Is there a "good" time to switch accountants, and who does CUK recommend?

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

Is there a "good" time to switch accountants, and who does CUK recommend?

I guess they're all to busy with their private jets, ferraris and lavish lives. I hope that doesn't make me sound jealous, because not. Definitely not. Uh-uh. Not one bit.

[Fred Bloggs]

Both used to be fairly vocal on here but are no longer. I guess the management team has changed and they don't believe in free advice.

Exactly. Their loss.

[TheFaQQer]

I guess they're all to busy with their private jets, ferraris and lavish lives. I hope that doesn't make me sound jealous, because not. Definitely not. Uh-uh. Not one bit.

Yeah, but are they happy?

[northernladuk]

I guess they're all to busy with their private jets, ferraris and lavish lives. I hope that doesn't make me sound jealous, because not. Definitely not. Uh-uh. Not one bit.

Well Simon has ended up in a Nissan. Granted it's an LMP2 car but they are all Nissan's underneath

[Waldorf]

Both used to be fairly vocal on here but are no longer. I guess the management team has changed and they don't believe in free advice.

The new management do not appear to be experienced with contractors, mainly seem to have been brought in from outside the sector with no experience of what the contractor market is.

[SneakySimon]

Agreed, I have been with SJD but latest accountant has no understanding of contracting, plus getting some weird advice, oddest is 'you can't claim for training unless you lose your job if you don't do it' - when I questioned this and the fact that is not HMRC's guidance, I was advised that is what they had agreed internally LOL!! £138 I pay for this 'service'!

Quite how I prove I would lose my contract if I didn't do the course, I am not sure.......signed letter from my manager?

[BrilloPad]

QDOS

[WordIsBond]

A good time to switch accountants is before they go to jail for fraud, or before they steal your money.

I personally would rather NOT switch to them before they do that.

[WordIsBond]

Both used to be fairly vocal on here but are no longer. I guess the management team has changed and they don't believe in free advice.

Free advice or free advertising? If I ever need to change accountants, I'll be changing to someone who has posted here often enough and lucidly enough to convince me that they 1) know what they are doing 2) actually try to get the facts before shooting off an opinion 3) are willing to take the time to patiently explain to me even if my question is stupid.

Why go to someone I don't know when I already can tell by their interactions here that I can count on them?

I remain happy with my current accountant. If that changes, I already have three names in mind of people who post here. If someone is smart enough to take advantage of free advertising by posting here, maybe he (or she) is smart enough to be my accountant.

[FrontEnder]

I jumped mid year because I'd lost all confidence in my local one man band accountant. He didn't give one shred of paperwork to SJD (who I moved to) despite many mails from myself and SJD. Really poor carry on. I had most of it documented and SJD helped me rebuild my history and went from there.


.....


Have to say now I've swapped to freeagent I'd suggest you go to a freeagent accountant (or any with a decent portal).

Just to connect the dots between these two parts of the post, the above highlights a great reason why to use freeagent (or similar). I'd say in this day and age, an online, transferable book-keeping tool is essential.

The idea of putting all my data in spreadsheet and emailing it around seems terribly archaic and insecure. If you look at who hosts freeagent, can your accountant provide the same level of data backup, DR etc?