Reply to: Chruchill Knight's "Snapshot"

[realaledrinker]

Dear Alex

Thank you for your post.

I note your comments but will continue to use the structure established by your remittance advices to work out what I can withdraw from my company in the way of dividends, pending delivery of the promised 'more detailed breakdown'.

Realaledrinker

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

Fair play to Alex.

[ChurchillKnight]

Hi all

I have been using CK for just over two years and found their remittance advices a straightforward way of keeping tabs on my companies position and the amount I could withdraw as a dividend.

This has all changed now with the introduction of their website 'Snapshot'. No more remittance advices, instead just half a dozen amounts (cash at bank, corporation tax payable, available dividend and a couple of others). No way of validating VAT or HMRC amounts payable and a general lack of transparency.

My first experience has been a nightmare, the dividend available if I calculate using the remittance format and actual figures is almost £2,000 less that what the Snapshot tells me. On querying this, the amount changed twice within hours as they pressed random buttons and the current amount suggested is now even higher!!

Has anyone on the forum any similar experience?

Dear Realaledrinker,

Thank you for your time yesterday whereby a Senior Member of our Accounts Production Team acknowledged the points you have raised. We are delighted that you have found our Remittance Notification system efficient over the last two years and completely appreciate that the transition to our new web-based Financial Snapshot has not been as smoothly implemented on your account as we would have liked. As discussed yesterday, we are looking to act on our recent client feedback to provide a more detailed breakdown for our clients which would closer resemble the layout that they have been used to seeing.

We would like to apologise for the initial confusion caused when your company transferred to this new system and would be more than happy to provide you with more personal guidance/assurance should you contact the Senior point of contact that you were assigned yesterday.

Thank you again for your time yesterday, we greatly value our clients' feedback and look forward to alleviating your concerns with this new system through some of the additional improvements being made over the next few weeks/months.

Kind regards,

Alex from Churchill Knight

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

Ditto.....interviewed one of their BDM's a couple of weeks ago, very interesting stats.

Care to share? I'm guessing huge churn rates?

[Darren at Fox-Bartfield]

CK

Ditto (with the exception of the MSC comment).....interviewed one of their BDM's a couple of weeks ago, very interesting stats.

[Michael at BI Accountancy]

Agree with both Alan and Maslins,

We have had a couple recently switch from CK.

There model definitely comes close to the MSC legislation!

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

Also, theirs charging is extraordinary. The client in question moved mid-year and had paid c6 months fees for not a lot of work. (Two vat return, and these monthly "payslips"). Then when he moved they charged him another £250 for the privilege.

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

As maslins has discerned, Their old model seems very much like it's catering to ex-salary guys who need a payslip. The client I took over referred to not paying his "wages" until ck told him how much. "Wages" being combined salary, dividend (himself and his wife's) and expenses. Then he paid the total amount in one payment to his personal account. I've yet to unpick the journal entries required to straighten that lot out.

[Lance]

Maybe the firm's been getting some grief under MSC rules, so trying to make their clients more aware of what's actually happening in the accounts, rather than just giving them a net salary/dividend/expense reimbursement figure they can take each month? Pure speculation on my part, but if that's the case, only a good thing IMHO.

I think anyone who takes out dividends monthly like that is not running a proper business. Too much hand to mouth.
Not that it's a relevant test for anything, but it does demonstrate lack of planning, lack of forethought, failure to understand the risks involved in bench-time, etc. etc.

I'd like to bet that CK always make damn sure there's enough to pay their monthly fee though.

[Maslins]

Hard to tell without seeing the details, but I imagine their "snapshot" is basically the balance sheet?

If so, sounds to my like a good thing, drifting towards proper accounting. I can't believe some Ltd Co accountancy firms give their clients monthly "payslips", which include things like dividends listed on them. Whilst I appreciate for those used to being on PAYE this may seem easy to understand, it makes a mockery of the argument these people are running a business.

Maybe the firm's been getting some grief under MSC rules, so trying to make their clients more aware of what's actually happening in the accounts, rather than just giving them a net salary/dividend/expense reimbursement figure they can take each month? Pure speculation on my part, but if that's the case, only a good thing IMHO.

[Fred Bloggs]

You need to move from CK as soon as you can. I know nobody who has a good word for them. Find yourself a decent FreeAgent accountant. You will save money and have everything at your fingertips 24x7.

[SlipTheJab]

I ended up with them when I first started due to me being naive as a newbie contractor and the bung they gave the agent, lasted less than a year with them before bailing, charged a fortune and were useless, stay away is my advice.

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

I took a client from ck recently and the client got a letter from the Client Retention Team. I found it telling that they have a team solely for dealing with trying to convince unhappy clients to stay. But if they're taking 7 months to prepare year end accounts it's hardly surprising.

[realaledrinker]

I keep an extended trial balance & will keep this going. I found two errors as a result in my first lot of draft accounts.

The problem now is that the accounts for my year starting 1st October won't be produced until May 2018 so what sort of shambles there'll be to sort out by then, I shudder to think.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

More accountants trying to re-invent the wheel with their own online "portals" when there are lots of established battle-tested solutions out there already (FreeAgent, Xero, Kashflow, Quickbooks etc.). I thought it was just developers that suffered from NIH syndrome.

Do you have to use their portal or can you move to one of the above instead?