Background:

The Australian Financial Services Licensee (AFSL) provides financial services to both retail and sophisticated clients. The company is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and must comply with the Corporations Act 2001 and its AFS Licence requirements. As this audit client has never been through an audit prior to obtaining their licence, the first-year audit involves helping the Licensee understand their requirements with ASIC’s RG 166 (Financial Requirements) and RG 78 (Breach Reporting), and also ensuring that the information required for the audit is obtained either from the AFS Licensee, their Accountant or Compliance Manager.

First-Year audit:

Many AFS Licensees have a number of questions during their first-year audit and we endeavour to answer any questions that help the Licensee understand better their obligations to meet ASIC requirements but also understand the audit process and required documentation needed as part of the audit.

We commence the audit process with the Licensee prior-30 June (year-end). By engaging early this gives opportunity to meet with both the Licensee’s Accountant and Compliance Manager. In many cases the Licensee’s Accountant may be new to preparing General Purpose Financial Statements Tier-2.