Crunch Online Accounting

[Maslins]

Maybe people from other companies could weigh in - InTough/SJD/NW/etc - on a normal balance? How many clients one accountant can handle, and so on?

I don't mind divulging our figures. We've just taken on our 5th employee. 2 qualifieds, one in 3rd year of study, one 2nd, one just started. This is probably a bit more than we need for our current Maslins client level (a little over 300), but that's partly as many of you will know we also run MVL Online so staff assist with work there too.

I would agree with some of the more realistic comments above that a reasonable amount of the work done is not rocket science, so there shouldn't be any shame in firms having quite a few unqualifieds. As long as they're not answering tricky questions in their early days, it should be fine. Also, without trainees, there'd never be any more qualified people, we all have to start somewhere.

As to the right balance? Well, each firm will decide (and to some extent their clients might with their feet). Better systems/staff means you can cope with more clients per staff member.

Also bear in mind as Crunch build their own software, a lot of the staff will presumably be IT techies, whereas a firm like us who uses FreeAgent doesn't have that need, so inevitably we'll have a higher % of staff as accountants than they will.