Six verification steps a solo CPA can adapt before relying on an AI flag.
The checklist asks the reviewer to inspect available source context, the source return, destination form or line, and the basis for accepting, modifying, or rejecting a suggestion. It is a review aid, not a guarantee of citation coverage or legal sufficiency. Tick the steps as you go, then Ctrl / Cmd-P → Save as PDF if useful.
Owner-review progress
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Inspect any IRC section or other source shown with the flag — examples include §280A, §162(l), §274(n), §274(d), §162, §199A, and §401(c)(2) — and verify it against IRS.gov or another authoritative source. A displayed citation supports review; it is not a conclusion of professional sufficiency.
The reviewer needs a line-for-line comparison, not the AI’s redacted view. The "surfaces a single preparer-imported source return alongside the AI suggestion" capability exists to keep this review step possible; without the source return visible, the suggestion is recommendation-without-ground-truth.
The flag must carry its destination form/line on the return (Schedule C, Form 8829, Schedule 1, etc.) plus the prior-year comparison. A deduction without a destination form is a recommendation without a return-side shelf; the revision history is what surfaces prior-year anomalies the engagement should know about before the line ships.
Every decision is an explicit click — nothing ever auto-applies, and the reject-reason field is required and timestamped. This is the reviewer’s moment in the workflow. The "Re-surface a suggestion the reviewer explicitly rejected — Reject is final unless reopened by the same reviewer" product guardrail is what makes the reason field load-bearing; without it, the reject closes the suggestion but loses the rationale the engagement file needs.
Accept / modify / reject (with timestamp + reviewer identity + reason on reject) can land in the per-firm ledger. The audit log provides a review record; retention, sufficiency, and any exam use depend on the engagement and require qualified review.
The preparer’s signature on the return is unchanged; the model never transmits to the IRS and never holds an EFIN. Treasury Circular 230 keeps the reviewer the preparer of record — the "replace the preparer’s signature on the return" guardrail is why this step is non-negotiable on every engagement.
How to use this checklist
One list, one engagement, one signed-off check per step.
Open this page at the start of every engagement review. Walk the six steps in order: confirm the IRC §-citation on the flag, confirm the preparer-imported source return is visible alongside the suggestion, confirm the destination form/line + revision history on the engine output, accept / modify / reject with a reason on reject, confirm the audit-log entry is written, confirm the PTIN stays on the return.
Tick each checkbox as the review closes that step. The page persists completion state in your browser, so a half-finished review picks up where you left off when the page reloads. When all six are complete, save the page as a PDF (Ctrl / Cmd-P → Save as PDF) and attach the signed-off checklist to the engagement file. The printed view drops the on-screen celebratory strip and the progress header so the working-paper carries only the steps, the rationale, and the checkbox state.
The same six-step sequence is the implicit owner-review contract behind every AI flag the scanner surfaces. The full canonical four-step workflow — AI scans with IRC citations, reviewer accept / modify / reject, audit-log entry written, firm owner remains PTIN of record — lives on /about; this page is the per-engagement checklist that lets the workflow land on the engagement file as a working-paper artifact.
From checklist to scanner
Run the scanner live against your own engagement queue →
The same IRC citation chain, the same source-return drawer, the same accept / modify / reject click — applied to your own clients under the same owner-review covenant the checklist captures. The Free trial runs the base platform end-to-end before the Pro decision lands on any invoice.