Working in RPD CASSO
RPD CASSO runs the firm's work the way the Operating Bible describes it: every deliverable moves through its process one step at a time, and nothing is completed, released or billed until the evidence exists. This guide shows each designation what it sees, what it does, and where the system will stop it.
C-03, and says what to do next.Signing in
Everyone
Open casso.rpdca.com and sign in with the email address the firm registered for you and your password. Nobody can create their own account: an administrator adds you and gives you a one-time password.
Your first sign-in: choose your own password
The first time you sign in with the one-time password, CASSO opens one screen and nothing else. Enter the one-time password, then your new password twice (at least ten characters). From then on only you know it, including the administrator who created your account.
- Changing it later: click your name at the top right, then Change password.
- Forgotten it: ask the administrator for a new one-time password; CASSO emails it to you. Issuing one signs you out on every device at once.
Creating accounts
The master administrator, and anyone holding a designation with people administration: Managing Director, Head of Department, MIS Coordinator
The live system starts with one account, the master administrator, who holds the Managing Director designation. That account creates everyone else. Creating an account happens in two parts: add the person, then give them the designations they hold. Someone with no designation can read the system but cannot act in it.
Add a person
- In the left menu, under The Standard, open Designations and people, then the People tab.
- Click Add person. Enter the full name and the email address they will sign in with.
- Click Add and issue password. CASSO emails the person the sign-in address and a one-time password from
notifications@rpdca.com, and shows you the password once in case the email does not arrive (Copy the details then lets you pass them on yourself).
localhost; on the live system it reads https://casso.rpdca.com. Until the person signs in, the People list marks them Awaiting first sign-in.Give them their designations
- Click Assign designation and choose the person.
- Choose the designation: for example Team Leader – Tax and Compliance, Senior Assistant or Reviewer.
- Choose the practice line if the designation applies to one department only: Municipal Council, Government Tender, Tax and Compliance, Audit and Assurance or Shared Services. Leave it on Firm-wide otherwise.
- Choose Holder for the person who does the work, or Standing backup for the named cover. Set the start date and click Assign.
- Leave or absence: Arrange absence cover gives the standing backup the designation for the dates you set. The work does not move; the backup can simply act on it.
- A leaver: Record leaver ends every assignment on that date and signs the person out everywhere.
Today: what is yours now
Everyone. It is the first page after sign-in.
Today collects everything waiting on the designations you hold: steps to do, checkpoints to answer or check, completion evidence to verify, reviews and releases waiting for you, defects to clear and Help Tickets. The tiles at the top count them; the lists below open straight into the work.
Every notification (an escalation, an approaching internal date, a Help Ticket that needs you or has come back to you) is also emailed from notifications@rpdca.com to the people who hold that designation, with a link straight to the work.
A work item, from top to bottom
Everyone who works on a deliverable
Every deliverable (a Council report, a GST return, a tax audit) is one work item with a Work ID such as MC-00009. Its page reads from top to bottom:
- The chain of processes (
MC-01→MC-08), with the current one highlighted and its five stages beneath. - The date rail: the firm's internal date is set before the statutory or contractual date, and the rail shows how many days remain.
- Checklist, evidence and Full Kit status, each computed and never typed in.
- What happens next: the next step, who holds it today, the input it needs, its turnaround time, what counts as evidence and what to do if it is delayed.
- Who: the maker, checker and approver designations, resolved to today's people.
The tabs under the panel hold the detail:
| Tab | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Steps | Each step of the current process, done in order. A step is recorded done with its evidence link. |
| Checklist | The checkpoints for this process, answered Yes, No or N/A by the maker and checked by the checker. |
| Full Kit | The documents the step needs before it may start, with deficiencies chased from the client. |
| Review and release | The independent review, then the signed release (with UDIN where required) and the acknowledgement. |
| Evidence | Completion evidence, submitted by the maker and verified by the checker. |
| Billing | The billable event raised by an acknowledged release. |
| Queries and tickets | Questions to the client, and Help Tickets. |
| Plan, Linked work, Closure | Milestones and capacity, related items, and the nine conditions for full closure. |
When the system says no
Everyone
CASSO enforces the Operating Bible's controls in the database, so a refusal cannot be worked around from another screen. Each refusal names its control. These are the ones you will meet most often.
| Control | What it stops | What to do |
|---|---|---|
C-01 | The same designation acting as maker and checker, or checker and approver, on the same work. | Have the checker or approver designation act. The Head of Department can record a segregation exception with a reason. |
C-02 | Completing work whose completion evidence is not yet verified. | Submit the evidence link; the checker verifies it. |
C-03 | Completion while a checkpoint is unanswered, or while a Critical or Major checkpoint is answered No. | Answer every checkpoint. Correct the defect, answer Yes and have it checked afresh. |
C-04 | Releasing anything outside the firm without a passed review and, where required, a UDIN. | Complete the review; the Authorized Approver signs the release. |
C-05 | Working an obligation whose statutory date is not verified, or whose internal date is not before it. | Team Leader – Tax and Compliance verifies the Compliance Calendar rule. |
C-06 | Starting a Full Kit step while mandatory documents are missing. | Receive the documents, or ask the Head of Department for a written partial-start waiver. |
BLOCKED · checkpoints unanswered is normal while work is under way; it only means completion is not yet possible. BLOCKED · defect open means a Critical or Major checkpoint was answered No, and release is refused as well.Asking for help: Help Tickets
Everyone. Asking early is the expected thing to do.
When something cannot be cleared where it sits, raise a Help Ticket from the work item (Queries and tickets tab) or from Control → Help Tickets. A ticket needs the Work ID, the blocker, what you already tried, the help you need, the designation that can give it, a decision date and the deadline impact.
Find your designation
The sections below follow one designation each. Every screenshot comes from a practice copy of the system, filled with fictional clients and people so each screen shows real work; the live system starts empty and fills as the firm uses it.
Managing Director
Also the master administrator: creates people and keeps the configuration (see Creating accounts)
The Managing Director sees exceptions and decisions only; routine work never reaches this desk. An empty cockpit is the intended steady state.
The cockpit
Reserved decisions
Only a complete decision pack reaches you: the facts, the options, the exposure, a recommendation and a decision date. Choose an option and record the decision, or return the pack if it is incomplete.
Confirm the firm's working week
Every turnaround time is counted in working days. Monday to Saturday is proposed but not yet decided. Open Governance → Working Calendar, correct any day, then click Confirm the working week and enter your written confirmation. That closes validation point V-13 and makes turnaround times enforceable. Public holidays and firm holidays are added below the weekly pattern.
Executive Assistant
Prepares what the Managing Director decides
Escalations that climb to Level 4, Reserved notices and reserved matters arrive here as requests. Prepare a decision pack (facts, options, exposure, recommendation, decision date) or return a request as routine. The system refuses a pack for a routine matter and refuses one with missing parts.
Head of Department
Approver on the department's chapters; owns waivers, plans and the escalation ladder
The dashboard
Escalations
A missed internal date climbs the ladder on its own: day 1 to the owner, day 2 to the Team Leader, day 4 to the Head of Department, then weekly to Level 4. Where a statutory or contractual date is at stake, the owner, Team Leader and Head of Department are alerted together the same day.
What only the Head of Department does
- Full Kit waiver: on the work item's Full Kit tab, approve a written partial start that names exactly which steps may proceed.
- Plan approval: on the Plan tab. A plan that loads anyone above 100% of capacity is refused.
- Segregation exception: on the Manage tab, with a reason and a compensating review.
- Governance: the HCI Tracker (improvement actions), absence testing and CARMA Control, under Governance.
Team Leaders
Municipal Council, Government Tender, Tax and Compliance, Audit and Quality
A Team Leader raises the department's work, checks it, keeps every open row with a next action, and is the second rung of the escalation ladder.
The department register
Checking
Checkpoints answered by the makers appear on your Today page to check. You cannot check a checkpoint you answered yourself. A corrected Critical or Major defect must be checked afresh, and never by the person who raised it.
Team Leader – Tax and Compliance: dates and obligations
Statutory dates live in exactly one place, the Compliance Calendar. Each rule carries its official source and the date it was verified. An obligation reads BLOCKED until its rule is verified, and INVALID if its internal date is not before the statutory date.
Senior Assistant, Executive, Article Assistant
The people who do the steps
- Open the item from Today. The What happens next panel says what the step needs and what counts as done.
- If the step is Full Kit gated, receive and index the documents first on the Full Kit tab.
- Do the work, then record the step done on the Steps tab with a stable evidence link (a document with a version, not a note that it exists).
- Answer your checkpoints on the Checklist tab: Yes with proof, No with a note, or N/A with a one-line reason.
- At the end of the process, submit the completion evidence; the checker verifies it and the item moves to the next process.
Reviewer
Independent review before anything leaves the firm
Reviews requested by preparers wait in Control → Reviews and releases. Open the work, review against the checklist, and record Pass or Fail; there is no third option. Log every defect you find. You cannot review work you prepared.
Authorized Approver
Signs releases and generates the UDIN where the deliverable needs one
A release can be signed only when the review has passed, no review defect is open, the checklist gate is not blocked by a defect, and the approver is neither the preparer nor the reviewer. A report or certificate is refused without its UDIN.
Notices and the Filing Desk
The tax team registers proceedings; Senior Assistant – Departmental Filing and Representation runs the desk
A notice is registered on the day it is seen and authenticated on the portal. Its severity is Routine, Material (escalated to the Head of Department) or Reserved (a decision request for the Managing Director). Its internal date always falls strictly before the statutory response date.
The Filing Desk carries out an approved, signed filing and brings back the acknowledgement. Requests are raised from the originating work item, which needs an approved release and a deadline first. The desk records visits, officer interactions and expenses, and never changes what was approved.
Billing and Recovery Coordinator
Invoices, receipts, deductions and deposits
A billable event is created by an acknowledged release, never by hand, and the invoice is due within two working days. Record receipts against invoices, split out TDS and other deductions and reconcile them, and chase receivables on the firm's timetable.
Process Coordinator
Help Tickets, the daily exception check, System Audit and configuration
The Process Coordinator keeps the registers honest: every open item has an owner, a next action and a date. Help Tickets are resolved or escalated, never left as a queue. The fifteen System Audit tests run against live data every day and can be run on demand.
MIS Coordinator
Masters, obligation generation, the 25 measures and the weekly freeze
Every figure in CASSO traces through the MIS KPI Dictionary to the register rows behind it; nothing is re-keyed. Where a measure has nothing to count, it reads No Data, never zero per cent.
No dashboard is used in a meeting until its week is frozen. The twelve-step protocol is worked through by its owners, and the MIS Coordinator certifies the week. A frozen week is never changed; reopening it creates a new version with a written reason.
Where the rules live
Everyone
Every process the firm runs, all 34 of them, has a chapter under The Standard → Process library. Each chapter covers why the process exists, its five stages, its flowchart, every step with its owner, checker and approver, its checkpoints, and its escalation and closure rules. If you are unsure what a step expects, the chapter answers it.
Points the firm has still to decide, such as the working week (V-13), sit in The Standard → Validation Register, each with the designation who decides and a deadline.