How long to prepare annual accounts?

[cloudninja]

Happy with my accountant, its one of the highly recommended ones on this forum.
However, its been 5 months since my company year end and they have still not prepared or issued the draft annual accounts.
Is this normal? I would have expected them in a month or so....

[cojak]

No it’s bloody not. Give them a kick.

[Maslins]

Have you given them a prod? Appreciate you shouldn't need to...but sometimes might be a miscommunication.

Also, whilst I sometimes get slated for saying this, production of the year end accounts & CT returns is often one of the least urgent things we as accountants have to do. If a client has a query, they'll want a response within hours (or maybe a day, tops). Lots of other things are fairly urgent. Accounts/CT rarely are.

They're also something which benefits from 1-2 levels of review internally, ie a second set of eyes to ensure nothing significant is missed.

So depending upon time of year/busy-ness otherwise, can be a couple of months for us. Obviously if the client only got us the info close to filing deadline, or they wanted them swiftly (eg for mortgage application or something) then we can and do push them through quicker.

[cloudninja]

Thanks for the responses....yeah that's what I thought too. Its Gorilla Accounting to name and shame...and to be fair, they are excellent in everything else so I am surprised and bit dumbfounded.

And I DO need the accounts for a mortgage/finance application!

[ladymuck]

Lesson to note:

If you need something for a specific purpose, tell your accountant at the outset. They are not psychic!

[cloudninja]

Lesson to note:

If you need something for a specific purpose, tell your accountant at the outset. They are not psychic!

I do, I did (several times), and I think they are. So no excuses.

[Maslins]

If you've chased a few times already and it's still taken 5 months, that's not a good sign.

Contractor accountancy firms have currently got all the normal "last minute January tax return" stuff, combined with an influx of "my client says I'll be inside IR35 from a couple of months...what does it mean/should I do" queries. Hence now will be a particularly busy time, and some firms who keep their staff levels lean may be struggling. If you've been waiting since ~September though that's no excuse.

Often it's a case of the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I'd suggest upping the frequency of your chasers (calls as well as emails) until they prioritise your work, just to get you off their case. Nobody should ever have to do that, but sometimes needs must!

[cloudninja]

Still no luck getting the annual accounts!

I'm worried about the solvency of this company....

Maybe I will write them a letter...

[Maslins]

A letter won't really help anything get done swiftly. IMO letters can be useful if it's at the very serious "Final warning before court action" stage, and you send it recorded delivery. However, regardless of how annoyed you may be, I struggle to see that being appropriate here. You'd struggle to justify any financial loss to claim for, and I also struggle to imagine an injunction being a real option to force an accountant to do some work.

Call them. Tell them you're very disappointed, and get them to commit to a timeline. Follow up that call with an email summarising what they committed to. Not really suggesting that there would be any legal follow on from that if they failed to meet it...but at least it eliminates/reduces scope for there to be any claim of misunderstanding.

Consider leaving them a fair but harsh review on the likes of Google/Trustpilot. I wouldn't encourage people to do this at the first sign of minor annoyance. Mistakes/slips will always happen, and if firms fix them swiftly, they should be commended rather than punished IMHO. However, if you've tried multiple times to get a reasonable outcome and failed, then it does seem fair.

[northernladuk]

Maybe I will write them a letter...