Successful Practice Inspection - Guidance and Tips

For many firms, it’s the time when they are awaiting the letter notifying them of their upcoming Provincial practice inspection. For others with inspections in 2023, it’s about ensuring that the planned monitoring activities and action plans from internal or Provincial inspections are executed. According to CPA Ontario, the goal of an inspection is to identify areas where an office has failed to maintain prescribed professional standards set out in the CPA Canada Handbook and the CPA Ontario Member’s Handbook, through an assessment of quality controls and a review of current assurance and compilation engagement files. Preparing early for an inspection often has a significant impact on how smoothly the inspection runs and helps avoid the stress of last-minute scrambling to assemble the firm’s manuals, reports, and files for inspection.

This 60-minute session will cover:

• An overview of the inspection process
• An overview of the key elements of the firm’s quality management process that will be inspected, which includes:
  
  • Firm’s Quality Management Manual
  • Evidence that policies are operating and effective
  • On-going or annual policy monitoring
  • Cyclical or completed file monitoring
  • The role of the monitor and the managing partner
• Key areas that require planning
• Common deficiencies and areas to watch out for
• Managing the actual inspection and response, i.e., action plan, to CPAO.