Reply to: Any experience with Crunch accountacy?

[JonNorris@Crunch]

Also worrying was that when I asked about IR 35 she advised going to one of the specialist firms, she did not suggest there was anyone with Crunch who could advise on IR35 status even for an extra fee. Just did not give me any confidence at all that I was dealing with someone who was not just an admin person who had been given a few scraps of info to repeat. All I have done is read a few factsheets but I got them impression I knew a lot more than him/her. Maybe I am being over demanding but I wondered if the cheap price the Crunch offers is just a case of the usual pay peanuts etc.

Not sure why our advisors would have told you that - we're PCG accredited and our accountants can advise on IR35 just fine! We're also partnered with QDos for insurance / contract reviews and that kind of thing. If you like you can DM me your name and who you spoke to and I'll look into it. It's not unusual for new clients to have a chat about their IR35 situation with one of our accountants before they come on board as obviously they're better equipped to deal with it that our advisors are - can arrange that for you too if it's of interest.

Have you had any luck with speaking to accountants there, and getting advice? And does anyone know if it's normal for there to be no chartered accountants at a firm, especially if once upon a time the whole team were, and now there are no longer any?

Our "outward facing" staff are our advisors, so if you're not a client you probably won't have spoken to one of our accountants! If you are a client, you can speak to an accountant whenever you like, it's all included in your fee.

I'm not entirely sure why we're no longer ICAEW registered, our accountants are just as qualified as they've ever been though! Like most firms we have a range of people from apprentices to grizzled veterans.

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

I recently signed up with Crunch, and although didn't have any problems at first, I required a letter from a chartered accountant to set up my business bank account. I wrote to Crunch, who initially supplied a letter, signed by their senior accountant, but my bank wrote back to say Crunch and the accountant who signed the letter weren't registered with the ICAEW, and weren't chartered accountants.

.. Snip..

Does anyone know why they are no longer listed on the ICAEW? It feels like a bit of a red flag for me..

The letter to the bank is likely to be because there is no other easy way of bank confirming shareholdings in business - any share issues or transfers, other than founders shares, aren't shown at Companies House till the first annual return goes in.

That said there is probably no reason, other than bank rules, why it has to be a Chartered Accountant. In theory you should be able to confirm the details to them, but banks being banks prefer officialdom.

Re ICAEW. It's hard to draw conclusions. A lot of firms are intentionally de-registering from CCAB (The umbrella which covers ICAEW, ICAS, ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA) oversight, as its not legally necessary and it's perceived as just being a burden - is a case of economics - the sales vaue of letters versus the hassle factor. And also, its worth pointing out the firm gets its letters from the qualifications of the majority of its staff. Really you'll need to ask them and see what they say. If their senior accountants had been struck off, I suspect news would have got back here?

In any event I would prefer competent day to day staff, regardless of qualification, over a unknown but qualified name on the letter head.

[robertasmith]

Have you had any luck with speaking to accountants there, and getting advice? And does anyone know if it's normal for there to be no chartered accountants at a firm, especially if once upon a time the whole team were, and now there are no longer any?

Crunch is an awesome product. Depends what you want to use it for. If you need a way to monitor your accounts and be able to see an overall picture of what your liabilities are for any point in time, use Crunch. I don't want to blow their trumpet too much, but I genuinely look forward to reconciling my bank account (automatically if you go with Cater Allen). It's a dream, really. I was one of the contractors back in the day who would wait until the last minute to do their VAT return, with papers all over the lounge floor trying to add it up in the last minute... With Crunch, it's all done for you... you just need to click a Submit button.

With regards to time sheets - ouch. IR35.

I would suggest registering for a Demo. Instant access to some dummy accounts data... you can have a look around and play with their system.

[socialworker]

I am looking at the options for going limited and was attracted to Crunch by the website and the software demo which seemed very easy and clear, not to mention the low price. From registering I got an email inviting me to speak to one of their staff, my "advisor", who I rang. That person actually seemed to know very little. First he/she said I would be better off going limited if I earned over £25k, after that basically agreed with everything I said e.g. I would be better off even if outside IR35 due to the %5 admin allowance and the flat rate VAT scheme. S/he did not aask any questions. S/he then used a calculator to tell me I would be 7k better off going limited despite not knowing how much I have in expenses. I had to point out that this was presumably only the case if I were working outside IR35. Later in the conversation he/she said it was not worth going limited for me if I were outside IR35, despite the difference being about £2k to me - while that is not a fortune it is odd to say it is not worth it for me, surely she should have given me the information and let me decide if it is worth it or not.
Also worrying was that when I asked about IR 35 she advised going to one of the specialist firms, she did not suggest there was anyone with Crunch who could advise on IR35 status even for an extra fee. Just did not give me any confidence at all that I was dealing with someone who was not just an admin person who had been given a few scraps of info to repeat. All I have done is read a few factsheets but I got them impression I knew a lot more than him/her. Maybe I am being over demanding but I wondered if the cheap price the Crunch offers is just a case of the usual pay peanuts etc.

[neo222]

Crunch is an awesome product. Depends what you want to use it for. If you need a way to monitor your accounts and be able to see an overall picture of what your liabilities are for any point in time, use Crunch. I don't want to blow their trumpet too much, but I genuinely look forward to reconciling my bank account (automatically if you go with Cater Allen). It's a dream, really. I was one of the contractors back in the day who would wait until the last minute to do their VAT return, with papers all over the lounge floor trying to add it up in the last minute... With Crunch, it's all done for you... you just need to click a Submit button.

With regards to time sheets - ouch. IR35.

I would suggest registering for a Demo. Instant access to some dummy accounts data... you can have a look around and play with their system.

[robertasmith]

Crunch - Chartered accountants or not?

I recently signed up with Crunch, and although didn't have any problems at first, I required a letter from a chartered accountant to set up my business bank account. I wrote to Crunch, who initially supplied a letter, signed by their senior accountant, but my bank wrote back to say Crunch and the accountant who signed the letter weren't registered with the ICAEW, and weren't chartered accountants.

From looking online, the Crunch team would regularly state they were a team of Chartered Accountants back in 2010, including on this message board back here:
http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...-crunch-2.html

and back in 2009, they were listed as a firm on the ICAEW website, and now they are not.
Health warning: Crunch giving wrong advice as saas provider AccMan

I have now been told by Crunch that they have no chartered accountants at all in their team, and I will have to pay an extra cost for a chartered accountant (not employed at Crunch) to put together a letter for my bank.

Does anyone know why they are no longer listed on the ICAEW? It feels like a bit of a red flag for me..

[maxima]

oh Really??
So why are people on the Crunch forum asking for Timesheet features to be added then eh?? eh??? (19 Likes too)

It seems its in your paranoid nature to flood every public board with your personal problems... Like here.. You added 40% posts to this thread waffling your measly problem with timesheets which I (an average reader here) cant even comprehend...

Shut the up.

[IR35 Avoider]

I had a email from Crunch today, apparently they have a new software feature, take a photo of a receipt or invoice (with an IOS or (soon) an Android device) and upload it and it will be scanned and relevant details pulled into accounts.

Not likely to use it myself, not convinced it would be quicker than typing it in, but I thought that those with lower-tech accounting needed to be kept informed.

While I'm posting, worth mentioning I've just done the quarterly update of the accounts, and there was a big leap forward in smoothness/simplicity. Essentially, download a statement from Cater Allen, load the data into Crunch, reconcile the few existing records (invoices issued, previous VAT bill) against statement, create all missing records (expenses, salary payments) etc from within the reconcilation process, using bank data as the basis. The only hitch was a negative expense due to a single direct debit that shouldn't have been taken. To deal with that I had to leave reconciliation and go the expenses screen to create a credit note.

[Andy2]

I moved to crunch from sjd. Very happy with their service.
Prompt reply to emails and all accounts are entered on their website.
Anyone wanting to join them can pm me for a code for £25 amazon voucher

[vadhert]

19 likes out of 1000 contractor customers?

[IR35 Avoider]

oh Really??
Add a timesheet feature : Crunch

So why are people on the Crunch forum asking for Timesheet features to be added then eh?? eh??? (19 Likes too)

19 likes out of 1000 contractor customers?

And while we're on the subject, if the only purpose of the timesheet is collecting hours for invoicing, my draft invoice solution will do that. (You apparently have additional reasons for needing to track time, given the various reporting requirement you mentioned previously.)

[roadsidetree]

Since I am only three months away until my company's year end date, Crunch said they would only accept me if I extended my company year end date to at least another month. As this is a risk to them accepting new customers close to year end, as the customer could simply switch right after again.

Are there any complications if I changed my company year end date?

You don't need to change company year end date. You have 9 months after this date to file your year end.

[Joeman]

It sounds like you have requirements that hardly any other contractors have, and hardly any accountants fulfill.

oh Really??
Add a timesheet feature : Crunch

So why are people on the Crunch forum asking for Timesheet features to be added then eh?? eh??? (19 Likes too)

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

I thought most agencies had on-line time-recording and self-billing systems anyway. None of my clients have ever asked if my firm can provide a time tracking service. It seems t me to be beyond the remit of an accountant.

[IR35 Avoider]

So where are you recording your time? IMO for the system to be a "complete solution" it should allow you to record your time, then based on unbilled time, automatically calculate the invoice, otherwise you end up having to record/keep track of you time by other means...

With IRIS open books, i can have multipe clients, each with a day rate or hourly rate set. I then book my time against each client. at the end of the month i simply generate an invoice for each clients unbilled time. Simples

It sounds like you have requirements that hardly any other contractors have, and hardly any accountants fulfill. The closest you could come with Crunch would be to maintain a draft invoice for each client/billing period combination, using separate line items for each piece of work you add.

As a normal contractor with one client I only need to keep track of what days of the month I've worked, and I have to do that separately in the preferred-supplier-agency on-line timesheet system anyway. (This allows the client to automatically approve the timesheet online, and the agency to track what has been approved, so is not ever going to be replaceable by time recording in an accounting system of my choosing.)