Starting Your Own Accounting Practice? Here's What to Sort Before You Open

You've decided to go independent. Maybe you've been thinking about it for years; maybe the timing just landed. Either way, the gap between deciding to open your own practice and actually opening it is wider than most accountants expect — and the list of what needs to be sorted is longer than the one you'd write for a client in the same position.

This is a practical pre-launch checklist. Not theory, not a sales pitch — the items you need to have in place before you take your first client, organised the way most accountants end up working through them.

1. Lock down your structure and registrations

Pick your business structure first. Sole trader is the simplest entry point, but check your professional body's public practice rules before you decide — some services need to sit under a registered entity. A company structure gives you limited liability and cleaner separation between personal and practice assets. Partnership makes sense if you're going in with another accountant. The choice has tax and compliance knock-on effects — advise yourself the way you'd advise a client, then make the call.

Once structure is settled, line up the paperwork:

- ABN and GST registration — GST is mandatory once you cross the threshold; most practices register from day one to claim credits

- TFN for the entity if you're not operating as a sole trader under your personal one

- Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) registration — required if you're providing tax agent or BAS agent services

- Business name registration with ASIC if you're trading under anything other than your personal name

2. Sort your practice certificate and professional body obligations

If you're a CPA Australia, CA ANZ, IPA, or ATMA member, you already know the public practice rules — but the commonly-missed bits are worth restating:

- You need a public practice certificate (or equivalent) before you can hold yourself out as a public accountant

- Your CPD obligations don't pause while you set up — they keep running

- Each body has its own quality review regime you'll eventually sit through

Get the certificate application moving early. It's not something you want to discover is still pending on the morning your first client signs.

3. Get your insurance stack in place

Professional indemnity insurance is the one non-negotiable. CPA Australia, CA ANZ, IPA, and ATMA all require PI cover for public practice members — it's a compliance condition of practising, not a nice-to-have.

When you're choosing a provider for the first time, the things that actually matter are the policy wording (can you read it without a broker interpreting?), the retroactive date, and what happens when a claim lands on your desk. One thing worth understanding is what kind of entity sits behind your policy. Some PI providers are commercial insurers. Others — Abacus being one of them — are mutuals: not-for-profit, member-owned, run by accountants. That structural difference matters at renewal and at claim time, because surplus goes back to members rather than shareholders, and claims are handled through an accountant-led committee rather than a generic corporate process.

Beyond PI, consider:

- Cyber insurance — the case for this has shifted from optional to near-essential over the past two years. If you're holding client records, tax file numbers, and financial data, a cyber incident escalates quickly

- Public liability — relevant if you'll meet clients at your premises or theirs

4. Set up the client systems you'll actually use

Most new practices over-invest in software that sounds impressive and under-invest in the day-to-day tools. At minimum, decide on:

- Your practice management system — the one that tracks jobs, deadlines, and client records

- Your client-facing accounting software preference; you don't have to standardise on one, but you do need to know what you'll recommend and support

- Secure document exchange (email attachments aren't it)

- A system for recording time, even if you're fixed-fee — you need the data to price future engagements properly

Keep it simple for the first six months. You'll change things once real client work shows you the gaps.

5. Write your engagement and risk procedures before your first client

The temptation is to wait until you have a client, then borrow a letter from somewhere. Don't. Before you open:

- Draft your engagement letter template — scope, fees, responsibilities, dispute process, termination terms

- Set your fee schedule and decide how you'll handle scope creep

- Write a short risk and file-review procedure, even if it's one page — future-you will thank present-you when a complex engagement lands

- If you're offering services caught by AML/CTF obligations, understand your requirements before you're offered the work

Ready to start, not ready to stall

The practices that launch cleanly are the ones that treated setup like a compliance job, not a creative one. Work through the list, tick things off, and give yourself a start date that reflects reality rather than optimism.

If you're working through the PI piece and want to talk to someone who understands small and sole practices specifically, Speak to a Specialist.