state items and anything else the preparer should do your way. They apply to every engagement.
Minutes to build for a simple file, longer for a K-1-heavy one, and the status bar shows each stage while it works. You can upload the next client, answer open items or send a client email while it runs.
