There are people who say that working in accountancy can be stressful. In what situations this job is stressful? Can you give few examples? Regards. Rafal
Hi
I think it's the same as any job and that your stress or pressure points are very different to everyone else's. So it could be anything from meeting tight deadlines, managing workflows, customers who don't supply what you need despite banging your head on a wall, making sure you get paid for what you do, finding out after you've finished something that not all the information was disclosed, clients ringing out of hours and just being overly demanding (or overly complacent). Maybe also keeping up with the ever changing information base that we need to know, from changing HMRC rules to all the Accounting rules, exams, finding time to fit in your training.
Then again.....you might enjoy all of the above so therefore none of it is stressful....like I say, it's down to the individual.
The only time I feel pressured, rather than stressed, is when there just aren't enough hours in the day, or when someone tries to rip me off by not paying, talking of which I need to go and HUNT one down!
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Nope, absolutely no stress at all in this profession.
Relaxation therapists change career paths to bookkeeping and accountancy for a rest from the hussle and bussle of their former careeers
Cliients always give us everything that we need when we need it.
They always give us lists of items making up bulk deposits
We always have plenty of time to do every job
The Government never changes the tax guidelines and interpretations on us at a moments notice
HMRC always get everything right
Our software always does exactly what it's supposed to do
Clients are banging down our doors wanting us to represent them and everyone always pays on time and never need prompting
All in all pretty much a utopian career full of happy, smiling people who skip to their desks every morning looking forwards to opening all of the thankyou cards from our happy clients.
... Some of the above may be a slight exageration....
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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 received a copy of a email from a colleague whose client inadvertently missed their Student Loan off their 2014 tax return. She received a 12 page letter which goes into long detail about penalties and behaviour, charges a 15% penalty, states that will be suspended, includes several fact sheets and buried somewhere on about page 8 are 3 conditions which the taxpayer must meet in order for the suspended penalty to disappear.
For 3 months the taxpayer must:
Pay all tax due on time (nothing is due until 31 January 2016)
Submit all Tax Returns on time (see above)
Make sure their student loan is included in their Return (see above)
Looks like another case of consigning more paperwork into the recycle bin.... Just a lot of paperwork to frighten the recipient, but completely unnecessary and of course not at all stressful!
Then there are the incorrect tax coding notices which arrive several weeks after they are dated. The HMRC staff are encouraged (!) not to refer to the RTI submissions (so why are we doing them?), but because between them being issued and arriving, a good accountant has already been in contact to correct them, but the clients are confused because the wrong one turns up a couple of weeks after they have been told their tax codes have been corrected.