Determining whether your practice needs to enrol
Bookkeeping, tax-return preparation, BAS work and management-accounting services are not in themselves designated services. The accounting designated services are narrower and structural: forming a company on behalf of a client, acting as a nominee director or shareholder, forming a trust, managing client money in a trust account, providing tax advice that involves structuring assets to obscure ownership.
If your practice provides any of those services, even infrequently, the whole practice enrols. The Program then describes which engagements are designated and which are not. The enrolment itself does not change based on the share of designated work in the practice.
Fields the AUSTRAC enrolment form captures
Legal name, ABN, ACN (if any), trading name, principal place of business, contact officer, named AML/CTF Compliance Officer, designated services provided, estimated customer volume, key personnel. Caltury's enrolment wizard collects these once and produces an output ready for transcription into AUSTRAC Online.
The named Compliance Officer for a small accounting practice is typically the practice principal or a senior tax/structuring partner. The Compliance Officer carries personal responsibility for ensuring the Program is followed.
Timeline to be enrolled and ready
Working back from 1 July 2026: complete the readiness check by end-March 2026, sign up for Caltury and configure the practice details, prepare the enrolment in May 2026, lodge in AUSTRAC Online in mid-June 2026, have the Program signed and the customer workflow live before 1 July. Time investment is roughly 6 to 10 hours over the trial period for a small practice.
Common questions
Can a sole-trader accountant be both the practice principal and the named Compliance Officer?
Yes. In a sole-trader practice the same person carries both roles by necessity. AUSTRAC does not require the Compliance Officer to be a separate person; the role exists to ensure accountability, which a sole trader carries personally.
We are part of a national accounting network. Do we enrol or does the network enrol?
Each separate legal entity providing designated services enrols. If your practice is a member firm with its own ABN, your practice enrols. If your practice is a branch of a parent legal entity, the parent enrols. Document the legal structure before lodging.
What if we are not sure whether our work is a designated service?
The readiness check walks through the scope test in 12 questions and produces a per-obligation diagnostic. Most practices reach a confident yes-or-no within 15 minutes. If the answer is genuinely ambiguous, the safer course is to enrol and let the Program describe the boundary.
Does the Tax Practitioners Board play any role in AUSTRAC enrolment?
No. TPB regulates tax-agent registration under the Tax Agent Services Act. AUSTRAC regulates AML/CTF enrolment under the Commonwealth Act. The two are completely separate and run on independent registers.
This page is general information about Australian AML/CTF obligations. It is not legal advice. AUSTRAC has not reviewed this content. For situations specific to your practice consult an Australian-qualified lawyer or AML/CTF adviser.