What could your accountant do better?

[GazCol]

Generally, I agree. I think that if I rang, I would hope that there was someone there to answer the phone and either help me out or take a message and get the accountant to ring me back as soon as they could (within normal hours).

I've worked on client sites where I couldn't make a call (for a number of reasons) - but being able to send a quick email to ask the question and getting a response was great. I like the audit trail of having things in writing in an email - I can always go back and search what their advice was, when I've forgotten it. I hate the idea of snail mail (my solicitor when we were buying our house had a happy knack of writing a letter back to an email that I'd sent her ), and I'm not overly keen on talking over the phone if I can avoid it at the best of times.

But if you're going to communicate via email, then I still expect it to be a quick response - even if it's just a note to say that they are looking at it and will get back when they have a fuller answer.

Exactly - if that email response wasn't within 1 business day, that would probably change the way I like to communicate with my accountant.

[malvolio]

On the few occasions I've needed to phone the accountant for advice - most recently over how best to operate RTI - I've had an immediate and authoritative answer. 99% of emails come back within 2-3 working hours, rarely longer, and if my usual contact is out for some reason one of the others will pick it up.

Personally I would find a delay of one working day or more between question and answer would be intolerable, unless it was for something really complicated.

My accountant is like my bank; both are there immediately when I need it or when I need to be told something, but invisible otherwise. Which is how it should be

[BillHicksRIP]

Quite unlike any other aspect of my life, I would welcome unsolicited advice from my accountant about how best to manage my company's money relating to retained profits or investments, even if it was just to say "we realise you may have funds set aside for a warchest, but have you considered this?". A prime example is the article on CUK's front page from InTouch about it being financially better to put private health insurance through the company rather than paying it yourself. Perhaps I'm mistaking accountant for financial adviser, but my accountant knows more about my finances than I do.