The short answer
Professional services compliance is mostly about the person holding the licence: tax agent and BAS agent registration with the Tax Practitioners Board, CPA or CA ANZ membership and its CPD, real estate licence classes with NSW Fair Trading and their annual CPD, professional indemnity insurance as a condition of all of them, and trust account audits with fixed lodgement dates. Beside that sits the client deadline calendar and the work-in-progress that nobody bills until quarter end.
Registrations and CPD
Tax agents and BAS agents renew TPB registration (currently annually) and must meet the TPB's continuing professional education requirement, a yearly minimum plus a three-year total; CPA Australia and CA ANZ set their own CPD hours, also over a triennium. NSW real estate agents hold Class 1 or Class 2 licences (or a certificate of registration for assistants) with annual CPD set by NSW Fair Trading, and a licensee-in-charge must be nominated for every office. Consultants without a statutory licence still carry PI insurance, business name renewals (every one or three years) and any industry accreditation with a date. Dated items: each registration's renewal date, CPD hours logged against the current period, PI certificate of currency, and the licensee-in-charge nomination.
Trust accounts and audits
A real estate trust account in NSW must be audited annually with the audit lodged with Fair Trading by the statutory date (currently within three months of the 30 June year end). Solicitors' trust accounts are audited on the Law Society's timetable. Accountants handling client money under a trust arrangement have their own obligations. A missed audit lodgement is a licence matter, not a paperwork matter.
Client deadlines
BAS quarters, income tax lodgement dates by client type, ASIC annual reviews, super guarantee dates, payroll tax, FBT, and for real estate the lease renewals, rent reviews and inspection cycles across a rent roll. Every one of these lives in someone's head or in the practice software, and the risk is the client that was added last month and never made it into the calendar.
Work in progress
The second leak. Time recorded but not billed, jobs finished but not invoiced, engagement letters not signed before work started. For a firm the board's most useful line is WIP by client and age, next to invoices outstanding by age.
Where it usually slips
A BAS agent registration that lapsed while the principal was on leave. CPD hours short at the end of the triennium with three months to make them up. The trust audit lodged late because the auditor was booked late. A client whose lodgement date was on a sticky note. Twelve thousand dollars of finished work not invoiced because the job was never marked complete.
What the register and the board hold
The register: one row per person per registration and CPD period, PI and other insurances, trust audit dates, licensee nominations, and a separate client deadline sheet that generates the month's due list. The board: lodgements due this week by client, WIP by age, debtors by age, cash and outgoings, and the firm's own compliance warnings. The morning check lists what is due today and what was due yesterday and isn't done.
Where a spreadsheet stops being enough
A register plus a deadline sheet in Sheets or Excel serves a firm up to about ten staff. Practice management platforms (Xero Practice Manager, Karbon, and for real estate PropertyMe or similar) hold client deadlines and jobs; the register sits beside them for the firm's own compliance and reads their exports for the board. Past ten staff or three offices, the register belongs inside the practice platform.
Quick answers
When is a NSW real estate trust account audit due?
Annually, lodged with NSW Fair Trading within three months of the 30 June year end; a late lodgement is a licence matter.
How is CPD measured for tax agents?
The Tax Practitioners Board measures continuing professional education over a three-year period; CPA Australia and CA ANZ also use a triennium.
What is the biggest money leak in a small firm?
Work in progress that is done but not billed. WIP by client and age, next to debtors by age, belongs on the board.
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Written by Christian Stewart, Stewart Systems, Wollongong. Published 2026-09-29. This is a records-and-flags view for business owners; it is not legal, WHS, food safety or insurance advice, and requirements change, so check the regulator named above for the current rule.
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