Agency quality assurance

Check agency work against approved requirements and the delivered version before acceptance, publication or spend authorisation. Record what was checked, what needs correction and who decides. A later performance report cannot show the work was ready at release.

Set the review baseline

Use the scope, brief and approved changes to identify the expected output. Confirm required client inputs and approvals. If a requirement is unclear, settle its meaning before treating a different interpretation as a defect.

Match the review to the consequence of an error. A small layout change may need a focused visual check. A public claim, customer journey, account change or spending decision may need factual, operational or specialist verification. Give a specialist a defined question and ask what evidence supports the answer.

Check the work in context

For content, check whether the intended reader gets the promised answer, whether consequential claims are supported and whether qualifications sit beside those claims. Compare the version about to go live with the approved copy.

For a campaign, inspect the final assets with their offer, destination, audience, schedule, budget authority and measurement settings. Platform approval under advertising policies does not establish client approval of the business claims or spend.

For technical work, ask what changed, which version was checked, how it was checked and what remains uncertain. A task marked complete or a tool score alone may not show whether the agreed user journey works.

For accessibility, W3C says no tool alone can determine whether a site meets accessibility standards; a conformance decision requires knowledgeable human evaluation.

W3C recommends evaluating accessibility early and throughout development or redesign, when problems are easier to address. That timing can inform the client's review schedule, rather than leaving accessibility until the final acceptance check.

Review Focus by Risk Level

Recognise the regulatory context

For work involving consumer-facing claims, know which external roles are relevant without confusing them with your own acceptance decision. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is an independent Commonwealth statutory authority established in 1995. It administers and enforces the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and other legislation, and promotes competition and fair trading.

Ad Standards describes itself as Australia's advertising regulator. Australian advertisers support its self-regulatory system through a small levy on advertising spend. Treat that external context separately from your record of whether the particular agency version meets the agreed requirements.

Regulatory Bodies in Australian Agency Compliance

Make and record the decision

Accept the reviewed version, return it with a specified correction, or hold it while a material question is resolved. For a correction, identify the requirement, observed gap and evidence needed to close it. Distinguish a fix to agreed work from a new request, using the engagement's change process where the brief changes.

Check the revised version before closing an issue, including connected elements the revision may have affected. Keep the approved and released versions identifiable. If an exception is permitted, record who accepted it, its limit and its follow-up owner. An exception should never imply that a required check took place.

Key Elements to Verify Before Acceptance

Learn from repeated misses

Record recurring gaps and their effects alongside agency explanations and client dependencies. An unclear requirement, late client input and agency production error call for different remedies.

For a private engagement, keep performance information fair, accurate and complete, including relevant client inputs, and follow the actual agreement.

At an agreed review point, decide whether a review step needs changing, who owns the change and which next delivery will show whether it helped. For serious or persistent issues, follow the agreement and seek appropriate advice.