Reducing the Cost of Compliance: Improving Compliance Across the Board
This is one of a series of articles published by Business Fitness on the steps to reducing the cost of a compliance job. For more articles on this topic, head to the compliance category.
It is important to note that compliance work is not restricted to complying with accounting, tax and GST requirements – there’s also the ongoing work involved in dealing with matters such as other ATP correspondence, ASIC requirements, workers’ compensation matters and payroll tax. The time involved in carrying out this work translates into cost – both for the accounting practice and the client.
However, these costs can be reduced by reviewing the accounting practice’s internal processes and discussing with the client which matters they themselves wish to deal with as opposed to those matters which they would like the accounting practice to handle.
In regards to internal processes, the accounting practice should consider how they could automate (and therefore improve the efficiency of) their processes by using OCR software that scans, reads and stores standard, frequently received correspondence and forms.
When it comes to the division of tasks between accountant and client, one particular matter to consider is whether the accounting practice is to be responsible for being the registered office of a company on behalf of a client. Being the registered office involves maintaining copies of deeds, constitutions and other permanent statutory documents – which can be costly in terms of time and space. The accounting practice should consider whether the cost is worth the reward, and discuss this with the client accordingly.
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