Quality and practice review program

Ensuring services offered by our members in public practice meet high standards

In Brief

  • Members in public practice are reviewed to ensure they have an adequate quality system
  • Reviews help maintain high standards of quality and service to clients
  • The review process is designed to minimise disruption to your practice

What is a Quality & Practice Review?

The quality & practice review programme is one way we help our members in practice maintain a consistently high standard of quality and service to their clients.

Together with high entry standards, training and development requirements, a Code of Ethics and comprehensive professional standards, it is key to upholding the integrity of the CA designation.

Conducting a review is a necessary condition of Chartered Accountants ANZ being recognised as a professional accounting body by regulators, both in Australia and internationally.

In New Zealand, our associated regulatory body is required to undertake reviews of members in practice to meet its obligations under legislation.

The programme monitors whether our members in public practice have quality management systems in place to ensure they comply with the Code of Ethics, professional standards, and legal and regulatory requirements. All members offering services to the public are eligible for review.

In Australia, the requirements for establishing a quality management system are set out in ASQC 1 (for assurance  and related services engagements) and APES 320 (for all other engagements).

In New Zealand, the requirements for establishing a quality management system are set out in PES 3 (for assurance and related services engagements) and PS 1 (for all other engagements).

The review process is designed to minimise disruption to your practice, so no special preparation is required or expected.

Once you have been selected for review, we will send you instructions outlining any actions you need to take prior to the review taking place. Completing these actions as requested will help to minimise the time and cost of your review.

Should you wish to assess the robustness of your quality management system prior to your review, we have resources that can help you.

The review process

  • Australia

    Most eligible Australian members will be subject to a full review, which is broadly conducted as follows:

    • we assign an experienced reviewer, familiar with the engagement types conducted by your practice, to conduct your review
    • you arrange a mutually convenient time for your reviewer to visit your practice
    • your reviewer examines your practice’s manuals and a selection of engagement files to assess whether appropriate quality control procedures are being implemented
    • your reviewer discusses their findings with you, resolves any outstanding issues and sends the summarised findings to Chartered Accountants ANZ
    • the summarised findings are used to prepare your review results letter, which formalises the outcomes of your review and outlines any further action necessary on your part

    A small number of Australian members are eligible for a self-assessment review. This option is available to sole practitioners who are not registered company auditors, liquidators or SMSF auditors and with fees from public practice services of less than $50,000 per annum.

  • New Zealand

    A risk based approach is applied to practice review in New Zealand. Under this approach, all members undertaking audit, assurance and regulated insolvency engagements are reviewed on a cyclical basis and all other members are reviewed on a risk basis. Further details of the New Zealand approach to practice review, what to expect and outcomes and themes of previous reviews can be found on the tools, templates and guidance page through the link above.

What happens at the end of my review?

The outcome from your review is determined by the reviewer’s findings, which are discussed with you prior to being finalised and submitted to the quality & practice review team.

The action, if any, you need to take as a result of your review is dependent on the issues noted. In rare cases, where no system of quality management is in place and/or serious non-compliance issues are noted, practices may be referred to the Quality Review Committee (AU members) or the Practice Review Advisory Group (NZ members).

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