📊 AuditFlow Pro — User Manual

1. Product Overview

AuditFlow Pro is a professional-grade Microsoft Excel Add-in purpose-built for audit firms and accountants. It transforms Excel into a complete audit workstation, organising your work around the full audit lifecycle — from client acceptance through planning, risk assessment, fieldwork, completion, and reporting — all inside the spreadsheet environment auditors already use daily.

What AuditFlow Pro Does

• Manages multiple engagements end-to-end — create or join engagements, set the framework and industry, and carry one engagement context across every workpaper
• Guides the audit through eight sequential phases — Engagements → Plan → Assess → Execute → Audit Documentation → Complete → Report → Tools
• Documents acceptance & continuance — independence, KYC/AML, conflict checks, fee thresholds, prior-auditor communication, and a generated engagement letter
• Manages the full trial balance lifecycle — raw TB import, account mapping, lead schedules, Extended TB, audit adjustments, and financial statements
• Produces ISA-compliant workpapers — planning memos, risk & fraud assessments, walkthroughs, risk-control matrices, substantive tests, completion memos, and more
• Generates financial statements — Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Changes in Equity, Cash Flows and notes, tailored by framework (IFRS, IFRS for SMEs, IPSAS, Local GAAP) and industry
• Includes 18 ISA/IFRS document generators — engagement letter, ECL calculator, IFRS 16 lease verifier, audit difference schedule, management letter, audit report, NIC returns, GRA tax computation, and more
• Runs a QC / Engagement-Quality review — scans draft financial statements for grammar, broken note references, numerical inconsistencies, and formatting errors
• Covers Ghana regulatory compliance — built-in checklists and returns for NIC, GRA, BoG, NPRA and other regulators
• Keeps audit data private — by default all audit data stays on your device; core features work offline

Who It's For

• Ghanaian and African external audit firms (Big 4, mid-tier, and small practices)
• Internal audit departments
• Forensic accounting practitioners
• Firms performing compilation and review engagements
• Insurance, pension fund, microfinance and banking auditors (specialised templates and returns included)

The Audit Lifecycle at a Glance

Key Differentiators

2. Installation & Setup

System Requirements

• Excel: Microsoft Excel 2016 or later (Desktop), or Excel Online
• Operating System: Windows 10/11 or macOS 10.15+
• Browser Engine: Edge WebView2 (Desktop) or any modern browser (Online)
• Internet: Required only for login, subscription management, and optional cloud sync; core audit features work offline

Method 1: Sideload for Development/Testing

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone <repo-url>

# 2. Install dependencies
npm install

# 3. Start the development servers
npm run dev

# 4. Sideload into Excel
npm run sideload

This starts the Express API server on port 7264 and Webpack dev server on port 3000.

Method 2: Production (Azure-hosted)

To install in Excel:

1. Open Excel → Insert tab → Office Add-ins
2. Choose Upload My Add-in and select manifest.xml
3. The AuditFlow button appears in the Home ribbon tab

First Launch

1. Click AuditFlow in the Excel ribbon → the taskpane opens on the right
2. You'll see the phase navigation across the top and the engagement context header
3. Free features (Format & Enhance, Tickmarks, and the Setup tab) work immediately — no login needed
4. To create or join an engagement and use the audit phases, click Login and sign in with your credentials (see §6)

3. Getting Started

Create or Join an Engagement

All audit work lives inside an engagement. From the Engagements → Dashboard tab:

1. Click + New Engagement to launch the 4-step wizard: Client → Period → Mode → Review. Enter firm name, client name, industry, period-end date, country, currency, reporting framework (IFRS / IFRS for SMEs / US GAAP / UK GAAP / SYSCOHADA / IPSAS) and audit standard (ISA / US GAAS / UK ISA).
2. Choose an engagement mode — Solo or Team — and storage: Local (device only) or Cloud Sync.
3. Review and create. The engagement appears as a card on the dashboard.
4. To collaborate, a team member can choose Join Engagement and enter the 6-character code shared by the originator.

The Engagement Context Header

A unified header at the top of the panel holds the active engagement's Client, Period, Auditor, Reviewer, firm, partner, country, currency, framework and audit standard. These values are automatically stamped into every template, workpaper header, and generated sheet, and persist across sessions.

Navigating the Lifecycle

The app is organised into eight phases, each with its own set of sub-tabs. Switch phases from the top navigation; within a phase, switch sub-tabs to reach individual tools. A progress bar shows how far the engagement has advanced, and a next-action strip on the Trial Balance hub suggests what to do next (e.g. classify unmapped accounts, set materiality, build the Extended TB).

Recommended Workflow

4. The Audit Lifecycle

AuditFlow Pro mirrors a full ISA-based audit, broken into eight phases. Each phase below lists its sub-tabs, what you do, what is produced, and the standards referenced.

4.1 Engagements PRO

Set up and manage the engagement that anchors all audit work.

Dashboard

Browse, create and open engagements. Use + New Engagement (4-step wizard) or Join Engagement (6-character code). Each engagement stores its metadata locally or, in Team/Cloud-Sync mode, to the secure backend. Standards: ISA 220 acceptance; framework choice (IFRS / GAAP / SYSCOHADA / IPSAS).

Context

View and edit the engagement details — client, firm, period, country, currency, framework and audit standard. These flow into the engagement context header and every generated document.

Acceptance & Continuance

Complete the client acceptance/continuance checklist before fieldwork. It auto-saves and covers six sections:

• A. Independence (ISA 220 R20) — confirm no financial interest, no close family, no ownership; record the independence declaration date and engagement team.
• B. Integrity / KYC (ISA 210 R6; AML Act 2020) — client legal name, registration, directors' KYC, beneficial owners, AML risk rating, sanctions-screening date.
• C. Conflict of Interest (ISA 220 R21) — confirm no competing/affiliated clients and note the assessment.
• D. Fee Threshold (ISA 220) — total fee and % of firm revenue (alerts if >15%).
• E. Prior Auditor Communication (ISA 210 R13; ISA 300) — prior auditor, communication date, response received.
• F. Engagement Letter (ISA 210 R10) — scope, fee and deliverables; click 📝 Generate Engagement Letter to produce the letter as a workbook sheet.

Finish with partner sign-off and date.

Setup FREE

Configure firm branding (upload logo), the workbook theme colours, and saved engagement profiles (reusable collections of settings). Available on the free tier.

4.2 Plan PRO

Bring in the numbers, set thresholds, and design the audit approach.

Trial Balance

Download the TB template, populate account code, name and current/prior balances, then ↑ Upload Trial Balance (or capture from the active sheet). Set one TB as active; export for backup. The status strip shows "TB Ready" or the count of unclassified accounts.

Account Mapping & FS Generator

Auto-Build Lead Schedules: pick the data source and FS caption (audit area), then 📋 Build Lead Schedule — each lead schedule groups TB accounts by caption.

Financial Statements Generator: enter currency, entity type, framework, period dates, director and approval details, then select industry (banking/BoG, securities/SEC, microfinance, insurance/IFRS 17, mining, retail, healthcare, NGO, pension/IAS 26, and more). Click 📊 Generate Financial Statements to produce a complete, professionally formatted set: cover, income statement, balance sheet, changes in equity, cash flows and accounting-policy notes, tailored to the framework and industry. Mapping must be complete (zero unclassified accounts) before generation.

Materiality

Open the Materiality Calculator, choose a benchmark (revenue, gross profit, total assets, etc.), enter its value and the overall / performance / trivial percentages. Thresholds are stored per engagement and reused by the EATB, audit procedures and reporting checks. Standards: ISA 320.

Strategy

Insert ISA planning documents: Audit Planning Memo (ISA 300), Audit Programme (ISA 300/330) and the Compliance Scope (Ghana regulator pack).

Preliminary Analytics

Understand the entity before fieldwork: Financial Ratios (liquidity, profitability, efficiency, leverage), EATB Variance (current vs prior, flagging % changes) and Benford's Law (leading-digit anomaly detection). Standards: ISA 520. Disabled until a TB is present.

4.3 Assess PRO

Identify and respond to the risks of material misstatement.

Risk

Insert the Risk Assessment (ISA 315) workpaper and the Fraud Risk Assessment (ISA 240) to identify and assess risks at the assertion level and plan responses. Standards: ISA 315, ISA 240, ISA 330.

Controls

Document your understanding of controls through walkthrough templates for each transaction cycle (sales, purchases, payroll, treasury, etc.) and build a Risk & Control Matrix (RCM) mapping risks to controls and tests of controls. Standards: ISA 315, ISA 265.

Assertions

Use the Assertions Mapper to mark which assertions (existence, completeness, accuracy, valuation, cut-off, rights & obligations, presentation) apply to each account, then generate an Audit Summary linking risks, assertions, controls and planned responses. Standards: ISA 315, ISA 330.

Respond

Design responses to assessed risks. Click 🛡 Load from RCM Sheet to import risk/control data, then for each risk select the test procedures (Inquiry, Observe, Inspect, Recalculate, Confirm, Re-perform, Vouch, Analytical) and record the WCGW ("what could go wrong"), assertion and workpaper reference. The risk-response matrix auto-saves per engagement. Standards: ISA 330, ISA 500.

4.4 Execute PRO

Carry out the planned audit procedures and gather evidence.

Substantive Testing

Generate test-of-detail templates and extract samples from a population. Sampling methods include Random, Systematic, Monetary-Unit Sampling (MUS) and Stratified (Key Items + MUS), each documented with the basis of selection. Test grids link back to the Extended TB. Standards: ISA 500–540.

Substantive Analytics

Run journal-entry testing (JET), duplicate-payment detection and related-party analysis to surface anomalies and exceptions. Standards: ISA 240, ISA 330, ISA 505.

Confirmations & Reconciliations

Generate confirmation letters (bank, receivables, legal, insurance) with mail-merge recipients, verify opening balances, and reconcile bank statements. Standards: ISA 505, ISA 330, ISA 510.

IFRS / IAS Standards

Generate standards-specific workpapers — leases (IFRS 16), expected credit loss (IFRS 9), depreciation (IAS 16/38), foreign-currency revaluation (IAS 21) and more.

Calculations

Recalculate depreciation, model IFRS 16 right-of-use assets and lease liabilities, and build inventory count sheets. Standards: IAS 16/38, IFRS 16, ISA 501.

Workpaper Builder

Design bespoke, reusable workpapers with drag-and-drop sections — testing grids, assertion columns and commentary blocks.

4.5 Audit Documentation PRO

Tailor, generate and track all audit documentation across the engagement.

Tailoring

Auto-populate the document set from the trial balance, industry and jurisdiction, review the tailoring questions, and confirm which workpapers to include. Produces a document manifest of enabled workpapers. Standards: ISA 300, ISA 315.

Lifecycle Documents

A single tree of every audit document across all phases. Click any item to generate it on demand and track status badges (pending / generated). Spans ISA 300 through ISA 700.

Audit Dashboard

Generate a master DASHBOARD sheet (placed first in the workbook) with hyperlinks to every audit document, progress bars and a traceability summary.

Audit Documentation (Phase Select)

Select audit areas and phases (Planning, Walkthrough, Risk, Tests of Controls, Substantive, Analytics, Completion) and generate ISA-compliant multi-sheet workbooks. Quick-select presets include All, Substantive, Plan + Completion, Interim and Final. Grids link dynamically to the Extended TB. Standards: ISA 300, 315, 320, 330, 520, 620.

Generated Workpapers

View and manage all generated workpapers with completion percentages by area and phase; click any to jump to its sheet. Standards: ISA 230.

Test of Details (legacy)

The original single-area Test of Details / Test of Procedures generator, retained for compatibility and largely superseded by Phase Select. Standards: ISA 330.

4.6 Complete PRO

Finalise the audit: adjustments, findings and completion documentation.

Wrap-Up

Capture subsequent events, the going-concern assessment and written representations, and produce the completion memo.

Audit Adjustments (EATB)

Build the Extended Audit Trial Balance and record proposed audit adjustments. Generates the EATB with the trial-balance roll-forward and the impact of each adjustment on the financial statements.

Findings

Log audit findings, run the completeness checklist, and export audit-evidence annotations. Produces a findings summary report.

Review & QC

Raise and clear review queries, work through the QC review checklist, and record engagement sign-off. Produces a Review Log sheet.

4.7 Report PRO

Quality-check, report, export and archive the engagement.

Compliance Report

One-click generation of the regulatory compliance workbook, covering the relevant Ghana regulators (NIC, GRA, BoG, NPRA and others) for the engagement's industry.

QC Review (Engagement Quality)

An automated quality check of draft financial statements. Drop a Word/PDF file (max 10 MB) or paste the FS text, choose which checks to run, then ▶ Run Review. Checkers include:

• Grammar — syntax and awkward phrasing
• Note References — orphaned note calls (e.g. "See Note 7" when Note 7 does not exist)
• Numbers — cross-checks amounts, inconsistencies and missing decimals
• Format — currency alignment and number presentation for the chosen framework

Results are categorised as Critical, Warning and Info, and can be exported to a sheet or downloaded as an annotated Word document. (PDF extraction is supported but less accurate than Word.)

Export & Index

Export workpapers to PDF, generate a workpaper index, and auto-number workpapers.

Archive

Cross-reference linking, workpaper search by keyword, and audit-file assembly for archiving.

4.8 Tools

Cross-cutting utilities available throughout the engagement.

Verify PRO

Data-integrity checks: Cast & Cross-Cast (totals add down and across), Sequence Checker (invoice/cheque gaps and duplicates), Roll-Forward (prior-year audited opening vs current TB opening — ISA 510), Rounding Checker, Completeness Scanner (unsigned/undated fields), and Variance Analyser (current vs prior above materiality).

GL Cleaner PRO

Clean and standardise messy GL exports from any accounting system. The one-click Clean Pipeline strips title rows, removes blank rows/columns, unmerges cells, trims whitespace, standardises headers, expands sections, cleans numbers and freezes the header. Individual tools and Snapshot/Undo are also available.

Format & Enhance FREE

Fix number formats, dates, signs and layout. Free: Flip Signs, Text→Number, Absolute Values, Number→Text, Thousands format, Round to 2 d.p., plus font/fill, borders, date formatting and the Format Saver. Pro: Accounting format and Percentage.

Tickmarks FREE

Insert audit tickmarks into selected cells, colour-coded by type, with an inserted legend.

Sign-off marks: P Prepared · R Reviewed · A Approved.

Audit Annotations PRO

Raise non-destructive review notes on any range without overwriting figures. Note types: Review Note (RN), Query (Q) and Finding (F), each with text, raised-by and severity (Low/Medium/High). Notes are linked to their ranges.

5. ISA/IFRS Document Generators PRO

A panel of 18 standard-referenced generators, accessed from the New Tools section of the Audit Templates / Workpapers area. Each captures a few inputs through a short form and produces a ready-formatted workpaper sheet.

6. Subscription & Billing

Plans

Payment

Payments are processed via Paystack (mobile money or card). Plans activate immediately on a successful payment.

Device Licensing

Each plan has a device-seat limit. When you exceed it, you're prompted to deactivate another device. Individual = 2 seats, Institution = 11 seats.

7. Data Privacy & Security

Privacy Architecture

Authentication Security

• Passwords hashed with bcryptjs (10 rounds)
• Min 8 chars with uppercase, lowercase, digit, and special character
• JWT tokens expire after 8 hours
• Account lockout after 5 failed attempts (15-minute lockout)
• Rate limiting on auth endpoints (15 req per 15 min)
• HTTPS enforced in production

8. Keyboard Shortcuts

Press ? to display the shortcuts help modal.

9. Settings & Account Management

• Update Email — change login email (triggers token revocation)
• Change Password — requires current password + strength requirements
• API URL — configurable for development/self-hosting
• Theme Customisation — modify colour palette for all templates
• Saved Profiles — save/load engagement context and settings
• Help — open this manual any time from the in-app Help tab

10. Technical Architecture

Client-Side (Excel Add-in)

• Runtime: Excel WebView2 (Desktop) or iframe (Online)
• Language: Vanilla JavaScript (ES6+), bundled with Webpack
• Excel Integration: All operations via Excel.run(async (ctx) => { ... })
• Storage: Local-first (localStorage + workbook); optional cloud sync for Team engagements
• In-app Help: this manual is hosted on Azure Blob Storage and shown in the Help slide-over

Server-Side (Express API)

• Runtime: Node.js + Express on port 7264
• Database: MS SQL Server (Azure) via mssql
• Auth: JWT (HS256, 8-hour expiry)
• Payment: Paystack API

Database Tables

11. Troubleshooting

"No trial balance data found"

Cause: No TB imported or active TB cleared.
Fix: Plan → Trial Balance → upload or set an active TB.

Can't create or open an engagement

Cause: Engagement creation requires a paid plan; the free tier covers Setup, Format and Tickmarks only.
Fix: Log in and subscribe to an Individual or Institution plan.

Add-in panel is blank

Cause: WebView2 failed to load or dev server not running.
Fix: (Dev) Run npm run dev. (Prod) Check internet to the Azure endpoint.

"#REF!" errors in linked sheets

Cause: Extended TB sheet was rebuilt, breaking cross-sheet references.
Fix: Rebuild affected downstream sheets (Lead Schedules, Financial Statements).

"Sign in required" gate appears

Cause: Accessing a paid feature without login.
Fix: Log in with your credentials or subscribe to a paid plan.

Excel operations are slow

Cause: Large datasets or many context.sync() calls.
Fix: Close unnecessary sheets/workbooks. Split very large files (>100k rows).

Paystack payment window doesn't open

Cause: Popup blocker preventing the payment window.
Fix: Allow popups from the AuditFlow domain.