Overview
What is Audit Shield?
Established in 2003, Accountancy Insurance developed Audit Shield – a comprehensive tax audit insurance solution that accounting firms can add to their suite of client service offerings.
Audit Shield provides for the payment of professional fees, otherwise incurred by a client, when official audits, investigations, reviews and examinations are initiated by relevant government revenue authorities in Australia, New Zealand or Canada, and your client is compelled to act or respond.
Audit Shield is offered by accounting firms as a non-compulsory, opt-in service. Only your clients who wish to be protected, pay your accounting firm to participate. On average, 25% of business clients elect to shield themselves.
Over 3,700 accounting firms utilise Audit Shield with more than 1 million businesses and individuals choosing to be protected by Audit Shield.
Why offer Audit Shield?
Often accounting firms do not recover 100% of the time it takes to respond and resolve the audit issue.
Audit Shield ensures your firm is not out of pocket and it eliminates the awkward conversation that you would otherwise need to have with your clients regarding the professional fees incurred to respond on your client’s behalf.
Being audited by a government revenue authority is stressful for you and your clients. Audit Shield is a value added service to provide reassurance to your clients that they will be OK and lets you do your job without either of you having to worry about the fees.
Your clients can decide if they prefer to have the certainty that is inherent from participating in Audit Shield.
Audit Shield + Xero
Xero Practice Manager integration and Audit Shield.
As a part of the program to continually improve the Audit Shield implementation and renewal process, we offer integration with specific accounting practice management software and the Audit Shield Online Portal (ASOP), including Xero Practice Manager.
For your accounting firm, this can mean a safer and smoother Audit Shield implementation or renewal process.
When integrating Xero Practice Manager with ASOP, client data previously extracted manually every year, will be now be linked to ASOP (after a one-time setup) - making the Audit Shield implementation or renewal process much simpler.
Benefits of Audit Shield integration with Xero Practice Manager.
After the initial setup, there will be no more manual client data extractions necessary.
Administrative changes to your client’s data are pushed directly into ASOP, meaning the ASOP database update is automatic.
Future Audit Shield data reviews will be reduced to new clients along with some exception clients only.
Getting started
Benefits of Audit Shield
Audit Shield provides several benefits to your clients and your firm, including the following:
For your clients: • Protection from unplanned professional fees resulting from government revenue authority initiated audit activity.
• Retrospective cover, so all previously lodged returns are included.
• The assurance that they are covered during a stressful situation.
For your accounting firm: • It removes the potential for disputes to arise with your clients over the cost of preparing and presenting documents for government revenue authority initiated audit activity.
• Specialist fees are included. This includes tax experts, lawyers or other specialists engaged by you in relation to an opinion or defence.
• There is no excess on the policy and no minimum claim.
• Indicates to your clients that you are proactive, by providing a solution to a potential problem for them.
• Fully supported implementation from a dedicated Account Manager, as well as ongoing support.
