Reply to: SJD Accountancy or Nixon Williams

[carlosLondon]

Our fee is £95+VAT per month for our Premier Service, this has recently been increased however, is still one of the most competitive rates in a market where some companies charge up to £195+VAT per month!

ALL of our clients receive a dedicated account controller, they have this person's direct dial and email address and can correspond with them at any time for any questions or queries they may have.

erm...does this apply to existing customers? I haven't received any letter/email telling me this...

[northernladuk]

I think they have various different service levels. It is more expensive if you want a dedicated accountant. Stand to be corrected but that is my understanding.
They also have smaller cars than us, offices are not as nice and they look like a set of tramps

Our fee is £95+VAT per month for our Premier Service, this has recently been increased however, is still one of the most competitive rates in a market where some companies charge up to £195+VAT per month!

ALL of our clients receive a dedicated account controller, they have this person's direct dial and email address and can correspond with them at any time for any questions or queries they may have.

And the SJD guys couldn't count if their lives depended on it, have girly colours in their logos and are all soft jessies

Ding Ding... Round 1... FIGHT!!!!

[Martin at NixonWilliams]

Our fee is £95+VAT per month for our Premier Service, this has recently been increased however, is still one of the most competitive rates in a market where some companies charge up to £195+VAT per month!

ALL of our clients receive a dedicated account controller, they have this person's direct dial and email address and can correspond with them at any time for any questions or queries they may have.

[simondolan]

Last week I signed them up for 75 + VAT.

I think they have various different service levels. It is more expensive if you want a dedicated accountant. Stand to be corrected but that is my understanding

[rdglad]

Ive just had a quote for moving my accounts over to NW, and when I noticed their prices are now 95+vat, I thought thanks, but no thanks.

Last week I signed them up for 75 + VAT.

[malvolio]

Good accountants are free...Good accountants are free..Good accountants are free...Good accountants are free...Good accountants are free...Good accountants are free...Good accountants are free...Good accountants are free...Good accountants are free...Good accountants are free...



HTH

[stuart_75]

Nixon Williams's response was that they would do all these free of charge and the only payment they would require is the monthly accountancy costs of £75 + VAT which is somewhat cheaper than SJD anyway.

Ive just had a quote for moving my accounts over to NW, and when I noticed their prices are now 95+vat, I thought thanks, but no thanks.

[cyphersoft]

Hi, just a comment on this thread in case anyone else finds themselves in the same position as me.

I recently signed up for my first contract, and being a novice in this, first thing i did was to form a company online before looking for an accountant. (i realised afterwards that many accountancy firms were offering company registration as a part of their package)

After some browsing through the forums and talking to a few people, i narrowed my choices down to SJD or NW. From what i researched so far, both seem to have a very good reputation.

I gave a phone call to both of them asking whether they can help me with VAT and PAYE registrations as well as opening an account with Cater Allan bank.

SJD's response was that they would do these for me but since i didn't initially take their company forming package
(which was £125+VAT), i would have to pay extra for each of these, which means VAT registration (£50+VAT), PAYE (£50+VAT) and bank account opening (£50+VAT).

They also indicated that i could do all these online for free myself, with the exception of bank account opening at Cater Allan, which requires a £5000 deposit from people who don't go through an accountancy firm to open accounts with them.

Nixon Williams's response was that they would do all these free of charge and the only payment they would require is the monthly accountancy costs of £75 + VAT which is somewhat cheaper than SJD anyway.

So my choice was to go with NW based on these facts. I just filled in an application form with them, and i'll be expecting a call tomorrow morning for registration.

[northernladuk]

Wrong attitude IMO. If a customer feels the service is bad enough to leave then it isn't "minor" no matter your personal opinion.

I wouldn't normally agree. Look at the two numpties who went to task over Parasol and threatened to leave. Was their fault (and a slightly complex payslip) so isn't always the suppliers fault that causes a customer to leave.

You right in general but this isn't a defacto standard IMO.

[Ravello]

For the purposes of balance I have also recently transferred from SJD to NW, following over a year of indifferent service from SJD (I had been with them for 4) the recent fee increase was the trigger, but even then I rang to provide feedback, what I got in return was a call chasing for an approval I had already provided without reference to my concerns..

Service from NW so far has been impeccable.

[Epiphone]

Yes, I will hold my hands up that we have made a couple of small errors in the short time you were a client with us (chasing you for some initial documents we already had and sending you an incomplete starter pack) but this are quite minor things in my opinion.

Wrong attitude IMO. If a customer feels the service is bad enough to leave then it isn't "minor" no matter your personal opinion.

[Martin at NixonWilliams]

Hi Martin. As i said i appreciate you looking into this, but problem of missing documents and information i've provided didn't appear once as you can see from my email and sorry it's not the way i would expect accountants to deal with my documents as it's their bread and butter. If i post paperwork to the company i wouldn't expect being chased for it again in a week as it's already with you. If i'm asked for diff ref numbers and i email requested information back, i don't expect being asked for them again. What would you think if you were a client, that documents are lost and that noone really bothered updating your case with the information you provided, right? As i said i consider it as bad luck and coincidence as a lot of people are happy with NW.

Hi Goggy

Just to clarify, it wasn't that we had lost any of your paperwork it was that your account manager didn't realise it had been sent in because it arrived whilst he was on annual leave. This was a simple oversight on his part which was explained at the time.

If there's anything else I can help with please do let me know.

Martin

[Waldorf]

Hi Martin. As i said i appreciate you looking into this, but problem of missing documents and information i've provided didn't appear once as you can see from my email and sorry it's not the way i would expect accountants to deal with my documents as it's their bread and butter. If i post paperwork to the company i wouldn't expect being chased for it again in a week as it's already with you. If i'm asked for diff ref numbers and i email requested information back, i don't expect being asked for them again. What would you think if you were a client, that documents are lost and that noone really bothered updating your case with the information you provided, right? As i said i consider it as bad luck and coincidence as a lot of people are happy with NW.

This is much too difficult to read - but as another poster has said, 2 weeks is not very long to test a service.

[Wanderer]

As i said i consider it as bad luck and coincidence as a lot of people are happy with NW.

Basing a judgement on two weeks of dealing with an accountant is a bit unfair in my opinion. They may have made a couple of mixups during that time but I'd rather be hounded too often than not often enough.

[Goggy]

Hi Goggy

Further to our PM's I’d like to outline the situation so others can see what has happened.

Yes, I will hold my hands up that we have made a couple of small errors in the short time you were a client with us (chasing you for some initial documents we already had and sending you an incomplete starter pack) but this are quite minor things in my opinion.

To me, the main issue here was not being able to provide you a full service in the two weeks you were a client of ours but this was due to you being a transfer from SJD and us not receiving the information.

With all transfers there is inevitable a delay in being able to provide you with a complete full service because of the delays in obtaining information from the previous accountant, in this case I note that SJD actually advised that they had posted the information but it still has not arrived! If this has been lost in the post it is unfortunate because this is what held us up in giving you the payroll figures.

I'm sorry that you decided to go back to SJD because I’m sure you would have experienced an excellent service from our accounts team, provided we had been given all the transfer information from SJD as requested (you may also have saved a few quid at the same time).

Martin

Hi Martin. As i said i appreciate you looking into this, but problem of missing documents and information i've provided didn't appear once as you can see from my email and sorry it's not the way i would expect accountants to deal with my documents as it's their bread and butter. If i post paperwork to the company i wouldn't expect being chased for it again in a week as it's already with you. If i'm asked for diff ref numbers and i email requested information back, i don't expect being asked for them again. What would you think if you were a client, that documents are lost and that noone really bothered updating your case with the information you provided, right? As i said i consider it as bad luck and coincidence as a lot of people are happy with NW.