Accountant communication

[SueEllen]

When you email your accountant, you should post the question in here - there are as many accountants monitoring this board as there are contractors.

Expect super speedy responses from those on here and then you can cross validate the answer with the albeit delayed response from the acccountant you are paying.

All that would happen is some of the accountants would be named and shamed for answering on here first rather than dealing with the email sent to them.

[dx4100]

Same day usually... Always within 24 hours...

[Newby]

All that would happen is some of the accountants would be named and shamed for answering on here first rather than dealing with the email sent to them.

Isn't that a good thing?

I would hope that that a paying customer would take priority over... well pretty much anything else actually?

Maybe I live in an old fashioned deluded world, but I think the paying customer should get tip top service each and every time.

[Darren@UptonAccountants]

Replies

Normally the same day.

Recently the service has been slack main reason it seems is that some of the trainees Upton are employing don't like actually doing any work.

Hi SueEllen, drop me a PM with any issues! The team deal with all issues as quickly as possible during what is a busy period.

[SallyPlanIT]

Intersting thread. Let's turn this around to you guys who use "us"!

From many years of working in various ways, I beleive that clients prefer the contact with one person with exception to holiday and sickness. Obviously, the account manager (or whatever title) has other clients to look after, and in my experience, Monday's are always the busiest for email as you guys have been working the weekend on your accounts.

So, I have 60 emails to answer, each needing a considerable amount of time to answer. Do You prefer a quick email to acknowledge receipt of yours and stating that I will reply in full asap or are you happy waiting for a day or two?
I hasten to add that I always reply on the same day!

So...

1) Do you prefer one point of contact?
2) Any point of contact so long as they answer your question?
3) How long, in terms of hours are you 'happy' to wait?

Just interested to know!

[ads1980]

Intersting thread. Let's turn this around to you guys who use "us"!

From many years of working in various ways, I beleive that clients prefer the contact with one person with exception to holiday and sickness. Obviously, the account manager (or whatever title) has other clients to look after, and in my experience, Monday's are always the busiest for email as you guys have been working the weekend on your accounts.

So, I have 60 emails to answer, each needing a considerable amount of time to answer. Do You prefer a quick email to acknowledge receipt of yours and stating that I will reply in full asap or are you happy waiting for a day or two?
I hasten to add that I always reply on the same day!

So...

1) Do you prefer one point of contact?
2) Any point of contact so long as they answer your question?
3) How long, in terms of hours are you 'happy' to wait?

Just interested to know!

Hi Sally,

I always like to know that I am being dealt with in some way. Even if it is just a quick email to say...." We are really busy at the moment but will get back to you tomorrow etc..."

[h8mmer]

Hi Sally,

I always like to know that I am being dealt with in some way. Even if it is just a quick email to say...." We are really busy at the moment but will get back to you tomorrow etc..."

Yep same here...being left waiting can be very vexing.

The other is thing that grates is little pro-active advice...it seems my accountant, and most others I've heard of, will answer a specific question only without any further fleshing out so when you do realise there was something else you needed to know you start the ball rolling again.
Appreciate that like everyone accountants are, generally, busy but mine would save a lot of pestering if he would expand on his yes/no answers

[Wanderer]

The other is thing that grates is little pro-active advice...

Agreed. Mine has pre-prepared stuff on their website but I get the impression that they aren't really that interested in doing anything more than the bare minimum. Maybe that's the norm and that's why we get so many accountantcy questions on this forum?

After a year with this big contractor specialist who just seems to want to put MyLTD on a production line, I'm thinking about doing most of it myself and going back to a smal local accountant for the year end stuff. Anyone got any thoughts on the pro's and con's of each one?

[d000hg]

A real poll might have been nice, but anyway... I currently get a reply within a couple of hours and have frequently had a back and forth conversation of several emails over the course of a day.

[SackmanandCo]

Agreed. Mine has pre-prepared stuff on their website but I get the impression that they aren't really that interested in doing anything more than the bare minimum. Maybe that's the norm and that's why we get so many accountantcy questions on this forum?

After a year with this big contractor specialist who just seems to want to put MyLTD on a production line, I'm thinking about doing most of it myself and going back to a smal local accountant for the year end stuff. Anyone got any thoughts on the pro's and con's of each one?

I dont think its to do with being big or small. The business model most accountants adopt is that they look after a LOT of clients and because of this turn into a "sausage factory". All the firms I worked for , had this-probably not what they intended at the outset. Our mentality is that we take on fewer clients but charge them more than the average. But because we have more time for each client, we can therefore offer them a much better and more personal service.