Another price rise at InTouch

[northernladuk]

You do tend to ask your accountant a lot of questions.

Not since they installed caller ID on their systems.

[arby]

I'll be looking around as well - I don't take a salary and have de-registered for VAT as I only plan to work roughly 6 months of the year so paying £1500/year is OTT.

[d000hg]

What's the sad face for? 100 quid for access to an accountant and a tool to make running your business a doddle is cheap as chips. How much time would you give your client for a 100 quid?

Considerably more than I get from an accountant for that money

£1500 a year is still a lot however you view it. If your tax bill went up £1500 you'd be up in arms about "contractors being killed off".

[Fred Bloggs]

I'll be looking around as well - I don't take a salary and have de-registered for VAT as I only plan to work roughly 6 months of the year so paying £1500/year is OTT.

IMHO, you should be looking for paying about half that with a FA account thrown in.

[youngguy]

Thanks for the link. But when you add the £10 in, thats £95 per month, versus £105 at InTouch, now it is very close to "can I be bothered" territory.

Although there is two months free with Gorilla. 1st Online charge a £300 "takeover fee", which is quite steep. It looks like Gorilla do not charge anything like this. Hopefully InTouch do not charge exit fees, I will need to check.

Like you I was very happy with IT however decided to move at their last price rise as the stuff I wanted (eg more automation through their portal) was missing and the price increase brought things I just didn't need.

I knew I wanted a FA Accountant so I sent the same set of questions to a few on here. Some of those questions I actually knew the answer to.

I then based my choice on the responses (email and conversations) I got and chose who I felt most comfortable with.

My point: start speaking to those on your shortlist and choose based on your experience and views of them, not just the views of all of us on here.

PS price is not the only factor!
PPS IT were great until I wanted to move then they were rather disappointing and wanted to charge me more for stuff - look at my other posts for details

[arby]

Curious who you moved to?

[youngguy]

Curious who you moved to?

I moved to Gorilla.
My reasons were many including; reviews on here, a certain level of experience , a reasonable price, someone who was emerging so would (hopefully) be keen to provide a good service and - most importantly - the answers they gave when I spent 25 mins firing questions at them on the phone.

That being said there are at least three or 4 other Accountants on here I would have probably been very happy with and if I were brand new into contracting I would have probably gone for Maslins (just look at the quality of answers they provide findings n here for FREE).

[d000hg]

Several of the original IT key people have now moved on I think... I was lucky to have Clare and Louisa as my personal contacts there who were both I think active on CUK as well. I think it's a good way to judge the personal touch of such firms personally.

[Maslins]

Several of the original IT key people have now moved on I think... I was lucky to have Clare and Louisa as my personal contacts there who were both I think active on CUK as well. I think it's a good way to judge the personal touch of such firms personally.

Isn't Louisa from Aardvark (who posts regularly now) the same Louisa who used to be at In Touch? Possibly some anti compete clause may prevent her highlighting this to you now...but if you had a great working relationship with her before that might make Aardvark a contender if you're considering a move.

Clare's at Clarity Taxation, don't think they specialise in contractors...though whether that means they couldn't/wouldn't help or not I don't know.

A bit like with Jamie who went from SJD to Gorilla, it's interesting to see where the loyalty is. Is it with the accounting firm, bookkeeping package, or individual contact(s). A bit of all 3 perhaps...but potentially the firm is bottom of the pecking order?!

[Fred Bloggs]

Isn't Louisa from Aardvark (who posts regularly now) the same Louisa who used to be at In Touch? Possibly some anti compete clause may prevent her highlighting this to you now...but if you had a great working relationship with her before that might make Aardvark a contender if you're considering a move.

Clare's at Clarity Taxation, don't think the specialise in contractors...though whether that means they couldn't/wouldn't help or not I don't know.

A bit like with Jamie who went from SJD to Gorilla, it's interesting to see where the loyalty is. Is it with the accounting firm, bookkeeping package, or individual contact(s). A bit of all 3 perhaps...but potentially the firm is bottom of the pecking order?!

Yes ^^^^^^ You are doing well to recognise that may well be the case!