Any experience with Crunch accountacy?

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

I recently signed up with Crunch, and although didn't have any problems at first, I required a letter from a chartered accountant to set up my business bank account. I wrote to Crunch, who initially supplied a letter, signed by their senior accountant, but my bank wrote back to say Crunch and the accountant who signed the letter weren't registered with the ICAEW, and weren't chartered accountants.

.. Snip..

Does anyone know why they are no longer listed on the ICAEW? It feels like a bit of a red flag for me..

The letter to the bank is likely to be because there is no other easy way of bank confirming shareholdings in business - any share issues or transfers, other than founders shares, aren't shown at Companies House till the first annual return goes in.

That said there is probably no reason, other than bank rules, why it has to be a Chartered Accountant. In theory you should be able to confirm the details to them, but banks being banks prefer officialdom.

Re ICAEW. It's hard to draw conclusions. A lot of firms are intentionally de-registering from CCAB (The umbrella which covers ICAEW, ICAS, ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA) oversight, as its not legally necessary and it's perceived as just being a burden - is a case of economics - the sales vaue of letters versus the hassle factor. And also, its worth pointing out the firm gets its letters from the qualifications of the majority of its staff. Really you'll need to ask them and see what they say. If their senior accountants had been struck off, I suspect news would have got back here?

In any event I would prefer competent day to day staff, regardless of qualification, over a unknown but qualified name on the letter head.

[JonNorris@Crunch]

Also worrying was that when I asked about IR 35 she advised going to one of the specialist firms, she did not suggest there was anyone with Crunch who could advise on IR35 status even for an extra fee. Just did not give me any confidence at all that I was dealing with someone who was not just an admin person who had been given a few scraps of info to repeat. All I have done is read a few factsheets but I got them impression I knew a lot more than him/her. Maybe I am being over demanding but I wondered if the cheap price the Crunch offers is just a case of the usual pay peanuts etc.

Not sure why our advisors would have told you that - we're PCG accredited and our accountants can advise on IR35 just fine! We're also partnered with QDos for insurance / contract reviews and that kind of thing. If you like you can DM me your name and who you spoke to and I'll look into it. It's not unusual for new clients to have a chat about their IR35 situation with one of our accountants before they come on board as obviously they're better equipped to deal with it that our advisors are - can arrange that for you too if it's of interest.

Have you had any luck with speaking to accountants there, and getting advice? And does anyone know if it's normal for there to be no chartered accountants at a firm, especially if once upon a time the whole team were, and now there are no longer any?

Our "outward facing" staff are our advisors, so if you're not a client you probably won't have spoken to one of our accountants! If you are a client, you can speak to an accountant whenever you like, it's all included in your fee.

I'm not entirely sure why we're no longer ICAEW registered, our accountants are just as qualified as they've ever been though! Like most firms we have a range of people from apprentices to grizzled veterans.