Changelog

What changed in PracticeGuard, month by month.

What changed in PracticeGuard, month by month, in plain English: what it means for your practice, not how we built it. Last updated 4 November 2026. You check every document and you file every return yourself.

November 2026

The AML return pack learns from the documents you already have.

November’s work is on what the pack does with your own documents: it reads your current risk assessment, policies and training log for suggestions you confirm, lists where they no longer match the rules as they stand, counts your client list without a model reading it, and lets you keep, edit, drop or replace passages in your own words. The pack is easier to use on a phone, and a finished example is published.

NewWhat's new

AML return pack

  • What we found in your documents. After you upload your risk assessment, policies or training log, the pack lists where the document no longer matches the rules as they stand: the term “high-risk third country”, which the regulations no longer use; a threshold in euros rather than sterling; no proliferation financing risk assessment; enhanced due diligence triggers in the old wording; a training log whose latest date is more than 12 months old; a nominated officer whose name could not be found; the 2020 national risk assessment cited. Each finding quotes the passage and the page where there is one. It is not a review of the whole document. 3 November 2026
  • Your client list, counted. Upload your client list as a spreadsheet or CSV and the pack counts it by code: clients, nationalities, countries and services. No model reads it. The file and the counts are kept, as your other uploads are, and no row is copied into your answers, logged or sent to anyone. 3 November 2026
  • Passages in your own words. Your stated risk appetite, and your stated approach to enhanced due diligence and to ongoing monitoring, are copied from your own documents for you to keep as written, edit, drop, or replace with a suggested rewrite drafted when you ask. A suggestion is used only when you press Adopt, and the documents note who adopted it and when. 3 November 2026
Open: AML return pack →

Website

  • A finished example of the pack. A finished example for a fictitious practice is published at /aml-return-pack/sample/: the ACCA return sheet and the return preparation checklist in full, and excerpts of the other six documents, so you can see how the pack is set out before you start. 3 November 2026
Open: Website →

ImprovedImprovements

AML return pack

  • Long documents read whole. A sentence that runs over two lines of a PDF is now read as one sentence, so the document check no longer misses a point it should raise. If reading takes too long, “Try again” reads the file you already uploaded. 3 November 2026
  • Easier on a phone. If you came for the AML return pack, PracticeGuard opens on the pack, shows its price separately from the Verify trial, saves your typed answers as you go and reopens where you left off. Your documents are easy to read on a phone before you sign them, and a sole practitioner can sign as principal and MLRO. 1 November 2026

Website

  • What a check is, said plainly. The website now describes a client check as the identity evidence and the sanctions and PEP screening for your file, with the verification decision yours. 3 November 2026

FixedFixes

AML return pack

  • Signing refreshes the documents that depend on it. Signing your firm-wide risk assessment now refreshes the documents that refer to it instead of marking them out of date, and a signed document no longer tells you to review the document you have just adopted. 1 November 2026

Billing

  • The payment page shows PracticeGuard. The payment page now shows practiceguard.uk and the PracticeGuard icon, and emails and the welcome page address your practice by its everyday name. 2 November 2026
October 2026

The AML return pack: seven documents from one interview, and a sheet for your supervisor's return.

October's work is the AML return pack, for practices supervised by ACCA, ICAEW, AAT or HMRC. You answer one set of questions about your practice and PracticeGuard writes your AML documents from the answers. You check everything and you file the return yourself.

NewWhat's new

AML return pack

  • Seven AML documents from one interview. Answer about 20 minutes of questions about your practice, with your facts to hand, and PracticeGuard writes seven documents from your answers: the firm-wide risk assessment, with its own proliferation financing section; the AML policies, controls and procedures; an internal suspicious-activity report form and register; an ongoing-monitoring checklist; an MLRO review worksheet; a training register; and a return preparation checklist. Where a control is not in place yet, the document says so and gives you the action. 30 October 2026
  • A return sheet for ACCA, ICAEW, AAT and HMRC. The same answers are laid out row by row for your supervisor: ACCA's 2026/27 AML annual return, ICAEW's annual return, AAT's AML annual firm return or HMRC's annual declaration, with a Copy button on each answer. Where your answers cannot decide a row, it says "Not held" and why, so nothing is guessed. You file the return yourself; PracticeGuard does not file it for you. 30 October 2026
  • Upload the documents you already have. Upload your current firm-wide risk assessment, AML policies or training log as a PDF, Word (.docx) or text file. PracticeGuard shows the answers it suggests, with the exact words it read, and nothing becomes an answer until you confirm it. 30 October 2026
  • Adopt and sign your documents. The practice owner or your designated MLRO can adopt and sign the documents in PracticeGuard (the return checklist is a working list and is not signed). The signed PDF records who signed, their role, the date, the version and the document's SHA-256 hash. Once your firm-wide risk assessment or policies are signed, the return sheet answers that question with ACCA's "Yes - I have conducted it once", and an answer you type afterwards always stands. If you change an answer, the document is marked out of date and needs generating and signing again. 31 October 2026
Open: AML return pack →

Buying the pack

  • Buy the AML return pack, with or without Verify. The AML return pack is £149 + VAT a year, bought on its own or with Verify. You can answer the questions and see the first page of your risk assessment before you buy; reading, downloading and signing the documents come with the AML return pack. 31 October 2026
Open: Buying the pack →

AML diary

  • An AML diary. The diary lists the reviews, training and returns your AML duties need, when each is next due, and a dated record of when each was done. A signed risk assessment or policies document counts as that document's latest review. The diary comes with Verify. 30 October 2026

Inspection-ready pack

  • The inspection-ready pack. One download of what an AML inspector asks to see that PracticeGuard holds: your documents, your client due diligence checks, the suspicious activity report register (never a client name), training and the diary. It says plainly when it is not yet ready to hand over, and you can download it from the return sheet on any supervisor's tab. It comes with Verify; the text of your documents is included when you have the AML return pack. 30 October 2026

PreviewIn preview

Client checks (Verify)

  • Start a client check from Staffology. If you run payroll in Staffology, you can start a client ID check from your Staffology client list, next to your Xero contacts. The Staffology connection is in test. 12 October 2026

ImprovedImprovements

AML return pack

  • Fewer questions if you work on your own. If your practice has no other partners, staff or sub-contractors, the interview answers the staff and MLRO questions from that instead of asking them. Choosing that answer asks you to confirm first if it would remove answers you had already given. 31 October 2026

AML documents

  • A clearer print design. Your AML documents print with page numbers, a running header and footer, clear tables, quotations set apart from your own statements, and landscape pages for the checklists and the training register. 31 October 2026

Public register pages

  • No penalty information on practice pages. The public page for each accountancy practice no longer shows HMRC penalty information. The pages show public-register facts only. 30 October 2026

PracticeGuard supports your judgement; it never replaces it. This page describes what the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, the accountancy sector guidance and the supervisors’ own published documents say, with the source for each point, so you can read it yourself. It is not legal advice, and nothing here is advice about what your supervisor will accept. PracticeGuard is not affiliated with or endorsed by ACCA, ICAEW, AAT, HMRC or any AML supervisor. Check the current version of each document before you rely on it.

The AML return pack, written from your answers.

Seven documents from about 20 minutes of questions with your facts to hand, and a sheet of your answers for ACCA, ICAEW, AAT or HMRC. £149 + VAT a year, with or without Verify. You file the return yourself.

See the AML return pack

Client ID checks with Verify.

PracticeGuard Verify helps you run and record client due diligence. First month free.

Start with Verify