C-26, r. 65 - Regulation respecting the keeping of records and consulting offices by certified general accountants

Updated to 1 September 2012

This document has official status.

chapter C-26, r. 65

Regulation respecting the keeping of records and consulting offices by certified general accountants

Professional Code

(chapter C-26, s. 91).

Implicitly revoked, 2012, chapter 11, s. 25, par. 1.

DIVISION I KEEPING OF RECORDS

1. Subject to section 7, a member of the Ordre professionnel des comptables généraux accrédités du Québec must keep in the premises where he practises his profession a record for each of his clients.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 1.

2. The member must enter the following information in each record:

(1)  the date of opening the record;

(2)  the client’s name, address and telephone number;

(3)  a summary description of the reasons for the consultation;

(4)  a description of the professional services rendered and their date;

(5)  the recommendations made to the client; and

(6)  the annotations, correspondence and other documents belonging to the client and pertaining to the services rendered.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 2.

3. The member must keep each record up-to-date until he ceases to render professional services to the person concerned by that record. In addition, the member must open separate records for the same client if different services are rendered.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 3.

4. The member must keep each record for at least 5 years from the date of the last professional service rendered.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 4.

5. The member must keep his records in a room or cabinet which is not readily accessible to the public and which may be locked by means of a key or otherwise.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 5.

6. Where a client withdraws from his record a document which belongs to him, the member must insert in that record a note signed by the client and indicating the nature of the document and the date on which it was taken out.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 6.

7. Where a member is a partner in or is employed by a partnership, or where he is employed by a natural or legal person, the records kept by that partnership or that employer concerning the persons to whom professional services are rendered by that member shall be considered, for the purposes of this Regulation, the records of that member if he may enter therein the information referred to in section 2. If he cannot do so, he must keep a record for each of those persons. The member must sign or initial each entry or report that he inserts in a client’s record.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 7.

8. Nothing in this Division may be interpreted as excluding the use of data processing or any other mechanical means in constituting and keeping the records of a member provided their confidentiality is respected.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 8.

DIVISION II KEEPING OF CONSULTING OFFICES

9. This Division applies only to the consulting office of a self-employed member or a member employed by another member or by a partnership of members.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 9.

10. The member’s consulting office must be designed so that the identity and the conversations of the persons therein cannot be perceived outside that office.

The consulting office may not include the place referred to in section 11 or the member’s workroom or the workroom of his employees.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 10.

11. The member must have a waiting room close to his consulting office for receiving the persons to whom he renders professional services.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 11.

12. The member must post his permit in public view.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 12.

13. The member must place in public view in the place referred to in section 11 a copy of the Code of ethics of certified general accountants (chapter C-26, r. 48) and of the Regulation respecting the conciliation and arbitration procedure for the accounts of certified general accountants (chapter C-26, r. 62). He must also write the address of the Order on each of those regulations.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 13.

14. A member may display in his consulting office and in any other room connected with the practice of his profession only those diplomas and documents which pertain to the practice of his profession and which are not likely to mislead clients with respect to his professional training.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 14.

15. A member who is absent from his consulting office for more than 5 consecutive working days must take the necessary measures to inform any person who attempts to contact him of the length of that absence.

Decision 82-06-05, s. 15.

16. (Omitted).

Decision 82-06-05, s. 16.

REFERENCES

Decision 82-06-05, 1982 G.O. 2, 1903

S.Q. 2009, c. 35, s. 76