One of my largest clients have been poached by their accountant.
How do you get on with avoiding this.
My client obtained a new accountant and I have given him all the information he required to do the year end accounts/cash flows etc including the sage backup.
But I had a call from my client saying that their accountant has insisted that he does all the bookkeeping also, so things are all together.
It makes me mad as the client has said that they were very happy with what I have done for them, but they are keeping their accountant happy.
Is this fair? How can I avoid this in the future? I have helped this accountant with everything they have asked for. And now this has happened. Anoyed!!
I think that perhaps the accountant has said to your client "youve done this wrong & that wrong" & "you get what you pay for". I would speak with your customer & ask exactly what has been said, if you dont know, you will never learn. How daft is it that an accountant "insists" on doing the bookkeeping, never heard anything so silly tbf. Just ask him, you have nothing to lose.
Can't help thinking your client is thinking that they will get better value for money having their books done by an accountant when in reality they will be done in exactly the same way as you did them to exactly the same level for probably exactly the same money.
As Lisa says sit down and have a nice chat with the client and see what you can find out.
A lot of accountants employ bookkeepers for whom they pay say £8 to £10 per hour - they then charge the bookkeeping out to the client at a rate of £30 + per hour! This is in fact a lucrative part of many accountancy practices - in my area it is rare to find any accountancy practice that does not also provide bookkeeping and payroll services.
Unfortunately, the clients generally do not know what is required when it comes to bookkeeping and so will assume that whatever they are told by the accountant is right - the clients also generally believe that the accountant provides a superior service to the bookkeeper.
There really isn't a great deal you can do, other than to have a frank discussion with the client - at the least, let the client know that he/she is welcome to return to you at any time.
I lost one client to an accountant a couple of years ago, but they returned when they finally tired of paying the accountant over £400 per quarter for what I was charging them £150 - again, they mistakenly thought that they were getting something over and above what I provided because of the amount of money they were paying. The first thing I noticed was that their invoicing was incorrect which resulted in them re-invoicing several clients for the additional money - and I then had the comment 'We now wonder how much more money might have been lost because the accountant never saw that".
Sorry, wasn't about yesterday so missed this one. Sorry to hear about this. On face value it seems very unprofessional.
Well, I'm guessing that you won't be sending any work to that accountant again!
if this were two accountants then to do this is against the ethical code of conduct and the aggrieved accountant can play merry hell with the supervisory body of the accountant.
If you are ACCA working as a bookkeeper then the same ethical rules apply.
However, I would not expect the ACCA to come down too strongly on member practices for single occurrences of this sort of behavior and has was mentioned in an earlier post the firm is likely to argue poor work on your part whether or not such is true.
ICAEW / ACCA / ICAS all have similar ethical codes based upon the IFAC rules of professional conduct so the body of any would consider complaints from any of the others in a similar way to if the complain had been brought by one of its own member practices.
If you can be professional and dispassionate about the situation it might be worth talking to the accountant concerned. (If they will answer your calls!!!).
If after courteous discussion (!) you feel that this warrants a complaint then contact the professional body of the practice concerned.... I assume that they have a professional body! There are so many accountants out there who set up without any accountancy qualifications.
Actually, on that last point there was a petition doing the rounds last year to ban people calling themselves an accountant who were not. Number 10 replied by saying too many people would lose their income if such were put in statute.
The next government has assured us that things will change and cowboy accountants will be outlawed. Although they have made a lot of promises such as the appeal of IR35 which has effectively made a two tier limited company system. Lets hope that they don't forget any of their promises on May 7th!
Fingers crossed your client comes crawling back realising that they've made a mistake...
All the best,
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.
Without a strategy and good communication I do feel there is potential for conflict between an accountant and a bookkeeper. That is why at Crunchers we have the Accountants Alliance Programme.
I still believe there is a lot to be gained by working with accountants. Maybe the answer is to have relationships with a select number of accountants who do not offer bookkeeping and funnel clients to them?
The question to ask yourself if why did you client not involve YOU in finding a new accountant? You need to be seen by your clients as one of their trusted advisers; especially when it comes to financial administration.
Have you thought about carrying out a regular check on the client and include a score on the current accountant. This may tip you off on problems so you can get involved early.
