Reply to: Moving on from InTouch (Brookson)

[Craig@Clarity]

She owns/runs Clarity Taxation with Craig (see above).

^That's right. We're still in the game

[oliverson]

She owns/runs Clarity Taxation with Craig (see above).

Very interesting. Clare Rickman managed my account whilst at InTouch and yes, she was very good.

[jamesbrown]

Clare was my first contact when I joined InTouch from Clearsky (were they formally Quay?) I then ended up with Louisa, who similarly left to start Aardvark and I joined after seeing her post here.

So did Clare leave accounting or was that a sabbatical and she's started somewhere new?

She owns/runs Clarity Taxation with Craig (see above).

[d000hg]

After Clare quit InTouch to go travelling, my experience of accountants went downhill, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but she is the only accountant I would recommend to anyone without reservation.

Clare was my first contact when I joined InTouch from Clearsky (were they formally Quay?) I then ended up with Louisa, who similarly left to start Aardvark and I joined after seeing her post here.

So did Clare leave accounting or was that a sabbatical and she's started somewhere new?

[jamesbrown]

Well chop chop then fella. Can't have the good lady waiting

After Clare quit InTouch to go travelling, my experience of accountants went downhill, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but she is the only accountant I would recommend to anyone without reservation.

[d000hg]

I definitely think you want to be using a standardised piece of software - FreeAgent has my vote because it's very user-friendly if you want to understand yourself (Xero is tricky IME).
There's no reason not to be these days, the advantages are too numerous. Personally I don't want to do my own accounts but knowing I could if I wanted, and can switch accountants so easily, is great.

I am still fairly happy with Aardvark myself.

[northernladuk]

She's on the toffee nut coffee now!!

Well chop chop then fella. Can't have the good lady waiting

[Craig@Clarity]

Claire and her tea boy at Clarity Taxation.

She's on the toffee nut coffee now!!

[gixxer2021]

I moved to Maslins a while back (from the then SJD), made the move easy and sorted a few things in FreeAgent. Highly recommend both (FreeAgent and Maslins). I do my own VAT returns, etc but they’re there just to check over things and help when required like NL mentioned earlier, so peace of mind.

[Maslins]

...Medium sized I'd say Maslins but he has stepped away I think so need to speak to him to understand the situation nowadays...

I'm guessing "he" is Chris Maslin (aka me). The firm became Employee Owned just shy of 3 years ago now, so it's no longer my company. I'm still involved in the background, but people with their fingers far closer to the pulse lead the day to day work. There's currently 5 qualified accountants, and about 10 part qualifieds/trainees in support...so yeah, I guess that makes us "medium sized".

I mean, would I be paying just over £ 1.5k a year for what Free Agent already provides out of the box, and that box is free to me as an RBS customer?

FreeAgent is just the tool, albeit a good one. So it's like comparing paying for photoshop with getting a graphic designer. If you're competent, you can potentially do as good a job DIYing with just the software. But a lot of people aren't comfortable with that, and want an accountant to help ensure everything's done on time, and is accurate/done optimally etc.

[northernladuk]

Bear in mind that accountants screw up quite frequently and they typically don't know much about the legislation affecting contracting businesses (never get IR35 reviews from your accountant etc.). I've had some good accountants in the past, but I frequently caught issues or needed to chase things and, again, these were solid accountants with excellent reviews. Most of the cookie cutter accountants are terrible and most of the good accountants turn into bad ones, eventually (InTouch being an excellent example). If you're prepared to be diligent, the risks are the opposite of what you suggest, although definitely *not* for n00bs.

Absolutely. We are still responsible for running our companies at the end of the day and thinking back I've had to make corrections to stuff in the past. Conversely the three month check my accountant offers has caught a number of things I've done wrong e.g. I put postal through so infrequently I keep forgetting it's 0 VAT for example. Trivial example but not the only one by a long chalk so worth it for me even though I do have to spend the time to check the accountants work as well.

But for less than three days billing it's still a worthwhile service for me.

[oliverson]

Remember you can always speak to your accountant on that package as well so can ask them anything and everything and take up hours of their time a year.
Freeagent is a bookkeeping tool. It doesn't keep abreast of the latest tax changes keeping you efficient, answer any questions about expenses etc, doesn't check your accounts for stuff you missed and is available to chat to you at the dial of a number and so on.

You just have to work out if you are good enough to do it yourself with clever bookkeeping software or you would like the services of a professional on tap 52 weeks (ish) a year. Personally the 1.5k (claimable) is worth it all day long just for convenience.

I can definitely relate to that!!

But yeah, you're probably right, I'm really not the kind of person that can be 4rsed with all that stuff, especially at my stage of life.

[jamesbrown]

Remember you can always speak to your accountant on that package as well so can ask them anything and everything and take up hours of their time a year.
Freeagent is a bookkeeping tool. It doesn't keep abreast of the latest tax changes keeping you efficient, answer any questions about expenses etc, doesn't check your accounts for stuff you missed and is available to chat to you at the dial of a number and so on.

You just have to work out if you are good enough to do it yourself with clever bookkeeping software or you would like the services of a professional on tap 52 weeks (ish) a year. Personally the 1.5k (claimable) is worth it all day long just for convenience.

Bear in mind that accountants screw up quite frequently and they typically don't know much about the legislation affecting contracting businesses (never get IR35 reviews from your accountant etc.). I've had some good accountants in the past, but I frequently caught issues or needed to chase things and, again, these were solid accountants with excellent reviews. Most of the cookie cutter accountants are terrible and most of the good accountants turn into bad ones, eventually (InTouch being an excellent example). If you're prepared to be diligent, the risks are the opposite of what you suggest, although definitely *not* for n00bs.

[northernladuk]

Interesting, thanks.

I'm just looking at a list of services offered in the Bronze package here:

https://paperrocketaccounting.com/limitedcompany/

I'm wondering how much of that is pretty much a given when using Free Agent and for anything that arises not on that list, do FA have a support line that can help out, even at additional one-off expense?

I mean, would I be paying just over £ 1.5k a year for what Free Agent already provides out of the box, and that box is free to me as an RBS customer?

Remember you can always speak to your accountant on that package as well so can ask them anything and everything and take up hours of their time a year.
Freeagent is a bookkeeping tool. It doesn't keep abreast of the latest tax changes keeping you efficient, answer any questions about expenses etc, doesn't check your accounts for stuff you missed and is available to chat to you at the dial of a number and so on.

You just have to work out if you are good enough to do it yourself with clever bookkeeping software or you would like the services of a professional on tap 52 weeks (ish) a year. Personally the 1.5k (claimable) is worth it all day long just for convenience.

[jamesbrown]

Who do you get to do your year end returns?

I do everything myself.