SJD accountants

[simondolan]

Perhaps emailing Simon Dolan would get better attention. Your experience is vastly different to mine.


But as others have implied, good accountants are free; if they cost you money they're not doing their job.

Always happy to look into things or take suggestions as to how we can do things better

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

From what I know I would say that SJD is as good as you're likely to get from a firm with multiple offices. There is, I'm sure, variations in service levels across the different offices but on the whole they rate fairly highly. You don't get to look after 12,000 contractors without providing excellent service, imo.

For the record I'm also an accountant but very much a small fish swimming in SJD's big pond. We very rarely win clients from SJD. That tells us that they are good.

[Wanderer]

Always happy to look into things or take suggestions as to how we can do things better

I'd prefer a single point of contact and a bit better stability. It's not great when accountants are coming and going all the time or when you deal with a dozen different people.

[northernladuk]

I'd prefer a single point of contact and a bit better stability. It's not great when accountants are coming and going all the time or when you deal with a dozen different people.

From the outside I would totally agree with this but I have had 4 different accountants in as many years from the Manchester branch and all have been great..... so far. Every change does introduce the possibility of a problem though so would be nice not to have so many changes.

[simondolan]

I'd prefer a single point of contact and a bit better stability. It's not great when accountants are coming and going all the time or when you deal with a dozen different people.

We certainly do aim to work that way. Difficult to only have one point of contact due to the necessity of holiday cover and so on, but no reason you should deal with more than a couple on the whole. What office are you with?

[aardvark]

I was with SJD and was happy with the service, but also noticed turnover of account managers - had 3 (or 4?) in the 2.5 years I was with them - perhaps Simon could comment on why that is?

Moved because of price increase - had SJD offered to match the price I was being offered elsewhere I would have stayed, but they didn't.

Now with InTouch - also happy with their service (broadly very similar, uses portal rather than spreadsheet, noticeably slower on things like corp tax and personal tax returns, but still well within the required deadlines), and so far am still on the same account manager as when I signed up 1.5 years ago. Also, InTouch's account manager has phoned me (once) to check everything is OK and whether I have any issues which is a nice touch - dunno if it's an annual thing or a one off.

[d000hg]

I imagine the main 3 or 4 companies - SJD, Nixon Williams, InTouch and ClearSky - must see customers moving between them all the time.

[simondolan]

I was with SJD and was happy with the service, but also noticed turnover of account managers - had 3 (or 4?) in the 2.5 years I was with them - perhaps Simon could comment on why that is?

Moved because of price increase - had SJD offered to match the price I was being offered elsewhere I would have stayed, but they didn't.

Now with InTouch - also happy with their service (broadly very similar, uses portal rather than spreadsheet, noticeably slower on things like corp tax and personal tax returns, but still well within the required deadlines), and so far am still on the same account manager as when I signed up 1.5 years ago. Also, InTouch's account manager has phoned me (once) to check everything is OK and whether I have any issues which is a nice touch - dunno if it's an annual thing or a one off.

The answer is that unfortunately staff do leave for whatever reason. Maternity is a fairly big one for us, and people of course leave because they get better offers elsewhere or they simply fancy a change. What we do try to ensure is consistency of service, which it seems as though you had.

[philip@wellwoodhoyle]

I imagine the main 3 or 4 companies - SJD, Nixon Williams, InTouch and ClearSky - must see customers moving between them all the time.

We're a very small fish in a big pond, but we don't see movement between or away from the "good" firms such as those you have quoted. We've never gained a client from these four so that tells us they must be doing it right.

What we have seen is a constant trickle away from the big firms that have aggressive marketing and tie-ins with agencies such as Brookson, JSA andf Giant,

Same with local firms - when we get new clients, it's always from the same firms for the same reasons, there are several local firms from whom we've never taken a client so again, they are the ones doing it right!

[Jamie@GorillaAccounting]

Get switched to Jamie Leigh in Manc office, very helpful, very quick to respond and has sorted a few things I messed up with extra effort on her part.

Thank you for your comments Lukemg, although I have never found out who you actually are....