Accountant Recommendations

[4Contractors]

Re: Not always true

Beware of contractors who earn commission from the accountants they recommend.

Planetit - we earn a small commission from recommending the accountant we both use - do you honestly believe contractors need to be wary of our recommendation ?

[planetit]

Re: Not always true

No, in all honesty I don’t think people really need to be wary of your recommendation. I’m sure people would speak up if they got a poor service from it.

It’s simply my opinion that I am a little cautious of this sort of thing. There do seem to be rather a lot of you plugging your service on here (about four I think – unless I’m confusing you with another similar service, in which case I apologise). And you tend to do it by implying criticism of other accountants. Something I’ve noticed the other accountants on here don’t do. But it’s your business to promote your service, so I guess this is fair enough.

[4Contractors]

Re: Not always true

I don't think it's wrong to highlight poor service, especially when this comes from personal experience or has been exposed by other contractors. We stand by everything we say on our website and on this forum.

Another thing you may not have picked up from our posts - we are contractors, not accountants and can express ourselves more freely - would you have it any other way ?

You will not find ************ rubbishing competitors that offer a good service - on the contrary we usually try to work with them. By the same token there are a number of accountancy firms/umbrellas who overcharge, misrepresent their product and give poor service, which is the main reason we set the website up in the first place. We could earn far more commission from these dubious suppliers, if that were our agenda.

Beware of contractors who earn commission from the accountants they recommend.

planetit - I am interested to know who your comment above was aimed at ?

[planetit]

Re: Not always true

It was aimed at anyone who wanted to read it on a public forum. An expression of my own opinion. Not one I insist you (or anyone else) should share. It was the second thing I learnt from the situation I described. (The first was “never have anything to do with Giant”, and the third was - how to do my own accounts and tax after Giant failed to do it.)

I understand that you are a contractor, but in your current guise / login you are also a businessman promoting your service.

[4Contractors]

Re: Not always true

:rollin

planetit I'm interested as to why you formed your opinion and who it was aimed at. I totally disagree with you and think the best way to judge any contractor service is to ask contractors that use that service. I would agree that the best source of information would be contractors who are not being paid any commissions for their opinion. We do not currently have a testimonials page on our site but I will be contacting contractors who have been using our accountant for over a year for their opinion of the service soon.

Your loyalty to SJD does you credit. You have accused us of maligning other accountants but refuse to substantiate your own comments in this thread - rather laughable I'm afraid. I am also confused as to why you consider the rate you pay for your accountancy of any importance - surely the information people need is what they will be paying for their own accountancy and how stable those fees will be.

I'm glad you deign to consider me a businessman - I like to think of myself as a businessman too but isn't that what all contractors are. The accountancy promotion is a business sideline but I will indulge myself with honest comment on other businesses where it is in the contracting communities interest to know. I invite anyone to do the same to us and our promoted services in a 'constructive and honest way'. You may remember Fiddle and my outspoken comments on other issues like the PCG and IR35 in the past. We firmly believe our comments and advice are in the best interests of contractors.

[planetit]

Re: Not always true

OK, the best way I can describe it is to say that I just think there is a difference between someone saying “Hey! I bought this, and it’s really good”. And someone saying “Hey! I’m selling this, and it’s really good”. That’s all. I suppose if you want to get snippy about it, you could stop using multiple logins to promote your business.

I’m not loyal to SJD. They do a good job. If they ever stop doing a good job, I’ll be after details of your service. My comments in the other thread about fees, was just a wind up for Antagoneyes. Not to be taken seriously.

[4Contractors]

Re: Not always true

I'm sure Antagoneyes takes you as seriously as we do - think he uses our accountant from the sound of it. We use the accountant as well and yes we pay the current fee that everyone else will pay unlike your good self apparently.

Multiple ID's Umhh - ************ and ITDoctors - website ID's and Fiddleabout and Rhino - personal ID's. Anyway what's wrong with promoting an excellent product at the best price unless of course you feel somehow threatened by it - strange logic planetit !

We try not to blatantly advertise anymore due to the advert at the top of this page but obviously we are prepared to get involved with debates when pressed - thank you for giving me the opportunity to redress this - I think you have done wonders for our sales

[Darren at 1st Accountancy Serv Ltd]

Recommendations

Anyway what's wrong with promoting an excellent product at the best price

Well said!

This debate seems to have hotted up a little!! :hat

[4Contractors]

Re: Recommendations

...............and another thing Fiddle and Rhino were quite happy to stick to their personal ID's and not use ID's that clearly point to the business but as you can see we have to compete with others. Most of ************ posts have been made on this thread

The accountant we promote does very little advertising and because they are a relatively small team with around 800 clients have no time to post on forums. More than 80% of their new business is from non-commission based referrals from existing clients. I like to think we make up a large part of the other 20%.

I think the absence of a marketing team, account managers and a minimal advertising budget allow them to give an excellent service at the best price. All the expenses are incurred where they should be - accountancy.

[planetit]

Re: Recommendations

OK, I think we’ve all got the message now. Well done with the not blatant advertising.

Oh, in case you hadn’t noticed. You are the marketing team.