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FY2023 Practice Protection Plans

What is different in our latest practice protection plans?

If you just want to see our New Practice Protection Plans, you may scroll down to the bottom of the page. There are six key changes. You will find our new plans after the explanation on the six key changes.

1st Change: Choose Between Practice-Wide Controls vs. Audit Engagement Quality

CPA Practices may now choose between consultancy on improving the Practice’s Firm-wide controls, and Audit Quality. Firm-Wide controls including policies and procedures that are under the implementation of the newly effective standards on Quality Management (i.e. HKSQM 1 & 2). Our consultancy services would help you tailor a new quality management policy manual that governs the following:

  • Practices that demonstrate the Firm’s System of Quality Management
  • Roles and responsibilities of senior management responsible for the Firm’s Quality Management
  • Optimal reporting lines and governance structure
  • Maintaining the Firm’s ethical requirements
  • Factors to consider in Client Acceptance and Re-Acceptance of Engagements
  • Workload Monitoring and Demonstration of Supervision and File Review for High Risk Engagements
  • Management of Human Resources and Assessing Service Providers
  • Risk Assessment and Evaluation of the System of Quality Management
  • Monitoring Review Procedures, Remedial Actions and Performing Root-Cause Analyses2. Design AML controls and perform monitoring on both CPA & TCSP Licensee

On the other hand, if your Practice is currently short-staffed, or you have the leads to larger-sized audit engagements, but your Practice does not have a technical consultant to help oversee and improve audit quality, you may choose one of our engagement quality protection plans that aims to improve your audit engagement quality (i.e. Plans A and C).

2nd Change: Design AML controls and perform monitoring on both CPA & TCSP Licensees

Our Firm-Wide approach will also understand how your CPA Practice works with your affiliated TCSP Licensee in sharing confidential client information, and / or the ways to maintain independence and objectivity when non-assurance services are also provided by the TCSP Licensee, and / or related consulting companies, to the audit clients of the CPA Practice. We will understand and advise on practical solutions in segregating the work and streamline administrative duties on AML sanction screening, customer due diligence procedures and service fee billings procedures.

We may also consult on how your CPA practice should work with sub-contractors, affiliates, network firms, and business agents, which may indeed refer clients to your CPA practice, or assist in engagement performance duties.

Our Firm-Wide protection plan will also help to tailor an AML Procedures Policy Manual and advise on cost-effective ways to improve documentation on ongoing sanction screening procedures, so that your Practice may be ready for any unpredicted regulatory visits from the AFRC, or the Companies Registry.

3rd Change: Tailor Your Quality Management Policy Manual

The first step is to draft a comprehensive and easy-to-comply quality management policy manual. The Practice should be able to comply with the manual with ease and fully understand under what circumstances should each of the appendices be completed.

Our consultancy service will guide you through completing the appendices and you may submit the completed appendices for our ongoing policy monitor review (OPM). Our protection plan on firm-wide controls will include a comprehensive one-to-one session and a tailored timetable on when your practice should complete the each of the documentation to demonstrate your firm’s full compliance. Following, we will then perform an annual review of your compliance as a part of ongoing monitoring of your compliance work.

4th Change: Hands-On Consultancy with On-Site Planning Meeting and Cold File Reviews

In order to ensure remedial actions have been effectively taken up by engagement team members, your practice may wish to have a stand-by technical consultant to help plan out your larger and more complex audit engagements. Our consultants can help to coordinate your strategic audit planning meetings, and list out the to-do actions and points that your engagement team should take into consideration in order to improve the coming year’s annual audits. We would recommend in involving us early in the engagement prior to audit field work so we may help to identify any audit and accounting issues in advance, and to improve audit efficiency.

We may also help to act as technical reviewers and review your audit working papers of your selected audit engagements as a separate pair of eyes in identifying audit deficiencies. These file reviews may be performed at any one of the following stages:

  1. i) before or after audit planning is completed
  2. ii) prior to issuance of draft financial statements to the audit clients,

iii) prior to archive due date of audited financial statements, and / or

  1. iv) after audit files have been archived as a quality management procedure in addition to the 3-year cyclical completed file monitoring reviews
  2. v) when performing staff performance appraisals

Plans B and C have included 8 and 16 hours of consultancy involvement on engagement level work. 8 hours is typically sufficient for a smaller engagements adopting SME-FRS / HKFRS for PE, and larger audit engagements using HKFRS / IFRS / Group audits / Regulated entities may require up to 16 hours of consultancy. Any unused hours may be used for cold file reviews / ongoing monitoring of your engagement performance work.

5th Change: Free Year-Round Training on Audit and AML Compliance

We will release at least 4 sessions of free online training on hot Audit topics and AML compliance procedures, and these training sessions will be pre-recorded and accessible by all of your practice’s viewing and may act as part of your induction / orientation training for newly hired employees. These videos will point out common deficiencies identified in AFRC inspections, and include on-screen demonstration with practical solutions provided. They will be released 4 times over 1 year, or approximately once in every quarter of the year.

These training are all inclusive in any of the three new practice protection plans. Ongoing training helps your Practice to promote a culture that encourages high audit quality and standardize your expectations on ongoing AML compliance, and all CPA practices are encouraged to provide in-house training to audit employees to ensure that they are competent to carry out their daily duties, as required by the AMLO and the HKSQM 1.

6th Change: Partnership with iFinGate with Significant Discounts on Annual Subscription Plans

In 2022, EQC reached out to various reputable AML service providers that currently provide sanction screening and client on-boarding services. We performed reviews on their services and their documentation, with an objective in identifying the single system that is most suitable for the needs of CPA practices and TCSP licensees in complying with the AMLO.

Our conclusion was that iFinGate is the most cost efficient and most effective service provider in compliance with the AMLO and the requirements set out by the  AFRC and the Companies Registry. Our partnership with iFinGate began in late 2022, and we now exclusively offer significant discounts to our EQC existing clients in our partner’s subscription services with discounts up to 56% off annual subscription fees. Save as much as HK$25,500 per year in annual subscription fees on AML services. Simply engage EQC on any of the 3 Protection Plans and inquire us for further information on our partner’s discounted price plans.

Our review was based on the following 8 key parameters:

1) User friendliness of the interface

2) Languages used by the system for sanction name-screening searches

3) Size and source of database for sanction screening

4) Cost competitiveness of subscription services and government subsidies

5) Client on-boarding services and effectiveness of risk-based assessments

6) Client and Technical support

7) Management and Location of Support team

8) Documentation retained for compliance with regulators’ requirements

Plan A – Practice-Wide Controls

Plan A includes all of the following 6 services:

  1. Monitoring review (1 year’s OPM): Valued at HK$5,000
  1. Drafting of Quality Management Policy Manual and consultancy on documents demonstrating compliance (New): Valued at HK$10,000
  1. Drafting of AML Procedures Manuals for CPA Practice & TCSP Licensee and consultancy on documents demonstrating compliance: Valued at HK$20,000
  1. Consultancy service on AFRC Inspections: Valued at HK$5,000
  1. Year-Round Training provided by EQC Training: Free
  1. Annual Subscription to AML Services by iFinGate (up to 56% off). Inquire for more subscription plans!

All services valued at HK$40,000

Plan B – Engagement Level Reviews

Plan B includes all of the following 6 services:

  1. Monitoring review (1 CFM): Valued at HK$25,000
  1. Audit Program 2.0 for 10 Audit Engagements: Valued at HK$5,000
  1. Multiple Audit Engagement Technical File Review & Consultancy Work 8 hours: Valued at HK$20,000
  1. Consultancy service on AFRC Inspections: Valued at HK$5,000
  1. Year-Round Training provided by EQC Training: Free
  1. Annual Subscription to AML Services by iFinGate (up to 56% off). Inquire for more subscription plans!

All services valued at HK$55,000

Plan C – Total Protection Plan

Plan C includes all of the following 9 services:

  1. Monitoring Review (1 Year’s OPM + 1 CFM): Valued at HK$30,000
  1. Audit Program 2.0 for 100 Audit Engagements: Valued at HK$20,000
  1. Drafting of Quality Management Policy Manual and consultancy on documents demonstrating compliance (New): Valued at HK$10,000
  1. Drafting of AML Procedures Manuals for CPA Practice & TCSP Licensee and consultancy on documents demonstrating compliance: Valued at HK$20,000
  1. AML Mock Review on TCSP Licensee and CPA Practice: Valued at HK$20,000 (Not in Plans A & B)
  1. Multiple Audit Engagement Technical File Review & Consultancy Work 16 hours: Valued at HK$40,000
  1. Consultancy service on AFRC Inspections: Valued at HK$10,000
  1. Year-Round Training provided by EQC Training: Free
  1. Annual Subscription to AML Services by iFinGate (up to 56% off). Inquire for more subscription plans!

All services valued at HK$150,000

note 1: Payment Terms: 50% deposit in advance and balance payable upon completion of services. Promotional price is only applicable for engagements with 6 months to complete services. Engagements requiring services with deadlines on reporting to the regulators are charged at original prices.

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