SJD Accountancy - Difficulties in getting things done - how to stop services

[Prakshal]

Hi,

My wife has open a pvt. ltd. company from SJD accountancy and we appointed them as accountant for the same.
Its been 6-8 months and everything was good. we were really satisfied with service. Basically they also dont need to do much as we were on flat VAT rate.

Problem started when my wife told that her contract is about to end and we may need to stop the services as we will not able to afford this if she cant find new contract.
From the day she informed her accountant this, Accountant is delaying things like her personal tax return submission n all. due to this we cant stop the services in June end and extended one more month.
Its been half month but we are still waiting for him to complete this things. Every time she calls or send e-mail he postpone the task to tomorrow.

I think they only need to delay it and get few more bucks out form us. they says they will reply in 24hr. but replying that we will do this work tomorrow for constantly one month is not proper reply.

Earlier I was happy with SJD and was recommending my friends also to join it. but now its been frustrating.
Is there any way we can complaint further about this or how can we stop this services.

[cojak]

When is your company's year end?

You have entered into a contract - what does your contract say regarding cancellation/ending the contract?

[meridian]

Just because a contract has ended does not remove the requirement to file VAT, payroll, and CT returns, although the effort to produce the first two will go down considerably.

However, most accountants will base their monthly fee on an annual workload, so you will need to see what your contract says about terminating the relationship or running in a limited capacity.

Just don't expect to rehire an accountant when your CT return is due and expect them to complete it for a single month's fee.

[northernladuk]

I'd seriously question the way you've run the business if you can't pay £124 (or there abouts) a month for accounting services? Where has the money gone? You should have a bank full of VAT and CT money sitting there you could use in the short term at the very least. Something isn't right here at all.

SJD do reduce rates for long periods out of contract so you need to ring them and ask them but reducing fee's just because you are out of contract, which is a guaranteed at some point for all of us is a tad unreasonable. It's the way we work. We can't expect our accountants to bend over and take it just because we want an easy life. Bench time will happen a lot over your career and it's about managing that which makes or breaks a contractors. Where is your warchest? After 6-8 months you should have a couple of months at least.

Ring them and ask them but I wouldn't be expecting them to be a push over in this instance.

Remember the payments are monthly instalments of a yearly bill as well. You can't just stop paying them. They may cancel their services pro-rata if you ask them but that leaves you in a pile of poo when you get your next contract.

SJD also do their yearly work at set times, particularly personal returns. They focus on them all in one period. It's part of how they keep the costs down. I do know that you will struggle to get them done when you demand. Their service isn't set up like that. A colleague of mine paid to have them done early if that's what you are after.

I'd think twice about slating a company when it appears it's not them at fault.

[psychocandy]

OP - Oh dear. As others have said, I don't think you've understood how it all works for this monthly fee.

Would be quite funny if SJD let you cancel 10-11 months into your companies tax year. Then you'd have fun expecting a new accountant to do your annual return in exchange for one months fees.

Pretty sure that the contract you sign makes it clear these are installments for a 12 month period of service though?

[riffpie]

If you buy a car on finance, but don't intend to drive it one month, do you still have to make a car payment?

Same thing. SJD aren't charging you for services monthly, they're allowing you to spread the cost of a year's accountancy over 12 months.

[Derek@SJDAccountancy]

Hi Prakshal

I am happy to look at your position in detail if you want to PM me and I will speak to your Accountant and ensure all is being done correctly.

We do not tie clients into paying fees for a set period, other than monthly fee, or even try and keep them as clients if they do not wish to be so (rarely they are not happy thankfully!). We may have ongoing work that is beneficial to yourself to complete first of all and there may also be instances where we have to charge "catch up fee" (i.e been trading for 11 months but not using SJD and want first years accounts done) but on the whole it is a monthly fee.

As stated above happy to look into this further for you if you wish.

[Prakshal]

Hi Prakshal

I am happy to look at your position in detail if you want to PM me and I will speak to your Accountant and ensure all is being done correctly.

We do not tie clients into paying fees for a set period, other than monthly fee, or even try and keep them as clients if they do not wish to be so (rarely they are not happy thankfully!). We may have ongoing work that is beneficial to yourself to complete first of all and there may also be instances where we have to charge "catch up fee" (i.e been trading for 11 months but not using SJD and want first years accounts done) but on the whole it is a monthly fee.

As stated above happy to look into this further for you if you wish.

Hi,
Thanks for the response. And as I mentioned earlier also, I was very happy with SJD.
Current problem is accountant does not pick up the phone(he may be busy and I understand it). If personal tax submission needs to be done after 2 weeks or 2 months, he need to say that so we do not chase him. but he always say tomorrow or next week(from June starting). He told that he will do it tomorrow(wed. 15th) so I will wait for it and hopefully it will be done.
If not, I will contact you.
Thanks

[Prakshal]

I'd seriously question the way you've run the business if you can't pay £124 (or there abouts) a month for accounting services? Where has the money gone? You should have a bank full of VAT and CT money sitting there you could use in the short term at the very least. Something isn't right here at all.

SJD do reduce rates for long periods out of contract so you need to ring them and ask them but reducing fee's just because you are out of contract, which is a guaranteed at some point for all of us is a tad unreasonable. It's the way we work. We can't expect our accountants to bend over and take it just because we want an easy life. Bench time will happen a lot over your career and it's about managing that which makes or breaks a contractors. Where is your warchest? After 6-8 months you should have a couple of months at least.

Ring them and ask them but I wouldn't be expecting them to be a push over in this instance.

Remember the payments are monthly instalments of a yearly bill as well. You can't just stop paying them. They may cancel their services pro-rata if you ask them but that leaves you in a pile of poo when you get your next contract.

SJD also do their yearly work at set times, particularly personal returns. They focus on them all in one period. It's part of how they keep the costs down. I do know that you will struggle to get them done when you demand. Their service isn't set up like that. A colleague of mine paid to have them done early if that's what you are after.

I'd think twice about slating a company when it appears it's not them at fault.

Thanks for the explanation. I am very new in this and learning the rules may be

My concern is my accountant himself told that he will complete personal tax return in one week(that was a month back). If he tells me that it needs to done after two months then I will chase him after two months, but he always say tomorrow or after 2 days. I understand that we are not the only client and he may be busy but pushing it back for day by day for one month is too much.

I hope that this will be closed this week(as he said he will do it on wed-tomorrow).