Occupational safety for tax and audit practices
The duties are the same for every office and administrative business. What differs for tax and audit practices is where the risk assessment puts its focus.
- Tax & audit firms
What is different here
The workload is seasonal, not steady. Year-end accounts and filing deadlines produce the same predictable peaks every year. Predictable means manageable, so they belong in the assessment.
The four points that matter
- Seasonal peaks as a permanent topic. Recurring busy phases with overtime and postponed breaks are the central point of the assessment of mental stress under section 5 paragraph 3 ArbSchG. Because they are in the calendar, they can be planned for in advance.
- Audits at the client. Audit work takes place over weeks in someone else's premises, often at improvised workstations. What you cannot shape yourself must be assessed and agreed with the client.
- Document archives and transport. Folders, boxes of receipts and data media get moved, often between practice and client. Manual handling and transport in your own vehicle belong in the assessment.
- Long screen time with figures. Hours of spreadsheet work at high visual detail. The focus is monitor size, viewing distance, lighting and the offered eyesight screening.
What a walkthrough typically turns up
In the practice the findings are boxes of documents on traffic routes, folders above head height and overloaded power strips. What is regularly missing from the walkthrough is the on-site audit: there is no assessment for the workstations at the client, even though teams sit there for weeks, and no agreement on how an accident there is reported.
What that means for safety training
Training needs a section on working at the client: signing in, their house rules, setting up the improvised workstation, the reporting route after an accident. Add the rules for the busy phases, meaning breaks, availability and cover, and how to lift and transport boxes of documents.
Related
- External occupational safety specialist: the scope under section 6 ASiG, the three support models compared and how the number of hours is calculated.
- Regions: an occupational safety specialist on site in eight regions across Germany, with the responsible VBG district office for each.
- Occupational safety by sector: what sets law firms, IT, agencies, real estate, associations, financial services and other business types apart.
- Duties quick-check: which duties apply at your headcount, from the occupational safety committee through safety officers to the end of the Unternehmermodell.
- Support-hours calculator: your support hours under DGUV Regulation 2, including the split between specialist and physician. The cost logic is explained in What does a safety specialist cost?
- Risk assessment in the office and safety training in the office: the two duties that apply to every office business from the first employee.
- Services overview: the complete scope required by the ASiG and DGUV Regulation 2 in one contract, with every sector and location we cover.
Frequently asked questions
Do different rules apply to tax and audit practices?
Do we need a separate risk assessment per location?
From when do we need an occupational safety specialist?
What does support cost for a business our size?
Other business types
Worry-free occupational safety in 4 steps
A simple path from the first conversation to audit-proof documentation.
Free initial consultation
We set out what the law requires, what you don't need and what we deliver. Clarity from day one.
Contract signed
One contract, predictable annual costs, booked directly with us. First contact to signature: five working days at most.
Occupational safety specialist on site
Your specialist visits for the walkthrough, produces the risk assessment and checks: what is there, what is missing?
Audit-proof documentation in the portal
Every record sits in the client portal: digital, complete, current, easy to share.
Talk to us.
Book a slot directly, or write to us using the form.