The accountant has been....

[knotjustjigs]

and i have met my match in the talking stakes! :cheesy:

I have done my own accounts for the last couple of years but due to a good local recommendation ;) i now have an acountant, i feel all "proper" :hysterica

Do you have an accountant and have you found them useful?


Ketty x

[knotjustjigs]

oh and i sold him some stuff before he left ! :topmarks :hysterica

Ketty x

[Mary Poppins]

:hysterica :hysterica That is just brilliant Ketty, well done. :hysterica :hysterica


Yes, I do have an accountant as I wanted to get everything "proper" from the beginning. He was my personal accountant rather than a business accountant to start off with, then when the business was formed, he just took over doing that for me. I would recommend anyone in business to get one. I would never have known what I could and could not charge for and for that reason, he is worth his money.

[lajlaj]

LOL! Good for you!

We have an accountant and they are great, our businesses have grown together, I used my accountant when I first set up and she was still on her own too, then the banks put in their own accountants when we got the national accounts etc. Then when all that went tits up, I went back to my own accountant because we get on well and I need to feel I can trust her as I've always said that the accountant is the one person who could do real damage to our financial well being as I wouldn't know where to start to look if I felt we were being defrauded.

The accountant that the banks put in I very nearly decked, I disliked him with a passion and then he said "you'll never make money from selling these little bits of plastic crap" and you can only imagine the rest ....

[megfenn]

I've had a few meetings with a couple of different accountants and TBH I didn't like them so still don't have one. I have been trying to get one for the past 4 years or so! LOL

[funkydorydawn]

Mine sounds very similar to yours, Ketty :hysterica.

[knotjustjigs]

Mine sounds very similar to yours, Ketty :hysterica.

Funny that, does he have a twin ? :hysterica more importantly, did you sell him anything? ;)
Ketty x

[chris]

did he tell you that you would have to have proper records of mileage etc rather than your usually method??

[partybabe]

I do have an accountant yes, he has certainly helped the business so far and will see how well he does with our first official accounts - if he can make sense of the records I have kept he deserves a medal!

[knotjustjigs]

did he tell you that you would have to have proper records of mileage etc rather than your usually method??


:tcwozerek he was fine about my "method" of recording milage :cheesy:

Ketty x

[chris]

:tcwozerek he was fine about my "method" of recording milage :cheesy:

Ketty x

are you sure he is an accountant and not a juggler??

[Emsickle]

I have one and so far, he hasn't helped us an ounce, bar doing our tax return and charging me £1k for the privilege. He doesn't advise, help us to reduce our tax bills nothing and when we are talking of many K's worth of tax bills each year, to be faced with, oh but if you were still a partnership, you'd be paying x (yes but we haven't been a partnership since 2004 grrrr).

[knotjustjigs]

are you sure he is an accountant and not a juggler??:How_rude: :cheesy:

Ketty x

[Chiggs]

well done for making a sale! The first time I went to my accountants, his wife who works in the office bought a Baby Feed Wheel for their daughter who'd just had a baby- good timing!

I got an accountant last year when I went from sole trader to a limited company, it's quite a bit outlay for a little company like me, but worth it in the long run I think.

[Arianna]

Nope I don't have one - but then I am a fully qualified bookkeeper and also have an actual Business Admin - Accounting degree so I don't particularly need one. However, I am working on getting some quotes from accountants to just chat to them about the corporation tax return to make sure I'm claiming everything I can - I did get a quote for all of this when I first started up based on me doing all of the grunt work and they'd just have to fill in a form and they said it would be £500 - I said no way I'd take my chances. LOL

I do suggest people get an accountant even if it's just to talk to them about whether they are claiming everything they can and to help them with the returns etc. The majority of accountants will farm out the actual bookkeeping work to bookkeepers - I've done work for several accountants doing it. :D

Arianna

[friendlybaby]

I did get a quote for all of this when I first started up based on me doing all of the grunt work and they'd just have to fill in a form and they said it would be £500 - I said no way I'd take my chances. LOL


That is daylight robbery. I'm a Chartered Management Accountant for my sins so have been doing it all myself too, but my speciality is providing strategic advice for large corporations so hardly useful when it comes to completing the Corporation Tax return. When I was submitting my last return I told myself that I am definitely not doing it myself again as I might be missing something, so I contacted a local small firm of Chartered Accountants and they quoted me less than £200 if I do the donkey work myself.

[Emsickle]

So why do I get charged so much, when I do all the book keeping, all of the VAT returns etc, and hand all paperwork over to accountant who then, pretty much, double checks my reconciliations with the statements, which you can easily see is all ok and then fills in the tax return/corp tax forms for me????

[knotjustjigs]

Ems i think its time to get quotes from other accountants ;) yoursseems to be gettin money for old rope as they say...

Ketty x

[Emsickle]

It does sound like it thats for sure! It frustrates me when I look at his published accounts in comparison to mine and see all the savings he's making himself, yet seemingly not making me any - grrrr

[Arianna]

That is daylight robbery. I'm a Chartered Management Accountant for my sins so have been doing it all myself too, but my speciality is providing strategic advice for large corporations so hardly useful when it comes to completing the Corporation Tax return. When I was submitting my last return I told myself that I am definitely not doing it myself again as I might be missing something, so I contacted a local small firm of Chartered Accountants and they quoted me less than £200 if I do the donkey work myself.

I know I just about died as I couldn't believe it! I wouldn't have had a problem if they were doing all the work but I was going to do everything and just have them fill in the return!

I'm sorting out quotes from a few local accountants - one that I actually do work with their bookkeepers on another project - so hopefully it will be feasible for me to deal with.

Arianna

[Arianna]

So why do I get charged so much, when I do all the book keeping, all of the VAT returns etc, and hand all paperwork over to accountant who then, pretty much, double checks my reconciliations with the statements, which you can easily see is all ok and then fills in the tax return/corp tax forms for me????

You shouldn't be getting charged a load of money if you are doing a lot of the work. Definitely get some quotes from other accountants Ems. Also, if you are paying them loads they should be helping you - which from your posts they aren't.

Hope you manage to find someone who is reasonably priced and helpful!

Arianna