Hiring a QBCC Accountant: Qualified or Excluded?

A QBCC accountant is a qualified accountant who helps QBCC licensees lodge their annual financial report and Minimum Financial Requirements (MFR) report.

While the annual financial report does not require the signature of an accountant, the preparation is time-consuming.

A qualified accountant can take away the burden of preparing the QBCC annual financial report from the licensees.

The accountant can also clarify inaccuracies and rectify errors in the report, which are an added workload for licensees who are busy growing their business. The QBCC has reported that many of the financial reports submitted to the organisation require clarification or are incorrect. Although most of the inaccuracies and corrections are minor oversights, they would still need to be clarified.

Meanwhile, the MFR report required from Category 1 to 7 builders can only be prepared by a qualified accountant.

>> Visit our QBCC MFR Report and Accounting page to learn more about managing your QBCC obligations. <<

QBCC Accountant Qualifications

Only accountants who meet the following qualifications are allowed by QBCC to prepare the MFR report:

• Independent of the licensee (not a relative, employee, executive officer, investor, shareholder, or partner)
• Holds a current public practising certificate from the Association of Taxation and Management Accountants (ATMA) or National Tax and Accountants Association (NTAA), or
• A qualified accountant defined in the s88B of the Corporations Act of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), or
• A Registered Company Auditor

Excluded Accountants

While the QBCC Commissioner does not need to approve qualified accountants to prepare MFR reports, the QBCC can exclude an accountant. This prohibits them from preparing MFR reports for QBCC licensees for three years.

Why should you be wary of an excluded accountant?

There are several reasons why the QBCC excludes an accountant, but all reasons can tell you a lot about the accountant’s work ethic and integrity.

The most common grounds for exclusion include:

• Providing false or misleading information to a licensed contractor or to the QBCC to satisfy a licensed contractor’s MFR
• Failure to comply with the MFR required by QBCC
• Failure to comply with a requirement in a previous exclusion notice

How can you ensure that you’re not hiring an excluded accountant?

1. Check out the Register of Excluded Accountants on the QBCC website. Just enter the accountant’s first and last names in the search field and click on. If you don’t have a name and simply want to save yourself the trouble of contacting excluded accountants in your locality, you can run a search based on radius and suburb or postcode. You can also search for all excluded accountants on the register with the “Display All” option.
2. Apart from the accountant’s full name and aliases, details of their business address (unless it is also their residential address) and the start and end of their exclusion period are listed.
3. After the exclusion period, the accountant will be removed from the registry and will be allowed to prepare MFR reports for QBCC licensees again.

Need a qualified QBCC accountant to help lodge your financial reports and ensure that you meet the Minimum Financial Requirements?

The MFR Experts of Xact Accounting are always ready to serve you!

We offer all QBCC license holders a complimentary QBCC accounting health check, to see if you’re meeting your licence obligations. So, before you lodge your financials with the QBCC, get in touch with us so we can help nip any problems in the bud.

Call our QBCC Hotline today on: 1300 233 723 or email: [email protected].

Or… visit our dedicated QBCC MFR Report and Accounting page to learn more about how to manage your QBCC license requirements.