Protecting Your Business: A Quick Legal Audit Checklist

Starting a business is a thrilling adventure, but it comes with a lot of responsibilities, one of which is ensuring that your business is legally compliant. Neglecting legal requirements can result in severe consequences, such as lawsuits, penalties, and reputation damage. As a business owner, you should prioritize the legal health of your business, and one way to do that is by conducting a legal audit.

A legal audit is a systematic review of your business operations, policies, and practices to identify areas of non-compliance and potential legal risks. By performing a legal audit, you can uncover legal issues that might have gone unnoticed and address them before they turn into bigger problems. In this blog, we’ll provide you with a quick legal audit checklist from ONYX Legal that you can use to protect your business and ensure that it’s on the right side of the law.

Quick Legal Audit of Your Business?

This Audit Checklist goes with the Onyx Legal “How to complete a Quick Legal Audit of Your Business” article?found here – https://onyx.legal/articles/how-to-complete-a-quick-legal-audit-of-your-business/

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Your Business Structure?

1. What legal structure do I use for my business? Can I find the documentation??
2. When was the last time I reviewed that structure??
3. Are my business contact details up to date with all regulators??
4. Do I know my business identification number (in Australia it is an ABN)??
5. Are my invoices correctly set out for compliance purposes??

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Business Structure Resources?

• General information –?https://business.gov.au/
• Register for an ABN –?https://register.business.gov.au/
• Register a business name –?https://asic.gov.au/for-business/registering-a-business-name/?? ATO understanding tax invoices –?https://www.ato.gov.au/business/gst/tax-invoices/

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Business Relationships?

1. Do we know where our founding/ governing documents the establish our business are kept? When did we last look at them??
2. How many different business relationships do we have??
3. Are those relationships documented in agreements??
4. Do we know where our agreements and contracts are??
5. Do we have written employment agreements or policies??
6. Do we have a privacy policy on our website??
7. Do we have a contract register so we know what agreements we have, with who, who on our team is?responsible, when the agreements end and where they are??

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Business Relationship Resources?

• Australian legal document templates –?https://legaleasy.com.au/
• Fair Work employment agreements –?https://smallbusiness.fairwork.gov.au/hiring employees#resources-for-hiring-employees
• OAIC Privacy –?https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-guidance-for-organisations-and-government agencies/more-guidance/guide-to-developing-an-app-privacy-policy

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Risk Management Questions?

1. Have we ever considered risks to our business??
2. Do we know whether we have compliance obligations in our industry??
3. Do we understand risk management??
4. Do we have a risk register??
5. Do we have risk mitigation in place for identified risks??
6. What insurances do we have in place??
7. Have we scheduled staff training to help identify and manage risks?

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Risk Management Resources?

• Workplace health and Safety –?https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/?
• Consumer protection obligations –?https://www.accc.gov.au/about-us/tools-and-resources/cca education-programs/small-business-education-program?
• Business insurance overview?https://business.gov.au/risk-management/insurance

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Business Value?

1. Are business bank accounts separate from personal bank accounts???
2. How do we track when we get paid, and what invoices are outstanding??
3. What cyber security measures do we have in place???
4. Do we know what intellectual property adds value to our business???
5. Do we own our intellectual property??

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Risk Management Resources?

• Website legal audit –?https://onyx.legal/legal-and-cyber-audit-my-website/
• Cybersecurity for small business –?https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/small-and-medium-businesses/acsc small-business-guide
• Introduction to intellectual property –?https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/
• Copyright –?https://www.copyright.com.au/about-copyright/

Conducting a legal audit of your business is crucial to protecting your company from potential legal risks and ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations. The legal audit checklist provided in this blog is just the starting point. It’s important to work with a qualified attorney to ensure that your legal audit is comprehensive and tailored to the unique needs of your business.?

By investing time and resources into conducting a legal audit, you can identify and address potential legal issues before they become major problems, which will ultimately save you time, money, and headaches in the long run. Don’t wait until it’s too late – start your legal audit today and protect your business.

Questions???

Contact the Onyx Legal Team?

[email protected]?

ph: 0423 462207?

Appt:?https://onyx.legal/make-an-appointment/

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