A member resident in Australia who is a principal in a practice and who is providing accounting services to the public for reward must hold a CPP.

A Principal is generally someone who signs off on professional engagements. Other factors that would identify you as being a Principal are:

• if you are a director of a corporate practice, partner in a partnership, a trustee for a practice run through a trust or are a sole practitioner, or

• if you are responsible for:
  • client selection, retention and terms of engagement
  • the type and quality of services provided by your practice
  • ethical and technical judgements
  • governance of the practice and related entities

The types of work considered to be public accounting services are defined by the CA ANZ Board. These are services which require accountancy or related skills. They include, but are not limited to:

• Accounting
• Tax
• Auditing and assurance
• Management consulting
• Financial management
• Insolvency
• Corporate advisory services
• Forensic accounting
• Corporate advisory services
• Financial advice
• Valuation

You must be offering your services “for reward” to require a CPP. For example, if you are doing ex gratia work for a community organisation or charity, you do not need a CPP.

If you think you don't need a CPP, think again – this article shares six reasons why you do.

If you offer accounting services to the public you need to hold a CPP unless you earn fees under $13,000 per annum and you offer those services in your own name. Once you exceed the fee threshold or you offer services through an entity, partnership or other structure, you must obtain a CPP. (Note: provisional members cannot offer any accountancy services to the public).

”Accounting services” are:

• the preparation of financial information (Note: this is all financial information, not just financial reporting)
• assurance engagements
• taxation
• insolvency
• business valuation.

All assurance engagements must be undertaken by a CA and statutory assurance engagements, including but not limited to audit and review engagements, must be conducted by a Qualified Auditor. All holders of a New Zealand CPP are considered to be a “Qualified Statutory Accountant” for the purposes of the Financial Reporting Act 2013. For more information about becoming a Qualified Auditor, Licensed Auditor, Licensed Insolvency Practitioner or the Qualified Statutory Accountant regime, please contact NZ Regulation.

A member who lives somewhere other than Australia or New Zealand is not required to hold a CPP.

A member can apply for a CPP where they have:

• 2 years' experience in public practice
• A knowledge of Australian company law and tax
• Complying professional indemnity insurance
• Completed the Public Practice Program (or equivalent)
• Met their CPD requirements

Experience in public practice

Where you have become a Chartered Accountant by doing the CA Program, your experience requirements are:

• at least 2 years’ experience as an employee of a member in public practice; or
• at least 2 years post admission experience in public practice

Where you have become a Chartered Accountant by special admission (including via membership of a recognised overseas body) or were admitted to CA ANZ as a NZICA member at the time of our merger, your experience requirements are:

• at least 2 years Australian experience in public practice; or
• at least 2 years experience in public practice as a member of NZICA; or
• at least 2 years experience in public practice post admission as a member of a recognised overseas body

Knowledge of Australian company law and tax

You must be able to demonstrate a satisfactory understanding of Australian company law and tax.

If you have done the Australian CA Program, you have demonstrated this. Otherwise, you will need to complete a conversion course.

Conversion courses

We offer conversion courses through the CA Foundations or an accredited higher education provider

Complying Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance

You will be asked to provide evidence that you have complying professional indemnity insurance.

Complete the Public Practice Program (PPP)

You must undertake the Public Practice Program (PPP) or an approved alternative course before starting practice. Where you are unable to complete the PPP prior to starting practice, a CPP may be approved if you have successfully completed the PPP e-learning component, on the condition that you complete the PPP Workshop within 6 months.

If the gross annual fees of your practice do not exceed $17,500 you do not need to do the PPP until your fees exceed $17,500, but you are still required to apply for a CPP.

You will not need to complete the PPP course again unless 5 years or more has passed after you relinquish your CPP.

Chartered Accountants intending to offer accounting services to the public in NZ can apply for a CPP where they:

• have at least two years' acceptable practical experience post approval as a CA preferably in public practice
• have two character references
• have a Ministry of Justice criminal check (and/or overseas equivalent if lived outside of NZ in the past 10 years). This must be less than 6 months old
• have completed the Public Practice Program (or equivalent) within the past two years
• have completed approved courses in New Zealand Company and Partnership Law and New Zealand Taxation (if admitted to membership through membership of an overseas accounting body and lived in NZ for less than 10 years)
• if setting up as a sole practitioner, have a practitioner support person arrangement in place
• have current and appropriate professional indemnity insurance in place

If you are setting up a new practice, you must also obtain approval for your practice. You can do this at the same time by submitting a New practice entity form. If you are joining an existing practice as a Director, Partner or Shareholder, you may also need to obtain approval for the changes in structure at the same time by submitting a Change of existing practice entity form.

If you are requesting dispensation from any of the core requirements, you must provide supporting information and evidence to assist us in considering your request.

Practitioner support

If you are establishing a sole practice or your experience is outside a public practice environment, you will need an experienced public practitioner to support you during your first year of practice.

The purpose of the practitioner-support relationship is to provide you with guidance and support on ethical, professional, technical and practice management issues as you establish your new practice.

Knowledge of New Zealand Company and Partnership Law

You must be able to demonstrate a satisfactory understanding of New Zealand company and partnership law.

If you have completed the CA Program, you have demonstrated this. Otherwise, you will generally need to do a conversion course through:

Conversion courses

We offer conversion courses through the CA Foundations or an accredited higher education provider

As CPP holders are providing services to the public for reward we have a duty to monitor aspects of their activities to protect the public and the reputation of all Chartered Accountants. All CPP holders are subject to the Quality and Practice review program.

We monitor the following matters for CPP holders:

• That their practice has quality management systems in place to ensure compliance with the Code of Ethics, professional standards, and legal and regulatory requirements through our quality and practice review programs
• That they hold appropriate professional indemnity (PI) insurance
• That they have met their CPD requirements including any specific training in their area of specialisation or registration, if relevant
• For Australian CPP holders we also monitor compliance with the Professional Standards Scheme through the completion of the annual Scheme Questionnaire