Reply to: Boot the Accountant?

[Old Greg]

Just to add to Simon:

I have a named person at SJD who I deal with all the time unless he is on holiday. He's very good and I get a personal service. What I don't have is someone just down the road whose office I can pop into any time I want to I assume I could pop into SJD's office but it's 40 minutes away by train and I've never felt the need to. Someone did come round to my home office when I joined and I think I would probably like to have a face to face meeting once a year and I can't see that being a problem.

So if you want someone on your local high street, SJD and Nixon Williams probably aren't for you. But ask yourself: is your local accountant best placed to offer you the very particular tax advice (on top of accounting) tat contracting through your Ltd. requires?

[philip@wellwoodhoyle]

After a lot of decision making, phone calls, and meeting various accountants, I decided to go with a local accountant affiliated with PCG.

Affiliated = a firm that simply pays their fee to PCG to be included on their database of accountants - no vetting etc - anyone can do that.

Accredited = a firm that has actually been through the PCG's accreditation process - implies a certain amount of vetting.

[eddiegee]

Yes - except that your claims directly contradict the experiences of the OP. By the way, my apologies for being the type of person you don't understand.

do you even know what the PCG is you muppet

[chicane]

See, your the type of person i don’t understand, you think your so clever. The PCG is a respectable accreditation for any accountancy to have, and is well recognised for referring the best accountants.

Yes - except that your claims directly contradict the experiences of the OP. By the way, my apologies for being the type of person you don't understand.

[TheFaQQer]

See, your the type of person i don’t understand, you think your so clever. The PCG is a respectable accreditation for any accountancy to have, and is well recognised for referring the best accountants.

you're

HTH.

[TheFaQQer]

And before I forget, name and shame. If they're rubbish the PCG should be recommending them. Unless it's just a human error which happens to all of us.

Is that really what you meant to say?

[eddiegee]

Whilst I acknowledge that the PCG is a nonprofit organisation with no dubious agenda, what you did was no more clever than picking a random builder from the Yellow Pages due to their membership of "Federation of Master Builders" or some other meaningless trade body.

Next time, do some research or get a recommendation. This, by the way, applies to all significant supplier selections you'll make in the future.

See, your the type of person i don’t understand, you think your so clever. The PCG is a respectable accreditation for any accountancy to have, and is well recognised for referring the best accountants.

[chicane]

How to win friends and influence people, part 1.

Quite.

Something tells me that my feedback wasn't appreciated.

[Ruprect]

Oh thanks for your profound reasoning. You know what, I feel so enlightened. If only I had your clarity of thought, then I wouldn't be in this fine mess. Go and patronise someone else.

How to win friends and influence people, part 1.

[Loaded]

Whilst I acknowledge that the PCG is a nonprofit organisation with no dubious agenda, what you did was no more clever than picking a random builder from the Yellow Pages due to their membership of "Federation of Master Builders" or some other meaningless trade body.

Next time, do some research or get a recommendation. This, by the way, applies to all significant supplier selections you'll make in the future.

Oh thanks for your profound reasoning. You know what, I feel so enlightened. If only I had your clarity of thought, then I wouldn't be in this fine mess. Go and patronise someone else.

[Epiphone]

And before I forget, name and shame. If they're rubbish the PCG should be recommending them. Unless it's just a human error which happens to all of us.

[monkeyBoy32]

OK - I was about to post something similar to this but thought I'd hijack this one slightly - hope you don't mind.

I spoke to an accountant a while back and we agreed he would act as my accountant for when I contract - 2 weeks before I start contracting he tells me that he doesn't want to work with me! So I call another accountant that is recommended to me, they register my company and now, all of a sudden, there's no contact from them - I've been calling all last week and now today but nothing! I'm actually on the first day of my contract I don't even know if my accountant is still alive?

What should I do? Presumably you'd tell me to get another accountant? If so - are the big names mentioned above the type of companies that get back to you quickly?

Thanks for any advice..

[chicane]

I decided to go with a local accountant affiliated with PCG.

Whilst I acknowledge that the PCG is a nonprofit organisation with no dubious agenda, what you did was no more clever than picking a random builder from the Yellow Pages due to their membership of "Federation of Master Builders" or some other meaningless trade body.

Next time, do some research or get a recommendation. This, by the way, applies to all significant supplier selections you'll make in the future.

[simondolan]

I'm looking for a pesonal service, not companies that have thousands of contractors on their books, and who are probably being scrutinised by Gordon's cohorts.

The personal service comes from the person you deal with, whether the Company they work for has 10 or 10,000 clients. One man working on his own above a shop is no more or less likely to give you a personal service than an accountant working for a company that employs 100.

[Epiphone]

I'm looking for a pesonal service, not companies that have thousands of contractors on their books, and who are probably being scrutinised by Gordon's cohorts.

Swings and roundabouts. A smaller accountant probably won't be as up to speed on contracting accounts or IR35 but will be able to give a more personal service.

A bigger accountant will be more professional but you may not get the hand holding you'd get with a smaller outfit. The size of the accountant doesn't necessarily translate into a target for HMRC though - unless you're thinking of an MSC.

There's a reason the usual suspects on here - SJD, Nixon, Upton - get recommended. Word of mouth is priceless when making decisions like this. At the end of the day it's your call.