AML for accounting practices

Describe the work before deciding scope

AUSTRAC provides an accountant industry page and detailed professional designated-service guidance. Those sources make the actual work the starting point for a scope review. A practice can offer different services to the same client, and a general label such as accounting does not explain each one. This page helps organise that review. It does not treat every accounting task as a designated service or decide the legal position of an individual engagement. Read the current service conditions and relevant legislation before reaching that conclusion.

Sources: AUSTRAC: Industry guidance index; AUSTRAC: Professional transaction services; Federal Register of Legislation: Section 6, including table 6 and subsections 6(6), 6(6A) and 6(6B).

Directly advancing a transaction

For the real-estate professional service, the guidance distinguishes work that directly advances a transaction from advice about its consequences. Preparing transfer documents can advance the transaction. Advice about the financial consequences of withdrawing from it may not.

The distinction is useful for accountants because transaction-related work is not one undivided category. Describe the specific assistance and when it occurs. The legal test must still be applied to the actual instructions. The fact that advice concerns a property does not settle the service classification.

Source: AUSTRAC: Real estate services: designated services; starting to provide a designated service.

Break an engagement into actual tasks

A service inventory is more useful when it describes actions rather than product names. Consider what staff do in a company setup package, transaction support engagement or client-money arrangement. Preparing material that directly advances a specified outcome can differ from advice that merely influences a client’s choice. AUSTRAC applies this distinction to the relevant professional-service items.

For money or property, examine the actual authority and actions rather than relying on the label trust account. Ask who can initiate, approve, hold, redirect or otherwise control the relevant property, and why. Use the applicable designated-service wording and conditions. Access to information and control over a transaction are not necessarily the same thing.

Source: AUSTRAC: Key terms and principles; Assisting or otherwise acting for or on behalf of a person when providing the professional services covered by items 1–4 and 6; Starting to provide a designated service; Receiving, holding, controlling or managing a person’s property; Creating or restructuring a body corporate or legal arrangement; Act section 6(5B).

• Professional advice and transaction assistance

Invented example: a familiar client requests new work

A fictional practice lists three tasks for one client. These are historical financial statements, advice on possible structures, and documents to create the selected entity. The reviewer describes the deliverable for each task and compares it with the relevant service item. The fact that the tasks are billed together does not give them one automatic scope result.

The practice then records when the client authorised the new work and when staff would start advancing the selected outcome. If the task falls within a designated service, the team needs the applicable customer due diligence (CDD) and program steps at the correct time. It cannot assume that an old tax file contains all the current information needed.

If an external formation provider prepares part of the work, the practice records what it does itself and what the provider does. The service analysis follows those facts. An invoice from a provider is not proof that the practice has no regulated role or that every CDD matter has been established.

Sources: AUSTRAC: Industry guidance index; AUSTRAC: Professional transaction services; Federal Register of Legislation: Section 6, including table 6 and subsections 6(6), 6(6A) and 6(6B); AUSTRAC: Key terms and principles; Assisting or otherwise acting for or on behalf of a person when providing the professional services covered by items 1–4 and 6; Starting to provide a designated service; Receiving, holding, controlling or managing a person’s property; Creating or restructuring a body corporate or legal arrangement; Act section 6(5B).

Clarify who gathers information

The example practice assigns a person to request customer information and a reviewer to resolve uncertainty. It names who decides when work can continue. If an outside provider supplies identity information, record what it supplied and what the practice must still assess. Outsourcing work does not transfer the practice’s responsibility for its AML/CTF obligations. Recording those remaining tasks helps prevent staff from treating a file as complete merely because a document was uploaded. The actual program should follow the relevant current requirements.

Sources: AUSTRAC: Industry guidance index; AUSTRAC: Professional transaction services; Federal Register of Legislation: Section 6, including table 6 and subsections 6(6), 6(6A) and 6(6B); AUSTRAC: Your responsibilities when outsourcing.

Review the service inventory

A practical periodic discussion can compare the recorded service list with recent engagements. Ask whether new offerings or informal assistance are missing from the list. Use a few actual service descriptions, with appropriate confidentiality, rather than abstract labels. Record changes and assign follow-up to a named person. This proposed check supports a clearer scope map but does not confirm compliance. For the next steps, read the related program, customer due diligence and reporting guides.

Sources: AUSTRAC: Industry guidance index; AUSTRAC: Professional transaction services; Federal Register of Legislation: Section 6, including table 6 and subsections 6(6), 6(6A) and 6(6B).

Use the client file without overclaiming its value

Existing records can be useful evidence. A financial statement may explain business activity. It may not establish the current authority of the person giving instructions. A company extract may identify shareholders at a point in time. It may not reveal every ultimate controller. Record what each item supports and the date to which it relates.

For a proposed internal check, compare the service inventory with a few recent changes in client instructions. Look for work described as a small favour or included informally in another engagement. Assign any uncertain classification to a reviewer and update the operating instruction once resolved. The purpose is to find actual work that broad service labels can hide, not to treat all accounting activity as regulated.

Source: AUSTRAC: Key terms and principles; Assisting or otherwise acting for or on behalf of a person when providing the professional services covered by items 1–4 and 6; Starting to provide a designated service; Receiving, holding, controlling or managing a person’s property; Creating or restructuring a body corporate or legal arrangement; Act section 6(5B).