Ditching accountants (planit) ... advice needed ...

[hgllgh]

Hi

I have had one too many emails ignored by my accountants (PLANIT) so have decided to ditch them, do my own quarterly VAT and PAYE and get another accountant to do my Year End accounts.

However my company year end is 31st January.
Do accountants do any admin or forms on company year end date (in which case I may as well wait till after that date and then ditch them)?

Apart from Year End / VAT / PAYE is there anything else that needs to be done for the accounts/admin for a one man ltd co.

[minstrel]

I'd grit your teeth and wait until year end if I were you.

If you switch accountants now, the new accountant will probably charge you close to a year's fees for doing the annual accounts.

It's a lot less hassle and cheaper to switch at year end.

[xoggoth]

But the accounts/CT for that year won't be due until next October anyway.

[hgllgh]

I'd grit your teeth and wait until year end if I were you.

If you switch accountants now, the new accountant will probably charge you close to a year's fees for doing the annual accounts.

It's a lot less hassle and cheaper to switch at year end.

But year end accounts are usually done about 9 to 10 months after the actual year end date. So my question is still "what do accountants actually do on the year end date for a one man ltd co.? Are there any statutory forms that they send in or is Contractor accounting simply a case of VAT + PAYE + Year end accounts 9 months after year end date ?

[Bluebird]

But year end accounts are usually done about 9 to 10 months after the actual year end date. So my question is still "what do accountants actually do on the year end date for a one man ltd co.? Are there any statutory forms that they send in or is Contractor accounting simply a case of VAT + PAYE + Year end accounts 9 months after year end date ?

I think the annual return needs to go off.

[daviejones]

Hi

I have had one too many emails ignored by my accountants (PLANIT) so have decided to ditch them, do my own quarterly VAT and PAYE and get another accountant to do my Year End accounts.

However my company year end is 31st January.
Do accountants do any admin or forms on company year end date (in which case I may as well wait till after that date and then ditch them)?

Apart from Year End / VAT / PAYE is there anything else that needs to be done for the accounts/admin for a one man ltd co.

I was with them. They charged me for all sorts when I left. I recall they charged me for the company opening fee (which they did for free for me at the start), then all sorts of other fees. I would NEVER recommend them to anyone.

[hgllgh]

I was with them. They charged me for all sorts when I left. I recall they charged me for the company opening fee (which they did for free for me at the start), then all sorts of other fees. I would NEVER recommend them to anyone.

How long were you with them for? 31st Jan will be 3 years with them so I would assume that they will not try to charge me for for company formation.

What were the other charges?

I would also not recommend them and have heard other complaints about them.

[hgllgh]

I think the annual return needs to go off.

Annual return as in CH annual return ?
That along with the CT return is normally done about 9-10 months after company year end so I wouldn't lose out by ditching the accountants now before my 31st January 2008 year end?

[ADRIANL]

I am sorry to hear that you have been less than satisfied with our services but we do have performance standards dictating response times etc and if we fail to live up to these I will personally always address these issues and refund fees as appropriate under our guarantees.
Since forming this company in 1996 we have successfully dealt with 1000's of contractors but, of course, occasionally we might fail to live up to our normal high standards. Please give me the opportunity to right these rare instances.
With regard to the comment on charging clients for leaving, we have never done this; there is no tie in and I don't know how we could do this even if we wanted to!
If both correspondents contact me privately I will take these matters up immediately.

[daviejones]

How long were you with them for? 31st Jan will be 3 years with them so I would assume that they will not try to charge me for for company formation.

What were the other charges?

I would also not recommend them and have heard other complaints about them.

I was with them for about a year. I cannot recall what the other charges were but there were 3 things in all and when I left I did not leave with a good word to say about them...

I also got a demand from Capita after I left PLANIT as Capita were the guys on the client side, asking for 5K for over paid fees. It turns out that Capita had sent an invoice via BACS and another via CHAPS and PlanIT had decided to keep both and not tell me. They paid one lot to me so in the end I fought to get it sorted out between the 2...




HTH