Hi All, just a general question, my bookkeeping business has gone a little quiet of late, I was expecting a mad panick to be honest due to self assessments being due by the end of the month.
I have been very busy since beginning of October up to now, and am very thankful for that.
I just wondered how everyone else is finding things. Hopefully things will change soon!.
Maybe it's because people have had time of at christmas and the mad rush will come next week!, hope so!
The views expressed in this post are my own personal (HRA protected) views, and are not representative of any organisation I have any involvement with.
I'm friends with a few accountants who are having similar problems further up the food chain due to the number of clients not paying, paying late, going into liquidation.
With more lucrative work they don't normally go after small accounts but in the current situation where you're paying for several staff to basically do very little besides waiting for phones to ring they are going after work that they would not normally go for.
The general consensus is that we're past the worst of the recession and there are a lot of newbie companies that are going to need accounts sorting out. In this situation my friends do not want to have to let staff go when they will need them later but they need to keep things ticking over for now and that's having an effect upon us.
Previously they've passed me work but at the moment nothing at all's coming in and the only income I've got is actually doing a bit of quality assurance and some management reports on systems that I've previously developed for the banking side of my business... And that seems to be drying up as well largely due to a lot of bank systems work being transferred to India.
I believe that this current lack of work is a glitch not a trend. I just wouldn't go and buy a new car at the moment!
But at least I get time to share my words of wit and wisdom with you good people!
Good luck and hope things pick up for us all soon,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I know it is disappointing and somewhat frustrating to be quiet but having a forum like this where we can all share our concerns helps me feel a little bit better that it is not just me who is quiet.
Good luck to everyone and I hope the work soon comes to us all.
Thanks for your replies, shaun I hope it is a glitch, Mark, I hope things will pick up soon!
I currently have one monthly customer, who I process all their sales / purchase invoices & quarterly vat returns, and give them a profit and loss a/c to date.
That is currently it, hence this is why it feels as though I am quiet, at one point I had 3 customers I was working with (in Nov), and it felt quite hectic, due to working Full Time, but it was manageable and I feel I could of took on more possibly.....who knows what is round the corner as they say....fingers crossed for some more busy times!
I want to be busy again!
-- Edited by lor on Thursday 7th of January 2010 06:54:26 PM
I work for an accountant part-time & its gone really quiet, what with the deadline becoming due as well. Im even doing the accountants job now, more pushed onto the bookkeeper to deal with, its all really good experience though, so I dont mind.
Still quiet on the client front and all of my banking work has now dried up.
I've started applying for temp credit control positions to keep me ticking over. If there's one thing that a recession has to be good for is bad debts!
So far I've had just one response from an agent to tell me that I'm over qualified for the role! How can one ever be over qualified!!! If you're prepared to do a role that's at a lower level than what you would normally consider then shouldn't they just be grateful that they're getting a bargain?
Hows everyone else fairing?
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I am sorry to hear that your banking work has gone too.
That attitude from employment agencies always astounds & annoys me. If you were looking for a permanent position below you level of experience then I understand that they may be worried that you might just leave once a more suitable position came along but all your after is temp work so you would think that they and their client would think it was great to have someone with more experience than they need without having to pay loads for it.
when you have more qualifications and experience than they are looking for, they see you as trouble, as perhaps you would not stay for the contract term, or would try to negotiate for more money at some stage, whether at the beginning or during the term. They would see you as filling a gap but always on the look out and so could leave at the drop of a hat so leaving the client in the lurch.
also their client may only want to see a certain number of CV's and the risk of your one getting accepted is quite low in this situation.
hope that helps your undertsanding of the employment world!
Makes perfect sense of course from an permie perspective but it was the fact that its just temp positions that I'm applying for that didn't seem to make sense.
My assumption on thinking matters through further must be the issue of having more experience, qualifications and knowledge than your direct superior. I've actually got KPMG, PWC and Andersen's on my CV so that's probably a sure recipe for confrontation!
If things don't pick up I may have to consider going back to banking on a permie basis for a while. Uhhh, the thought of having to have peer reviews sends shivers down my spine!
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Oh no not the dreaded permanent work & reviews. I always hated them and was of the opinion that if I was doing my job well without any problems leave me to get on with it, if I was not then come and kick me up the backside and I will sort it out, don't leave it until quarterly or half yearly reviews.
Hope things pick up for you soon and you don't have to take this step.