Is Scrooge still alive and well?

Is Scrooge still alive and well?

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About 3 weeks ago, I treated a local small practitioner to a slap-up lunch to thank him for his occasional help during the last year. I have today received his Christmas card. It came with an invoice for £400 'Attendance at lunch 5 hours @ £80'. Plus VAT!
Anon

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By thomas.peterson
22nd Dec 2007 13:46

No... Way...!
Get out of town! Really? Or are you just trying to sully the #ahem# good name of accountants?

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By Grant Adams
22nd Dec 2007 16:33

Topic of conversation
Did you spend the entire 5 hours discussing your business, or picking his brains on some other financial matter?

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By User deleted
23rd Dec 2007 10:02

Not unusual!
A similar thing happened to me about 15 years ago. I worked for a large international group , and received a phone call from our auditors, one of the Big Four. They said that they had one of their partners over from Canada, and would I like to join them for lunch? I accepted. The lunch was very convivial, but there was no technical advice or discussion. Three weeks later we received an invoice for £8000 for the lunch plus 'advice'. We consulted our internal lawyers, and they said we had to pay. I guess this is why the Institutes argue so strongly for us having letters of engagement for everything?

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By User deleted
23rd Dec 2007 11:48

Take your business elsewhere ?
I find this story, and DH's, depressing but not in the least surprising. I am a senior and highly qualified specialist scientific consultant, yet routinely I hear of newly qualified accountants charging double the rate that I can charge. Furthermore, when I do work for a client, the scope of work and method of payment are always agreed in advance - quite often as fixed-fee contracts, but otherwise always with estimates where I must justify any overruns. If nothing is agreed in advance, then I do not expect to invoice, or to be paid. If invited to lunch - or a Christmas drinks party - by a client, whether or not technical issues are discussed, I wouldn't even dream of charging for that time. Fortunately my accounts are simple, and for some years I have not used the services of an accountant. Part of the reason was that when I did, the accountancy costs were the one major item of expenditure over which I had little or no control and could not even predict with any certainty. So-called "fee notes" (he didn't even call them invoices) came from time to time, with minimum explanation, and I was expected simply to pay.

Do accountants ever work on the basis of fixed-fee contracts ? Are they ever called to justify overruns on estimated costs ? I know that if presented with a bill for £400 or £8000 for a lunch with accountants, I wouldn't seek to compound the error by seeking legal advice (for which I would again have to pay). It would go straight in the filing basket. Without written terms of engagement which specified that they could charge for inviting me to lunch, I doubt that any court would uphold such a demand for payment. Furthermore - as the client, you have the ultimate sanction, of taking your business elsewhere (or if in a position such as mine, nowhere at all).

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By User deleted
23rd Dec 2007 16:15

Disgusting
And I bet this accountant is seen to be "good" because he charges so much rather than the advice he gives. Unless proper professional advice was given (which I believed should be put in writing afterwards) at this meeting tell him if he wants paying you will be going elsewhere. He should have made it clear if he wanted to charge you that he would be doing before accepting the invitation.

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By Sherlock
23rd Dec 2007 17:15

Sharp Practice
This reminds me of the story about a party that an accountant and a medical doctor attended. The doctor confided to the accountant that he was fed up with being asked for medical advice at parties. The accountant disclosed that he had a way of dealing with this if he was asked for accountancy/tax advice at such functions. The doctor asked what this strategy was. The accountant replied that he would send a fee note for £50 to the person concerned the next day. The next morning the doctor had forgotten about this conversation, but then discovered a fee note for £50 from the accountant in his post.

If I was you, 'Anon', I would ignore the fee note, and if the accountant persists, then make the whole matter public, including a possible complaint to the professional accountancy institute and coverage in the local press. You would fall out, but the accountant needs ot be jolted into reality.

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By Sherman Holter
24th Dec 2007 11:29

Spirit of Christmas

Hasn't anybody watched the pre-Christmas TV commercials ?

Hasn't anybody done any shopping at this time of the year ?

Just watch how products are marketed and watch how many Christmas shoppers behave !

Therefore, your accountant is just acting in harmony with the spirit of Christmas 21st century style, ie. peace on earth (as long as we're talking about the bit of earth where my family and friends live) and goodwill to all men (that is to say just the ones who are my family and friends).

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the sea otter
By memyself-eye
24th Dec 2007 13:01

We're not all the same..
Outrageous to invoice after being invited out - does this bozo want to alienate all his clients?
Phone him up and tell him 'Gordon Ramsey' style where to shove his invoice - as for the auditors I would have been looking around for another firm pdq.
Quaint term that: 'fee note' - full of pretentious drivel, last heard it from a firm of solicitors who have now ceased trading!

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