Quality Management System Intensive

Having a sound Risk Management Framework as a BAS Agent is the foundation of your Quality Management System (QMS). Its purpose is to establish a consistent and structured approach to the identification, assessment, management, monitoring and documentation of risks within your business. Your risk management framework reflects the scale, complexity, and nature of services you provide when operating under the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA 2009) and with the oversight of the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB).

Governance and leadership responsibilities are foundational to an effective System of Quality Management. Good governance and leadership within a BAS Agent practice means the practice should establish quality objectives that promote a culture of quality that supports ethical, competent, and compliant performance, but it doesn’t stop there.

Ethical requirements are considered a cornerstone of the professional conduct expected of BAS agents in Australia. These requirements underpin the trust placed in practitioners by clients, regulators, and the broader public. The ethical principles ensure that services are provided competently, confidentially, and with due care, maintaining both actual and perceived independence where required.

Acceptance and continuance of client relationships and specific engagements is a cornerstone of effective risk management and high-quality service delivery in any BAS Agent practice. This module supports practitioners in understanding and applying the principles that underpin sound decisions about who they work with and what work they accept. It aims to provide clarity and practical direction on the procedures and documentation required when taking on new clients, issuing new engagements for existing clients, or reassessing whether to continue an ongoing engagement.

Resources are the engine room of a quality practice. The most sophisticated systems and policies are only as good as the people using them, the tools supporting them, and the knowledge they rely on. Poorly resourced engagements or insufficiently trained BAS Agents or staff/contractors lead directly to quality failures, client dissatisfaction, and regulatory risk. To satisfy the requirements of a Quality Management System, a robust resource strategy is no longer optional — it's essential.

Engagement performance is where your quality system meets the real world. It’s how your firm — whether a solo BAS Agent or a growing team — delivers work to clients in a way that’s consistent, compliant, efficient, and client-focused. This module outlines the expectations, tools, systems, and behaviours that underpin strong engagement performance, and how these are embedded into your QMS.

The effectiveness of a BAS Agent’s Quality Management System (QMS) not only deals with how a BAS Agent deals with internal risk and quality related issues, but also, relies on the quality and timeliness of the information that is obtained, generated, and communicated from or to external third parties. This module considers the quality framework to help BAS Agents understand, implement, and monitor four essential areas of information and communication critical to implementing and maintaining their QMS.

A Quality Management System (QMS) for BAS Agents must do more than provide a structure for managing risk—it must not stay static, but rather, it should continuously evolve. Monitoring and continuous improvement of your QMS are the mechanisms through which the document remains aligned with your professional responsibilities, regulatory obligations, and client expectations as a professional BAS Agent. This module explains how monitoring supports quality, how deficiencies are identified and remediated, and how a commitment to improvement ensures a resilient and responsive practice to your client, the regulator and other interested stakeholders.

This final module provides practical guidance on how to assemble a Quality Management System (QMS) Manual that reflects your practice’s unique structure, services, risks, mitigation policies and the control or supporting documents and checklists that can mitigate that risk. It draws together the work completed across the preceding eight modules and helps you present it as a coherent, well-organised document suitable for implementation, continuous review, and regulatory compliance.