SMSF administration service provider Class Limited has launched a new tool to help SMSF accountants find third-party auditors to assist both parties to comply with changes to auditor independence requirements.
Accountants using the tool will be required to enter their details and the number of SMSFs they wish to have audited, and subsequently a request for a quote can be sent to any or all of Class’s auditor partners.
The current audit partners are BDO, Super Know How and Unison, with a number of others expected to come on board in the coming months.
Class stated the three firms connect directly to its product suite and have a high level of data integration, which will provide an “efficient end-to-end process to their clients”, and together have the potential to service a large portion of the SMSF audit market.
Class chief executive Andrew Russell said: “By partnering with a provider that can integrate with their own technology systems, they [an accounting business] can ensure that the relocation of the audit work is as streamlined as possible and as efficient as it can be.
“It will allow accounting practices to make the decision to work with an audit partner based on automation through technology integrations, in addition to other factors, such as price and agreed service levels.”
The move by Class follows the introduction of the restructured APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, which now requires all SMSF audits to be conducted by an independent auditor and blocks accounting practices from providing accounting and audit services to the same SMSF client.
The standards were first slated to start in mid-2020, but were pushed back to mid-2021 and will apply for the 2022 financial year, with estimates around 200,000 SMSFs, or 30 per cent to 40 per cent of all funds, will be required to fund a new auditor.
