Does your accountant charge you for general advice?

[boxman]

And the downside is?

Nothing I guess unless you think that you are throwing away any goodwill for the future or perhaps leaving yourself open to be chased for an unpaid invoice.

[Jason D]

?

I've been with my accountant for 2 years now and have just received a bill for over £300 for general advice, phone calls, emails etc. It seems that whenever I ask them a question, they charge me anything up to £90ph worked out on a pro-rata basis. Is this normal or should I look to chanhe accountant?

Bang out of order.

Just because he has spent years of his life obtaining the skills and knowledge required, together with the CPD and lifelong learning and commitment, just because he has a business to run and pay for and requires a level of profit for his services, charging £300 for two years worth of advice? Scandalous.

I suggest that you burn his house down and going forward seek freebie answers on here.

[Hiram King Of Tyre]

Jason, I don't have a problem with paying a fair price for his services. Please see the concerns that I have though about conflicting advice, incomplete responses, using a fully qualified accountatnt to answer simple book keeping queries etc. Also, why not invoice me until my ledger had mounted up over 2 years without me knowing.

[NotAllThere]

Go down the legal route. Don't pay, and let them take you to court. But first, make an offer, based on your valuation of the advice they gave. The more you can show you've acted reasonably, the likelier it is that you'd win should it come to court.

[Troll]

The accountants weren't GK by any chance ?- they did the same thing with me ... & I refused to pay

[Hiram King Of Tyre]

No, it was a local accountancy company. I think I'll write back to them sharing my concerns and see what they say. I accepted the level of service as it appeared that they weren't charging me for casual advice. having received a bill though, I expect better. To give another example, I asked if they had a "sample" of the paperwork I needed to raise when paying a dividend. They then produced a template with my company name and everything already on it and sent it as a .pdf.......what's the point of that? I only asked for a sample!

[FiveTimes]

No, it was a local accountancy company. I think I'll write back to them sharing my concerns and see what they say. I accepted the level of service as it appeared that they weren't charging me for casual advice. having received a bill though, I expect better. To give another example, I asked if they had a "sample" of the paperwork I needed to raise when paying a dividend. They then produced a template with my company name and everything already on it and sent it as a .pdf.......what's the point of that? I only asked for a sample!

The sample pdf was exactly what you asked for, it contained the information you needed to carry on with dividends. Maybe you should been more specific about what should go on the paper work as you wanted to produce your own.

I asked my accountant to send a fax to the bank in order to get the account up and running. Over and above the work that I normally pay for, so they sent an invoice for ~£20. I thought that was a bit cheeky, but it did the job and I paid.

[Hiram King Of Tyre]

I would disagree there. All I asked for was a typical example. One off the shelf with ABCLtd would be adequate. I didn't ask them to produce a template. Also, what's the use of a pdf?

[Jason D]

Jason, I don't have a problem with paying a fair price for his services. Please see the concerns that I have though about conflicting advice, incomplete responses, using a fully qualified accountatnt to answer simple book keeping queries etc. Also, why not invoice me until my ledger had mounted up over 2 years without me knowing.

Hiram i'm only pulling your leg.

I understand your concerns about conflicting advice and incomplete responses however asking a fully qualified accountant to answer simple bookkeeping queries is of your own doing.

Im not defending the accountant either, clients should never be hit with an unexpected bill in my opinion, poor communication on his part from what you say.

[boxman]

In my experience (11 years as a contractor) accountants are the one group of people that very rarely do something for nothing. Where the position is reversed of course (if they are your client) then they'll feel exactly as you do now about an "unexpected" bill.

Probably something to take away on both sides here I would say...