Visits by ACCA
Who conducts a visit?
ACCA Quality Checked visits are conducted by ACCA compliance officers and take place alongside routine monitoring visits where possible. Compliance officers are qualified accountants who have previously worked in practice at either manager or partner level. They visit numerous firms of all sizes in the course of their work and this gives them the advantage of seeing how different firms tackle their quality control issues. They can call on this extensive experience to advise and guide firms on practical controls and procedures.
What happens at a visit?
At an ACCA Quality Checked visit the firm's procedures are discussed, reviewed and assessed. The visit has three stages although these will not always be treated as distinct sections. For example advice may be given during the initial discussion instead of at, or in addition to, the closing discussion.
Discussion of procedures and systems
The visit will start with a fact finding discussion with the principals. This will cover all types of work carried out, the client profile and any plans for the future. The purpose of this discussion is to allow the compliance officer to tailor any advice on improving systems to suit each individual firm. For example firms that are growing rapidly will need different controls from those that have a stable long standing client base and firms with several partners and many employees will need different controls from sole practices with only one or two employees.
The compliance officer will then ask the principals about the procedures they use when carrying out work for clients and the way in which that work is controlled. This will cover all the areas of professional work undertaken by the firm. Each firm will have different ways of doing things and compliance officers do not expect every firm to adopt the same processes. The procedures a firm operates will very much depend on the size, nature and structure of that firm and therefore advice will be tailored to suit each case.
Review of records and client files
Once the compliance officer has found out how the firm operates the next stage of the visit is a review of the firm's records. This will cover an inspection of the filing system, IT systems and planning boards, diaries or other reminder systems as well as a review of a selection of client files. The purpose of this review is to confirm that the systems and quality controls described by the principals in the initial discussion work in practice.
Assessment of quality controls and recommendations
The final stage of the visit is an assessment of quality controls in operation . The compliance officer will identify any weaknesses in the firm's systems and explain any risks that the firm faces as a result. He or she will also recommend changes to procedures that the firm could introduce in order to minimise these risks. This guidance will also include ways in which the firm could operate more efficiently to enhance the service it provides to clients and improve its profitability. The compliance officer will also tell the firm how far its quality control procedures meet best practice and what it needs to do in order to implement best practice.
Where firms fall short of the standard set by the ACCA Quality Checked scheme they can take advantage of the advice and guidance given by the compliance officer at, and following a visit in order to achieve this standard. However, the purpose of the visit is to improve standards generally and firms who already meet the standard for ACCA Quality Checked should still find that the compliance officer can make useful recommendations. Firms are encouraged to raise their standards to the level required to be awarded the ACCA Quality Checked mark and certificate and those who do not meet the standard will be allowed up to one year after the visit to make improvements and reach the standard for this award.
Compliance with ACCA's Rule of Professional Conduct or Global Practising Regulations is covered during monitoring rather than ACCA Quality Checked visits. However, where breaches of these rules are found during the course of an ACCA Quality Checked visit, appropriate action will be required to rectify these breaches before a firm can be eligible for the ACCA Quality Checked mark and certificate.
What happens after a visit?
Report
Following an ACCA Quality Checked visit the compliance officer will issue a report to the firm. This will summarise the weaknesses and risks identified during the visit and the recommendations made for improvements. It will also show which improvements are key if the firm wants to obtain ACCA Quality Checked.
Confirming improvements
Some firms will need to make only minor changes to their procedures in order to achieve the standards for ACCA Quality Checked while others will have to make more wide ranging changes and implement some new procedures. In all cases firms must demonstrate that improvements have been made before ACCA Quality Checked can be awarded.
Where only minor changes are needed the firm may be able to confirm that it has made these changes by letter and by sending any relevant documentation to the compliance officer. In other cases the compliance officer will need to re-visit the firm to see the changes in operation. The report will detail what can be confirmed by post and what will require a re-visit.
In all cases firms have up to one year from the date of the visit to implement recommended key improvements and provide confirmation of their operation if it wants to be awarded ACCA Quality Checked . This includes arranging a re-visit where one is required. At the re-visit the compliance officer will normally look only at the operation of new procedures introduced to meet recommendations in the visit report. It will therefore be much shorter than the original visit.
The ACCA Quality Checked mark and certificate
Once firms have achieved the standard they will qualify for the ACCA Quality Checked mark and certificate.Once firms have been awarded an ACCA Quality Checked mark and certificate, their quality assurance procedures will be reviewed on a routine basis to confirm continued entitlement. We recommend that you also carry out an annual review using the self-diagnostic guide to maintain your standard between visits.
Mutual recognition with other accountancy bodies
Some firms have principals who are members of other professional accountancy bodies who also have similar schemes to ACCA Quality Checked . To avoid these firms being burdened with general practice quality assurance visits from more than one professional body ACCA has reciprocal agreements in place with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland (ICAS). Firms that have recently been visited by the one professional body will not be visited by another provided that they supply a copy of the report on the visit to the other body.
ACCA firms visited by ICAS or ICAEW will be exempt from an ACCA Quality Checked visit but will not be eligible for the award of ACCA Quality Checked .
Quotes from firms that have received QCS visits in the UK and Ireland
"Overall the review was practical and reasonable. Most of the issues raised were those of which we were aware and had intended to address even without a visit. However, such a visit does crystallise these matters and acts as a catalyst to ensure they are dealt with" 23/2/05
"These QA visits are very useful, particularly to small practices who are very much on their own and can provide essential recommendations to partners and principles" 14/5/05
"The recent visit has focussed the practice on the areas that require improvement. It also provided us with assurance that the majority of our work and procedures are of an acceptable standard" 8/6/05
"More useful than I thought it would be. Helpful to have an independent eye examine procedures and systems" 15/6/05
"Very helpful and stressed tailoring solutions to particular practice size/circumstances, which I think is a good approach" 10/8/05