Atol holders, are you set for the accountancy overhaul?

Many of us spend too long on April 1 each year trying to work out which bizarre stories in the press, on the radio or television are true and which are April fools’ jokes.

Jeremy Clarkson to stop driving and ride a Boris bike, anyone?

This year, however, for Atol holders at least, April 1 is a deadly serious date – and one many Atol holders appear to have forgotten.

From that day, Atol holders will need to use an ARA (no, that’s not some new computer system but an Atol Reporting Accountant).

The Atol Reporting Accountants Scheme was announced in March 2015 to allow accountants who produce Atol reports for the CAA to have time to seek registration with their professional accounting body.

On application each accountant is professionally assessed and undertakes the CAA training and test before becoming certified.

The deadline for Atol holders’ accountants to complete the training and become registered with the CAA is April 1, 2016.

The ARA scheme has been developed by the CAA to help improve the standard of Atol reporting and to provide assurance that financial information submitted on behalf of Atol holders is accurate.

The scheme is designed to ensure that designated accountants of participating bodies are sufficiently knowledgeable about the industry and specific requirements of Atol to provide the assurance needed by the CAA.

In the past, the reality has been that many small – and indeed larger – firms of accountants may only have had one or two travel businesses’ accounts to monitor – and trying to understand the rules isn’t easy, even for travel business owners themselves.

In future, it will be expected an ARA really does understand what the CAA expects by way of information.

Over time, this should increase and improve the reporting and, it is hoped, reduce the number of failures.

Any ARA who is found to have produced false or inaccurate accounts will no longer be able to blame a lack of knowledge about the rules and could be prevented from acting as an ARA for any other travel business in the future.

Significant failures could bring huge claims on the Air Travel Trust – and it is the industry that has to pay.

In future, it is likely that the government will be less willing to bail out the ATT as it did after the failures of XL and Goldtrail, so the costs will fall to the industry itself.

So far, so good, But the problem appears to be that, so far at least, very few accountants have actually completed the course and those who have, want to charge their clients more money as a result.

The course can be completed online and the end result should not cause accountancy costs to rise as the information required by the CAA hasn’t changed.

Have you spoken to your accountant recently and confirmed that they will be an ARA?

If not, it is time to have that conversation – otherwise, like Jeremy Clarkson, you could be out of a job and looking for the nearest Boris bike.

Brief the accountant

Each Atol Reporting Accountant must study the Accountable Person Training Course with the CAA and successfully pass each module of the course in an online test that contains 21 questions.

It is quite demanding in terms of the detailed Atol knowledge required.

For those with relevant experience, the online content should take no more than two hours to navigate and the test is timed to be completed in 15 minutes.

Each accounting body has adopted the CAA’s prescribed approach to members that apply for certification. 

They look to assess the individual applicant’s degree of relevant experience and professional competence and charge an administrative levy that can be more than £1,000 for a multi-partner firm.

Are you prepared for the new Atol regulations, or are you struggling to find certified accountants?