Session 2: Working Papers Series Q&A

 What an interesting session with great commentary and thoughtful questions. We covered starting up a working paper file in Microsoft OneNote, explored the 2012 Report Centre, then focused on creation of reports for Lead Sheets and the intricacies of Modifying and Memorizing reports, and ended with Grouping of reports to facilitate instant creation of a group of reports. Below are the Q&A.

Oh yes, forgot to mention it, but your homework is to read the second article on the Resources page before next Wednesday.

Q: Is a public accounting licence required to prepare and sign off on NTR statements:
A: Apparently not! I didn't know that you could sign off on NTRs if you weren't licenced, but apparently you can. 

Rumour is that might change if there's a merger as the three bodies will pressure for a change to provincial/territorial and federal Companies Acts.  See more on this question below. In no other profession can non professionals do work relating to the profession without anyone complaining.

Q: Are these webinars available on the IPBC website
A: No, they will be available for sale on my website.  Link to my website via my Partner page (for member prices) on the www.ipbc.ca website home page or directly www.taxdetective.ca/shop.html (non member prices)

Q: At the end will you show examples of each of these categories under each tab?
A: I think this question relates to my commentary about the types of engagements, Draft for Management, NTR, Review and Audit. No, I don't have time to create working paper samples for each type. Anyone who wants to take that on as a rather ambitious project is welcome to do so and share with the others.  I'll post a link and credits on the Resources page if anyone does that! Happy to share.

Q: Breaking Bad LOL
A: This was in response to my commentary that most of us are women in the bookkeeping industry and the role models TV is portraying these days about our industry involve women who are supporting a meth cook, and a motor cycle gang.  Gemma plays the role of accountant as well as matriarch (sound familiar?) in Sons of Anarchy.

Q: Can we get a copy of this page to use as a reference?
Q: Will you be posting this to the website in the next few days?
A: The resource page has useful links and I will update it to include the OneNote PDF at the end of the series

Q: Can you not save the PDF under File: in QB instead of Emailing it to yourself?
A: Yes, thanks for pointing that out, I hadn't noticed File>Save as PDF, learned something from you today!  That's why I do this!

Q: Can you show how to save a PDF to the OneNote page?
A: Showed how to attach a file to the page.

Q: Are copies of my PowerPoint available on my website?
A: Not yet, they will be on the resource page at the end.  It's a work in progress, I add content as we go through the materials.

Q: Would you be willing to share a live copy of your OneNote file?
A: Not unless I was absolutely sure that it was secure.  Louie P and I talked about that and decided it probably wasn't a good idea unless we had some technical assistance with ensuring it was secure.

Q: Great stuff Eileen! Is this file from MS OneNote going to be available on the IPBC website for downloading?
A: No, it will show up on the Resource page at the end of session 5.  Have you read the articles yet? The first article provides a great way to review Lesson 2, as it walks you through the report modification process very thoroughly with snapshots along the way.

Q: OneNote package would be very nice as we could then open it and play around with how it actually works.
A: Start your own NoteBook and experiment. That's what I'm doing.  I just figured out that this was a cool way to create paperless working papers two days before the first session.  We're learning together.

Q: Is the QuickBooks Update button available in Excel 2007?
A: To explain, I was showing how the new report Update to Excel feature works between QuickBooks 2012 and Excel. You'd have to experiment to see if it works with 2007 or check with Intuit support, it's probably on their website support page somewhere.  If not start a query in Live Community and see if anyone knows.  Please report back to me and I'll let everyone know next week.

Q: I have been signing off on NTR's for 41 years, are you sure they are restricted in BC?
A: Turns out my assumption was not correct. There is nothing in the Companies Act in BC to restrict the preparation of NTR's to CA, CGA, CMA. Apparently, it's also possible to request under that Act to prepare an audit if you aren't licensed by your body to audit, and it's very rarely done. With the merger the three bodies coming together will likely press for NTRs to be added to the list of engagement types that are restricted to someone with a designation.

Q: I was told by a CGA practice reviewer that it isn't necessary to sign an NTR at all.
A: Don't know about that, but given anyone can prepare an NTR, that might well be the case.  I am checking with CGA BC

Q: IF we make changes in QuickBooks, will the Excel report we save in OnNote be updated automatically?
A: No, it's necessary to facilitate the update either from the Excel end, or from the QuickBooks Update your spreadsheet end.

Q: IPBC provides its members with an engagement letter template for FS and T2
A: Yes, IPBC has a number of templates they have developed for members to access.  If you are a member, check out the member templates on the www.ipbc.ca website.

Q: Are you sure the link is active (auto update) when you attach a file to OneNote?
A: Yes, when you attach a file, you are actually linking to the latest version of that file.  Test it if you don't believe me.

Q: Where would you find the laws for the Province?
A: The www.CANLII.org website has all the laws for all the provinces and federal law as well as court cases. Each province will have it's own Companies Act. In BC, it isn't necessary to prepare financial statements for a company in certain circumstances, you can just prepare a tax return. I meant to mention that but the thought was fleeting and I moved on.

Q: Can you tell me how to create a new OneNote file when I have a file already?
A: Just add a new NoteBook, more than that, check out the Microsoft website for videos of how to use OneNote

Q: What is the acronym NTR?
A: Great question, NTR is Notice to Reader, and it's also called a Compilation Engagement. The terms are used interchangeably. This type of engagement has a standard that the work has not been reviewed or audited and has been compiled from what you were given.  CGAs, CA's and CMAs have a standard that there must also be reasonability checkups and that we can't associate with a compilation which we believe would be false or misleading. 

An NTR or Compilation isn't required to follow GAAP either, though if it would be misleading we can't associate. CGAs, CMAs and CAs have varying standards of care for preparation of NTRs and are required to have practice reviews by their associations to ensure that standard of care is maintained. 

From a risk perspective, preparing statements and signing them can be a risky thing to do any time you don't know your client. Even though there isn't the same standard of care as a review or an audit, always ask yourself, do you want to be associated with these numbers, and what if someone sued because your name was on that page because they made a financial or other decision based on your signature being on that page, regardless of the type of engagement.

Ask yourself every time you sign, are you prepared to put out the deductible on your insurance? My deductible is $1000, what's yours? Do you know? And then, are you prepared to work with an insurance adjuster, doing exactly what they ask so as not to invalidate your insurance coverage to mitigate the circumstances, which may involve a settlement of some kind to make the problem go away to minimize damages?

Q: You can download a free program called DoPDF7 that functions as a printer. Your print your report, selecting P0PDF7 from your printer list to create a PDF report.
A: There are a number of PDF printers out there for free. QuickBooks comes with it's own PDF printer. I make no comment on your particular program as I haven't used it, but have used others, like CutePDF, but not for a few years, haven't needed to.  I use SnagIt by www.techsmith.com and can turn anything into a PDF or any other file format.  I pay for SnagIt and appreciate the program for many reasons as I use it to snag copy for articles and Procedure Manuals all the time.  Couldn't live without it.

Q: You mentioned a 4th type of engagement?
A: Yes, I did.  Draft for Discussion Purposes Only - Subject to Change.  This is the type of engagement that you are preparing for internal management use.

See you all next week for round three.  Remember, attending all five sessions entitles you to participate in the draw at the end for a one user, one year ProAdvisor licence and there are four of them available to be won. 

Thanks for the prizes, Intuit Canada!  www.proadvisor.ca to see what's included in a membership if you qualify for ProAdvisor status (payroll will be extra).  Intuit will provide an equivalent if you don't qualify or you are already a ProAdvisor.