In response to demand from clients, accounting software firm MyWorkpapers has developed a match-making service, which will allow accounting firms that currently do in-house SMSF audits to exchange audits with other firms needing to outsource their audits.
MyWorkpapers said the service uses a distributed ledger-style approach where firms earn credit for outsourced audit files and exchange those credits for independent audit work for their own firm.
“A secure conditional settlement process is used to ensure that accounting practices receive back audit engagements equal to their commitment of work to the pool,” the software firm said.
Users will be matched with one or more candidate auditors and will be able to review and negotiate on the terms for outsourcing the SMSF audits they administer.
“At the same time, you will be matched with one or more candidate administrators that you can review and negotiate with to agree terms for you to perform the SMSF audits for the funds that they administer,” MyWorkpapers explained.
Firms that want to participate will complete a questionnaire which includes information about the number of SMSF audits they wish to exchange, what percentage of revenue the work represents, the complexity of the funds, fee expectations, preferences in terms of location and size, and a range of other questions.
Prospective matches will be introduced via email so they can negotiate directly on the service terms and conditions, it said. If firms are not successful, then they can opt out and choose to be re-matched.
So there are no ethical problems with this arrangement!! It is time that ASIC bring in a requirement that licensed auditors should be completing a minimum number of audits a year to remain licensed. It is time consuming to keep up on top of all the changes when committing 100% of your services to auditing SMSFs. It extremely difficult to believe that an auditor conducting a small number of audits each year has the knowledge and skills to ensure they are fulfilling all that is required of them.
“It extremely difficult to believe that an auditor conducting a small number of audits each year has the knowledge and skills to ensure they are fulfilling all that is required of them.” This is a judgment. Keeping on top of many things may not seem so difficult for some human beings.
I think a more practical approach could be a qualified SMSF accountant who looks after many SMSF ledgers each year which allows him/her to stay updated on knowledge and skills but only has a limited number of audits to do. I agree that SMSF audit is not that difficult if you meet the relevant hours of professional development each year.
This is looking for trouble, disappointing that SMSF providers do this nonsense