Cheatsheet
A single-page, scannable reference to every feature in Punchcard — concepts, boards, the request tabs, column types, sampling methods, FSR review modes, EBP tests, and Co-Audit. Built for auditors who already know the basics and want to find or discover a feature fast.
This is the whole product on one page. Each section is a quick-reference table of features with a one-line description and a link to the full page. If you already know your way around Punchcard, use this to jump straight to a feature — or to discover one you haven't tried.
New to Punchcard? The Onboarding guide is a hands-on first session. This cheatsheet is the opposite — terse, dense, and built for reference, not for reading top to bottom.
Core vocabulary
The handful of terms everything else is built on.
| Term | What it is |
|---|---|
| Firm | Your top-level tenant. Holds firm-wide templates, the review checklist, and Punchcard Resources. |
| Client | An organization you audit. Holds engagements year over year. |
| Engagement | The workspace for a single audit period: boards, workpapers, team, variables. |
| Request | A client-visible PBC item on the Request Board. |
| Task | An internal-only item on the Task Board. Clients never see it. FSRs live here. |
| Workpaper | The spreadsheet-style grid inside a request: one row per selection, columns of AI prompts, formulas, and testing attributes. |
| Selection | A row of the workpaper — the item being tested. |
| Document group | A named bucket of client documents the Match Agent pairs to selections. |
| Co-Audit | The natural-language agent in every request's left sidebar that builds the workflow for you. |
| Engagement Variable | A reusable fact (a policy, a threshold, a plan provision) you publish once and reference anywhere with @. |
Jump to a section
Clients & Engagements
Set up clients, engagements, team, contacts, settings, and roll forward to a new period.
Co-Audit
The natural-language agent that builds workflows, columns, and amortization schedules.
AI Prompting
How to write prompts, testing attributes, and Co-Audit instructions that hold up.
Requests & Workpapers
Boards, request tabs, columns, sampling, review, export, and the Excel add-in.
Financial Statement Review
Five review modes that check the statements and cite every finding.
Clients & Engagements
The structure your work lives in. → Section home
| Feature | What it does | More |
|---|---|---|
| Create a client / engagement | Client name, external ID, engagement name, 3–6 char identifier, audit period, due date. | Overview |
| Invite auditors (Team tab) | Adds an auditor to the roster, makes them assignable, pins the engagement to their sidebar. | Adding people |
| Invite client contacts (Client tab) | Contacts get no access until added, and only ever see Requests — never Tasks or settings. | Adding people |
| Engagement Settings tabs | Overview, Team, Client, Task Types, Categories, Variables, plus a Danger Zone to delete. | Settings |
| Roll forward | Copy an engagement's structure, requests, and workpaper templates to a new period or client. | Roll forward |
Co-Audit
The natural-language agent in every request's left sidebar. Describe what you want; it builds the workflow. → Section home
| Feature | What it does | More |
|---|---|---|
| Build a workpaper | One instruction (goal + documents + columns) generates the request description, document groups, and columns. | Create a workpaper |
| Tailor a template | Describe how your client differs from the standard procedure and it edits the workflow in place. | Co-Audit |
| Add or fix a column | Add a single column, split one column into several, or rename and re-link references. | Co-Audit |
| Amortization schedules | Reads a lease, loan, or debt document and builds the schedule row by row. | Create an amortization |
| Document Q&A | Ask plain-language questions about the uploaded documents. | Co-Audit |
AI Prompting
How to talk to the AI so it gives you clean, citable, reviewable answers. → Section home
| Principle | In one line | More |
|---|---|---|
| Specify the format | Name the exact shape: a number with two decimals, a date as MM/DD/YYYY, Yes/No, a single name. | Principles |
| Tell it what to do | Positive instructions beat lists of prohibitions. Describe the one correct behavior. | Principles |
| Ground in the document | Ask for what the document says; flag when it doesn't support an answer instead of guessing. | Principles |
| Formula, not AI, for math | The AI copies forward; formulas always recompute. Use = columns for any calculation. | Workpaper prompting |
| Iterate and self-check | The first prompt is a draft. Run it, click the citation pill, sharpen, rerun the column. | Workpaper prompting |
Requests & Workpapers
The day-to-day work, from board to export. → Section home
Boards
| Feature | What it does | More |
|---|---|---|
| Request Board | Client-visible PBC items. Board (Kanban) or List view, with grouping, filters, and search. | Request Board |
| Status flow | Backlog → To Do → In Progress → Review → Done. Backlog is hidden from the client; every other status is visible. | Request Board |
| Task Board | Same structure, internal only. Off by default; enable in Task Types. Holds FSRs, planning, memos. | Request Board |
| Create a request | Start from Scratch or with Co-Audit. Set title, priority (Low/Medium/High/Urgent), due date, assignee, category. | Request Board |
Inside a request
Every request has Co-Audit on the left and six tabs.
| Tab | What it's for | More |
|---|---|---|
| Request | The client-facing view: description, status, Reference Files (you → client), Requested Files (client → you), activity, comments. | Request tab |
| Memo | The AI's context: Purpose, Source, Scope, Accounting Policies, Procedures, Testing Attributes, Conclusion. | Memo tab |
| Files | Client uploads organized by document group, with match states, OCR/text status, and full-text search. | Files tab |
| Workflow | The structural build: selections, document groups, the Match input, and custom columns. | Workflow tab |
| Workpaper | The populated grid where you review matches, values, and tickmarks and turn them into conclusions. | Workpaper tab |
Column types (Workflow tab)
| Type | What it produces | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Match input | The Match Agent pairs documents to selections (or to an upstream group). | Give it the least information; name one identifier only for large populations. |
| AI Prompt Column | One extracted value from the matched document. | Pulling a number, date, name, or Yes/No off a document. |
| Formula Column | A deterministic calculation, starting with =. | Any math — it always recomputes. =@Gross - @Tax - @Fees. |
| Testing Attribute | Audit judgment: a green ✓ (pass) or a lettered exception (E1, E2…). | Pass/fail conclusions backed by a documented procedure. |
@ references
Type @ to reference selection columns, upstream document-group columns, Memo fields, or Engagement Variables.
Sampling
Five methods, set on the Workflow tab when you import a population. → Sampling
| Method | What it's for |
|---|---|
| No Sampling | Test the entire population — every row becomes a selection. |
| Monetary Unit Sampling (MUS) | Dollar-weighted; always catches the largest items. Risk assessment, value filters, optional seed. |
| Random Sampling | Equal audit risk across the population. Optional stratification, sample size or confidence level. |
| Test Coverage | Smallest set of items hitting a target % of dollar value (e.g. 70%). |
| Journal Entry Testing | Fraud-risk testing from GL detail via a rules engine (timing, amount, content, control). |
Review, export & Excel
| Feature | What it does | More |
|---|---|---|
| Cell colors | Yellow = unreviewed, Green = validated (locked), Red = flagged, Blue = locked from rerun. | Workpaper tab |
| Match actions | Validate, Flag for review, or Remove. Counter-evidence shows as a red circle with the reason. | Workpaper tab |
| Tickmark override | Delete the AI reasoning, pick the correct value (Pass / Exception / N/A), comment, validate. | Workpaper tab |
| Rerun scope | Cell, column (play icon), row, or whole workflow (Run). Validated cells are always skipped. | Workpaper tab |
| Export formats | Files + Workpaper (.zip), Files + Workpaper (.xlsx, embedded), or Workpaper only (.xlsx). | Exporting |
| Excel add-in | Click a cell in Excel to load the source document and jump to the exact citation (Windows). | Excel add-in |
Financial Statement Review
An internal Task that runs five modes against the statements in parallel and cites every finding. → Section home
| Mode | What it checks | More |
|---|---|---|
| Prior Year Consistency | Variances year over year, reconciling reordered, relabeled, split, or combined lines by meaning. | Prior Year |
| Internal Consistency | The same figure disagreeing across the document: face vs. footnote, subtotal vs. breakdown, prose vs. table. | Internal |
| Footing & Cross-Footing | Vertical and horizontal totals, roll-forwards, and subtotal hierarchies. Often the biggest time saver. | Footing |
| Spell Check, Grammar & Prose | Spelling, mismatched dates, grammar, and inconsistent terminology — tuned by an editable instruction. | Spell check |
| Disclosure Checklist | Your firm's checklist run as discrete checks; add or edit items and rerun. | Disclosure |
Where to go next
Onboarding
Do all of this hands-on in a sample engagement, from your first FSR to a full expense-testing workpaper.
Guide home
The full map of the auditor documentation, with key concepts explained.
How is this guide?
Welcome to Punchcard
Punchcard is the audit collaboration and workpaper automation platform. This overview introduces the product, its core concepts, and a guide to every section of the auditor documentation.
Getting started with Punchcard
Sign in, find the Punchcard Onboarding engagement, download the practice materials, and learn how to orient yourself inside an engagement before you start building.