P11D vs Accountant

[scott_free]

Looking around for an accountant as going back to LTD company after a few years on schemes - whats the going rate for just preparing the LTD company end of year accounts ? Can handle the PAYE, p11d, SA VAT myself

[Lewis]

Looking around for an accountant as going back to LTD company after a few years on schemes - whats the going rate for just preparing the LTD company end of year accounts ? Can handle the PAYE, p11d, SA VAT myself

Prices seem to be around £60-£100 per/month (excl VAT). This is for the all inclusive service. Unfortuately the only EOY service is around £600-£800 anyway so you sort of have to pay the same price even if you only need the EOY stuff. I did come accorss these guys who do different service levels but I have NO IDEA how good they are. Monthly fee £66 or EOY only fee £525. So you can save around £250 if you want. To be honest you might as well pay the little extra and use them to double check all your figures. In the great scheme of things it is not much and if they prevent an accounting mistake it is worth it. Plus they'll keep you up to date with law changes, answer questions during the year etc.. etc.. I live in London, local non-freelancer accountants were more expensive than the freelancer-specialist firms that are listed on here/PCG etc..

[scott_free]

Prices seem to be around £60-£100 per/month (excl VAT). This is for the all inclusive service. Unfortuately the only EOY service is around £600-£800 anyway so you sort of have to pay the same price even if you only need the EOY stuff. I did come accorss these guys who do different service levels but I have NO IDEA how good they are. Monthly fee £66 or EOY only fee £525. So you can save around £250 if you want. To be honest you might as well pay the little extra and use them to double check all your figures. In the great scheme of things it is not much and if they prevent an accounting mistake it is worth it. Plus they'll keep you up to date with law changes, answer questions during the year etc.. etc.. I live in London, local non-freelancer accountants were more expensive than the freelancer-specialist firms that are listed on here/PCG etc..

Thanks Lewis, may as well go for the all-inclusive providing I still keep control on when the cheques get paid - I'm fairly organised and didn't have any issues a few years ago

[Lewis]

Thanks Lewis, may as well go for the all-inclusive providing I still keep control on when the cheques get paid - I'm fairly organised and didn't have any issues a few years ago

Yeah I'm pretty organised myself and quite anal about figures. I double check everything my accountant does with my own spreadsheet and also don't have them registered as my agent so I get all HMRC mail first. That way I get sent the PAYE discs so I can use HMRC software for payroll at home and I get all the newsletters, reminders etc... I am confident with VAT and PAYE but I find it is essential having accountants as a backup as I definitely still don't know it all and they have stopped me from making a couple of silly mistakes because I didn't quite understand it right.

[Gros]

Well, even accountants have a holiday now and then - and when they do they let all the clients know in order to plan the workload.

I beg to differ. In my year with SJD my rep had numerous annual leaves which resulted in 'out of office' email replies. I was never informed in advance. Admittedly, eventually someone else would pick up the email and respond, but only after a couple of days.

£95 a month is of course just a convenient way of paying £1140 a year. At various times of the year we will be doing more for you than other times simply because of filing requirements and deadlines. Just because the fees are spread out evenly doesn't mean the work is.

I was so disappointed in what I was getting for my £100 per month that I discontinued it and am attempting to learn it myself. The things they did do were simple (ie quarterly VAT return figures) but whenever I had more complex questions I got brief one-liner responses which always had the tone "leave me alone and stop asking awkward questions".

Dividends for example... would it not be part of an accountants job to explain how to vote a dividend and prepare (or at least advise) on the necessary paperwork? All I got was "pay yourself xxx every month". Now I have a years worth of paperwork to do myself to catch up on this. Apologies if that's not the case.

Just my personal experience, I'm sure many are very satisfied.

[moorfield]

I'm still flipping annoyed that NW filed my P35 without bothering to consult or even warn me about Q6. They did correct it for me afterwards though. You would expect a "pro-active accountant" (their words) who provide "accountancy services for contractors" (their words again) to be on the ball about something like that.

[blacjac]

Well, even accountants have a holiday now and then - and when they do they let all the clients know in order to plan the workload.

Should they not be arrange cover to do the work when they are off, rather than just telling all their clients to get the stuff ready a week early?
What happens if the client receives an invoice payment in the week the accountant is off?

[simondolan]

I was so disappointed in what I was getting for my £100 per month that I discontinued it and am attempting to learn it myself. The things they did do were simple (ie quarterly VAT return figures) but whenever I had more complex questions I got brief one-liner responses which always had the tone "leave me alone and stop asking awkward questions".

Dividends for example... would it not be part of an accountants job to explain how to vote a dividend and prepare (or at least advise) on the necessary paperwork? All I got was "pay yourself xxx every month". Now I have a years worth of paperwork to do myself to catch up on this. Apologies if that's not the case.

Just my personal experience, I'm sure many are very satisfied.

One of my staff actually said to you "leave me alone and stop asking awkward questions"???? If that's true please let me know and they will be sacked immediately.

Dividends - not quite sure what you mean when you say a years worth of paperwork?

[simondolan]

Should they not be arrange cover to do the work when they are off, rather than just telling all their clients to get the stuff ready a week early?
What happens if the client receives an invoice payment in the week the accountant is off?

Yes - of course we arrange cover, but as I said, advising clients helps plan the workload. Goes back to my point about not being able to please everyone all the time - an earlier poster on this very point appeared annoyed that another member of staff picked up the email sent to the person on holiday.

[Lewis]

Yes - of course we arrange cover, but as I said, advising clients helps plan the workload. Goes back to my point about not being able to please everyone all the time - an earlier poster on this very point appeared annoyed that another member of staff picked up the email sent to the person on holiday.

As I read it .... Gros was annoyed it took a few days for another member of staff to process the mail sent to the person on holiday. He also clearly stated the person had the tone "leave me alone and stop asking awkward questions".