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?