accountant makes 2nd fees error!

mutley74

Cook_County wrote: »

1. What does the engagement letter say?
and

Reading terms & conds of my contract with the accountant - cant seeing anything unusual. Says they entitled to their fees either monthly or weeky, and says "we be grateful if you could pay regularly"

"we reserve the right to charge interest on overdue accounts at the current rate under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. We also reserve the right to terminate out engagement and cease acting if payment of any fees billed is unduly delayed".

one clause does read
"we may set off any liability that you may have to us in respect of any liability that we may have to you".

I will be suprised even if i they wish to cancel our business relationship over this amount of money considering my accountancy fees for next year increase to £1500+VAT pa:mad:

any suggestions on how to handle this affair with an accountants? do i complain to them first that they have lost all my confidence as they cant even calculate simple thing like theirs fees never mind all my tax affairs! Or just go direct to the Institute and complain (but tell Institute what?)?....

Cook_County

You have not said what the £250 is for. It may be that this represents actual time spent & that the monthly direct debits were just payments in advance of the final invoice.

If the direct debit was slightly under the final costs and were collected late then you have had the use of the money & have nothing to complain about at this stage.

mutley74

Cook_County wrote: »

You have not said what the £250 is for. It may be that this represents actual time spent & that the monthly direct debits were just payments in advance of the final invoice.

If the direct debit was slightly under the final costs and were collected late then you have had the use of the money & have nothing to complain about at this stage.

The extra money is for accountancy services fees for 06/07 year. They forgot to collect payments for a few months, then they contacted me and they took a lump sump payment and regular monthly direct debits to cover the annual fees. Now they come back (the 2nd error) saying they calculated how much monies they collected and say i still owe them more! Not my fault at all as i never withheld any payments, its their fault and stupidity as the person who calculated the 1st error must have made a mistake.
I need to check all my bank statement and check mysefl how much was collected in total for that tax year.

Pennywise

Sorry, but I feel you are grossly over-reacting to the situation.

Why does this "simple mistake" cause you to lose confidence in them? Do you really think that the staff who give you advice and deal with your tax returns etc are the same as those doing their book-keeping? In all likelihood, it is an administrator who does their in-house book-keeping (just like 99% of businesses) and there is unlikely to be much input from the senior staff/proprietors on a daily basis.

Unless you were paying a fixed fee, the monthly payment was merely "on account". Most professional firms will raise fee invoices yearly and that is when it has come to light that your payments on account were far below the time they have incurred.

Yes, it's a bit sloppy, but certainly nothing to complain to their professional institute about who will ignore such trivial issues. By all means, make your feelings known to the firm, but if you are happy with their services generally, just ask them to keep their fees and your monthly payments more up to date in the future. If you aren't happy in other areas, then move elsewhere.