Dispute resolution procedure (Accounting Services) at Gartly Advisory
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.
This is a summary of our complaints procedure made available to our clients.
Internal procedure
If you have a complaint, please don’t hesitate to contact your accountant or the staff member who assisted you initially. If they are unable to resolve your complaint within 3 business days, please get in touch with our Practice Manager (Vicki Gartly). Where possible, all complaints should be made in writing. Your complaint will be investigated by a staff member who is not involved in the subject matter of the dispute, where possible. We try to make the process of creating a complaint as simple and accessible as possible.
Accordingly, complaints do not need to be in writing; however, making the complaint in writing will make it easier to respond to all the circumstances of the complaint and avoid us misunderstanding the nature of the complaint. You can make a complaint by phone, email or in person. We will offer our assistance in making a complaint if required by your circumstances. We will endeavour to resolve your complaint at the time of its submission, but if, for any reason, we are unable to do so, we will follow the procedure outlined below.
Oral complaints
We will follow the following procedure:
We will ask you to identify yourself, listen to your complaint, record the details, and determine the nature of your complaint.
• We will confirm your details and the details of your complaint with you.
• Explain the courses of action we will take.
• We will try to resolve your complaint immediately if possible
• If we are unable to do so, we will provide you with the details of the person responsible for handling the complaint.
Written complaints, and following up on an oral complaint
We will provide you with a written acknowledgement of receipt of your complaint, and we will investigate the circumstances via email or by post if an email is not available. The correspondence will inform you that we will attempt to resolve your complaint within 45 days. The letter will outline the dispute resolution process.
• The Practice Manager will consider the complaint and seek appropriate supporting information from you, if necessary, within 7 calendar days.
• Our request for additional information or clarification from you will clearly state that a response is required within 14 calendar days to comply with the stipulated response times.
• We will ask you to sign the file notes of relevant conversations to confirm they contain a complete and accurate record of the complaint and subsequent negotiations.
• We will maintain contact with you to ensure that you are informed of the progress of your complaint until the complaint is resolved.
Complaints relating to Fees
All complaints related to issued invoices must be raised prior to the invoice’s due date. Any adjustment, setoff, or other change to an invoice will be considered at our complete discretion. Only in exceptional circumstances will we consider a remedy if the dispute regarding an invoice is raised after the due date. Any reduction or adjustment will only be applied after the due date if the full original invoice has been paid first.
Where we feel it is warranted or an invoice has been unpaid for 30 days or more, we may refer the outstanding amounts to a debt collector to be collected on our behalf, make a claim in the small claims court or commence legal proceedings against you and or one or more of your entities. We reserve the right to recover any costs incurred by you in recovering monies owed to us, including our administrative costs, legal fees, and other fees charged by third parties. We also reserve the right, at our discretion, to withhold any and all services, regardless of their nature, until all outstanding invoices are paid.
In the event a dispute arises, we may, at our discretion, exercise our legal right to a lien over documents and/or property in our possession until the dispute is resolved. This includes not lodging prepared but unpaid documents or forms with a State, Territory, or Federal Government department, organisation, or authority, or any other third party. Not passing on our work product to the new accountant you have engaged. Not providing copies or the original of your documents that we possess to you or a new accountant.
What we may do while a dispute is in process
Where a dispute arises, we may, at our discretion, invoke our legal right of lien over your or your entity’s documents and/or property in our possession until the dispute is resolved. This includes not lodging prepared but unpaid documents/forms with a State, Territory, or Federal Government department, organisation, or authority, or any other third party. Not passing on our work product or assisting a new accountant you have engaged. Not providing copies of documents to you or your representative for which we have originals or copies. We also reserve the right to withhold any and all our services, regardless of their nature, at our discretion, until any dispute has been resolved by us.
Where we feel communication between the parties is unproductive or threatening in nature. We will cease communication with you, or we may choose to deal with you only in writing or through a third party such as a solicitor, mediator or debt collector.
Remedies
Within 45 days of receiving your complaint, we will provide you with a final verbal or written response. This will consist of one of the following:
• accept the complaint and, where appropriate, offer redress;
• offer redress without accepting the complaint; or
• Reject the complaint, giving reasons.
Our final verbal or written response will be considered the close of the matter. If you are dissatisfied with our decision, several options are available to you.
Confidentiality
All complaints will be handled in compliance with our privacy policy.
Alternate Procedure
For privacy-related matters, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
For tax agent-related matters, you can contact the Tax Practitioners Board or the Institute of Chartered Accoutants ,Australia NZ
Relevant contact information is provided below.
Gartly Advisory Pty Ltd
Phone 03 9597 9966
admin@gartlyadvisory.com.au
PO Box 184
ORMOND VIC 3204
Tax Agents Number: 77100001
Chartered Accountants Australia New ZealandÂ
Use the following link – complaints portal Introduction | CA ANZ
Tax Practitioners Board
enquirymanagement@tpb.gov.au
The Secretary (Complaints)
Tax Practitioners Board
GPO Box 1620
SYDNEY NSW 2001
