Nextera Trace module map
Nextera Trace has one record that holds everything else up: the Engagement. An Engagement holds Working Papers, each working paper is generated from a Template, and the rest — task lists, analytics, exports, the activity trail — are different ways of looking at those two.
The sidebar carries eight main menus — Dashboard, Engagements, My Tasks, Templates, Analytics, Reports, Team, Activity — and three at the bottom: Integrations, Settings, Help. This page explains what each is for, and what its primary record is.
If any term here is unfamiliar, read Internal audit concepts first — this page assumes it.
Dashboard
Section titled “Dashboard”The daily operational summary, and the first page after Sign In.
Purpose. Four summary numbers — Active Engagements, Papers Assigned, Pending Reviews, Completion Rate — plus Recent Activity and your own tasks. A New Engagement button is available straight from here.
How to get there. The Dashboard menu, or automatically after login.
Things to watch for. The Dashboard reads data, it does not hold any. Everything shown here comes from the same Engagements and Working Papers the other modules look at, so the numbers cannot disagree between screens — which is the main reason for moving audit work off spreadsheets at all.
Engagements
Section titled “Engagements”Manage each audit engagement together with all of its working papers and its team.
Purpose. The core of the platform. One Engagement record carries the name of the entity audited (Client Name), Industry, Engagement Type, Accounting Standard, Fiscal Year Start and End, Deadline, and Notes. Its status is one of Draft, Active, Review, Completed or Archived.
The Details page has two tabs:
- Working Papers — all of the engagement’s papers, grouped into the A1 Pre-Engagement, A2 Planning, B Execution and C Completion categories, each with its own completion count. Every row shows the template code and name, the preparer, and that paper’s status.
- Team — the engagement team members with their engagement roles: Engagement Partner, Engagement Manager, Supervisor, Senior Auditor, Junior Auditor.
How to get there. The Engagements menu; click a row to open Details; New Engagement to create one.
Things to watch for. An engagement role is not the organisation role in the Team menu. The organisation role sets someone’s standing in the audit function; the engagement role sets the part they play on one particular engagement. The same person can be a Senior Auditor on one engagement and a Supervisor on another.
Working paper — the screen where the work actually happens
Section titled “Working paper — the screen where the work actually happens”Fill in a paper, submit it for review, and read back what happened to it.
Purpose. A working paper is a structured form following its template’s schema: sections, required fields, calculated fields, and the Prepared by / Reviewed by signature block. Beside it sit the Comments panel — which can be attached to a particular field — and the History panel.
Everything in it is a structured field. Evidence is summarised and referenced inside the fields rather than attached as separate files, so what the reviewer reads is exactly what travels with the paper when it is exported.
The editor saves itself as you type (the Saving… then Saved indicator), and supports live collaboration: a teammate’s presence shows as an avatar and a cursor on the same screen.
How to get there. From an Engagement’s Working Papers tab, or from My Tasks.
Things to watch for. The status flow binds, and it is the evidence of review that otherwise has to be hunted down:
| Status | What it means | Who moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Not Started | Untouched | Anyone on the engagement team |
| Draft | Started, not yet complete | The preparer |
| In Progress | Being worked on by the preparer | The preparer |
| Submitted | Submitted for review — the form is locked | The preparer |
| In Review | Under review | The Partner, Manager or Senior roles |
| Rework | Returned for correction — a reason is required | The assigned reviewer |
| Completed | Approved and final | The assigned reviewer |
Completed is a final status — there is no transition out of it, and the form stays read-only. From Rework, a paper returns to In Progress or is submitted again directly.
My Tasks
Section titled “My Tasks”The working papers assigned to you, across every engagement.
Purpose. One list carrying Total Tasks, In Progress, In Review and Needs Rework, filterable by status and by engagement.
How to get there. The My Tasks menu.
Things to watch for. This is the only person-oriented view that spans engagements, and it works at working paper level — not at the level of the actions management agreed. For follow-up of findings across engagements, see the note in Internal audit concepts.
Templates
Section titled “Templates”The standard working paper library, plus your organisation’s own adjustments.
Purpose. Browsing every working paper template, grouped by category and searchable by name or code. Each template’s Details page shows a Form preview, Category, Version, Description, and Standard references — the Standar Audit (SA) references it rests on.
The built-in library is numbered by series: A110–A170 for engagement acceptance and set-up, B100–B280 for procedures and testing, C100–C400 for completion and reporting.
How to get there. The Templates menu; click a template to view it; Edit template to adjust it.
Things to watch for. Edit template does not change the built-in template. It saves a version belonging to your organisation — added sections and fields, or adjustments to existing ones — with a version history you can roll back to. This is where your methodology is translated into the product, which is why templates are worth settling before the first engagement runs inside the system.
Analytics
Section titled “Analytics”Delivery progress and team workload, over the date range you choose.
Purpose. KPI cards, Working Paper Status as a doughnut, Completion Trend, Engagement Progress per engagement, and a Team Workload table with papers assigned, papers completed and the completion rate for each member. There are From and To filters.
How to get there. The Analytics menu.
Things to watch for. Analytics answers “is our delivery plan on track”, not “how healthy is the control environment we audited”. Conclusions about the area audited stay in the working papers.
Reports
Section titled “Reports”The export queue — turning working papers into files you can share.
Purpose. The Reports & Exports page shows the export history with each job’s status (Queued, Processing, Completed, Failed, Cancelled), the file size, and a Download button once it is finished. Exports come as PDF, Word or Excel, for a single working paper or as a bundle for one engagement — with options to include a cover page, table of contents, signatures, history and comments.
How to get there. The Reports menu.
Things to watch for. An export runs as a background job, so a large bundle does not hold up your screen. The exported file is a point-in-time copy; the source of truth stays the working paper inside the system.
Manage who belongs to the audit function, and where they stand in it.
Purpose. Inviting users through Invite member (Email, Full name, Initials, Role, and an optional Phone), changing roles, and activating or deactivating accounts. The organisation roles available are Partner, Manager, Supervisor, Senior, Junior.
How to get there. The Team menu.
Things to watch for. Deactivating a user does not erase their trail — their history and activity are kept. For an audit function that is more than a convenience: a working paper whose preparer has vanished from the system loses part of its evidential value.
Activity
Section titled “Activity”The activity trail for the whole organisation.
Purpose. A record of user actions on engagements and working papers — created, updated, status changed, submitted, approved, returned, commented on, team members added or removed — filtered by Action, User, From and To.
How to get there. The Activity menu.
Things to watch for. Activity is the organisation-level trail. The history of one particular paper — including its status changes and the reviewer’s notes — is read from the History panel inside that working paper.
Integrations, Settings and Help
Section titled “Integrations, Settings and Help”The three menus at the bottom of the sidebar.
Integrations connects Trace to accounting software through OAuth authorisation and data mapping: Accurate Online, Jurnal.id, Zahir and QuickBooks. Status reads as Not Configured, Pending Authorization, Connected, Expired, Error or Disabled, and a synchronisation log is available. There is also an Import from Excel path for loading working paper, engagement or user data — upload the file, map the columns, review the validation results, then run it.
Settings holds organisation preferences, a shortcut to Integrations, the AI Assistant settings, and notification preferences including email frequency.
Help is the in-application help centre — frequently asked questions by topic and a list of keyboard shortcuts.