General commercial

Work out which regulations apply to your business

We map the rules that actually apply to your business, and tell you where you are short.

Regulatory obligations arrive gradually. You grow, you enter a new market, the law changes, and the list of rules that apply to you grows with it. Most businesses have never had that list written down. We work out what applies, where you stand against it, and what is worth fixing first.

The list, written down

You get a map of the regulations that actually apply to your business rather than a general summary.

Gaps ranked by real risk

The things carrying genuine exposure are separated from the ones that are technically true and practically irrelevant.

A documented effort

Your compliance arrangements are recorded, which counts for something if a regulator ever asks.

What a regulatory compliance review actually covers

Regulatory compliance advice starts with a question most businesses cannot answer precisely. Which rules apply to us. The answer depends on your industry, your structure, what you sell, how many people you employ and where you operate.

For most businesses the list includes the Australian Consumer Law and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Then work health and safety obligations, and often an industry licensing regime. Mapping them is the first half of the work. The second half is comparing what each one requires against what your business actually does.

It depends on your industry, structure, what you sell, how many people you employ and where you operate. For most businesses the list includes the Australian Consumer Law, the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), work health and safety obligations and sometimes a licensing regime. Mapping it properly is the first piece of work.

It varies by regime. Financial penalties, licence conditions or suspension, civil proceedings, and in serious cases prosecution of directors. The practical point is that addressing a gap before a regulator finds it is almost always cheaper and always more within your control.

Whenever the business changes materially, when you enter a new market or state, and when there is enforcement activity in your industry. Otherwise periodically. Obligations attach as you grow and nothing tells you when they do.

Get advice before you reply. What you say, how you frame it and what you hand over all affect where it goes. We can tell you what you are obliged to provide, what you are not, and respond with you.

Nobody sends a notice when a new obligation attaches to you

The list grows as the business grows. Knowing what is on it is the part that has to happen before anything else can.

Regulatory exposure accumulates quietly and surfaces all at once

Obligations attach as you grow, and nobody sends a notice when they do. Arrangements that were adequate at twenty staff are not at eighty. A licence condition that never mattered becomes relevant when you open in another state.

The difficulty is that none of this is visible from inside the business. Everything works. The gap only appears when a regulator asks a question you have not prepared for.

When the business has changed and the compliance has not

Your business has grown or changed, and you are no longer confident the compliance arrangements match what now applies. Perhaps a regulator has become more active in your industry and you would rather know your position before they ask. You are not certain where the gaps are, or how serious any of them would be.

What's included in your regulatory compliance service

The time to find a gap is before someone else does

A compliance gap can sit for years without consequence. Nothing depends on it until a regulator turns its attention to your industry. Or a competitor complains, or something goes wrong and the file gets read.

At that point the options narrow. A gap you found yourself is a project with a timeline. The same gap found by a regulator is a response with a deadline, and often a penalty attached. The work is the same. The cost and the control are not.

From a list you have never seen to one you are managing

We start by mapping what applies to your business, which is usually the part nobody has done. Then we compare each obligation against what actually happens in practice and record where the two differ.

What you get is a ranked list rather than an audit report. The things that carry real exposure, the things worth doing this year, and the things that are technically true and practically irrelevant. We then help you close the gaps that matter and document the effort, because a documented compliance effort is itself worth something.

How the compliance review runs

From an unmapped set of obligations to a managed position.
1

Map what applies

We identify the regulations attaching to your industry, structure, size and locations.

2

Measure the gap

We compare each obligation against what your business actually does and rank what we find.

3

Close and document

We help you address the gaps that matter and record the arrangements you have put in place.

A map of the regulations that apply, and where you stand against them

Nobody running a business has time to track every regulation that might apply to it. The honest position for most owners is that they do not know what the full list is, which is normal rather than negligent.

We map the obligations to the business you actually run, then rank the gaps by real risk rather than treating them all as equal. Most reviews produce a short list of things that matter and a longer one that can wait. We have 2 Accredited Specialists in Business Law.

Our great lawyer guarantee

Six principles we hold to, whatever you bring us and however long it takes.

Take the time

We listen carefully to understand what you want to achieve, then step you through the advice and the documents.

Share our knowledge

We pass on as much as we can, so you can make your own informed decisions.

Stick to our knitting

We only do what we are good at, so you never pay for our learning.

Work as one team

Someone is always available to answer your question or point you the right way.

Fair pricing

A fixed or capped quote for advice and documents, so you do not carry the price risk.

It is your show

We are in it for a front row seat to witness your success, not for our egos.

Find the gaps before a regulator does

A gap you find is a project. The same gap found by a regulator is a deadline with a penalty attached. Tell us what your business does and where, and we will map what applies and tell you where you actually stand.

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