Frequently Asked Questions

You certainly can! But will it be cost-effective? Your time is more valuable than the cost of our templates. We are spreading our development cost over many users to keep your cost down.

Don't try to implement CaseWare Working Papers piecemeal. CaseWare can only be used for checklists, trial balance, adjusting entries, lead sheets, and basic working papers, while CaseView can produce additional working papers, financial statements, and client letters.

CaseWare/CaseView implementation requires planning. If only part of the system is used to start with, you may not be able to implement the remaining portions of the system without going back and redesigning the first part of the process, incurring unnecessary costs. Our templates make a full implementation feasible at a reasonable cost.

Yes, we would be happy to quote on a customized solution to meet your needs. We recommend that you try our templates first, as they should meet the needs of most small firms without customization, and are very cost-effective and easy to update.

Our maintenance contract is the most efficient and cost-effective method of ensuring your working paper files include the most current checklists. When accounting or auditing standards change, we make the appropriate changes to the templates and provide them by download from our website to all registered template users who have purchased the maintenance contract. Enhancements to the templates are also available periodically to those users.

Modifying the templates may restrict your ability to take full advantage of our update service, since some updates may overwrite the customized features. Before modifying the templates, please contact our technical support. By providing details of your proposed modification to us, you help us to understand your needs. In many cases, we may be able to incorporate such changes in our next update. 

If you do modify the templates, we recommend you keep a record of all modifications, so that you can be selective in installing the components of our updates.

Our templates are designed for use with the current version of CaseWare Working Papers, but previous versions may be supported for a period of time after a new CaseWare release. At the time this response was written, our templates required CaseWare Working Papers 2016 or newer.

We recommend that you install all updates released by CaseWare International Inc. to ensure you have access to all current features. However, you do not need to purchase the templates from CaseWare International Inc. to get the current checklists, since our templates include the checklists.

Yes, the template is fully functional upon installation. We recommend that you become familiar with the system before using it on an engagement. The User Guides from CaseWare are a good place to start, if you have not previously used CaseWare Working Papers. The templates will significantly reduce the time required to implement the system. By planning your engagement procedures and file structure before implementing CaseWare Working Papers on an engagement, you will increase the benefits to be derived from the system.

In order to simplify the process of updating checklists, the checklists have been moved to CaseView. Now with one click of the "Update" button at the top of the document, the checklists will be updated to the most current version of the template.

Yes, in order to use our templates you will be required to have your own subscription to the PEG. When purchasing templates or renewing support packages you will need to supply a confirmation of subscription to the PEG.

Our maintenance contract includes e-mail support on template issues. We also offer in-house CaseWare / CaseView training. Call us for more information on training opportunities. For issues unrelated to our templates, CaseWare International Inc. offers support. Check out the FAQ's on their website.

You may have included a period in your client file name. Although Windows allows you to include more than one period in the file name, CaseWare Working Papers does not. This statement is from CaseWare International Inc.:

"Verify that periods are not used in the client file name. For example, the name "ABC Inc." causes problems in the functioning of a CaseWare file. Only characters, numbers, and underscores are permitted in the client file name. "

Your checklists and other working papers can easily be copied into our template files. We suggest you set your checklist index numbers to match those in the template, to allow for efficient updates of our templates.

Go into "editing mode" (the pencil icon); go to “print” then "page setup" on the "File" menu. Click on the "borders" button and then uncheck the "enable" button.

Before importing from the client's accounting system you should modify the trial balance in Caseware to use the client's account numbers. When you import, it will automatically modify the account descriptions, so you do not have to modify these. You can delete any accounts you are not going to need so that you don't have an excess of unused accounts cluttering up your file.

We recognize that many working papers would not be used in a typical compilation engagement. However, we wanted to accommodate those circumstances when additional work was required. If you would like to shorten the Index / Document Manager to exclude certain working papers, we recommend that you move the unwanted documents in your master template to the "Non-Printed Schedules" section of the Document Manager. We have provided a folder for that purpose: "Template documents not in use" at the bottom of the Document manager. Do not delete any documents - Deleted documents may re-appear at the top of your Document Manager when you install a future update to the templates.

When you do a Year end close, give the new file a unique file name (Example - "Client Name 2017") so that you don't copy over the prior year's file. Select the "Update prior year balance data". This will roll the balances over to the prior year so that you will not need to input them again. The option to "Update next year's opening balance data with..." will roll over the prior year's closing balance sheet to the current year's opening balances and close the income and expenses to retained earnings. You will want to use this option only if you are going to be entering all the transactions for the year into Caseware or if you are going to input balances from a manual synoptic. Do not use this option if you are going to input or import a trial balance at year-end. The other options regarding items to include in next year's file are personal preferences. Our "Getting Started" document included with the templates provides more detailed guidance on how to perform a year-end close and update the checklists in the new client file.

For new client files created from the template, simply use the mapping numbers and general ledger accounts included in the equity section for comprehensive income. Note the different mapping numbers for corporations and for not-for-profit organizations.

The cells on the left hand side of the rounding adjustment section show the amounts by which the statements are out of balance. If the amount is a reasonable rounding error (say, less than $5), you need to enter that amount in the cell on the right hand side to balance the statements. This system ensures that the statements are balanced and that you are aware of the amount of rounding taking place. If, as a result of entering numbers in the rounding cells, you end up with a balance in an otherwise zero value cell on the income statement, balance sheet or statement of cash flows, just switch the mapping reference on that cell with one that has a balance.

The most likely problem is that the balances for the third prior year have not been entered. For the CaseView statement of cash flows to work, the balances for the active year, prior year and the second prior year must be entered.

CaseWare Working Papers uses the date format setting defined by Windows to format the date in the documents. If you are getting the day of the week as well as the month, day and year, you need to do the following:

For Windows 7 and earlier: From the Start menu, select Settings, Control Panel. In the Control Panel select Regional Options. Click on the DATE tab.

For Windows 8 or 10: From the Start menu, type date, select "Change the way lists and dates are displayed"/

Change the Long Date Format to: MMMM d, yyyy. Click OK. Things should be the way you want them now!

Since accounts payable is the default rounding account, the $1 is likely the automatic rounding adjustment. When viewing the balance sheet in CaseView, the accounts payable line will appear as: "Accounts payable and accrued liabilities (rounding acct)" Next to this description is the map number for accounts payable. Find a map number that represents another current liability with a balance, and change the "rounding account" line to that map number. If you selected "payroll liabilities, for example, you will now have payroll liabilities reported twice. Now change the map number in the original location of payroll liabilities to the accounts payable map number. This should result in the rounding amount being reported with payroll liabilities.

The notes to financial statements are turned "on" or "off" by pushing the checkbox button on the financial statement index page. You can select any of the financial statements in this way (cash flow statement, balance sheet, income statement, etc.); the individual notes are also selected by clicking the checkboxes next to the note. Many of the features in the financial statements are selected by either pushing a button or using a drop-down menu.

You may have changed some account numbers and descriptions for accounts that were mapped to different mapping numbers than what you intended them to be. The default accounts in the template are mapped to the financial statement items that correspond with the account descriptions, to make setting up a file easier. For example, the wages account on the trial balance is mapped to wages on the income statement. If you changed the account description for interest expense to wages on the trial balance rather than changing the account number for wages to match the client's account number for wages, you will have a mis-matched mapping number.

The easiest way to fix this is to go to "Assign Mapping Numbers" on the "Account" menu. Go through the list of map numbers on the right hand side and make sure the accounts are grouped with the right map number. If there are any that you want to change, you simply "unmap" and then re-map to the correct map number.

You may have the measurement units set to centimetres rather than inches. This will cause the tabs to not line up as they were intended in the template. To fix this, go into "edit" mode, and go to Tools; Options on the menu and click the measurements tab. Select inches.

There are two ways to disclose the amount due from employees. The accounts receivable balance on the balance sheet pulls from a note. If you turn this note on, it will show the detail of all of the map numbers grouped with accounts receivable on the balance sheet. The other option is to remove the map number for "due from employees" from the accounts receivable note and put it directly on the balance sheet. To do this, simply delete the map number from the input field in the note and then put it on one of the available extra lines in the current assets section of the balance sheet.

To record the current portion of long-term debt, you need to credit the "Current portion of long-term debt" account and debit the "Current portion of long-term debt - offset" account. Make sure that the Current portion account is mapped to map number 240 and the offset account is mapped to map number 255.

To change a description on the financial statements, you have to change the description of the mapping number that the line item is linked to. This number is displayed on each line when viewing the financial statements. In CaseWare, go to the "Account" menu, and select "Mapping" to change mapping descriptions.

For new client files created from the template, simply use the mapping numbers and general ledger accounts included in the equity section for comprehensive income. Note the different mapping numbers for corporations and for not-for-profit organizations.

CaseView Help suggests copying into the GIFI file. Some users do not like this method, as the presentation of columns does not copy well – all data in columns is bunched together and is difficult to read. If you wish to use this method, follow the instructions in CaseView Help: “To export financial statement notes separate from a GIFI file‛. (The notes in the templates are formatted as a section labelled “notes‛. In design (edit) mode, you may need to modify this section by checking the box: “Include in Export‛.)

An alternative method that retains the column presentation is as follows:

• Select the entire notes section (in form mode) in the same manner as if you were planning to “copy‛ the notes.
• In the CaseView menu:
  • Select File | Export | Rich Text Format (RTF).
  • At the bottom of the “Save as RTF document‛ window:
    • Check the box: “Export only pages containing selected content‛ (You only want the notes, not the entire financial statement),
    • Uncheck the box: “Export conditionally skipped content‛ (You only want the printed notes, not the unused template notes).
  • Name the RTF file, and save in the desired folder.
  • In MS Word: Open the new RTF file and edit if desired, then select the entire file and copy.
  • In your T2 software: paste the notes into your T2 file.