How long does it take to setup an account and what does it look like?
Setting up an account take about two minutes (at most). Once done you will have a custom web URL where you can access your organization’s Audit Fuel Workpapers instance.
How do I count my users (against my selected plan)?
When you (the account owner or another account administrator) log in to the system, click on “Add or Remove Users”, count the users noted as status “active”. Those are the users counted against your current payment plan. You may add any additional number of users, however they will be marked as “pending” or “suspended”.
What kind of audits can I use the service for?
Workpapers.com is designed for any audit of internal controls (i.e. SOX, internal audit, SAS 70, etc.) or any audits based on a step-by-step audit “workplan” (i.e workplan-based internal audits, royalty and licensing audits, etc.).
How do I get started once I’ve signed up and created my first audit?
To immediately start conducting audit procedures, no matter the audit type, you need to create your audit “objectives”. Unfortunately, as an industry, we have not agreed on an appropriate vocabulary term for our audit “objectives”, despite the fact every audit has them. So, in SOX audits we call objectives “significant processes”, in SAS 70 audits we call them “control objectives”, in certain internal audits we call them “processes”, in other types of internal audits we call them “objectives”, etc. Regardless of the name, create them and then begin preparing and documenting your audit work from there.
What is an objective?
An objective is a is something you want to accomplish or a process you want to review as part of your audit. We, as an industry, give audit “objectives” many different names depending on the type of audit including “objective”, “control objective”, “process”, “significant process”, “cycles”, etc.
How do I associate a file with multiple controls, procedures, etc.?
Documentation uploads in workpapers.com work very similar to attachments in email. To associate a document or file with a specific audit step, “attach” or “upload” it to that procedure. If the document or file relates to multiple audit procedures, simply attach/upload it to the first one and then refer from any others where it is applicable back to that procedure where the file is actually attached.
How do I update a file attachment?
To update a file attached to a walkthrough, testing, procedure, etc. simply delete the old file and attach the updated (new) version. If you want to retain all versions, rename the new file slightly (i.e. add “v2″ to the end of the file name and then upload it, just like the original version of the file.
Can I use the system without an Internet connection?
Frankly, no. We are certainly evaluating various means of “offline” synchronization, however all current features require an internet connection. In the meantime, we certainly still recommend Audit Fuel Workpapers as it is guaranteed to be to up-to-date and an effective choice for documentation management.
How do I know my information is secure?
For complete security information, review our Security & Availability page.
Can I get my data back out if I don’t like the system?
Absolutely. 100% of all data you and/or your team enter in the system can be exported to standard PDF or Excel documents. If you require some other data format (database dump, HTML pages, etc.), contact us and we can most likely dump your account data to that format as well. We will never lock your data in, ever.
Is there a SAS 70 or some other third party verification of the service?
I the case of very nearly 100% of our customers, SAS 70 is not technically applicable. Even still, SAS 70 is quickly evolving into the best available independent evaluation standard for service organizations. As such we are currently in the middle of our first SAS 70 audit. We expect the SAS 70 Type II report to be issued in October of 2010 with positive results. Providing a more robust control environment than that which would be expected at even our very largest clients is a top priority.