About

A wage review asks whether the remuneration declared on a policy is complete and correct under the WorkCover WA Remuneration Guidelines. A classification review asks whether it is declared against the right premium rating classification under the WorkCover WA Industry Classification Order. They are different instruments and different questions, and a policy can be right on one and wrong on the other.

Who does the work

Ashley Boardman, Accountant, B.Com. Principal and sole director of United Financial Group Pty Ltd.

Thirty years across accounting, payroll, investigations and software. The first role, in 1996, was payroll for 120 construction personnel at Collie Power Station, which is where the interest in what a payroll figure is actually made of started.

Twelve of those years were spent as a licensed investigator, conducting factual investigations for insurers and law firms. That work is closer to this one than it sounds. Both come down to establishing what actually happened from records and from people, writing it down so it survives someone disagreeing with it, and separating what you can prove from what you think.

The rest has been accounting and building the systems that run it.

The work is done by one person and none of it is subcontracted.

How the work is done

From the instruments, and cited. Every position taken is worked from the published WorkCover WA instruments, and every finding names the provision it rests on so you can check it. Where something is a reading rather than what the instrument says, it is labelled as a reading. That distinction matters more in this field than it looks, because on two significant points the instruments are genuinely silent and anyone who tells you otherwise has not read them closely.

Published rates only. Anything quoted before an engagement uses WorkCover WA's published recommended rates, with the schedule year named beside the figure. Rates move materially between years.

Findings state the position and the variance. Not intent, and never a penalty. Most declarations that are wrong are wrong because remuneration is a longer list than payroll, or because a classification rule was engaged that nobody knew existed. WorkCover WA's own guidance treats it the same way, describing employers as encountering difficulties with accurately declaring remuneration.

Both directions, always. A review can as easily establish that you have been over declaring as under declaring, and the result is reported either way. A review that only ever found money in one direction would not be a review.

Independence and fees

Fixed fees, agreed in writing before work starts. Never a percentage of anything found. An opinion paid on the size of its own finding is the first thing an adviser on the other side will attack, and they would be right to. It is also the reason contingency pricing is normal in recovery work and absent here.

No panel appointment and no referral arrangement. UFG is not on any insurer's panel and has no arrangement with any broker, insurer or adviser under which work is referred in either direction.

Never both sides of the same employer. UFG acts for employers and for insurers, and never for both in relation to the same policyholder, in any capacity, at any time. A conflicts register is kept and checked before any engagement is accepted, and any conflict that emerges means the later matter is declined.

Your records

Engagement data is held on equipment under UFG's own physical control in Western Australia, with full disk encryption, and is accessible to one person. No part of the work is subcontracted and no other party handles your records.

Data is used for the engagement it was provided for. It is not aggregated across clients, not reused as benchmark material, and not retained beyond the engagement other than the minimum records professional obligations require. On completion, or earlier on request, working copies are destroyed and the destruction confirmed in writing.

No client, no host employer and no finding is named or described in any marketing, proposal or conversation without written consent. The full data handling position is available on request and it is short enough to read.

What this practice is not

United Financial Group Pty Ltd does not operate, and does not hold out as operating, a public accounting practice. The services are consulting on a statutory scheme.

UFG is not a registered tax agent or BAS agent and provides no tax agent services, BAS services or tax advice. It does not provide statutory audit or assurance services, and no engagement produces an auditor's opinion or an assurance conclusion.

UFG does not recommend insurers, policies or brokers, and provides no insurance or financial product advice. Classification and remuneration analysis is consulting on how a statutory scheme applies to your own figures.