Project management for accounting firms

That framing matters because recurring jobs and one-off engagements fail in familiar places: unclear scope, weak handovers, overloaded staff and poor follow-up. For a practice, project management is the operating method that turns those risks into documented steps, assigned responsibilities and evidence that work was monitored.

What do the CPA Australia standards pages say?

CPA Australia’s standards pages say firms need documented systems, not informal habits. Its APES 325 summary says a firm must establish and maintain a risk management framework and periodically evaluate its design and effectiveness, while its APES 320 summary says firms providing non-assurance services must establish and maintain a system of quality management and document policies and procedures for each element.

APES 325 says the framework should be an integral part of the firm’s overall strategic and operational policies and procedures. It also says a monitoring process shall be developed so the framework remains relevant, adequate and operating effectively.

The same APES 325 page lists the kinds of organisational risks the framework may include. They are governance, business continuity including succession planning, business, financial, regulatory, technology including cyber security, and human resource risks.

APES 320 adds more structure for non-assurance work. The page says there are seven elements in the system of quality management: governance and leadership, professional standards, acceptance and continuance of client relationships and specific engagements, resources, engagement performance, information and communication, and monitoring and remediation.

That is close to the way accounting work is actually delivered. A BAS cycle, payroll setup or advisory engagement depends on acceptance decisions, capable staff, communication and evidence that issues were monitored and addressed.

Which dates and figures are stated on the cited pages?

The cited pages state several dates and figures directly, and those details help practices separate risk management, non-assurance quality management and audit quality management. CPA Australia’s APES 325 page says the standard was issued in December 2011, revised in October 2015, December 2017 and September 2019, and that the revised standard requires members in public practice in Australia to incorporate appropriate amendments to their risk management framework by 1 January 2020.

CPA Australia’s APES 320 page says the Accounting Professional & Ethical Standards Board reissued APES 320 and required firms to incorporate appropriate amendments to their systems by 1 January 2023 to establish a system of quality management.

CPA Australia’s ASQM 1 tool page says the Australian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board issued ASQM 1 and that the standard required systems of quality management to be implemented by 15 December 2022. The same page says, "These revised standards introduce a risk-based approach to quality management."

Other figures on the supplied pages are practical rather than regulatory. CPA Australia’s Project Management course lists Australia member pricing at AUD 81.07 inc. GST.

Its management accounting catalogue lists Budgeting Processes at 3 CPD hours and AUD 181.50 inc. GST. Effective business writing is listed at 1 CPD hour and AUD 44.00 inc. GST.

How does this connect to project management in a practice?

Project management in a practice is the day-to-day method for applying those risk and quality requirements to real jobs. The CPA Australia pages connect project delivery to acceptance, resources, communication, monitoring and remediation, so a firm can treat recurring work as a controlled workflow rather than a loose checklist.

That matters when a practice needs to show how work was organised. If the firm cannot show who accepted the engagement, what capability was needed, how progress was communicated and what happened when issues appeared, it will struggle to evidence how its system operates.

The ASQM 1 tool page is especially concrete on process. It says the tools provide quality objectives for governance and leadership, relevant ethical requirements, acceptance and continuance, engagement performance, resources, and information and communication.

The same page says a library of possible risks is provided for each objective, then members are prompted to assess risks by considering the likelihood and effect of achieving the quality objective. That is a practical project management pattern: define the objective, identify likely failure points, assign responses and document what happened.

What should a practice review in its workflow?

A useful workflow review starts with the repeated parts of delivery that the cited pages describe most clearly: acceptance, resourcing, communication, monitoring and documentation. Those are the safest areas to improve because the sources explicitly connect them to risk management and quality management, rather than leaving the practice to infer obligations that are not stated.

1. Map each recurring service to workflow stages such as acceptance, staffing, delivery, review and remediation.
2. Check whether policies and procedures are documented where the CPA Australia pages say documentation is required.
3. Identify where risks first appear, including handovers, unclear scope, weak client communication or overloaded staff.
4. Set monitoring points so delays, quality issues and follow-up actions are recorded consistently.

CPA Australia’s practice management article, published on 31 January 2025, says small businesses are expected to face significant challenges in 2025, with business failure rates returning to pre-2020 levels. It also says lack of resources, increased competition, late payments and cyber-attacks are issues SMEs, including public practices, must contend with.

Benedict Siu, Manager, Audit and Assurance, Professional Standards at CPA Australia, says, "A strategy day allows you to consider governance and compliance matters, such as risk and quality management policies and procedures and the updating of templates, tools and resources." He also says firms can plan the pipeline of work for 2025 so sufficient and appropriate resources are in place to meet client obligations and deliver quality engagements.

Where DeskMate fits is the repetitive admin around those workflows: collecting information, moving standard data between systems and keeping routine steps consistent. Practices exploring the skill library or the Knowledge centre can reduce manual follow-up and status chasing while keeping human review for acceptance, judgement and client advice.

The safest conclusion from these sources is modest. They support treating project management for accounting firms as documented risk, quality, resource and monitoring work, with different CPA Australia pages covering public practice risk management, non-assurance quality management and audit and assurance quality management.