Reply to: 1stonline accountants - Any experiences?

[WTFH]

I only see one charge, for a loan? Would expect them to get the confirmation statement right though! Curious as to what has gone on with them moving offices. Not had any issues with them yet though.

I was going by this:
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/c...183990/charges

[SeanT]

Looking at them on Companies House, if they can't manage their own business, I'd be concerned about them managing mine.
1 outstanding confirmation against the company for the last 8 weeks and 3 charges against the parent company.
There's also been changes of address and directorships over the last few months.

I only see one charge, for a loan? Would expect them to get the confirmation statement right though! Curious as to what has gone on with them moving offices. Not had any issues with them yet though.

[WTFH]

Looking at them on Companies House, if they can't manage their own business, I'd be concerned about them managing mine.
1 outstanding confirmation against the company for the last 8 weeks and 3 charges against the parent company.
There's also been changes of address and directorships over the last few months.

[northernladuk]

I've been with 1stonline for last 3 years on the premium package. So £59.99 pm and has been good.
They won't give opinion as such (but I guess most of the folks these days won't give opinion), but apart from that they do all admin stuff pretty well. They will file corp tax docs, annual accounts etc. and pretty good in responding to issues and help if you get stuck.

This year onwards, they have given more self service options so have to submit VAT returns automatically through Freeagent. It is easy, but you need to put reminder. But overall, i would recommend

What do you mean they won't give opinion? On certain situations to do with your tax?

[sojan]

good and uses freeagent

I've been with 1stonline for last 3 years on the premium package. So £59.99 pm and has been good.
They won't give opinion as such (but I guess most of the folks these days won't give opinion), but apart from that they do all admin stuff pretty well. They will file corp tax docs, annual accounts etc. and pretty good in responding to issues and help if you get stuck.

This year onwards, they have given more self service options so have to submit VAT returns automatically through Freeagent. It is easy, but you need to put reminder. But overall, i would recommend

[Fred Bloggs]

Yes, I'm back with a vengeance!

Welcome back.

[Louisa@AardvarkAccounting]

Ahhh so it's YOU is it

Yes, I'm back with a vengeance!

[northernladuk]

That goes against everything I've ever done in the past - I've always sent them to you for your sympathetic responses!

Ahhh so it's YOU is it

[Louisa@AardvarkAccounting]

If I were you I'd PM Fred all your questions. He's very knowledgable and has first hand experiences so I'd ask him anything and everything you need to know... HTH

That goes against everything I've ever done in the past - I've always sent them to you for your sympathetic responses!

[northernladuk]

Hi Fred,

I'd be interested to know more about them. However I cannot find the option to PM you..is it because i'm a newbie and its not enabled?

Ask Admin for PM access. If I were you I'd PM Fred all your questions. He's very knowledgable and has first hand experiences so I'd ask him anything and everything you need to know... HTH

[Fred Bloggs]

Hi Fred,

I'd be interested to know more about them. However I cannot find the option to PM you..is it because i'm a newbie and its not enabled?

Yes you need to ask admin to enable it for you. Why not call them? They are very user friendly and you'll get answers to your questions right there and then.

[yasnas]

None of the people who replied have any idea what using 1st Online is actually like, have you?

I'm not going to make a song and a dance over it, you can see my various posts on this very same topic if you search the forum. Yes, I am a very happy customer of 1st Online. If you want to know more perhaps PM me?

Hi Fred,

I'd be interested to know more about them. However I cannot find the option to PM you..is it because i'm a newbie and its not enabled?

[Fred Bloggs]

Thanks for the replies, yes I guess this is only a small step up from DIY and seems even cheaper assuming you want to use FreeAgent. FreeAgent alone costs £30/month where as it is £20 through 1stonline or £30 with VAT+Payroll processing. To be honest I feel that the price of FreeAgent standalone is extortionate considering its relative simplicity. I assume accountants pay far less for it?

I don't know the ins and outs of year end accounts but I assume that for a simple one man Ltd co. using data from FreeAgent and a linked bank account, the process is not too complex? One accountant I spoke to offered full year end accounts for £400 or the same but from FreeAgent data for £150 which seems to confirm this.

See my other post here and/or search the forum for 1st Online.

[Fred Bloggs]

None of the people who replied have any idea what using 1st Online is actually like, have you?

I'm not going to make a song and a dance over it, you can see my various posts on this very same topic if you search the forum. Yes, I am a very happy customer of 1st Online. If you want to know more perhaps PM me?

[Maslins]

Thanks for the replies, yes I guess this is only a small step up from DIY and seems even cheaper assuming you want to use FreeAgent. FreeAgent alone costs £30/month where as it is £20 through 1stonline or £30 with VAT+Payroll processing. To be honest I feel that the price of FreeAgent standalone is extortionate considering its relative simplicity. I assume accountants pay far less for it?

I don't know the ins and outs of year end accounts but I assume that for a simple one man Ltd co. using data from FreeAgent and a linked bank account, the process is not too complex? One accountant I spoke to offered full year end accounts for £400 or the same but from FreeAgent data for £150 which seems to confirm this.

I've got a few comments on this:
- yes, accountants will generally get FreeAgent cheaper than FreeAgent's headline price. I imagine the levels of discount vary from firm to firm.
- I was certainly told that we could only provide it as part of a larger service, not just re-sell on the FreeAgent account at under the RRP to make a bit of a profit ourselves.
- I struggle to imagine the support these guys can provide for £20+VAT/month, when the FreeAgent account itself will cost them a large chunk of that...so part of me imagines they're treading a very fine line with my bullet point above.
- doing year end accounts from any data is potentially easy, you can just copy/paste the trial balance figures into year end software. Indeed it'll probably only be a year or so before that's no longer necessary for the DIYer as it's certainly on FreeAgent's roadmap to be able to submit simple accounts/CT returns directly from the software. However, until that happens, we wouldn't want to put our name to accounts that we hadn't checked first. That's where it can be a bit more time consuming, sanity checking the data, asking relevant questions to ensure things are accurate etc. Hence no way would we agree to file someone else's accounts/CT return for £150, regardless of whether they're on FreeAgent or not.

I'm in no way slating these guys. If I was, I'd be no different to the really traditional high street firms who slated firms like ours 5-10 years ago. However I am genuinely intrigued what kind of service you get for £20/month (I appreciate it makes it clear that doesn't include payroll, VAT, or year end accounts...which surely virtually every Ltd Co contractor will want).

We could hypothetically cut our prices, but to keep a decent profit level, we'd need to replace experienced staff where we pay to put them through their exams, with call centre monkeys that get negligible training. Staff is our biggest cost by far. It's also where an accountancy firm adds value over someone simply using FreeAgent on its own.

The world's a fast moving place these days, so for the confident DIYer it's only going to get easier. Some will do a grand job. My concern is that for others, they're going to submit a whole load of tosh, and the role of accountants will drift away from one of helping people submit accurate stuff, to unpicking horrible messes a year or two after the event. Hopefully I'll have retired by that point...also apologies for drifting OT!