SJD Accountancy or Nixon Williams

[Nixon Williams]

That extra apostrophe will be free then I hope.

Well spotted, thanks

[d000hg]

Not sure what your circumstances were but we hardly ever charge any extras, as an example we do if the client owns property through a company. We do not charge extra for formation, transferring to new accountants, tax returns (if submitted by the deadline), references etc.

Alan

From memory the 2 things were a small fee for using you as business address, and a significant fee for each subcontractor used - not something the average contractor would need admittedly.

[Fred Bloggs]

Ah but, there is another consideration...

Hector has started a programme of checking business records, to see if they are fit for purpose. The thought occurs that if I have a spreadsheet shwoing details of my expenditure and income tha reconciles precisely to my bankl statements, am I in a better position should Hector turn up than someone who can only show them a pile of random papers and the accountant's email address?

Just a thought....

Well, that's my strategy exactly. I have a spreadsheet for each month and the receipts etc.. are filed by month so they match the monthly spreadsheets. The spreadsheet is reconciled exactly every month end against the bank statements and my VAT records are kept scrupulously clean. I hope that when Hector comes knocking at the door it will take him about 5 minutes to see everything is in order and squeaky clean. That's the idea anyhow!

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

What about on-line portals and accounting systems? Is that even a consideration for contractors? We were looking at it but its a big change from spreadsheets and if its not likely to prove popular, then I wont bother.

[malvolio]

What about on-line portals and accounting systems? Is that even a consideration for contractors? We were looking at it but its a big change from spreadsheets and if its not likely to prove popular, then I wont bother.

It's only a practical application of cloud computing. I use my local copy of the SJD spreadsheet and mail it in quarterly for the VAT and annually for the company year end. If it was hosted on an SJD portal I would do all the same things, apart from having to email it in (and they could sit it on an iXBRL layer to save their own time in submitting stuff to Hector; so potentially I press the button to say my quarter-end ledger is up to date and reconciled to the bank statement, and the VAT100 magically appears in Telford.).

It's the old argument about process being infintely more important than the tools, a lesson too many in IT tend to forget; As long as the desired result is obtained efficiently, what you use to obtain it doesn't matter a damn.

[Goggy]

I used SJD and was very happy with them, but decided to go to NW, when SJD raised the fee this year. Maybe i was unlucky enough but from the day one i had every possible problem with them and in a month when i was tired of sorting out problems with NW i went back to SJD.
But if not to refer to my bad experience(maybe just a bad luck as here are a lot of people who are happy with them), i can say that filling in the spreadsheet is much more convenient than to send every month via post all my expenses and invoices and loosing a track of what was send, what not. I think this juggling with paperwork is wierd to an ear of a person who works in IT. Yes, it's possible to send some of those via email, but you can't even add an archive as attachment(let's say all "April paperwork"), you should send all the documents attached separately. For me this was really inconvenient and moreover this way i loose control over my figures - what was received, invoiced, spended, what are the totalling figures etc. As an owner of the business you most probably want to know those.
Secondly i've noticed that in NW accountants can easily reply your email in a day, that's again something that was as a surprise to me as in SJD my accountant tends to reply if not immediately, but definitely within several hours - this is something i really value.

[Martin at NixonWilliams]

I used SJD and was very happy with them, but decided to go to NW, when SJD raised the fee this year. Maybe i was unlucky enough but from the day one i had every possible problem with them and in a month when i was tired of sorting out problems with NW i went back to SJD.
But if not to refer to my bad experience(maybe just a bad luck as here are a lot of people who are happy with them), i can say that filling in the spreadsheet is much more convenient than to send every month via post all my expenses and invoices and loosing a track of what was send, what not. I think this juggling with paperwork is wierd to an ear of a person who works in IT. Yes, it's possible to send some of those via email, but you can't even add an archive as attachment(let's say all "April paperwork"), you should send all the documents attached separately. For me this was really inconvenient and moreover this way i loose control over my figures - what was received, invoiced, spended, what are the totalling figures etc. As an owner of the business you most probably want to know those.
Secondly i've noticed that in NW accountants can easily reply your email in a day, that's again something that was as a surprise to me as in SJD my accountant tends to reply if not immediately, but definitely within several hours - this is something i really value.

Hi Goggy

I've just sent you a PM if you could let me have the full details I will review things accordingly. This does not sound like the service we offer so if we have slipped up I would very much like to know about it so things can be addressed.

Martin

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

I used SJD and was very happy with them, ..... , when SJD raised the fee this year.

Is that not a bit of a paradox? You changed from an accountant you were very happy with to one you'd never tried for the sake of what, £30 a month.

[malvolio]

Is that not a bit of a paradox? You changed from an accountant you were very happy with to one you'd never tried for the sake of what, £30 a month.

What was that about "good accountants are free" again?

[Goggy]

Is that not a bit of a paradox? You changed from an accountant you were very happy with to one you'd never tried for the sake of what, £30 a month.

Do you see any point in pay more (approx 40% more) for the same level of service?