Product Overview

Summary: This Account and Record Keeping Standard Operating Procedure provides a clear, compliant framework for creating, managing, and storing business records across your organisation. It helps Australian businesses maintain accurate, auditable financial and operational records while supporting WHS, privacy and regulatory obligations.

Accurate and consistent account and record keeping is fundamental to running a compliant and well-governed Australian business. Poorly managed records can lead to missed tax obligations, inability to demonstrate WHS due diligence, privacy breaches, and costly disputes with regulators, clients, or employees. This Standard Operating Procedure sets out a structured, organisation-wide approach to how records are created, approved, stored, accessed, retained, and securely destroyed, covering both financial and operational documentation.

Developed for the Australian regulatory environment, this SOP supports your obligations under the Corporations Act, Fair Work legislation, WHS laws, and ATO record-keeping requirements. It defines who is responsible for what, how long different types of records must be kept, and the controls needed when using digital systems such as accounting software, cloud storage, and WHS platforms. By implementing this procedure, businesses gain a clear audit trail, reduce compliance risk, and enable faster, more reliable decision-making based on complete and accurate information.

Key Benefits

• Ensure consistent, organisation-wide practices for creating, approving and storing financial and operational records.
• Demonstrate compliance with Australian tax, WHS, employment and privacy obligations through clear, auditable documentation.
• Reduce the risk of data loss, disputes and regulatory penalties by defining retention periods and secure storage requirements.
• Streamline internal audits, external reviews and due diligence processes with clearly structured and easily retrievable records.
• Support business continuity and informed decision-making with accurate, up-to-date and traceable information.

Who is this for?

• Business Owners
• Directors and Company Secretaries
• Finance Managers
• Accounts Payable Officers
• Accounts Receivable Officers
• Payroll Officers
• Office Managers
• Practice Managers
• Compliance Managers
• WHS Managers
• Human Resources Managers
• Administration Coordinators
• Internal Auditors

Included Sections

• 1.0 Purpose and Scope
• 2.0 Definitions and Key Terms
• 3.0 Legislative and Standards Framework (Australia)
• 4.0 Roles and Responsibilities
• 5.0 Categories of Records (Financial, WHS, HR, Operational, Governance)
• 6.0 Record Creation and Approval Requirements
• 7.0 Data Entry, Coding and Version Control
• 8.0 Storage Systems and Access Controls (Physical and Digital)
• 9.0 Record Retention Schedules and Minimum Holding Periods
• 10.0 Secure Disposal and Destruction of Records
• 11.0 Privacy, Confidentiality and Information Security Requirements
• 12.0 Backup, Recovery and Business Continuity for Critical Records
• 13.0 Audit Trails, Monitoring and Exception Handling
• 14.0 Integration with WHS, HR and Finance Systems
• 15.0 Training, Induction and Competency Requirements
• 16.0 Document Control, Review and Continuous Improvement

Legislation & References

• Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)
• Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) and Fair Work Regulations 2009
• Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth) and ATO record-keeping requirements
• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth model) and corresponding state and territory WHS legislation
• Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and Australian Privacy Principles (APPs)
• AS ISO 15489.1:2017 Information and documentation – Records management
• AS ISO/IEC 27001:2023 Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection – Information security management systems (guidance for digital record security)
• Safe Work Australia – How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks (Code of Practice) – for WHS-related records and due diligence evidence