Practice · 15
Small business compliance and regulators
A letter from a regulator comes with a deadline, and the first answer shapes everything after it.
The practice helps small businesses answer letters, notices and requests from regulators and other bodies, prepare for audits, and put right whatever needs fixing. Send a copy of the notice with a short description of the business and, where the work can be priced that way, you'll be sent a fixed-fee quote; the notice is used only to price the work. The fee is agreed in writing before work starts, the practice reviews the notice and the records once it is engaged, and where tax is involved the practice works alongside your accountant.
The work
Regulators write to small businesses more often than most owners expect. A Fair Work inspector asks for pay records, SafeWork NSW issues an improvement notice after a visit, NSW Fair Trading passes on a customer complaint, or the council sends an order about the premises. Some of these letters are formal notices with legal force and a fixed date, while others only invite your side of the story. The difference matters, and it is not always clear from the letter.
The practice reads the notice, tells you what it requires, and drafts the response. Where something was wrong, the response says what has been fixed. The practice then helps put right the cause, so it is less likely to come back.
Compliance work can also come before anyone asks. Pay and award classification, employment records, safety procedures, consumer law in your terms and advertising, and privacy are the areas regulators raise most often with small businesses.
What it covers
- Fair Work inspector notices to produce and compliance notices
- SafeWork NSW improvement notices and internal reviews
- NSW Fair Trading letters, complaints and notices
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) notices and enquiries
- Privacy complaints and enquiries from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)
- Council orders and notices
- ATO letters and audits, alongside your accountant
- Licensing bodies and industry regulators
- Audit preparation and record reviews
- Compliance checks before a regulator asks
- Policies, registers and record-keeping
How it works
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Read what was actually asked
Once the practice is engaged, it reads the notice closely. A regulator's letter often mixes what you must do with what the regulator would like. You'll be told which parts you must comply with, and by when.
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Gather the records
Payroll, contracts, policies and records are collected and reviewed once the practice is engaged, because that is when the work starts.
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The response
The practice drafts an accurate response to what the notice requires. Where something went wrong, it says what has been done about it.
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After the letter
The practice works on the cause, whether that is the award classification, the safety procedure, the website terms or the record-keeping.
Where the line is
- Court is the line. Where a regulator starts proceedings, or a notice can only be challenged in court, the file goes to a litigator. A Fair Work compliance notice, for example, can be reviewed only by a court, and an appeal against an order the council makes under the planning laws has to be made to the Land and Environment Court within 28 days after the order is given to you. The practice answers the council's notice and refers any appeal early.
- Dealings with the regulator, internal reviews, and reviews in a tribunal or commission, with leave or permission where a lawyer needs it, are within the practice.
- Tax advice and tax returns stay with your accountant. The practice handles the legal side of an ATO letter or audit with them, including what the ATO can ask for, and how records are produced and explained in writing.
- Prosecutions and other criminal matters, including a safety prosecution or a charge for not complying with a notice, are referred to a criminal lawyer. Where a matter could lead to one, you'll be told early.
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Questions people ask
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A regulator has written to me. Do I have to answer?
Usually yes, if the letter is a formal notice issued under a statutory power. Ignoring one can be a breach in its own right, and for some notices, such as a compulsory notice from the ACCC, an offence. A Fair Work inspector's notice to produce, for example, must give you at least 14 days, and it has to be complied with unless you have a reasonable excuse. A letter that only asks for your side of a complaint is different, so the first job is to work out which kind you have.
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How long do I have?
As long as the notice says, and sometimes less than you think. A SafeWork NSW improvement notice, for instance, has to be taken to internal review within the compliance period in the notice or 14 days, whichever is shorter, unless SafeWork allows longer. The deadline runs whatever happens, and the practice can act only once a costs agreement is signed, so note the date the letter arrived and send the notice to the practice as soon as it comes.
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Can I just fix the problem and say nothing?
Fix it, yes, but if the notice requires an answer, you still have to give one. Regulators generally take into account whether a business cooperated and put things right. What you say is worth getting right before it goes.
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What is a Fair Work compliance notice?
A written notice from a Fair Work inspector who reasonably believes an employer has breached the National Employment Standards, an award, an enterprise agreement or certain other instruments and orders made under the Fair Work Act. It sets out what has to be done to fix the breach, often working out and paying back wages, and by when. The date in the notice keeps running unless a court stays it. Complying is not an admission, and an inspector can't then take the employer to court over the same breach, although the employee still can. Only a court can review the notice, so if you disagree with it you'll be told early and the review referred to a litigator.
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Can you check the business before a regulator asks?
Yes. A compliance check looks at the areas regulators most often raise with small businesses: pay and award classification, employment records, safety procedures, consumer law in your terms and advertising, and privacy. You get a short list of what to fix, in order. The check covers the documents and records you give the practice, and no review can promise how a regulator will see things.
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What does it cost?
A response to a notice is usually a fixed fee, priced from a copy of the notice and a short description of the business and agreed in writing before work starts. Larger audits are quoted stage by stage. Any matter likely to cost more than $750, before GST and disbursements, comes with a written costs disclosure.
The rules on this page are stated as at 22 October 2026. When the practice takes on your matter, it checks the law in force at that time.
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Make an enquiry
Send a short note about what is happening. You will hear back within one business day with whether the practice can help and the fee basis. The fee is confirmed in writing before any work starts.