I work up to TB only then pass onto clients accountants for them to finalise. No problem with this, have forged a few good relationships over the years and gained clients as a result.
But I am experiencing a bit of underhandedness (if that's a word) from one or two accountants of late which I find a little disturbing, for example :-
1. One firm had their senior accountant pay me a visit to go through every procedure I have in relation to processing their customers accounts, all okay, glowing report back for a job well done. However, said senior accountants parting comment when he left me was `watch your back, they want to take client off you.` Two months later I get the call to say they were taking bookkeeping/vat returns in-house, my services no longer needed.
I since found out that the guy who paid me a visit had jumped ship to another firm and took most of his clients with him. The firm I had been dealing with understandable irked by this so decided to take my client off me.
2. I had been working alongside a franchised accounting firm for years, working on-site on behalf of their own clients. Again, all okay. Earlier last year I was asked to cover maternity leave for one of their staff, my main duties to take over vat returns and some general inputting jobs. I had never worked within a practice before so I was happy to help out.
Over the months, more and more jobs put onto me, clearing backlogs and prepping year ends. Again all okay. Then suddenly out of the blue I was informed that the practice had been sold on, new owners not wanting my services has they had more than enough staff from their other branches. This I found out during the Christmas party after the owners wife had had a bit too much to drink and blurted out the news..... I just got my bag and walked out, totally disgusted at being used to help with the backlog so their `books` looked good upon the sale.
I used to love what I do but I am becoming more and more disillusioned, is it time to change career and do something less backstabbing !
I work up to TB only then pass onto clients accountants for them to finalise. No problem with this, have forged a few good relationships over the years and gained clients as a result.
But I am experiencing a bit of underhandedness (if that's a word) from one or two accountants of late which I find a little disturbing, for example :-
1. One firm had their senior accountant pay me a visit to go through every procedure I have in relation to processing their customers accounts, all okay, glowing report back for a job well done. However, said senior accountants parting comment when he left me was `watch your back, they want to take client off you.` Two months later I get the call to say they were taking bookkeeping/vat returns in-house, my services no longer needed.
I since found out that the guy who paid me a visit had jumped ship to another firm and took most of his clients with him. The firm I had been dealing with understandable irked by this so decided to take my client off me.
2. I had been working alongside a franchised accounting firm for years, working on-site on behalf of their own clients. Again, all okay. Earlier last year I was asked to cover maternity leave for one of their staff, my main duties to take over vat returns and some general inputting jobs. I had never worked within a practice before so I was happy to help out.
Over the months, more and more jobs put onto me, clearing backlogs and prepping year ends. Again all okay. Then suddenly out of the blue I was informed that the practice had been sold on, new owners not wanting my services has they had more than enough staff from their other branches. This I found out during the Christmas party after the owners wife had had a bit too much to drink and blurted out the news..... I just got my bag and walked out, totally disgusted at being used to help with the backlog so their `books` looked good upon the sale.
I used to love what I do but I am becoming more and more disillusioned, is it time to change career and do something less backstabbing !
End of rant, off for a cuppa :)
Hi Julie,
to quote the Godfather "It's nothing personal, it's just business".
The first one wasn't vengeance related to the missing partner but rather the loss of clients probably made in house staff under utilised so to continue to use your services someone in the firm would probably have needed to be let go. As the client numbers ramp up again following the losses they may need to return to outsourcing work.
On the second one the intent of the original owners was not it appears to get rid of you but rather when the business was sold the issue was with whether the new owners would keep all staff or look to make post acquisition savings as they had just laid out a substantial chunk of money to acquire the business. Always happens that the temp staff are first to go as they have no rights and then they will look at whether there is sufficient work for the remaining staff.
I actually find the latter case the worst of the two in that the temp staff are very often the one's with more substantial skills that the remaining staff are unable to pick up and the client suffers either through loss of staff who cannot take the added pressure or loss of clients who do not accept the deterioration of service.
Good luck with finding some new clients to fill the gaps left by these two.
Shaun (an accountant... Sorry! )
__________________
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.
Yes that is business but I cannot help taking it personally, years of service and loyalty mean nothing I have found, just need to become more hardened to it all I think.
Temps do have some rights, certainly more than they did. So its worth a call to Acas to see if they suggest you have any comeback. Its free so worth a call. You may decide you dont want to take it further but at least you will know whats do-able or not.
Im personally finding that there are lots more underhanded deals going on these days and its not just from Accountants. Plus within the industry I think its getting worse (from both ends) as there are too many professionals for the number of clients and with the client base contracting and the number of students being pushed through training it can only get worse.
Ive mentioned on here before that I was doing bookkeeping for a company that went through some mahoosive expansion, resulting in me almost being a blithering MD doing 40 hours a week. The Accountants eventually clocked my bills and clearly decide they wanted a piece and tried all sorts of underhand tactics from telling the customer the wrong VAT treatment for their invoice discounting facility and then eventually saying that they thought it was better to move to spreadsheets from Sage. I mean - the other way round would be more sensible. But no - despite customer having paid a fortune for sage before I even started working for them and being on a perpetual licence so it was by now costing nothing, despite the entries running at tens of thousands per year, they wanted to move it to spreadsheets. One Director has lots of sense and batted the suggestions back as ridiculous, but the other one decided they should believe the Accountant about the use of excel!
Ethics sometimes dont come into it at all for some folk Im afraid.
Shaun is right though 'It's nothing personal, it's just business', but I know it can feel very bloody personal sometimes, especially if its decimates your earning ability overnight.
Im sure you will find something to plug the gap soon. Good thing - it might free you up to join a few of us as Accountex, if this goes ahead.....see a couple of other posts on this.
Jo (an Accountant now.....sorry! )
__________________
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
Appreciate you taking the time to give me your thoughts.
Can fully relate to your situation as although I can understand Shaun`s explanation on my first point. To me I think it was a case of, like you, the accountant seeing how much I was invoicing (taking care of 8 x shops bookkeeping and VAT worked out at 20+ hours a week).
)
)
