7.PPS Managing Engagements
1. Introduction
Membership of the ABRT is personal to an individual Restructuring & Turnaround Practitioner. ABRT Members have an obligation to ensure that engagements [1] are effectively managed, controlled and administered at all times.
Issues can arise when an ABRT Member is working as part of a turnaround team [2], takes engagements jointly or delegates work to employees or contractors. In such circumstances, the ABRT Member’s planning and administrative arrangements will need to consider how best to ensure that engagements are properly managed and controlled at all times, and that proper regard is paid to the interests of the client and other affected parties.
2. Delegation
Given there is a wide variation in the size of an ABRT Member’s firm [3], each will have a different caseload that is likely to fluctuate. Access to resources will also be highly variable for individual ABRT Members. This creates different requirements in the delegation of work to ensure adequate management and progression of engagements for the client.
Delegation includes:
- ABRT Member’s delegation of work to employees or to contractors (working in different geographic locations or at locations remote to the ABRT Member);
- taking a reduced role on an engagement taken jointly with other ABRT Members, restructuring and turnaround professionals or the client’s turnaround team (potentially working in a different geographic location or at locations remote to the ABRT Member);
- agreeing with the client a colleague, specialist or professional of the turnaround team to take the lead and responsibility for progression of the engagement;
- the ABRT Member ensuring specialists or other professionals (whether within their firm or externally sourced) handle work of a specific type (where the engagement requires, for example, additional industry or professional expertise [4]);
- the ABRT Member having succession plans [5] that ensures a colleague, alternate ABRT Member or professional within the turnaround team take on the lead and responsibility for progression of the engagement pending unexpected events, inability to act or incapacity.
For each of the above examples (and in other circumstances where delegation takes place), the ABRT Member must be satisfied at all times that work is being carried out in a proper and efficient manner, appropriate to the engagement and the satisfaction of the client.
3. Management
In determining the procedures to be put in place to ensure the appropriate level of management, control and progression of engagements when delegating work, it is recommended that an ABRT Member have regard to the following:
- their firm’s size and structure, and the qualifications and experience of employees or contractors;
- the requirement for the ABRT Member to be involved in agreeing with the client the engagement’s strategy from the outset and communicating this to delegates (depending on the nature, size and complexity of the case);
- the procedures within an ABRT Member’s firm to ensure consultation where engagements are taken on jointly, with other restructuring & turnaround practitioners, external specialists and/or employees/contractors;
- the extent to which levels of responsibility are defined, and the circumstances where approval by the ABRT Member taking the lead are required;
- providing clear guidelines within a firm to deal with the administration of cases at locations remote from the ABRT Member;
- the manner and frequency in which compliance and case progression is monitored, and then reported to the ABRT Member;
- the frequency of case reviews, who carries them out and at which point escalation to the ABRT Member is required;
- the ABRT Member form’s system for handling communications, correspondence received and, in particular, complaints [6];
- the process by which work is allocated on a client engagement, whether taken on jointly by a firm or as part of the agreed turnaround team, the rationale for the split, and the controls to be put in place to ensure objectives are being met, costs are being tracked and work remains within scope; and
- the method and process for which specialist advisers (including, for example, agents, solicitors, accountants and insolvency practitioners) and sub-contractors are chosen or recommended, and how their work is to be monitored in line with the client’s expectations.
ABRT Members should be aware that they may be required to justify their decisions and demonstrate they put in place appropriate levels of control to effectively manage engagements.
Depending on the nature, size and complexity of an engagement, ABRT Members should consider documenting procedures that set out guidance for the client’s engagement and have this agreed in writing on a case by case basis. ABRT Members are expected to prepare their own contemporaneous working papers, file notes and Client Advisory Record [7] on client engagements.
Should you require additional guidance on this PPS or have feedback, please email peakpps@abrt.org.au.
Version 1.3 – Maintained 18.08.20
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[1] An ABRT Member’s formally agreed client engagement terms.
[2] Depending on the nature of an organisation’s industry, and the size and complexity of the situation, may be more appropriate for directors to engage a ‘turnaround team’ – multiple advisers, all tasked with assisting in specific areas, and whose advice collectively inform the decisions of the board (and do not conflict with advice the director may wish to receive on a personal level).
[3] Reference to ‘firm’ includes, as appropriate, a company, a partnership, a sole practitioner, and a practitioner working in association with other ‘firms’ or practitioners in other ‘firms’.
[4] This could include (but is not limited to) matters requiring input from accountants, solicitors, taxation agents, independent valuers, insolvency practitioners or industry experts).
[5] See 9.PPS – Dealing with Complaints.
[6] See 8.PPS – Succession Planning.
[7] See 4.PPS – Client Advisory Record.