Changing Accountant

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

Dammit

I may have a spare pony going soon if that helps?

[simondolan]

Working hard for all these years to build a good reputation, and I could have short cut the whole thing by giving out iPad Minis. And ponies.

You live and learn.....

[benjooles]

Hi,

Can I ask what your challenges have been with Brookson please? I have signed up but wondering if this has been a mistake.

I signed up with them in January and have had not a single positive experience that I can share. They will promise you everything but then deliver on nothing. I can now understand why they focus so heavily on marketing and other tricks to pull in new customers. I still haven't even got my promised welcome gift!

I am not asking them for anything fancy or convoluted, just a simple ltd company with myself as director plus my spouse as a shareholder and employee, pretty run of the mill stuff from a tax planning perspective.

Since joining them:
- they have failed to produce a even a single set of legible accounts.
- I incurred a £1000+ NI tax charge because Brookson failed to advise me in a timely manner when I specifically asked if this would be the case - when I asked for ways to rectify this situation I was met with silence.
- their connect system is a complete joke and fails to provide any accurate information regarding the current state of my business or personal finances and tax position
- transactions and payments made from my business bank account statements are incorrectly classified despite using their connect system to allocate the payments (under guidance of Brookson over the phone) and trying to get it sorted via phone calls and emails to Brookson.
- weekly phone calls to the customer services line fail to improve the situation, despite numerous promises of "I'lll look into that for you." and "I'll have to hand this over to X department and they will get back to you."
- expenses reported in a clear an legible format are not captured accurately requiring me to check the entries line by line to find the errors made by brookson when capturing the information.

As things stand I feel I would be far better off simply doing my own accounting - after weeks of banging my head against a wall trying to get clarity from Brookson it took me 10 minutes to check my tax liabilities and assess my current situation - there have been no more than 25 transactions since my business opened, so they cannot blame complexity as the route cause... Leading me to conclude that it is ineptitude.

They may get things right for some people, but they have proven to be a total waste of time and money in my experience.

Would really like to know how things have gone for you since singing up in January?

[JamesBrookson]

Would really like to know how things have gone for you since singing up in January?

I'm sorry to hear that this is your experience. Brookson constantly strive to deliver excellent levels of service and based on regular positive customer feedback and high volumes of new referrals, know this is the case for the majority of our customers.

A member of the Brookson team will be in contact with you today to resolve any outstanding points of concern.

[GlenW]

I'm sorry to hear that this is your experience. Brookson constantly strive to deliver excellent levels of service and based on regular positive customer feedback and high volumes of new referrals, know this is the case for the majority of our customers.

A member of the Brookson team will be in contact with you today to resolve any outstanding points of concern.

The fact that you've taken 2 weeks to reply to this post isn't a good recommendation of your levels of service!

[LadyInRed]

I've signed up just to reply to this, although I appreciate that I am a newbie and it's just my opinion.

I signed up with Brookson in January, and found the service terrible.
They overcharged my on my first invoice when they hadn't done anything at all for me, when I emailed them to correct this it took 2 follow up emails, several calls and 3 weeks to resolve.

They were then asked (via email that included client details) to raise an invoice for me, which they then sent to the wrong client!

It took me 2 weeks to get anyone from their 'customer services team' to call me to raise as a complaint.

Oh, and they tried to charge me for 'additional' services, that once a complaint was raised, they said were actually included in the headline rate.

Suffice to say I left them pretty quickly. It's a shame, because as the above poster has said, their marketing is good and their sales pitch is slick. What a shame they don't deliver what they promise.

[TheFaQQer]

The fact that you've taken 2 weeks to reply to this post isn't a good recommendation of your levels of service!

Do you expect every accountant to be checking CUK to see if anything has been said about them?

Given that James only registered in April and that was his first post, it seems a little harsh to be critical that he hasn't replied to something that he probably wasn't aware of.

[northernladuk]

Do you expect every accountant to be checking CUK to see if anything has been said about them?

Given that James only registered in April and that was his first post, it seems a little harsh to be critical that he hasn't replied to something that he probably wasn't aware of.

+1 to that. Many accountants that get mentioned never bother so got to give him some credit for doing it.

[GlenW]

Do you expect every accountant to be checking CUK to see if anything has been said about them?

Given that James only registered in April and that was his first post, it seems a little harsh to be critical that he hasn't replied to something that he probably wasn't aware of.

Silly me, I didn't realise that he had joined without knowing this thread existed and just accidentally bumped into it.

[Grasser73]

Does that work with anything? Even I'd become a client if I got a pony!

£25? You're easily pleased