you're too far away for me to be of any help to you but on the question of the amount that the accountant is charging that all depends on the work that they feel they need to put into it.
Have you had any accounts training yourself? I ask that because there may be fundamental issues with the books that the accountant needs to sort out.
Are your books in a state where the accountant does not have to do any sorting and collation? You are going to be paying accountants fee's no matter what task the accountant is doing. Whether that's filing the CT600 or sorting receipts into order.
How many invoices, receipts etc. will need to be processed? Whilst this is not the primary consideration it is an indication of how much time will need to be invested.
How complex are your books. Does the accountant need to unwind personal expenses from company spending?
Is the accountant expecting to deal with HMRC on any issues within that price?
There are so many variables that I cannot hope to list everything here.
I would say from the figures the accountant is estimating the work to be between 20 and 25 hours work. or around 3 days.
I'm affraid that when it comes to quoting prices every client is unique and what you may think is a simple case may not be.
Also worth noting here of course is that it is not considered ethical to lowball other accountants in order to win work from them. If someone does take on your books then they will need to speak with the encombant accountant / bookkeeper who will detail the reasoning behind their fee's which may result in the new bookkeeper / accountant quoting more than the is currently being quoted.
Sorry this is not just a straight "Whoa, that's a lot of money" but when you ask these things it's right up there with questions like "How long is a peice of string!".
kind regards,
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 do the books for the business. They are in a state that everything is up to date and in an orderly fashion. Yes I have had Sage training myself. There is a small amount to deal with in the greater scheme of things. Not many expenses etc. The books are not complex at all. There are like 4 personal expenses.
I realise that "lowballing" accountants is unethical but business is business. Therefore being ripped off for the sake of it I do not appreciate myself! Therefore trying to guage what people charge is hopefully not a crime:) Our accountant has done nothing with our books and charging a flat fee of this amount without looking at the workload I feel is a bit poor.
I agree with Shaun in that it is difficult to "price" exactly what your current accountant is doing. I have many clients that I charge less than that to, but others that are charged more - varies depending on systems used, whether bank recs are done, whether I think the client has recorded transactions well, etc, etc.
Feel free to give me a shout if you wish to discuss anything further,
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Sid
Sudipta Moore, Moore Accountancy - Accountants in Altrincham serving SME's and Individuals
I think you need to provide some more information, as I don't think there's enough to make an informed decision. Things such as what the business is, whether there's any employees, VAT registered, etc.. This is obviously not exhaustive, but will give us a feel for how much work is involved.
Also, unless you want all negotiations etc to be done on the forum, you need to provide an email address or the ability to contact you directly.
we are a bit far away from you, but our normal charges for co_op. tax and statutary accounts are depends on wat the cleints says in the meeting and what we see on the table we agree on price for 1st year which is normally just over half what your accountant want, then when everything finish and finaliese we till the cleint if the fees was okay to go on for next year or we have to change it and we explain why it is not enough. In that way the cleint know's what is going to cost him.
