What is in a kit
Customised to the practice, the documents together form the AML/CTF program. AUSTRAC guides you through three steps: customise, use, and maintain and review.
- A risk assessment covering the common risks of the profession.
- A policy document setting out what you must do and when.
- A process document explaining how AML/CTF tasks are done day to day.
- Forms: personnel due diligence and training records, client onboarding and initial due diligence, escalation, ongoing monitoring, and documents to maintain and review the program.
- A customise guide and worked examples of dealing with clients.
Who they are for
AUSTRAC wrote the kits for small practices: up to fifteen personnel, mostly individual Australian-resident clients, no regular high-risk clients, no overseas property work, no fully remote self-service, and not part of a large reporting group. A practice outside that profile can borrow from the kit but cannot rely on it as an adequate program.
The June 2026 update
On 19 June 2026 AUSTRAC updated every kit: streamlined beneficial ownership checks for certain customer types, strengthened risk assessment practices, updated risk information from the 2026 national risk assessment, more time for the first independent evaluation, the compliance report's move to financial years, and enrolment details. The conveyancing and real estate kits also adopted the revised delayed due diligence timeframe for counterparties (28 days after exchange of contracts or 3 days before settlement) and a requirement to record steps taken with uncooperative counterparties. If you built your program from a kit before that date, AUSTRAC asks you to review the changes.
Where our tools fit
The kits are free and official; use them. The sector tools in our group cover what a document set cannot: versioning the program, keeping the client records and review dates, counting the reporting deadlines and producing the audit trail and the compliance report figures. They are built to sit alongside a kit-based program, not to replace it.
Questions people ask
- Is using the starter kit enough to comply?
- Only if your practice matches the profile the kit was designed for and you customise it honestly, then use and maintain it. AUSTRAC says a practice outside that profile cannot rely on the kit alone.
Sources
Official AUSTRAC guidance this page was checked against. The date is when we captured the page; AUSTRAC may have updated it since.
- Program starter kits · AUSTRAC, captured 01 July 2026
- Accounting program starter kit: Getting started · AUSTRAC, captured 12 Apr 2026
- Preparing for the changes if you’re newly regulated · AUSTRAC, captured 17 May 2026
- Latest guidance updates · AUSTRAC, captured 07 July 2026