What the software must cover
- Generate and version an AML/CTF program from your own answers.
- Record customer identification, beneficial owners, risk rating and review date, and never delete a record.
- Remind you of reviews by risk level and of the yearly program review.
- Log suspicious matters and threshold transactions with the legal deadline.
- Help with the annual compliance report.
- Record staff training.
- Keep a tamper-evident audit trail you can export.
What a small firm can ignore
- Real-time transaction monitoring built for payment volumes you do not have.
- Sanctions screening priced per check; at your volume a manual check of the consolidated list is proportionate.
- Per-seat pricing, dashboards for compliance teams and implementation projects.
Questions to ask any vendor
- Is the program generated from my firm's answers and versioned each time it changes?
- What happens to a client record when I delete it? The right answer is that it is archived and kept for seven years.
- Can I export everything, including the audit trail, without asking support?
- Is the price per firm or per user, and does it include GST?
- Is it built for Australian obligations and AUSTRAC deadlines, or adapted from another market?
Tools by sector
This guide is published by the group behind three sector tools, each AU$99.90 per firm per month including GST with a 14-day trial: LedgerAML for accountants and bookkeepers, RealtyAML for real estate agents, PracticeAML for law firms and conveyancers. We say that plainly so you can weigh it. Other Australian and international vendors serve the same market, from identity verification services to full compliance platforms; judge every option, including ours, against the list above.
Questions people ask
- Can I comply with a spreadsheet?
- You can, and some sole practitioners do. The weak points are the program (which still has to be written), review reminders, the audit trail and proving records were not edited. Those are the things AUSTRAC asks about.
- Does my practice management or CRM software cover AML?
- Usually not. Those systems hold contacts and matters; they rarely store which document was sighted, beneficial owners, risk ratings, review dates or an audit trail, and they may purge records you must keep. Check before relying on one.
- What should AML software cost a small firm?
- A fixed monthly fee in the range of a modest software subscription. Per-check or per-seat pricing built for banks is out of proportion for a firm of one to ten people.
General information about Australian AML/CTF law, not legal advice. The Act, the Rules and AUSTRAC's guidance are the primary sources.