A Professional Indemnity claim being brought against your accounting firm can significantly damage your reputation – whether the allegations you are facing are proven to be true or not. Unfortunately, there are a number of situations that can instigate such a claim. The following areas can all pose a risk to your business, and increase…

The easiest way to think about businesses is in mechanical terms: what they sell, where they sell from, how much they sell things for, and in some cases who is doing the selling also matters. These are the basics – not nearly enough for a business to be healthy and growing. For a long time…

Multiply the number of client records you hold in your IT system by $300. The figure you come up with could be close to the cost you if you were a victim of a cyber-attack. Plus… If you lost access to, or security of, this data: Your staff would be unable to perform their work…

Over time as the way we do business has changed, so has the space in which people work. Where the typing pool may have once been a thriving hub of productivity, today the work of tens, even hundreds can be performed by one person with access to the right software and equipment. As work becomes…

The Australian industrial relations system is complex with layers of regulations that apply differently depending on the business. The first step is always to check whether the workplace or employee in question is covered by the national system (Fair Work Act) or state system. The Fair Work website provides a list of covered workplaces for…

That was the heading of a story on National Nine News last Friday. The story describes how an employer, a fast food operator, underpaid two workers and failed to provide them with the required meal and rest breaks. Underpayment and worker exploitation has featured heavily in the news in recent months, tarnishing the names and…

On occasions accountants may be asked to give, in effect, a credit report on a client to a supplier of the client. Providing Reports to Third Parties The claims committee is aware of a situation where an accountant, after obtaining authority from the client, stated too positively that the client would be effecting payment for…

From time to time accountants are asked to value shares in private companies. Explain the Methodology When undertaking this task the accountants should always explain in their report the methodology that has been adopted and any assumptions that have been made. It is worth pointing out that much depends on the circumstances of the buyer,…

It has come to the attention of the Claims committee that there are a number of issues that are affected by the continually changing income tax legislation that warrant obtaining expert opinion in particular specialised areas. Due to the changing income tax legislation, and the introduction of new legislation, it is extremely difficult for practitioners…

The Abacus Claims Committee has become aware of the following situations: Arranging Loan Finance Accountants can find themselves in difficulty if they are arranging loan finance from one client to another of the accountant’s clients. Apart from possible professional indemnity claim implications, there is the question of whether such activity by the accountant forms part…