Reply to: SJD accountants

[craigy1874]

Link?

With the time taken to post this, you could have googled it and found the answer. Lazy

[TheFaQQer]

Link?

Search yourself

[saptastic]

Their website states that it is included!

Link?

[Waldorf]

Been using them for 7 years, now being charged for personal tax returns. Grasping tightwads.

Time to find a replacement..

Their website states that it is included!

[nosuchuser]

Done with SJD

Been using them for 7 years, now being charged for personal tax returns. Grasping tightwads.

Time to find a replacement..

[SeaSpaniel]

SJD slippery slope

I've been using SJD since the formation of my ltd company over 3 years ago, never had many complaints, besides the fact that I had a new accountant about every 6 months and they are relatively expensive for the actual work they do, but lately they seem to have gone worse.
Anybody else experiencing this or is it just my current accountant?

Did anyone on here ever manage to negotiate a reduction on their rate?

Eirikur

I agree. in the last 12 months I have had the following issues

1. Error on my company accounts- spotted and corrected by me
2. 13 accountants in 9 years
3. Change of office location without letting me know
4. Automated Notification after I've sent the required information (VAT in particular)
5. Double charged with Company return. Still waiting for refund 2 months in
6. Free banking offer that would have sent my Bank charges from £60 to £600 which they could have worked out if they bothered to read the detail of the offer then run it against my accounts. (I bet they haven't done this with anyone else's accounts and so I expect some bank charges to increase for those who take up the offer)
7. When I suggested that a token of goodwill was in order I was offered free bookkeeping for 3 months. Clearly I want SJD to do even more for me despite their track record of not getting it right.

It's not that the sums are huge but the principles involved. I contract to a "customer first" business. Making the mistake isn't an issue it is what you do to correct it and so far SJD is epic fail. How can I trust my accounts when their attention to detail is absent.

I've complained 3 times and no sign of a genuine remedial action just corporate fobbing off.

[Fred Bloggs]

Indeed, but I can't complain, I had 13 solid years of back to back contracts. It has taken the deepest slump in history in the energy industries to put me out of work. Along with an estimated 100,000 others, mostly from the North Sea related industries. For those wondering how big their war chest should be, mine was 18 months and I run out in a month or so time.

[ContrataxLtd]

Thanks Martin, that's fine. Actual situation is that I am closing down MyCo due to no work. It will be 18 months at year end with no income. There is only a few hundred quid left in the company. So it makes sense to wrap things up at year end and start with a clean slate when/if the industry improves. I'll bear you in mind if I land a new assignment, not looking likely presently though.

I thought I recognised the name, I do hope you manage to pick something up soon so good luck with that! A stark warning to all the newbies out there, contracting does come with it's risks.

Martin
Contratax Ltd

[Fred Bloggs]

Thanks Martin, that's fine. Actual situation is that I am closing down MyCo due to no work. It will be 18 months at year end with no income. There is only a few hundred quid left in the company. So it makes sense to wrap things up at year end and start with a clean slate when/if the industry improves. I'll bear you in mind if I land a new assignment, not looking likely presently though.

[ContrataxLtd]

Given that I'd expect to do the VAT and pay roll through FA, and perhaps the self assessment return, then the offers I see around the £60 per month including FA seems a reasonable compromise. I have considered just using an accountant for end of year stuff as I tend to research my own tax affairs etc.. But I think for around £60 a month it would be useful to have email access to an accountant if required. Quite a bit of choice available at that price for what I need.

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback.

I'd agree that if you can get an accountant for a price you are happy with then this normally makes better sense than just going for a yearend only service. You will probably pay a similar amount by paying monthly but have the benefit of someone on hand to sense check things if needed.


Martin
Contratax Ltd

[Fred Bloggs]

Given that I'd expect to do the VAT and pay roll through FA, and perhaps the self assessment return, then the offers I see around the £60 per month including FA seems a reasonable compromise. I have considered just using an accountant for end of year stuff as I tend to research my own tax affairs etc.. But I think for around £60 a month it would be useful to have email access to an accountant if required. Quite a bit of choice available at that price for what I need.

[ContrataxLtd]

Interesting thoughts. I might add that when you use FA there is an instant chat pop up manned by FA staff and they answer questions instantly. FA also claim they have qualified accountants on hand to answer subscriber queries. My present accountants who are an established spreadsheet firm recently introduced FA accounts as an option for their clients. Given that FA puts nearly all the clerical work load on the customer and most of the calculations and returns are done by the software, I was surprised that the accountant wanted to increase their monthly fee to move to FA. I have actually given my accountant notice that I'm moving after 13 years. I haven't finalised my choice of next accountant yet, but it will be one of the lower cost FA accountants that I move to.

I would imagine that the increase fee would be to pass on the fee they pay to Freeagent for the software subscription? It's a fine balance looking at how much of the cost to pass onto the client and how much to absorb yourself (as the accountant) as Freeagent inevitably does reduce workload/increase efficiency from an accountants perspective.

As far as I know Freeagent do have qualified accountants on hand if necessary but I think most of the queries they answer are relating to how to use the software rather than tax queries?

Just out of interest, how much do you think is reasonable to pay for an accountant including the Freeagent subscription?

Martin
Contratax Ltd

[Fred Bloggs]

Interesting thoughts. I might add that when you use FA there is an instant chat pop up manned by FA staff and they answer questions instantly. FA also claim they have qualified accountants on hand to answer subscriber queries. My present accountants who are an established spreadsheet firm recently introduced FA accounts as an option for their clients. Given that FA puts nearly all the clerical work load on the customer and most of the calculations and returns are done by the software, I was surprised that the accountant wanted to increase their monthly fee to move to FA. I have actually given my accountant notice that I'm moving after 13 years. I haven't finalised my choice of next accountant yet, but it will be one of the lower cost FA accountants that I move to.

[ContrataxLtd]

Just to throw my thoughts in on this, I actually think that taking on more qualified/experienced staff can actually help reduce a firms cost base as there should then be less time spent managing staff and more time actually working with clients and this is how our business model is based.

Others may well disagree but if the client has one point of contact who is experienced enough to be able to handle all of their queries then this can reduce staff numbers and thus costs. It also means that the management structure can be much 'flatter' which combined with employee shareholder status can help grow a business with decent profit margins whilst maintaining a great level of customer service.

Martin
Contratax Ltd

[Maslins]

It's just that I can see plenty of scope for lower cost service providers to enter the market. Since an awful lot of the grunt work currently done by clerical staff will be taken over by the client and the software, then managing the virtual company actually becomes much easier as you will only employ professionals who are largely self managing. And all the productivity statistics you need will be available at the click of a mouse to identify very quickly the under achievers. It's going to happen and it sounds like you're already moving that way.

The problem is the main way for an accountancy firm to reduce their own costs, they need to either reduce their staff numbers, or employ less experienced/qualified staff. Yes software/the client can do a lot of grunt work, but typically neither can answer tricky personalised questions about accounting/tax.

I can see that improvements in software will lead to an increasing number of contractors (and indeed other small businesses) DIYing their accounting affairs. Some will do so very successfully, others will make a hash of it.

I don't really see the current breed of fixed fee contractor accountants (of which we are one) plummeting in price though...as if they do so, it'll only be by removing/reducing the main thing which software/the client can't do.

Does make me wonder whether some clients will be keen to move back to a "time costs" basis. Those who are confident they can DIY well, but want the occasional bit of expert advice. Accountants themselves have helplines for their trickier tax queries.

Perhaps there'll be a new business opportunity opening up for that direct to the end consumer. Ie you sign up with a firm for a trivial monthly fee (perhaps £5/month) which gets you a unique username/password. You can then call a helpline which is charged on a per minute basis. You have that sitting alongside you more generally DIYing via software. Would mean there'd be zero relationship between client an accountant though, it'd be a full on call centre mentality.

Interesting to see how the market evolves next...