Knowledge
Email Management for Accounting Firms
Email management for accounting firms should use documented, shared workflows with assigned ownership, monitoring and escalation, so client communications are visible and auditable rather than held in personal inboxes. For Australian public practices, that approach supports the risk-management and quality-management policies, procedures, documentation and personnel communication described in APES standards.
- How email fits a firm’s risk management framework
- What quality management requires firms to document
- How should an accounting firm organise email work?
- Where DeskMate can reduce repetitive email handling
How email fits a firm’s risk management framework
Email should be treated as a communication channel within the firm’s risk management framework, not merely as an individual productivity tool. APES 325 requires public practices to establish and maintain a framework that identifies, assesses and manages key organisational risks, with policies, procedures and a monitoring process that keeps the framework relevant and effective.
CPA Australia’s APES 325 guidance says the standard was issued in December 2011 and revised in October 2015, December 2017 and September 2019. Members in public practice in Australia were required to incorporate appropriate amendments to their risk management frameworks by 1 January 2020.
The standard identifies technology risks, including cyber security, among the organisational risks a framework may cover. A firm can therefore consider where client messages arrive, who can access them, whether requests are visible to the team and how unresolved communications are identified during monitoring.
That does not mean every email needs identical handling. A newsletter, a request for a meeting, a client complaint and correspondence about engagement scope carry different operational consequences. A documented workflow gives personnel a consistent way to recognise messages requiring attention without claiming that inbox rules alone satisfy every professional obligation.
CPA Australia’s 31 January 2025 practice-management article reports Peter Knight FCPA’s 2025 goal of spending more time with the firm’s “Top 20 clients”. That figure measures 20 priority client relationships for the year, and it illustrates why a practice may want important communication visible beyond one staff member’s personal inbox.
What quality management requires firms to document
For non-assurance services, APES 320 requires firms to document policies and procedures addressing the elements of their system of quality management and communicate them to personnel. An email workflow can support that documentation by setting out ownership, information handling, escalation and review, while the firm remains responsible for designing controls appropriate to its circumstances.
CPA Australia’s APES 320 summary says firms had to incorporate appropriate amendments by 1 January 2023 to establish a system of quality management.
- Governance and leadership
- Professional standards
- Acceptance and continuance of client relationships and specific engagements
- Resources
- Engagement performance
- Information and communication
- Monitoring and remediation
The seven-element framework makes information and communication a defined quality-management area rather than an afterthought. It also requires documentation as evidence that the system operates, so a firm should be able to show personnel the agreed process rather than rely solely on informal expectations about who replies.
APES 320 says ultimate responsibility for the system should be assumed by the chief executive officer, managing partner or managing board of partners. If operational responsibility is assigned, the person or people need appropriate experience, knowledge, influence, authority and sufficient time for the role.
For audit and assurance practices, CPA Australia explains that the AuASB-issued ASQM 1 required quality-management systems by 15 December 2022. The guidance describes the revised standards as introducing “a risk-based approach to quality management”, which supports considering communication risks in the context of each firm’s services and circumstances.
How should an accounting firm organise email work?
An accounting firm should define where client messages are received, who owns the first review, when a request becomes tracked work and how exceptions are escalated. These decisions turn correspondence into an observable process, while allowing the firm to tailor its approach to its clients, staffing, services and documented risk and quality-management arrangements.
A practical review can begin by mapping the points where email creates repetitive administrative work. Shared addresses for functions such as accounts, payroll, BAS or administration may help a team see incoming requests, but the relevant control is the agreed process for allocating and following up work rather than any particular software brand.
- Identify the shared or controlled mailbox where each type of client communication is received.
- Assign a person or role to review and allocate the request.
- Record the work in the practice’s chosen system when it needs action or follow-up.
- Review exceptions, unresolved items and recurring communication issues through the firm’s monitoring process.
This sequence is a workflow design approach, not a substitute for professional judgement or a universal compliance checklist. A firm should document the process it adopts, communicate it to relevant personnel and review whether it remains adequate within its own risk and quality-management framework.
CPA Australia quotes Peter Knight FCPA on working at a “much deeper level with clients”. He adds, “Clients want more than compliance; they don’t want only advisory.
They want a mix. Our role is to find the balance for each client. One size does not fit all.”
That client-specific approach matters when deciding which messages need rapid attention and which can follow a routine queue. It can also help a practice distinguish client communication from the internal administration that surrounds it, including sorting, assigning, filing and following up on messages.
Where DeskMate can reduce repetitive email handling
DeskMate can help practices reduce the repetitive work of sorting incoming email, extracting routine requests and directing work to the appropriate person or workflow, so staff stop manually re-reading, forwarding and copying the same details between inboxes and practice systems. Practices considering that workflow can explore what DeskMate automates and review its Security & Trust information when assessing how it fits their own controls.
The product does not replace the managing partner’s responsibility for quality management, the firm’s documented policies or professional judgement about a client matter. Its useful role is narrower: helping make recurring administrative communication easier to classify, route and track within the process the practice has chosen.
A controlled email process is therefore not a promise of zero messages or zero risk. It is a documented way to assign responsibility, preserve visibility, support monitoring and give accountants and bookkeepers more time for work that requires their judgement.
| by | required |
|---|---|
| 1 January 2020 | Members in public practice in Australia were required to incorporate appropriate amendments to their risk management frameworks |
| 1 January 2023 | firms had to incorporate appropriate amendments to establish a system of quality management |
| 15 December 2022 | ASQM 1 required quality-management systems |
Sources
Every figure, date and obligation above was checked against these documents before publication.
Keeping the record is the hard part.
DeskMate writes who ran a skill, what it touched and who approved it, every time — as a by-product of the work rather than a log someone has to remember.