3 key ways that workpaper templates enhance your accounting firm's efficiency

Keeping your accounting firm both productive and profitable is a challenge. Time can often be your enemy, especially when it comes to how you utilise an engagement. The hours spent setting up new templates and workpapers for client jobs can quickly eat into your resources and your margins. So finding workflow hacks and time efficiencies will always be a priority.

Using purpose-built templates and custom frameworks for your workpapers not only saves you time and resources, it can also help to create a more uniform and efficient workflow process.

We’ve outlined three key benefits that standardised workpapers and custom templates can bring to a busy accounting firm’s workflow and compliance.

1. Core templates to standardise your process and workflow

As firms continue along the path of digital transformation, standardised and uniform workflows become evermore important to your workflow efficiency and scalability.

When you have a comprehensive library of standard, pre-built, this becomes the foundation stone for consistency and compliance across the firm. These templates give your teams a proven methodology for specific engagement types, whether that’s end-of-year statutory accounts preparation, internal reviews or audit work, etc.

Templates can be set up to include firm-wide best practices, internal quality control checklists and mandatory regulatory disclosure requirements. This means every team member has fast, cloud-based access to the correct template and can follow the same steps, from initial client ledger import through to final sign-off with the partner.

With Active Workpapers, you have a comprehensive library of workpaper templates that’s ready to use right away, straight out of the box. You can cover all your key compliance needs – from templates for basic accounting and tax reconciliation, to more complex worksheet templates for DIV7A company debit loans, BAS returns, company expenses and the GST margin scheme.

This template-driven approach to your workpapers has a number of key benefits:

• Standardisation keeps every job on track, drastically reducing the variances between work that’s been performed by junior and senior staff.
• Having standard workpaper layouts makes it easier for reviewers to check work, significantly lowering the risk of regulatory non-compliance.
• The consistency of this firm-wide, template-driven workflow keeps quality high and delivers true compliance with all regulatory standards.
• Higher-quality outputs free up partners and managers to focus on high-value advisory work, rather than continually checking the foundational steps in workpapers and files.

2. A ready-to-use framework that increases productivity

Having 'ready-to-use' integrated workpaper templates saves you time. This time-saving translates into substantial productivity gains by minimising your non-chargeable setup time.

A typical statutory accounts template, for example, comes pre-populated with financial statement sections, automatic cross-referencing capabilities and built-in reconciliation sheets. Staff no longer spend hours drafting documents from scratch or manually linking figures between different spreadsheets. Instead, they can focus immediately on the analytical work.

This template-driven approach has a number of advantages:

• Your team saves time when setting up the key files for the engagement, allowing you to cut down the expected work needed to complete the job.
• The standard workflow guides your team members through the necessary steps, so every workpaper file is uniform, whether it’s used by an onshore or offshore team.
• Greater efficiency means you can take on a higher volume of work with the same number of staff, significantly improving realisation rates and margins for the firm.

3. Standard and custom templates to keep you agile and flexible

Having standard templates available immediately cuts out most of the heavy lifting when setting up a new engagement. The standard workpapers your team will need are there, ready to use immediately, reducing set-up time and getting you up and running as fast as possible.

Having the ability to create or customise templates adds in even more flexibility. Got a niche client need on a particular job? Just create a custom template and the whole team can then access this, giving you a valuable way to share your knowledge and IP across the firm.

A flexible workpapers solution, like Active, gives you all the core worksheet templates you’re likely to need and allows you to design specific workflows for unique or specialised clients.

Where you have complex, multi-jurisdictional audits, unusual grant claims, or industry-specific regulatory reporting, this can be a game-changer.

Having both pre-built and customisable templates has some real benefits:

• Pre-built templates make it easy to get the team up and working ASAP, without having to create workpapers from the ground up for every job.
• All the worksheet templates the team might need are available, at the click of a button – including more complex worksheets, like DIV7A.
• Create your own custom templates and workpaper outlines, giving you the ability to build a standardised workflow for even the most niche client requirements.
• Update and rework your templates as new regulations are introduced—such as changes to IFRS standards or new local tax rules.
• Produce master templates for all your workpaper needs and deploy them across the entire practice – so all teams are working from the same universal templates.

Active: templates that deliver true value for your workflow

“In 2025, our users inserted more than 5 million Active workpapers as part of their key workflows”

At Active, we know the true value of a template-driven approach to your practice workflows. In 2025, our users inserted more than 5 million Active workpapers as part of their key workflows. Our library of templates covers all your most fundamental workpapers requirements, while our customisation capabilities help you refine and create your own internal templates.

Aintree Group came to Active looking for internal efficiencies. Since implementing Active Workpapers, the firm has seen some measurable time savings and performance improvements, with review time decreasing by 15–20 minutes per file.

“Our workpapers are now more systematically organised and easier to prepare, thanks to Active’s built-in tools. The option to assign notes to specific people means that partners and senior reviewers can focus directly on matters that require their attention, speeding up the review cycle." Shane McKenna, Managing Director, Aintree Group

If you’d like to know more about Active Workpapers and our template-driven workflows, we’d be happy to show you how Active can be tailored to your firm’s exact needs.

Book an Active demo today.