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 or a trustee, 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 include, but are not limited to:

• Accounting
• Tax
• Auditing and assurance
• Management consulting
• Financial management
• Insolvency
• Corporate advisory services
• Risk management
• Forensic accounting
• Corporate advisory services
• Financial planning services
• Business valuation services (from 1/1/18)

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 and are responsible for signing out engagements you need to hold a CPP unless you earn fees under $13,000 per annum (Note: provisional members cannot offer any accountancy services to the public).

”Accounting services” are defined in the NZICA Rules as:

• the preparation of financial information
• 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, Accredited Insolvency Practitioner or the Qualified Statutory Accountant regime:

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.

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 can apply where they:

• have two years' acceptable practical experience as a CA
• have completed approved courses in New Zealand Company and Partnership Law and New Zealand Taxation (if admitted to NZICA membership through membership of an overseas accounting body)
• have completed the Public Practice Program (or equivalent) within the past two years

You will need two character references and a certificate of acceptable practical experience to support your application.

If you provide these details, it will help us to assess your CPP application:

• business experience including your roles and responsibilities
• relevant continuing professional development
• an estimate of clients/fees (during your first year)
• your support network.

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

Complete the Public Practice Program

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 2 day PPP Workshop within 6 months.

If you have held a CPP within the previous 5 years and completed the PPP while you held the CPP, you need not undertake the PPP again.

Because CPP holders are providing services to the public for reward we believe it is important that we monitor some aspects of their activities to protect the public and the reputation of all Chartered Accountants.

We monitor the following matters for CPP holders:

• That their practice has quality control 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 you hold appropriate professional indemnity (PI) insurance
• That you have devoted a certain minimum amount of your CPD requirements to training in your area of specialisation, if you have any
• For mainland Australia CPP holders we monitor your compliance with the liability capping scheme through the completion of the annual Liability Capping Questionnaire