There are a number of customisation steps we recommend as best practice for the admin user to follow in order to customise Active Workpapers.

The steps are as follows:

The first step is to review your firm settings and add any applicable information including; offices, teams, users and integrations.

For information on how to do this, click here.

Next, review the standard templates provided in the system and use as many of these as possible. There are approximately 100 templates available for use which are managed by qualified accountants and are compliant with tax laws. To review the list of record templates available, click here.

We also offer various automated record templates which enhances user productivity. Refer to the following links for a list of automation features available in each region:

It is advised that the standard templates are used when processing an accounts and tax job to ensure consistency across your firm and compliance with laws and regulations.

If after you've reviewed the standard templates, you still feel that your firm has existing templates maintained internally which you would prefer to use, follow the below steps as relevant.

Next, if the standard binder template is not sufficient for the various binder types available, we recommend you customise the binder templates. In addition to customising record templates, admin users are able to create binder templates which are specific to the firm. A binder template sets out the various sections that are standard within the binder as well as any record recommendations that the firm wishes to add.

There are a few options, as below, which admin users can select depending on what you are wanting to customise:

Once the firm settings, record templates and binder templates are set up to standard, the statuses for binders, record templates and client queries should be customised, if desired. For example, a job or record status can be set to 'In Progress' or 'Completed', while a client query can be set to 'Created' or 'Sent'.

To customise the default statuses provided, click here.

The final step is to customise any applicable advanced features including the standard chart of accounts, lead schedules, and the matching rules.

Refer below for information on how to do this.

Active provides a default standard chart of accounts, however if this is not satisfactory for your firm, we recommend you customise this at a firm level.

For information on how to create a standard chart of accounts, click here.

Lead schedules are a powerful feature that allows users to create custom account groups. The lead schedule view offers an intuitive and comprehensive way to visualise and manage grouped accounts. We recommend lead schedules are set up for these reasons.

For information on how to set up lead schedules, click here.

Account type matching rules assist with the conversion process of accounts from the client accounting file to Active Workpapers. These rules are used to define how to automatically allocate an account to the master chart of accounts and drives different functionality based on the account type allocated. A default set of account type matching rules are provided for users.

For information on how to customise matching rules, click here.

To further cement your knowledge, refer to the following for guidance.