Hi all, I just thought I would let you know my recent experience of a new client, I am in the process of taking over the books from another 'so called bookkeeper' for a new client, and I am appaled at the dreadfull state that the accounts are in. After spending a week or so looking at their data, for example nothing has been bank reconciled for a year, the wages have been posted incorrectly and no control accounts set up, the CIS has not been allocated correctly, incorrect VAT allocation, and I could go on an on, I suppose what I am trying to say is how incompetent this bookkeeper has been, and my client is only now realising what a mess the accounts are in due to listening to me asking questions to this bookkeeper during our takover meetings, I would be interested to hear about other similar experiences as I know almost all of the postings on here are made by very competent bookkeepers and accountants.
I have already recalled my own experience of an incompetent bookkeeper I took over from and was going to post a link to my "rant" but can't find it at the emoment.
I took over from a bookkeeper who was doing the books for a partnership, where their accountant suggested this person to do their bookkeeping.
The only thing I can say in here defence, is that the partners are not the easiest to get the necessary paperwork out of but then I suppose she should have been more insistant (I am )
To cut a long story short
She did not make accountants adjustments for 2 year ends on Sage, because she didn't know how to.
She posted things to completely the wrong accounts. The only things she did was post sale and purchase ledgers. She managed to post the partners private tax and class 2 NI to the standard Sage wages accounts
Never did a bank reconciliation. Left me 18 months worth of high volume transactions to untangle (a mixture of business and personal payments)
She operated a hybrid VAT scheme of her own, where she claimed VAT immediately on purchases, and only paid VAT on sales when they had been paid. The client even queried me, why he had suddenly started paying VAT since I took over. Of course the VAT account was meaningless
When I asked who she was registered with for MLR, her reply was "whats MLR" (honestly, she had no idea)
These are just a few of the catalogue of error that I was left with. In the end I basically started from scratch, running numerous Sage reports and transposing the numbers into a clean Sage file.
I am sure there are many more similar stories out there.
Good luck with yours. The only thing I would asy is make sure you charge enough. From my own experience, it takes a lot longer than even your best estimate
Thanks Bill, I suppose with any profession there are good and bad, but at the time of employing the bookkeeper from a clients point (especially smaller companies) of view they may not know what criteria to look for, qualificiations and experience would be the obvious but I think some just go for the cheap option and its only when they are in a mess that they realise they should have employed a qualified/experience bookkeeper which is what they have said to me. I am being paid by the hour until I have organised and sorted out their accounts and then I said I would look at a fixed free in 2-3 months time for them.
In this case it was his previous accountant that recommended her! on the basis she had presented them (the accountants) with good set of accounts from her own small bakery business! Don't know why, as they knew this particular client was really bad with paperwork, and I would have thought they would have recommended an experienced bookkeeper
I often wonder if they could be charged with aiding and abetting an offence, as they would have been aware of the need to be registered for MLR (a bit like a car rental employee can be charged with aiding and abetting if they don't check valid driving license details before hiring a car out)
I blame a some incompentance on the Sage marketing campaigns. The "Earn £15 Per Hour With A Sage Qualification" makes me so mad at times.
I have just cleaned up 4 years books for a client who had given his records to a 'bookkeeper' and paid her £1000. She dragged things out and really strung him along before she disappeared with his, and other client records then moved house at least 4 times afterwards. For some reason best known to herself, she skipped 06-08 years and then submitted his 08-09 return, and ignored 09-10. I have no idea how she completed the 08-09 return as she did not ask my client any questions about his personal expenditure on the business, business use of his private car, business use of his home and the like (the expenditure of which was substantial as he uses a lot of heat and power tools etc). His mileage alone was about £3000 per annum.
I have discovered since that she is one of the Sage brigade. After setting up and advertising herself, realised she hadn't a clue what she was at, so just run away with her client's records and deposits. My client spotted her one day in the street and she actually ran away and hid in a shop. I have spent the last couple of weeks working off partial records to correct her mess. It's just as well she didn't get the returns in, I dread to think what state they would have been in.
Another guy, a former client of hers, came to me with his VAT returns after she disappeared. He managed to get most of his records back after she started messing around, and what records he did have were a state. It was much the same as the point above, she was working part accural and part cash basis. Apparently the client had asked her if he could work this way as he was short of cash with late paying clients, and she said that he could. My client didn't know any better and put his trust in her advice.
That's one of a few experiences I have had. I posted this one as I am still shocked by the sheer unprofessionalism of the girl. I can understand her being naive, being taken in by the hype and getting in over her head, but I cannot sympthasise with her dealing of the matter. She could have feigned sickness if she was too embarassed to own up, she could have handed the client base over, or even sold it to get the deposits back, but she decided to rip people off.
Sage should really not be allowed to market like this, Sage does not train anyone on how to be a bookeeper, their qualification is only training on how to use their package, and their package alone. I have hired girls with Sage who don't know the difference between a P&L and a balance sheet. It's worse than the "earn £30,000 a year being a driving instructor" ads. I have a successful driving instructor client who finds those ads hilarious.
Edited as I can't spell.
-- Edited by mushroom on Sunday 31st of July 2011 02:35:04 PM
-- Edited by mushroom on Sunday 31st of July 2011 05:30:12 PM
I too am cleaning up after a bad job was done by the last bookkeeper, and am just about to start another client in the same situation.
The bank/credit card rec hadn't been done in ages, there were mispostings all over the place and to top it all off, she was charging more than I do! She wasn't registered with anyone under MLR and didn't have any kind of insurance.
She is now being sued for my costs during operation clean up. People like this give the good ones a bad name and it angers me.
Very interesting postings, it makes me feel a bit better with the mess I have yet to sort out and clear up knowing that others have had similar experiences. What was interesting when I went for my interview I told them my hourly rate and they did a bit of a gasp, but I then told them I was a qualified bookkeeper and not just a data inputter and how important it was to understand the manual side of bookkeeping and not just a computer packgage, well it obviously made them think a bit because I got the job, but how do we educate potential clients that do not understand bookkeeping skills etc..
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