Question re: Accountants - Are People Generally Happy w/ Their Current Accountant?

[The Spartan]

If you'd asked me three weeks ago, I'd have given InTouch 9 out of 10.

Based on the past few weeks, though, it's slipping to a 7 and possibly lower.

Ooooh not good, are you able to share any details of why?

[kevpuk]

Ooooh not good, are you able to share any details of why?

Yep, spill?

[ike2112]

I would give mine a 3. I am unhappy with them, and plan to be leaving them (although recent occurences mean I probably have no real need for an accountant anyway, I would have left them had I continued contracting).

The reasons I am unhappy:

In my first year of contracting, they did not give me the correct advice on how to extract money from the company. I left £18k sitting in the company account, only took £34k in income that year; I now know that I should have been taking income ideally up close to the next tax threshold. In year 2 I took over £50k and paid higher-rate tax on some of it; I should have been able to take say £8,000 of that last year and paid the lower level of tax in both years.
They provide quarterly management accounts. In the 8 I have had, 2 had calculation errors. Another had a error due to a misunderstanding over invoice dates, where instead of clarifying they made an incorrect assumption.
At the start of the agreement, they advised me it was best to set up 2 savings accounts; one for tax and one for VAT, so those monies are kept separately from the main account. However only 4 months later did they mention that they want me to pay extra for them to actually tell me the tax and VAT amounts to put in these accounts. For VAT I know what comes in each month, but I need to wait until the VAT return to know how much is paid out for that period. With tax, I don’t have any idea how much I need to put aside. I expected them to provide that with the quarterly accounts, since it was their suggestion, but they do not. Without that, their original piece of advice is somewhat useless.
At the start of the agreement, they told me the VAT scheme is optional and that I should read into it more to decide if I wanted to do it. I know now that it is absolutely one of the most stupidly obvious benefits of having your own Limited company. They did not explain that in any way – it took a colleague to guide me on it rather than the person I have been paying £180 a month.
Their communication is very poor. I rarely get to speak to my actual accountant. When I call I only get to speak with a member of ‘the team’, who often cannot answer more complex questions. They takes messages and someone else responds via email – or rather what tends to happen is that over the next 4 days, a handful of people answer one question each, so I end up having multiple conversations with different people.
They are atrocious at email. Two weeks ago I emailed them 3 simple questions, and I then called two days later to chase a response. In the next 3 days I had communication with 9 different people. Those conversations included two people answering the same question with contradictory answers. And another person asking me for pin code for the HMRC online portal – which my accountant has and used the previous year and had actually sent to me in the first place.
As my contracting time is now ending; my last contract ended mid-July and I accepted a perm role starting mid-Aug, I asked them how I can get the money out of the company and what I should do next. All they responded with was their monthly cost for dormancy services. Thanks to this forum, I now know that dormancy is actually not the only option, and it looks like it is not the most appropriate option for me. So once again instead of receiving a professional and pro-active guidance from my accountant, I am having to ask other people for guidance so that I can then tell my accountant what to do. And since they are prone to the odd mistake, I know I will then have to check everything they do with very close scrutiny as I cannot trust them.

I wanted;
Personal service
Good communication
Someone I can trust
Accurate information
Good guidance on tax efficiency

I got none of the above.

One thing that I would say is helpful, is the online logging of expenses, invoices etc.

Even though I have many reasons to be unhappy, they have managed to get me through 2 years so that at least deserves some credit. There have been problems along the way, but they've still done work for me that I wouldn't have been able to figure out, and saved me time by filling in a lot of my forms.

[barneymarney]

getting very frustrated

I am with Paymatters - and over the last few months have had to keep getting them to adjust my accounts because every week I go in to the portal, it's telling me I am £'000's in the red, when the week before I've just taken what I was told. Every time it is corrected, it's fine, and I am just informed it's because of a software upgrade that's now resolved... Pulling my hair out really - used to be 8-9 out of 10, now 2... particularly as I feel I am paying over the odds, having researched this weekend the prices of suppliers recommended on here.

I'm just raising the energy to go through the hassle of switching...

[FiveStars]

A month back I was all new to the process and still in the learning process. I don't mind dealing with someone online etc hence decided to go with NixonWilliams based on feedback on the forum. They have been very good to my needs and the person who has been assigned to me knows her stuff. They have been very quick to respond to queries and dealing with my company questions/issues....so far. Will wait and see how they perform after a year or so.

But then my company is very new and things are relatively straight forward with one director only. Based on my experience I would happily recommend them.