Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) Due Diligence System

PPSR Due Diligence System gives accounting firms a comprehensive framework for helping SME clients identify commercial exposures that may require Personal Property Securities Register consideration and review the internal systems used to manage those risks.

The package includes 38 PPSR resources, including the main Procedure Control Form, engagement-management documents, the Identification of Personal Property Schedule, technical and client-education material, customer and asset-policy resources, insolvency-related guidance and 15 industry-specific PPSR due-diligence questionnaires.

The key opportunity is to move the client discussion beyond simply asking whether a PPSR registration exists. Your firm can help management identify where risk may arise, review whether appropriate internal procedures are operating and determine where stronger controls or specialist legal advice may be required.

A Structured PPSR Due Diligence Review

The PPSR Due Diligence System Procedure Control Form provides the overall framework for conducting the client review.

It helps your firm organise the engagement around the major areas of PPSR risk management, including:

• Identification of personal property and commercial exposures
• Customer and transaction procedures
• Terms of Trade and Retention of Title considerations
• Assets located with customers or other third parties
• PPSR registration and monitoring systems
• Customer insolvency risk
• Industry-specific exposures
• Recommendations for improving the client’s internal procedures

This gives your firm a repeatable process for reviewing the client’s PPSR systems rather than approaching each issue as an isolated registration question.

Scope and Manage the Client Engagement

The package includes dedicated engagement-management resources for establishing PPSR Due Diligence as a defined advisory assignment.

These include:

• Work Programme/Budget/Quotation Form
• Work Programme Timetable
• Proposal for PPSR Due Diligence Review
• Assignment Control Form

These resources help your firm define the work required, establish the engagement timetable, prepare a client proposal and manage the review internally.

Identification of Personal Property Schedule

The Identification of Personal Property Schedule provides a structured starting point for discussing the assets, rights and commercial arrangements that may create PPSR exposure.

It helps your firm broaden the client’s thinking beyond obvious physical assets and consider the different forms of personal property and commercial interests that may require further investigation.

This can be particularly useful where assets are:

• Sold on credit
• Leased or rented
• Located on another party’s premises
• Held by customers or related entities
• Connected with financing arrangements
• Associated with intellectual property or other non-physical rights

Review the Client’s Existing PPSR System

Once potential exposures have been identified, the resources help your firm review whether the client has an effective internal system for managing them.

The review can consider areas such as:

• Who is responsible for PPSR-related decisions
• How relevant transactions are identified
• How customer and asset information is recorded
• How registrations are monitored
• How exceptions are escalated to management
• Whether procedures remain appropriate as the business changes

The objective is to make PPSR risk management part of the client’s normal business procedures rather than an occasional administrative exercise.

Terms of Trade

The package includes resources dealing with Terms of Trade and the internal procedures surrounding their use.

This can help your firm discuss whether the client has appropriate systems for issuing, recording and monitoring trading documentation and whether those procedures connect effectively with its wider PPSR risk-management process.

Drafting, interpretation or amendment of Terms of Trade is legal work and should be undertaken by an appropriately qualified commercial solicitor.

Retention of Title

Retention of Title resources are included for businesses supplying goods under arrangements where ownership and security interests may require particular consideration.

The accounting firm can help management identify whether appropriate procedures exist and whether the business is consistently applying its documented trading arrangements.

Where legal rights or wording need to be determined, current commercial legal advice should be obtained.

Customer Due Diligence and Commercial Exposure

The PPSR Due Diligence System connects registration decisions with the client’s broader approach to customer risk.

The resources can help your firm open discussions around:

• Customer due diligence
• Credit exposure
• Large or unusual transactions
• Customer insolvency risk
• Escalation of higher-risk commercial decisions

This allows PPSR considerations to sit within the client’s wider credit-risk and commercial-risk management systems.

Renting, Leasing and Assets Held by Other Parties

A dedicated group of resources addresses businesses that rent, lease or place their assets in the possession of customers or other third parties.

This is particularly relevant to clients operating equipment-hire, leasing, construction, agricultural and similar businesses where valuable property regularly leaves the client’s direct control.

The resources help your firm identify these arrangements and determine whether the client’s existing internal procedures warrant further review.

PPSR Registration and Monitoring Systems

The package contains material for reviewing how the client manages the administrative side of PPSR registrations.

This can include consideration of:

• Responsibility for registrations
• Accuracy of information
• Retention of appropriate records
• Monitoring existing registrations
• Review and renewal procedures

This helps reduce the risk that a potentially important registration is compromised by weak internal administration.

Financing Statements and Security Interests

The technical resources introduce important PPSR concepts associated with Financing Statements and different forms of security interests.

This provides advisers with useful background for recognising when a client’s transaction may require further PPSR consideration.

The correct legal treatment of an individual transaction should be determined using current PPSR guidance and, where necessary, specialist legal advice.

Purchase Money Security Interests

The package includes material relating to Purchase Money Security Interests (PMSIs).

This helps accounting firms recognise that some security interests can involve particular registration and timing considerations and should not automatically be treated in the same way as every other PPSR matter.

Current legal and PPSR guidance should always be used when dealing with a live transaction.

Debtors and Customer Insolvency

A group of supporting resources examines the relationship between PPSR, debtors and customer insolvency.

These materials help demonstrate why effective security and documentation systems can become particularly important when a customer experiences financial difficulty or enters insolvency.

This can support broader advisory discussions involving:

• Customer credit risk
• Debtors management
• Working capital
• Terms of Trade
• Unfair-preference issues
• Insolvency exposure

Any actual insolvency claim or legal dispute should be referred to an appropriately qualified legal adviser.

PPSR Technical and Client-Education Resources

The package includes a substantial group of technical and educational resources covering PPSR concepts and the commercial reasons why businesses need appropriate systems.

Topics include:

• Personal Property Securities Register fundamentals
• PPSR operational risk management
• Advising clients on PPSR systems
• Common PPSR questions
• PPSA implications for businesses
• Common misconceptions about PPSR
• Examples of problems businesses can encounter

These resources can help partners and team members prepare for client discussions and provide suitable background information to management.

15 Industry-Specific PPSR Due Diligence Questionnaires

One of the strongest features of the package is the inclusion of 15 industry-specific PPSR due-diligence questionnaires.

Rather than applying exactly the same review to every SME, these resources allow your firm to focus on the types of assets, transactions and commercial relationships that are more likely to arise within the client’s particular industry.

Industry questionnaires are provided for:

• Retail businesses
• Restaurants
• Hospitality businesses
• Trades and contractors
• Wholesale suppliers
• Livestock businesses
• Farmers’ crops
• Equipment renters
• Ingredient suppliers
• Paintings and works of art
• Manufacturers
• Farm suppliers
• Livestock feed suppliers
• Thoroughbred horses
• Construction businesses

Retail, Wholesale and Hospitality Businesses

The industry material helps advisers explore PPSR risks associated with supplying goods, customer credit, stock and other commercial relationships commonly encountered in retail, wholesale, restaurant and hospitality businesses.

Trades, Construction and Equipment Businesses

Dedicated resources address businesses where tools, plant, equipment, materials and customer or contractor relationships can create different forms of PPSR exposure.

This includes specific material for trades and contractors, construction businesses and equipment renters.

Manufacturing and Ingredient Supply

Manufacturing and ingredient-supply questionnaires help focus the discussion on goods moving through production processes, supply chains and customer relationships.

Agriculture and Livestock

Specialist questionnaires are also provided for agricultural and livestock-related businesses, recognising that crops, livestock, feed, farm supplies and specialist assets can give rise to different commercial arrangements.

Specialist Property and Asset Categories

The package extends beyond conventional trading businesses with specialist questionnaires covering areas such as artworks and thoroughbred horses.

This reinforces an important PPSR principle: personal property can extend well beyond conventional plant, equipment and stock.

Support the Accountant’s Risk-Management Role

The package is designed primarily around helping the accountant or business adviser identify commercial exposure and review the client’s internal systems.

Your firm can help management:

• Identify areas requiring attention
• Clarify internal responsibilities
• Improve customer and transaction procedures
• Strengthen documentation controls
• Improve registration monitoring
• Identify matters requiring management escalation
• Coordinate specialist legal advice where necessary

Keep Legal Advice Separate

An important boundary within the PPSR Due Diligence System is the distinction between business systems advice and legal advice.

Your firm can help identify PPSR exposure and review whether the client has appropriate internal systems. However, interpretation of legislation and the drafting or amendment of legal documents — including Terms of Trade and Retention of Title provisions — should be referred to an appropriately qualified commercial solicitor.

This allows the accountant to play an important risk-management and coordination role without stepping outside the appropriate professional boundary. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

Prepare Recommendations for the Client

The engagement-management resources provide a framework for bringing the findings of the review together and discussing improvements with management.

Recommendations may involve areas such as:

• Internal responsibilities
• Customer procedures
• Asset-management procedures
• Documentation controls
• Registration monitoring
• Staff awareness
• Further legal review

This gives the client a practical outcome from the due-diligence process rather than simply receiving a technical explanation of the PPSR.

Conduct Periodic PPSR Reviews

PPSR exposure can change as the client:

• Adds new customers
• Introduces different Terms of Trade
• Acquires new assets
• Leases or rents equipment
• Changes suppliers
• Develops intellectual property
• Changes its corporate or related-entity arrangements

The PPSR Due Diligence System can therefore provide the basis for a periodic risk-management review rather than a once-only engagement.

Connect PPSR with Broader Business Advisory Services

A PPSR review can uncover related advisory opportunities involving:

• Debtors Management
• Cashflow Management
• Customer credit policies
• Risk management
• Business systems
• Working capital
• Due diligence

This gives the accounting firm an opportunity to connect PPSR risk with the wider financial and commercial systems of the SME client.

A Repeatable PPSR Due Diligence Advisory Service

Together, the 38 PPSR Due Diligence System resources provide your firm with a structured way to help SME clients identify potential exposures, review their internal systems and determine where stronger procedures or specialist advice may be required.

Rather than simply reminding clients that they should think about the PPSR, your firm can provide a defined due-diligence engagement that examines how PPSR risk is actually being managed within the business.

This creates a practical advisory service that can be revisited as the client’s customers, assets and commercial arrangements change over time.

PPSR legislation, registration requirements and time limits can change. Current PPSR guidance and appropriate legal advice should always be used where legal interpretation, security documentation or registration treatment needs to be determined.