Quality Management Manual Tool for Firms providing Non-Assurance Services

Setting up your own accounting practice is an exciting time. But it can also be stressful and overwhelming.

You've got more than enough to do getting your business off the ground without having the extra worry about quality control and compliance with mandatory professional standards.

That's where CPA Australia can help.

We understand that quality and compliance are important to all accountants, and we also understand that there are often not enough hours in the day to document your systems and procedures.

Sometimes there's not even time for lunch! Your ongoing success, however, depends on getting your policies and procedures right. From the very start.

CPA Australia can partner with you by making documentation and compliance as easy as possible, while you focus on keeping your clients happy.

You probably already know that it's a mandatory requirement for CPAs to document their systems of quality management. It's set out in APES 320.

It's not just more paperwork, it's important. It can add value to your practice now and when the time comes to sell or handover your practice down the track.

So, CPA Australia has created a smart tool that addresses the requirements of APES 320, to help ensure you meet your regulatory compliance obligations.

The standard includes seven key elements of quality management. There are governance and leadership, professional standards, acceptance and continuance of client relationships and specific engagements, resources, engagement performance, information and communication, and monitoring and remediation. 

All of these need to be properly documented to protect your business, assist with consistent quality in every engagement you perform and to show evidence of your compliance.

CPA Australia's smart tool provides example policies for each mandatory element which you can tailor to suit your practice needs. It provides suggestions for the procedures which support each policy - you can adopt these, write or add your own. Links to other resources will be provided throughout the tool to assist you as well.

When using the tool consider your own practice, the services you provide, the systems you have already established, and whether you operate as a sole practitioner, with partners, with or without professional and administrative staff.

Your knowledge together with the APES 320 smart tool will assist you to create your tailored, compliant system of quality management – a dynamic document that reflects the changing nature of the profession and your practice.

Saving you headaches, hassle and perhaps even giving you time for lunch.

The tool is a web-based tool, therefore the latest version of your web browser should ensure all functionality works. 

If you experience difficulties using the tool or would like to provide feedback, contact: [email protected]

The tool’s final deliverable is the production of a Quality Management Manual in a Word document, which can be saved on your local drive. This is not saved within the tool itself.

This document will automatically have a date included in the filename. Each time you make changes within the tool and produce another document, it will automatically include the latest date, allowing version control.

While the tool has been designed to produce a Quality Management Manual in line with the requirements of APES 320, it is up to members to ensure what has been developed is applicable to their practice.

This will include following through any action which provides evidence that supports compliance with the standard.

Where an assessor finds a member has not complied with APES 320, they will explain their findings including their reasons.

Assessors will assess the member’s quality management manual to determine whether all the mandatory requirements have been met.

They will be looking for evidence that any policies and supporting procedures have been described in the quality management manual. For example, evidence supporting the processes by which a new client is assessed prior to acceptance of an engagement.

Assessors will also look to see whether the procedures described are relevant to the practice and will make suggestions on procedures which may be considered, based on the member’s practice.

No, the tool requires login with a registered email address via the CPA Australia website, and it is not possible to link multiple accounts to the same data. CPA Australia does not recommend the sharing of logins between members.