Shock Horror!

[titchy]

Ok so I need your views guys! What would I do without this site. Ok so I'm busy projecting my costings for the next few months and decide to email my accountant to ask for a quote as to how much she expects to charge me for her services over the next few months. Well I think I nearly had a heart attack this morning when I opend her email. This is what she quoted me:

 

I estimate that you should budget for a further £400 to complete the accounts to March 2010, and £150 to do your tax return = £550, then from April 2010 my charge will be £125 per month, to include payroll.

 

This is on top of an invoice that I recieved last week for nearly 3 hundred pounds.

 

We are a pre-school open from 9 til 12 mon to fri during term time only. I currently have 4 employees for which she does my payroll for: works out ni and tax and provides me with payslips for them but apart from providing me with employee p45s when staff leave and recently completing my p60 for them. O and some book keeping I cant see what im being charged for?

So my question is what exactly will she be doing to charge 125 a month apart from the estimated bit of payroll and recording a few reciepts - book keeping i believe this is called as she does record my outgoings.

 

Does anyone else from similar settings have an accountant or do you attempt to this chore yourselves?

Just hoping it is something that I will be able to do beause I certainly cannot afford this. Am I right to think that this is extortionate and the worst thing is she tailors herself to suit the needs of individual businesses in particular smallbusinesses.

 

Ok rant over, would love to here your thougghts!

[Rea]

Our most recent accounts bill was £920!!! All he does is look at all our receipts and then gives us a really posh looking report that none of us really understand.

My 'to do' list includes looking for a new one!

 

Our wages are paid through 'The Payroll company'. I think they charge us about £40 a month for this but its money well spent because they sort all the NI, tax, maternity pay, wage increses, minumum wage, tax credits etc.

[kristina]

My accountant has said my fees will be about £450 for this years accounts, he also does my payroll and charges £2.50 per person per month which I am quite happy with. He doesn't do any of the bookeeping that's down to me!!

 

Kris

[Alison]

I keep our books and then get them verified at the end of each finacial year and submit a copy of our accounts to the church and as far as I am aware this is fine

 

if your an organised person who can allocate regular time to keep ontop of recording all the income and outgoings its not a difficult task and there are basic book keeping courses you could possibly look at plus there are various programs for the computor that do alot of the work for you

 

how ever its easy for the accounts to run away and when mistakes happen it can be a pain trying to back track to work out why things dont add up

 

haggle with the accountant tell her you've had a better offer!

[Guest]

we dont pay much to have our accounts audited, payroll, p60, tax etc etc. Not sure where you are but here in the south west we are a member of playlink who supply this service for a reasonable fee, it may be worth you contacting them.

[Guest]

Eek, that's extortionate! Are you a member of PLA in which case you can use Payplay, their payroll service which is really cheap and very efficient. We contacted the community council who found us an accountant to audit our annual accounts and he does it for free as we are a community group and it's his support for the community.

 

Worth a try....

[diesel10]

Hi

 

Funny you should mention this, I have a problem with our accountant.

 

We are a committee run group and I am the supervisor.

 

Just before Christmas I found out the accounts for 2007/2008 hadn't been filed with the charity commission even though the files have been with the accountant and we paid the bill last April. I have emailed / phoned / written / spoken to the PLA / committee but nothing. The problem is I don't know the process of what needs to happen. He sent me a charity commission form for me to fill in! I didn't have a clue and sent it back, He agreed to do it and charge us more!

 

I think I will email him again.

 

Re payroll We use an free online service payroo. Seems to work ok for us (although I haven't done the end of year yet....)

 

Best of luck

[Rea]

Eek, that's extortionate! Are you a member of PLA in which case you can use Payplay, their payroll service which is really cheap and very efficient. We contacted the community council who found us an accountant to audit our annual accounts and he does it for free as we are a community group and it's his support for the community.

 

Worth a try....

 

 

I thought that sounded interesting so I googled community groups in my area and found one that looks really useful. I've emailed for info on accountants and wait eagerly for a reply, I just cant afford to pay out that kind money every year.

Its a Birmingham based site but there are links to other areas and downloads that many groups might find useful.

In case anyone else would like to see its Local development agencies

Edited April 21, 2010 by Rea

[titchy]

we dont pay much to have our accounts audited, payroll, p60, tax etc etc. Not sure where you are but here in the south west we are a member of playlink who supply this service for a reasonable fee, it may be worth you contacting them.

 

thank you we'are based in salisbury, wiltshire so will look in to this

[Cait]

I do my own using Payroll Manager software, which does payslips, P32s, P45's P-whatever you want..

 

It sends my electronic return to the taxman, tells me what I should be sending to him each month, sorts out SMP, SSP, gives me policies for various things, and costs £60ish a year.

 

I wouldn't be without it! The chaps on the helpdesk are extremely helpful if you need it - like I did when doing my first SMP.

[Helen]

I've found the HMRC Employers CD rom and associated online facilities to be extremely easy to use, and take minutes each month to complete. PAYE is all worked out for you, and P11s, P14s,P60s and P32s all done very easily too. You can then email your end-of-year stuff directly to them. Ta-da! No accountant involved! (well at least for that bit) I do my own payslips as I don't think that facility is available.

[anju]

my accountants will also charge around £125 per month - this includes payroll for 5 staff, end of year accounts etc. I do all the book keeping i.e. keeping a spreadsheet up to date with all income and outgoings.

 

this is the first time I have been running a business with no-one to hide behind (!) so i wanted to have accountants for at least the first year, after that I might think about doing it myself.

[Inge]

Have to agree with Helen..

 

the cd rom you get from HMRC does it all for you, once you have input all the staff data it only took a short while each month.. and we had an arrangement with them to make a payment for tax NI etc quarterly so not done every month..

 

Pay slips were was our only problem as we had to produce our own..

 

and using it for the end of year return is easy as it links to the info you have entered..

 

ny issues with sick pay etc I found on the web site or they were very helpful when I rang them..

 

I did it all very easily... and had it checked once a year by an accountant who did it free as we were a charity..

 

Think they pay a bookkeeper now but it is a local person who charges just £20.00 per month...

 

Inge