New CPA Australia Quality Review Program is rolled out

This article was current at the time of publication.

Members who hold a Public Practice Certificate with CPA Australia are subject to a review of the member’s compliance to professional and ethical standards.

CPA Australia has overhauled its former regime after members told the organisation they wanted us to assist them in an improved member experience as part of this process.  

Following on from this feedback, CPA Australia has worked with members to remove the obligation-heavy process with an outcome that better suits members to facilitate their obligations as public practitioners. 

After 18 months’ intensive member research and testing, the CPA Australia Best Practice Program moved out of the beta phase earlier this year.

The new, improved program - a requirement for all Public Practice Certificate holders – aims to support you and help you build even more sustainable businesses, rather than just focusing on compliance with professional and ethical standards. 

An easy-to-use portal and program features that support your needs are two of the reasons the revised offering is generating positive feedback, notes CPA Australia’s Senior Manager Professional Standards, Melissa Read CPA.

“The new program includes more tailored assessments to suit practitioners’ businesses and a focus on resources that fit a broader set of business objectives,” Read says.

The program is designed to help your practice by:

• Utilising technology to reduce the time spent by you in the process
• Facilitating peer-to-peer assessments
• Providing support plans to members
• Providing mentoring for new Certificate holders.

Time-saving tech solutions

The new, dedicated portal with a three-way dashboard, serving as a communication tool and a document-sharing portal, is simple to operate. 

Virtual assessment processes have also been refined to enable document sharing from a variety of popular platforms such as TeamViewer. 

Post-assessment, you can make comments, via the dashboard, regarding findings and actions that are rated as low, medium or high, based on the level of urgency to implement corrective actions. 

After the assessment is finished you will be provided with ongoing support plans linked to a variety of resources and tools that are designed to help future-proof your practice.