Adopting Achekam's working-paper template packs
What Achekam's working-paper template packs cover, why they stay unapproved until a firm adopts them, and how to review a pack against your own policies.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A small or mid-sized practice rarely has the time to write a full set of working-paper templates from scratch. It inherits some from a former employer, buys some, adapts others, and ends up with a library in which no two papers look alike and nobody is sure which version is current.
Ready-made template packs promise a short cut. They can be one, as long as the firm remembers that a template is part of its methodology, and the methodology is the firm's responsibility, not the supplier's. Achekam is built around that principle. Its packs arrive marked as unapproved platform content and stay that way until the firm has looked at them and decided to use them.
What the packs cover
Achekam ships working-paper template packs written in its own words. They cover:
- audit areas for financial statement audits;
- the ISA for LCE;
- review engagements under ISRE 2400 and ISRE 2410;
- agreed-upon procedures under ISRS 4400 and compilations under ISRS 4410;
- assurance engagements under ISAE 3000;
- B-BBEE verification work;
- public sector, internal audit and forensic work;
- Nigerian and Kenyan statutory and tax packs.
"In its own words" matters. These are not copies of any professional body's material, so the firm cannot assume a pack has been reviewed by the body whose standard it addresses. The firm reviews it.
One check before you start: whether the catalogue was installed on the live deployment has not been confirmed. Open AUDIT & ASSURANCE > Methodology Library and see what is actually there before planning a roll-out around a particular pack.
Platform content stays unapproved until the firm adopts it
The catalogue is marked unapproved platform content until the firm adopts it. A firm's partners keep their own methodology and working-paper templates beside Achekam's platform methodology, under AUDIT & ASSURANCE > Methodology Library and Working Paper Templates, and they can adopt the platform's material into their own.
This separation protects the firm in two ways. Nobody on the team can start using a pack simply because it appeared in the system. And when the firm's quality reviewer asks which methodology the firm applies, the answer is a list of things the partners chose, not everything the software happens to contain.
Reviewing a pack against the firm's own policies
Before adopting a pack, the reviewing partner should read it as they would read any methodology change. Useful questions:
- Does it fit our engagements? A pack for public sector work is irrelevant to a firm with no public sector clients.
- Does it fit our country? The ISA for LCE is a good example. Achekam lets a Nigerian firm use it only after a documented assessment and a partner's decision, and refuses it for a Kenyan firm as not adopted. In South Africa, IRBA's page on its 2025 Handbook shows the board notice adopting the IAASB 2025 Handbook for use in South Africa, and notes that the ISA for LCE has not been adopted there.
- Does it match our policies? Materiality approach, sampling, documentation standards, sign-off levels, consultation rules.
- Is anything missing? Industry-specific procedures, client-specific risks, local regulatory reporting.
- Is anything wrong? A pack written in plain language can still misstate a requirement. Check against the standard itself.
Record the review: who read the pack, what they changed or rejected, and why. That record is what the firm will show a monitoring reviewer.
A review table worth keeping
| Pack | Reviewed by | Decision | Changes made | Date adopted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audit areas | ||||
| ISRE 2400 reviews | ||||
| ISRS 4410 compilations |
Adopting and approving
Once reviewed, a pack is adopted into the firm's methodology. From there, the firm's own rules apply. In particular, a template version is published only by someone other than its author. A partner who edits an adopted template cannot publish their own change; a colleague must.
Adopted templates then feed the engagement work. Staff can generate an engagement's working papers from the methodology, under AUDIT & ASSURANCE > Generate Working Papers. Achekam reads the engagement's facts, a person confirms what it cannot read, another person approves the profile, and a dry run shows which papers will be created before any are. A sole practitioner may approve their own profile with a written attestation.
The practical consequence: whatever is in the adopted methodology is what the next engagement will receive. Adopt carefully, because a weak template is copied into every file. How firms maintain their own material alongside the packs is covered in keeping the firm's own methodology and templates, and the compilation packs are discussed in compilation engagements under ISRS 4410.
Keeping up with changes to the standards
Standards change, and an adopted pack does not update itself into the firm's methodology. Achekam does not pull a live feed of standards and regulatory changes either: the Standards & Regulatory Updates page shows what its knowledge base records.
So the firm needs its own routine:
- name a partner responsible for following standard-setters and regulators;
- review the adopted packs at least once a year, and whenever a standard the firm uses changes;
- when a template is updated, publish the new version through a second person as usual;
- tell the team what changed and from which engagements it applies.
Engagement work under way when a standard changes needs a decision too: finish on the old version, or switch? Record that decision on the affected files.
Pick one pack the firm will use most this year, assign a partner to review it against your policies within the month, and adopt it only when that review is written down.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
