Review queues for supervisors, managers and partners
How supervisors, managers and partners see the work waiting for their review in Achekam, and why opening a review from a desk gives no authority to sign.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
In a busy firm, review is where work queues up. Trainees finish sections and wait for a supervisor. Supervisors clear what they can and pass files to a manager. Managers carry a stack of files that each need an hour they do not have, and partners are asked to sign things they last looked at weeks ago. Nobody is idle, yet files sit.
Most of that waiting is invisible because review work lives in e-mails, in conversations and in each reviewer's memory. A queue that each level can see, with what is waiting, what came back and what is at risk, makes the bottleneck visible. This article explains the desks Achekam gives each level and the one point about them that matters most: a desk shows work, it does not confer authority.
My Work and the Professional Inbox
Every professional starts from two places under HOME. My Work is the list of what is assigned to them. The Professional Inbox gathers what needs their attention. For a trainee, these two views are most of the day: what to do, and what has come back.
Encourage everyone, at every level, to work from these lists rather than from e-mail. A request buried in someone's inbox cannot be seen by their manager; an item on My Work can.
Supervision, Manager and Partner desks
Above the individual lists sit the review desks, under WORK & DELIVERY: the Review Queue and the Supervision, Manager and Partner desks. Each desk shows its level's review queue, returned work and risks.
The point of separating the levels is focus. A manager does not need to scroll past every trainee's open item to find the files waiting for manager review; a partner's desk shows what is waiting for a partner. Each desk answers one question for its level: what is waiting for me, and what should worry me?
For working papers, the levels correspond to real stages. Each working paper moves through preparation, manager review, partner review, an optional engagement quality review, completion and lock. The preparer cannot also review it, a locked paper cannot be changed, and sending back, reopening or locking needs a written reason. The stages themselves are covered in working paper review stages.
Returned work and risks
Two parts of each desk deserve as much attention as the queue itself.
Returned work. Reviewers raise review notes on a working paper, the preparer answers and the reviewer clears them, and each note's history is kept. AI can suggest notes, but a person raises each one. Work that has been returned shows on the desk, so a manager can see how much is bouncing between levels. A file returned repeatedly is a sign of a briefing problem, a capacity problem or a training need, and it is far better spotted on the desk than at the deadline.
Risks. Each desk also shows risks for its level. Read them first, before the queue. A risk flagged on a file that is not yet in your queue is often the most important item on the desk.
Time follows a similar pattern of review. Staff submit weekly timesheets that a manager, partner or administrator approves or returns, and by default time becomes billable only after someone other than the person who recorded it approves it. A reviewer who keeps on top of their desk usually keeps on top of timesheet approvals too.
Opening a review is not authority to sign
This is the rule to explain to every new manager and partner: opening a review from a desk does not by itself give sign-off authority. The desk is a route to the work. Whether a person may sign anything depends on the controls attached to that work, not on having found it on their desk.
Those controls differ by what is being signed and by country:
| What | Who may sign |
|---|---|
| A working paper review stage | A reviewer who is not the preparer; Achekam refuses any sign-off made by an AI |
| A set of financial statements | Only a user with a partner role; the person recorded as preparer or reviewer cannot issue it |
| South Africa: statements and audit reports | The Partner role is what is checked; the practitioner credentials register is not checked when a partner signs |
| Nigeria: an audit report | Blocked until a second person has verified the firm's FRC register entry and the signing partner's FRC number, ICAN or ANAN standing and signing authority |
| Kenya: an audit report | Blocked until the signing partner's ICPAK practising certificate and annual licence are verified as valid on the signing date |
The South African row is a limit worth stating plainly. Because Achekam checks the Partner role and not the register, a South African firm must make sure, outside Achekam, that only properly registered partners hold that role.
The responsibility for review on an audit sits with the engagement partner under the auditing standards. The IAASB's page on ISA 220 (Revised) describes the standard that sets the engagement partner's and team's responsibilities for managing quality on an audit of financial statements, including direction, supervision and review. A desk helps a partner discharge that responsibility; it does not discharge it for them. The supervision side is taken further in supervision under ISA 220.
A weekly review rhythm
Desks work best with a fixed rhythm:
- Monday: each reviewer reads their desk's risks and returned work, then the queue, and sets the week's review priorities.
- Midweek: managers check returned work again and talk to preparers whose files keep coming back.
- Friday: partners look at what is waiting at partner level and what is due to be signed in the next fortnight, and book the time.
- Monthly: the managing partner looks across desks for levels where work consistently waits, and adjusts allocation.
Start next Monday. Ask every manager and partner to open their desk before anything else, and at the end of the week compare how long files waited with how long they waited before.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
