Accountant recommendation threads inc local requests

[northernladuk]

Thinking about leaving my current accountant.

Been told I have to wait 12 weeks for my YE accounts to be produced by them. There is no flexibility on the 12 weeks unless I pay a fee of £500 to expedite it.

Going forward I don’t want to be put in this situation again. Can anyone recommend an accountant who prepares YE books faster than 12 weeks? cheers

SJD used to charge for them doing early. I'm with Gorilla and as far as I know they'll do them when you ask. I say that as I've only asked for them early once near the beginning and never bothered since. I'd be willing to bet the smaller setups would be more flexible. I know PaperRocket do them as you want and I'm sure Maslins offers that flexibility as well. Not sure about any others though sorry.

[Craig@Clarity]

Thinking about leaving my current accountant.

Been told I have to wait 12 weeks for my YE accounts to be produced by them. There is no flexibility on the 12 weeks unless I pay a fee of £500 to expedite it.

Going forward I don’t want to be put in this situation again. Can anyone recommend an accountant who prepares YE books faster than 12 weeks? cheers

Could be a whole host of things. What's your year end? Are you with a high street accountant or contractor specialist?

[cheesedoffcontractor]

Could be a whole host of things. What's your year end? Are you with a high street accountant or contractor specialist?

My YE is end of April and I'm currently with a contractor specialist.

[ladymuck]

April is a pretty busy time of year. Did you agree to that service level when you signed up or was it only recently imposed?

Is there a reason why you need to have the accounts sooner? If it's because you want quick visibility of your CT liability, just calculate 20% of your profit for the year (which in very simple terms is sales less expenses) and that'll give you the ballpark figure to save towards.

[cheesedoffcontractor]

April is a pretty busy time of year. Did you agree to that service level when you signed up or was it only recently imposed?

Is there a reason why you need to have the accounts sooner? If it's because you want quick visibility of your CT liability, just calculate 20% of your profit for the year (which in very simple terms is sales less expenses) and that'll give you the ballpark figure to save towards.

Not sure of the service level I agreed to when I signed up years ago or if its a new policy. No complaints about that it’s just that now a quicker turnaround for my YE accounts is important to me so its best I leave my current accountants. Need fully audited accounts for a visa application.

[ladymuck]

Not sure of the service level I agreed to when I signed up years ago or if its a new policy. No complaints about that it’s just that now a quicker turnaround for my YE accounts is important to me so its best I leave my current accountants. Need fully audited accounts for a visa application.

So you need the accounts for the year ending 30 April 2020 asap? I assume they had all the information they needed within the first week or so of May and now you're looking to change to an accountant who can onboard you and do those accounts immediately.

Just checking the requirements, which are not quite what was initially implied.

[cheesedoffcontractor]

So you need the accounts for the year ending 30 April 2020 asap? I assume they had all the information they needed within the first week or so of May and now you're looking to change to an accountant who can onboard you and do those accounts immediately.

Just checking the requirements, which are not quite what was initially implied.

They had all the info within 2 weeks of year end. Then I was told it would be 12 weeks.
I’m thinking I may need fully audited accounts in the future for multiple reasons - visas, applying for credit etc.
So I’m looking to leave them after this FY is audited and join someone else. Don’t think many accountants want to pick things up part way through year end and I doubt it would speed things up with the disruption of transferring accountants..

[Maslins]

Don’t think many accountants want to pick things up part way through year end and I doubt it would speed things up with the disruption of transferring accountants..

This.

Cynic in me thinks firms will rely on you having the above attitude (which makes 100% sense) whilst waiting for the work to be done...but then once it is done, hope lethargy kick in and you stay where you are (which makes far less sense).

[ladymuck]

BTW - micro business accounts aren't audited. They are exempt from that so, if you require audited accounts for a visa application, that may be an extra fee.

[Maslins]

BTW - micro business accounts aren't audited. They are exempt from that so, if you require audited accounts for a visa application, that may be an extra fee.

I would assume the client (and indeed whoever mentioned the term to them) won't mean a formal audit, they'll just mean full statutory accounts prepared by a qualified firm of accountants that comply with Cos Hse standards. Ie not just a P&L/balance sheet management accounts exported from your bookkeeping software signed off by the director.

We've had clients tell us they need audited accounts dozens of times. We've never done an audit. The (unaudited) accounts we've prepared are consistently accepted.

Same way lenders will refer to Ltd Co owners as "self employed", when they're not. Call us accountants pedants if you like but I genuinely think it doesn't help when big organisations that should know better use the wrong terminology.