Australia · Professional servicesClose to 100,000 businesses now answer to AUSTRAC
On 1 July 2026 Australia's anti-money-laundering law reached the professions. Lawyers, accountants, conveyancers, real estate professionals and dealers in precious metals and stones now carry obligations that banks have had for years. AUSTRAC says the number of businesses it regulates grows from around 19,000 to close to 100,000.
Most of the newcomers are small firms, and what they are asked for is specific: enrolment with AUSTRAC, a written risk assessment of their own practice, a programme that says how customers are identified and checked, training records for the people who do the work, a named compliance officer, and records that can be produced on request.
None of this needs a large team. It needs five to ten working days of focused work, and a folder that is kept up to date afterwards. A firm that treats it as a one-off form will be rebuilding it at its first review.
Sources for the figures: AUSTRAC
MENA · Deals and investmentFewer deals, more questions
In the first half of 2026, MENA recorded 390 M&A deals worth US$46.7 billion, down from 434 deals and US$58.8 billion a year earlier. Venture funding for the region's startups fell 22%, and the number of venture deals fell 41%.
Our reading: the capital is still there, and it is choosing. Sovereign wealth funds and government-related entities remain central to regional dealmaking, and Gulf funds hold about 40% of the world's sovereign wealth assets. An institution of that kind sends its advisers before it sends its money.
What those advisers open first is predictable: the corporate records, the licences and who holds them, the key contracts, three years of financial records, and the compliance history. A company that can hand these over in a week looks different from one that needs three months. The difference is preparation, and it can be done before any investor is in the room.
Sources for the figures: EY, MAGNiTT, Deloitte
Audit readinessThe ten-minute test before any audit
Before you prepare for an audit or a regulator review, ask one question. If you were asked today, could you put your written risk assessment and your staff training record on the table within ten minutes?
These two documents sit under almost every regime. The risk assessment shows that you have thought about what can go wrong in your own business. The training record shows that the people doing the work know what is expected of them.
If you can produce both, you are in better shape than most firms your size. If you cannot, the gap is usually five to ten working days of focused work. It is a sprint, with a start date and a handover date.
OperationsAutomate last
Most automation projects disappoint for the same reason. They automate a process that should not exist.
Our process audit runs in a fixed order. First we question whether each process is needed. Then we remove the ones that are not. We simplify what remains, and speed it up by cutting waiting and hand-offs. Only then do we decide what a tool should do.
The order matters because each step makes the next one smaller. By the time you reach automation there is less to automate, and what is left is clear enough to hand to software with a person checking the result.
Australia · LicensingOpening a childcare service: the order matters
The requirements for a childcare service are public. Anyone can read them. What stalls most applications is the order of work.
Which documents does the authority expect first? What has to be in place before the premises are assessed? Which policies depend on staffing decisions you have not made yet? Providers lose weeks by preparing the right things in the wrong sequence.
A roadmap solves this before any document is written. It sets out the steps for your state and service type, the documents each step needs, the usual blockers, and a folder structure for the submission. With that in hand, the writing is straightforward.
TermsWhat we do not promise
We do not promise that a regulator will approve you, that an auditor will sign off, or that a bank will open your account. Those decisions belong to them.
We do not promise sales, income or profit either. A business that is ready to operate still has to be run.
What we promise is narrower and easier to check. A defined scope on one page. A date for the handover. The fee we quoted. Work that is complete, organised and ready to use on the day you receive it. Where the law requires a licensed professional, a licensed partner does that part and you know who it is.
