How to prepare your firm
If you have a visit booked
If your firm has been contacted by the Monitoring Unit and an ACCA Quality Checked visit is imminent, you can prepare for the visit by reviewing your existing quality control procedures and where the firm has several departments, ensuring you are familiar with the day to day operational controls that are in place.You should not try to set up new procedures in anticipation of what might be required. If you do, the systems you have very recently put in place will not have had time to be established and therefore you will be unable to demonstrate from a review of the firm's work that the control procedures actually work. You might also find that some of these new systems were not necessary. However, you should prepare the information requested in the leaflet sent to you with the visit booking letter.
If you are considering requesting a visit
ACCA will normally carry out an ACCA Quality Checked review whenever it undertakes a routine statutory monitoring visit. These visits are mandatory, although firms may choose whether or not to implement the recommendations made. If a firm wants an ACCA Quality Checked visit but is either not subject to statutory monitoring by ACCA or has had a recent satisfactory monitoring visit it may request an ACCA Quality Checked review. However, before you request a visit you should read all the information in this guide. In particular, look at the Principles, Standards and detailed quality controls to give you a good idea of the standard required to qualify for the ACCA Quality Checked mark.
Our self-diagnostic guide and checklist is now available to help firms to assess whether they are ready for a visit.
Because visits are allocated to compliance officers for several months in advance a request for a visit may not result in a visit being booked for four to six months. Any quality control procedures you have implemented in your preparation for a visit will therefore have had time to be established and the files will demonstrate whether these procedures are successfully operating or not.
Contacts
If you have any queries or wish to request a visit you can email ACCA at qualitychecked@accaglobal.com.