reliable umbrella companies ???

**Wary** · 31 December 2011, 05:48

Originally posted by bradhilt View Post

I have had enough of my Umbrella company <snip> ballsing up my invoices .
Im fairly new to contracting ( 7 months in ) but even i know they are taking the piss.
most recently i requested one invoice be raised for one of my agencys and they split it down into 2 so they can charge me per invoice and they never even invoiced for my expenses as requested . not only this but all the problems i have had are invoice related . I have had enough now and want to jump ship . can any of you guys recommend a reputable professional umbrella company ?

ultimately i will change to ltd status but because of financial obligations i cannot do this until 2013 .

any help here would be greatly appreciated !!

<admin note>Umbrella name removed</admin note>

Not sure why the name of the umbrella has been suppressed but it would have been useful to have seen this.

Based on my personal albeit limited experience, I'd recommend Nasa. Only £9.99 per week and so far, there has been no evidence of them massaging the employment costs calculations so as to covertly charge me more, unlike some other umbrellas.

**LisaContractorUmbrella** · 3 January 2012, 09:30

Originally posted by bradhilt View Post

I have had enough of my Umbrella company <snip> ballsing up my invoices .
Im fairly new to contracting ( 7 months in ) but even i know they are taking the piss.
most recently i requested one invoice be raised for one of my agencys and they split it down into 2 so they can charge me per invoice and they never even invoiced for my expenses as requested . not only this but all the problems i have had are invoice related . I have had enough now and want to jump ship . can any of you guys recommend a reputable professional umbrella company ?

ultimately i will change to ltd status but because of financial obligations i cannot do this until 2013 .

any help here would be greatly appreciated !!

<admin note>Umbrella name removed</admin note>

Most umbrella companies margins are calculated as either weekly or monthly depending on the invoicing schedule agreed with the recruitment agency - what period did your invoice cover? Also most companies have online applications that enable you to enter any expenses that you need to claim - what was the procedure in this case?

**The Spartan** · 3 January 2012, 10:48

Originally posted by bradhilt View Post

I have had enough of my Umbrella company <snip> ballsing up my invoices .
Im fairly new to contracting ( 7 months in ) but even i know they are taking the piss.
most recently i requested one invoice be raised for one of my agencys and they split it down into 2 so they can charge me per invoice and they never even invoiced for my expenses as requested . not only this but all the problems i have had are invoice related . I have had enough now and want to jump ship . can any of you guys recommend a reputable professional umbrella company ?

ultimately i will change to ltd status but because of financial obligations i cannot do this until 2013 .

any help here would be greatly appreciated !!

<admin note>Umbrella name removed</admin note>

I've just switched to ContractorUmbrella and found their service to be very good I would highly recommend them unlike my previous umbrella company who were passing on their AWR costs

**bradhilt** · 4 January 2012, 09:59

<snip>

Their expenses procedures are fine, it’s more that they just did not invoice the agency for them. I have had numerous problems with them overcharging, undercharging even invoicing for work I have not done.

I may as well handle my own affairs for the amount of time I have spent trying to work out what they are doing and correcting the errors they have made.

They say that the fee they take also is a percentage so it does not matter if they invoice separately. But I have had incidences of invoices for the same amount but with different amounts of fees taken off.

It’s beyond a joke. Way I see it is we entrust these companies with our affairs and if they take our fees then they should supply the service they advertise.

Thanks for the couple of recommendations, I will look into them.

Anyone else recommend any umbrella companies??

**The Spartan** · 4 January 2012, 10:40

[QUOTE=bradhilt;1453793]Way I see it is we entrust these companies with our affairs and if they take our fees then they should supply the service they advertise.QUOTE]

It should be the case but as I and you have both found, it most often isn't. That's not to say there aren't Umbrella's out there that do a great job but for every professional there are a dozen cowboys out there

**Wary** · 4 January 2012, 12:39

Originally posted by bradhilt View Post

Company is <snip>

Their expenses procedures are fine, it’s more that they just did not invoice the agency for them. I have had numerous problems with them overcharging, undercharging even invoicing for work I have not done.

I may as well handle my own affairs for the amount of time I have spent trying to work out what they are doing and correcting the errors they have made.

They say that the fee they take also is a percentage so it does not matter if they invoice separately. But I have had incidences of invoices for the same amount but with different amounts of fees taken off.

It’s beyond a joke. Way I see it is we entrust these companies with our affairs and if they take our fees then they should supply the service they advertise.

Thanks for the couple of recommendations, I will look into them.

Anyone else recommend any umbrella companies??

Sounds a bit like the Umbrella that I first used 11/12 years ago. They were newly set up, an offshoot of a firm of accountants to take advantage of the introduction of the IR35, as many contractors would likely think there would no longer be any great advantage of staying LTD. Never have I known such a bunch of clueless & incompetant f*ckwits.

One example was when they paid me the incorrect amount of expenses, the cause for which was eventually revealed as them getting my expenses mixed up with another contractor's. This was one of their more-minor cock-ups. The reason why this particularly stands out as I had to contact them 7 times before they eventually did anything about investigating the error! I never received any kind of apology from them for any of their many mistakes.

**LisaContractorUmbrella** · 4 January 2012, 13:41

Sorry to hear that you have had bad experiences. I'd be really interested to know - what would you say is most important to you when looking for an umbrella company??

**lonewanderer** · 20 January 2012, 16:00

I'd recommend anyone but NASA, trust me!

**Wary** · 21 January 2012, 06:23

A Message to FM

FM - why do you keep removing the name of the company with which Bardhilt had problems? A great many other specifically-named companies receive severe criticism on these forums, so why should this lot get special treatment from this perspective? Have you been threatened with legal action should you host anything negative about them and you've succombed to such threats, hence depriving your members of their freedom-of-speech right to forewarn others of their bad experience with a specific company?

I think you should explain on this thread why you're happy for other companies to be specifically named but not this one.

reliable umbrella companies ???