Just been reading another thread there that mentioned issues when receiving accounts on excel.
Has anyone else experienced clients complaining about their bills as they really believe they have done all the hard work?
I have had a couple of issues recently with clients keeping their records on excel. Excel is maybe okay for the small sole trader who isn't VAT registered with little going through their bank, but they are not good for all.
I have handed people a bill and they say "But I had it all done for you, all you had to do it take my figures and put them into your software". It can be difficult sometimes telling people that entering transactions into a spreadsheet may in some ways be helpful, but they are hardly management accounts. If bookkeeping was that easy, nobody would bother with training, qualifications and specialised software would not be required, everybody would just be using excel!
Yet another example of where fixed fees come to the rescue. Yes, I'm still banging this drum.
More than that though it demonstrates the need to have clearly defined boundaries. When taking on a client detail in the letter of engagement what they are responsible for doing (how they will present the information) and what you will do. If they really want to lessen the bill advise them how they can best do this rather than them wasting their time with things that just make our job more difficult.
can't actually agree completely on the Excel line as it's how you use it that matters and the issue is that for the most part clients think that they know what they are doing but more often than not, they really don't.
Personally, if client are going to record their own transactions I prefer that people record their transactions in Excel as they (or I) can correct their mistakes very easily whereas with some accounting packages one tiny mistake can turn into a complete nightmare.
In the ideal world of course we would do everything for them but as mentioned, in these tiumes where every penny matters people are assuming that they will reduce their outgoing by not bringing us in when they really should but then we just end up charging twice as much unravelling things afterwards.
As to client concepts that they've already done all of the work so why are we charging them so much (and also why are they still paying tax when they're paying me!), Well, I think that the best answer to that has to be the Red Adhair quote in Nick Goddard's (GBM) blog : if you think the cost of a professional is high, try the cost of an amateur. (see here : http://www.gbmaccounts.co.uk/the-journal/a-lesson-in-how-not-to-run-a-company).
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 Have to say though that I love excel as it can actually produce a set of accounts if you have a good excel template for someone to use, I have made several of these that others have found to work well for them in their business. speaking of that i also have this client that's so tight that he requests my services then just asks loads of questions on what he should be doing, which I give freely as i believe in helping to reduce cost where unnecessary, but then he goes off and tries to do it all himself thinking that my services actually is not needed, just to come back to me when he finds that his Accountant has charged him an extra 300 pounds for bookkeeping on top of the 600 pounds for producing his accounts. I just laughed when I saw this and thought I would have done it for less as it actually wasn't that much work, it would have taken me half the morning to complete.
