Hi everyone, I'm having a bit of trouble with my current accountant and I'm wonder if anybody has any advice ...
I joined Clearsky Accounting at the beginning of January 2012. The sales pitch was smooth and even though it was twice the price of my current accountant I kind of felt like I needed a bigger company looking out for me and my finances...
Overall after a year they've been pretty ordinary to be honest ... copy paste emails that had nothing to do with my business, they messed up my VAT registration costing me about £800 but here's the big issue I had with them - my CT600.
They pretty much forgot to do my CT600 and after I reminded them about 5 days before that it was due they had a sudden massive rush to do it, asked me to scan and sign documents within 1 - 2 days (despite the copy paste emails saying I had a whole month to review them) all while I was on holiday which was pretty stressful. They then sent over the 'how to pay' email a week after the payment deadline and sent me an invoice of over £900 for doing the CT600.
My letter of engagement states that all the accounting work including the CT600 would be done as a part of the £120 a month I pay them so this invoice really threw me off. I talked to them about it and they said because I joined part way through that the monthly payments were going towards the next Ct600 - which I was never told by sales and isn't stated in the letter of engagement. They've lowered it to £500 but I still think I shouldn't have to pay anything.
Am I right here or is that something I should have known? If you go to their website at Contractor & SME accountancy services | Freelancer & tax accountants there are a lot of pages about how easy it is to switch to them and how there are no hidden costs.
I'm switching to another smaller accountant now in my area who has agreed to take my accounts on for half the price and do my 2012/2013 CT600 included in the price - so why is Clearsky so expensive. Also they said all my accounting fee's are going towards the 2012/2013 CT600 which I'm getting a different accountant to do anyway - so shouldn't it cover the 2011/2012?
To give you an idea of my business I do 1 or 2 invoices a month and turn over about £70k - my expenses for the entire year fit on one A4 sheet (it's just computer stuff) so it's not like my business is that hard to do accounting for.
Any advice or opinions? Should I just pay the £500 they reduced it to or should I fight it a bit harder? I know nothing about accounting really so I don't know if I'm being taken for a ride or it's all standard practice.
Thanks,
Marty
I joined Clearsky Accounting at the beginning of January 2012. The sales pitch was smooth and even though it was twice the price of my current accountant I kind of felt like I needed a bigger company looking out for me and my finances...
Overall after a year they've been pretty ordinary to be honest ... copy paste emails that had nothing to do with my business, they messed up my VAT registration costing me about £800 but here's the big issue I had with them - my CT600.
They pretty much forgot to do my CT600 and after I reminded them about 5 days before that it was due they had a sudden massive rush to do it, asked me to scan and sign documents within 1 - 2 days (despite the copy paste emails saying I had a whole month to review them) all while I was on holiday which was pretty stressful. They then sent over the 'how to pay' email a week after the payment deadline and sent me an invoice of over £900 for doing the CT600.
My letter of engagement states that all the accounting work including the CT600 would be done as a part of the £120 a month I pay them so this invoice really threw me off. I talked to them about it and they said because I joined part way through that the monthly payments were going towards the next Ct600 - which I was never told by sales and isn't stated in the letter of engagement. They've lowered it to £500 but I still think I shouldn't have to pay anything.
Am I right here or is that something I should have known? If you go to their website at Contractor & SME accountancy services | Freelancer & tax accountants there are a lot of pages about how easy it is to switch to them and how there are no hidden costs.
I'm switching to another smaller accountant now in my area who has agreed to take my accounts on for half the price and do my 2012/2013 CT600 included in the price - so why is Clearsky so expensive. Also they said all my accounting fee's are going towards the 2012/2013 CT600 which I'm getting a different accountant to do anyway - so shouldn't it cover the 2011/2012?
To give you an idea of my business I do 1 or 2 invoices a month and turn over about £70k - my expenses for the entire year fit on one A4 sheet (it's just computer stuff) so it's not like my business is that hard to do accounting for.
Any advice or opinions? Should I just pay the £500 they reduced it to or should I fight it a bit harder? I know nothing about accounting really so I don't know if I'm being taken for a ride or it's all standard practice.
Thanks,
Marty
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