SJD Accountancy or Nixon Williams

[Bumfluff]

I used SJD and was very happy with them, but decided to go to NW, when SJD raised the fee this year. Maybe i was unlucky enough but from the day one i had every possible problem with them and in a month when i was tired of sorting out problems with NW i went back to SJD.
But if not to refer to my bad experience(maybe just a bad luck as here are a lot of people who are happy with them), i can say that filling in the spreadsheet is much more convenient than to send every month via post all my expenses and invoices and loosing a track of what was send, what not. I think this juggling with paperwork is wierd to an ear of a person who works in IT. Yes, it's possible to send some of those via email, but you can't even add an archive as attachment(let's say all "April paperwork"), you should send all the documents attached separately. For me this was really inconvenient and moreover this way i loose control over my figures - what was received, invoiced, spended, what are the totalling figures etc. As an owner of the business you most probably want to know those.
Secondly i've noticed that in NW accountants can easily reply your email in a day, that's again something that was as a surprise to me as in SJD my accountant tends to reply if not immediately, but definitely within several hours - this is something i really value.

Ditto had lots of small issues as well, infact I don't think anything has been correct first time, good job I check in detail, hopping its just bedding in issues, a fee increase though I wouldnt be happy about at this stage if one was to happen.

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

Do you see any point in pay more (approx 40% more) for the same level of service?

Are you seeing the same level of service?

[Martin at NixonWilliams]

I used SJD and was very happy with them, but decided to go to NW, when SJD raised the fee this year. Maybe i was unlucky enough but from the day one i had every possible problem with them and in a month when i was tired of sorting out problems with NW i went back to SJD.
But if not to refer to my bad experience(maybe just a bad luck as here are a lot of people who are happy with them), i can say that filling in the spreadsheet is much more convenient than to send every month via post all my expenses and invoices and loosing a track of what was send, what not. I think this juggling with paperwork is wierd to an ear of a person who works in IT. Yes, it's possible to send some of those via email, but you can't even add an archive as attachment(let's say all "April paperwork"), you should send all the documents attached separately. For me this was really inconvenient and moreover this way i loose control over my figures - what was received, invoiced, spended, what are the totalling figures etc. As an owner of the business you most probably want to know those.
Secondly i've noticed that in NW accountants can easily reply your email in a day, that's again something that was as a surprise to me as in SJD my accountant tends to reply if not immediately, but definitely within several hours - this is something i really value.

Hi Goggy

Further to our PM's I’d like to outline the situation so others can see what has happened.

Yes, I will hold my hands up that we have made a couple of small errors in the short time you were a client with us (chasing you for some initial documents we already had and sending you an incomplete starter pack) but this are quite minor things in my opinion.

To me, the main issue here was not being able to provide you a full service in the two weeks you were a client of ours but this was due to you being a transfer from SJD and us not receiving the information.

With all transfers there is inevitable a delay in being able to provide you with a complete full service because of the delays in obtaining information from the previous accountant, in this case I note that SJD actually advised that they had posted the information but it still has not arrived! If this has been lost in the post it is unfortunate because this is what held us up in giving you the payroll figures.

I'm sorry that you decided to go back to SJD because I’m sure you would have experienced an excellent service from our accounts team, provided we had been given all the transfer information from SJD as requested (you may also have saved a few quid at the same time).

Martin

[Martin at NixonWilliams]

Ditto had lots of small issues as well, infact I don't think anything has been correct first time, good job I check in detail, hopping its just bedding in issues, a fee increase though I wouldnt be happy about at this stage if one was to happen.

Hi

If there are any problems with the service you are receiving please do let me know and I will look into this for you too, just drop me a PM or email (martin at nixonwilliams.com).

Martin

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

@Martin: just to be clear, I wasn't suggesting your level of service was below SJD's. I have heard only positive things about NW. I was trying to highlight the fact that the fee should not be an issue (or at least a minor issue) when choosing your accountant.

[Martin at NixonWilliams]

@Martin: just to be clear, I wasn't suggesting your level of service was below SJD's. I have heard only positive things about NW. I was trying to highlight the fact that the fee should not be an issue (or at least a minor issue) when choosing your accountant.

I wasn't trying to insinuate that you were

I'd like to think we offer a better all round service than SJD at a lower price but ultimately that’s up to the clients (or potential clients to decide) because I’m biased after all.

I do agree that fee should only be a minor issue when choosing an accountant, but if you can get identical services for different prices then it would be a good business decision financially to go for the lower one wouldn't it?

[Goggy]

Hi Goggy

Further to our PM's I’d like to outline the situation so others can see what has happened.

Yes, I will hold my hands up that we have made a couple of small errors in the short time you were a client with us (chasing you for some initial documents we already had and sending you an incomplete starter pack) but this are quite minor things in my opinion.

To me, the main issue here was not being able to provide you a full service in the two weeks you were a client of ours but this was due to you being a transfer from SJD and us not receiving the information.

With all transfers there is inevitable a delay in being able to provide you with a complete full service because of the delays in obtaining information from the previous accountant, in this case I note that SJD actually advised that they had posted the information but it still has not arrived! If this has been lost in the post it is unfortunate because this is what held us up in giving you the payroll figures.

I'm sorry that you decided to go back to SJD because I’m sure you would have experienced an excellent service from our accounts team, provided we had been given all the transfer information from SJD as requested (you may also have saved a few quid at the same time).

Martin

Hi Martin. As i said i appreciate you looking into this, but problem of missing documents and information i've provided didn't appear once as you can see from my email and sorry it's not the way i would expect accountants to deal with my documents as it's their bread and butter. If i post paperwork to the company i wouldn't expect being chased for it again in a week as it's already with you. If i'm asked for diff ref numbers and i email requested information back, i don't expect being asked for them again. What would you think if you were a client, that documents are lost and that noone really bothered updating your case with the information you provided, right? As i said i consider it as bad luck and coincidence as a lot of people are happy with NW.

[Wanderer]

As i said i consider it as bad luck and coincidence as a lot of people are happy with NW.

Basing a judgement on two weeks of dealing with an accountant is a bit unfair in my opinion. They may have made a couple of mixups during that time but I'd rather be hounded too often than not often enough.

[Waldorf]

Hi Martin. As i said i appreciate you looking into this, but problem of missing documents and information i've provided didn't appear once as you can see from my email and sorry it's not the way i would expect accountants to deal with my documents as it's their bread and butter. If i post paperwork to the company i wouldn't expect being chased for it again in a week as it's already with you. If i'm asked for diff ref numbers and i email requested information back, i don't expect being asked for them again. What would you think if you were a client, that documents are lost and that noone really bothered updating your case with the information you provided, right? As i said i consider it as bad luck and coincidence as a lot of people are happy with NW.

This is much too difficult to read - but as another poster has said, 2 weeks is not very long to test a service.

[Martin at NixonWilliams]

Hi Martin. As i said i appreciate you looking into this, but problem of missing documents and information i've provided didn't appear once as you can see from my email and sorry it's not the way i would expect accountants to deal with my documents as it's their bread and butter. If i post paperwork to the company i wouldn't expect being chased for it again in a week as it's already with you. If i'm asked for diff ref numbers and i email requested information back, i don't expect being asked for them again. What would you think if you were a client, that documents are lost and that noone really bothered updating your case with the information you provided, right? As i said i consider it as bad luck and coincidence as a lot of people are happy with NW.

Hi Goggy

Just to clarify, it wasn't that we had lost any of your paperwork it was that your account manager didn't realise it had been sent in because it arrived whilst he was on annual leave. This was a simple oversight on his part which was explained at the time.

If there's anything else I can help with please do let me know.

Martin