As a traditional chareted accounts and chartered tax generalist practice and considering the litany of regulatory changes that have come at us. How can the generalist qualified firm provide a £29 per month service??? We couldn't open a file for this much so how are other firms servicing these clients considering the confetti of emails and constan quesions from clients that there are these days?
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FirstTab wrote:
FROM £29 pm?
Good point. So what exactly does £29 pm get you. I'm looking at websites quoting £29 pm with unlimited email and telephone support???
In my experience, clients on monthly retainers will use the support because it's there and they want to get their usage. A bit like using your audible credits each month, you don't see anything you're particularly interested in but the credits are there so you may as well use them. Then the litany of questions of what's tax deductible and what isn't flow in even though these topics are covered on your FAQ because it's easier for a client to pick up their smart phone and send you an email rather than look it up themselves.
I'd maybe do a tax return for £29 a month. Depends.
No idea. I lost a book keeping job a few years ago because someone quoted £20 pm. Including travel to pick up the books! Must be running a loss on that one. Would have cost me £10 just to get there.
£350 p/a for what? A tax return based on bookkeeping you've done yourself in the cloud that the accountant doesn't really check in anyway? I can see that happening, with a small profit.
If you drop the quality, you can drop the price.
Indeed. But if you don't care about checking what they've done, you can just churn it out.
I've seen loads of files for clients we've taken over where the work is terrible, yet they call them selves chartered accountants and they've charged a decent fee.
There will always be people in any field prepared to break rules to make money.
Think £29pcm is cheap?
https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/practice/general-practice/from-schoolboo...
I actually have a few personal tax returns where I charge £30 pm in fees.
These are however more of an exception than the norm - very small and straightforward sole traders with a dozen of sales invoices per annum and 10-20 expense receipts. Once AML and signing up are completed they require not more than 2-3 hours per year of my time so still make profit out of £360 pa fee.
But these are legacy clients which I have looked after from the very start of setting up the practice and these fees are not available for new clients
This pricing only works for a very few clients whose tax affairs are very simple so they require little to none support through the year.
My LoE are clear that the majority of retainer contracts cover "fair" level of support and the client will need to pay for add hoc reports/support/hand holding. At the end of the day, O like seeing clients succeed but I also like being paid for work I do.
free-rider wrote:
I actually have a few personal tax returns where I charge £30 pm in fees.
These are however more of an exception than the norm - very small and straightforward sole traders with a dozen of sales invoices per annum and 10-20 expense receipts. Once AML and signing up are completed they require not more than 2-3 hours per year of my time so still make profit out of £360 pa fee.
But these are legacy clients which I have looked after from the very start of setting up the practice and these fees are not available for new clients
That's fair enough but the monthly unlimited email and telephone support for £29 pm?
There's an expectation in the market, even for well paying clients, that by paying an accountant a monthly fee that this is a replacement for an in-house accountant. We've tailored our engagement letters to such a level of detail that we point out what exactly the service is but also what the service is not.
The thing about "unlimited support" is that very few clients use it, even less that the 20%-80% Pareto rule would imply, especially with the Subbie type clients who I expect this level of fee is aimed at, and if you do get a problem client that "abuses" the system you either sack him or increase the fees in year 2.
I keep getting offered a FT qualified accountant for £600pcm ... from various outsourcing companies in India / Philippines etc.
I could probably charge £29pcm if I outsourced everything to the Philippines!
We do tax returns for £350+VAT.
not much on 'em however! Say 1 or 2 let properties.
or perhaps a small sole trader with all the records nicely in excel which we don't vouch to anything.
Our lowest price is now £18+VAT per month - typical example is a small sole trader or BTL landlord with super neat records in excel with hardly anything to check. Reasons why we can do it so cheap?
1. Monthly payment - no time wasted chasing money
2. Client records - neat, well presented
3. Client knowledge - we get to know the client pretty well and get a good feel as to how reliable they are
4. Our own low overheads - we work mostly from home
5. My own 20 years experience with similar from staff - makes it quick and easy to spot potential issues
And yes that includes any support required during the year, but we find it is rare to hear from a client more than once a year, perhaps the odd mortgage reference or tax question.
Its not a bad return, if say these small Returns take 2/3 hours each, then that is only 15 weeks work for a £40k salary. Feet up and enjoy the 37 weeks of holiday
But life is never as simple as that :)
We do tax returns for £350+VAT.
not much on 'em however! Say 1 or 2 let properties.
or perhaps a small sole trader with all the records nicely in excel which we don't vouch to anything.
I need to increase my prices. We do s/e tax returns for £200 - £250.
‘I need to increase my prices.’ Seems to be a common comment on here for me!
Why don't you subcontract your work to them and have an easy life.
There is a firm advertising on Facebook where they give you an instant quote.
Was very cheap, I was really shocked at how cheap.
£145 pm for £1m turnover, 100 invoices pm and includes Xero and RB.
I imagine they either get you on board then sting you with loads of extras or the work is of a very poor standard and is processed assuming the Xero is 100% accurate when it comes in.
£29 must surely be for a tax return only.
The cheapest I have seen for a company is £45 pm in North East.
Our cheapest for a company is £35+VAT for a very simple company, same reasons apply as my previous post.
There has been a 'race to the bottom' for many years now in the small client market. I totally agree with the comments above and I wouldn't do this with unlimited support and constant emails from the client. But to prepare a very simple self-assessment return every year with excellent records from the client and it wasn't going to take you longer than a couple of hours in total yes possibly.
The headline price is just a marketing ploy in many cases
sole trader subbie. 12 invoices with CIS and no expenses....and just claim the 1k trading allowance...
Yep that works...
I will have it
Hi Guys . Just seen a quote from an "Accountant" £12 per hour.
Since our staff earn more that than this and the minimum wage is £7+ not sure which sweat shop is doing the work.
Best wishes
Paul
Just been speaking to a potential lead who is a contractor ltd.
He’s not going with me, because my £95pcm is extortionate compared to the £30pcm quote he’s had from a firm who says “there’ll be little difference from the work to do a sole trader”.
No comment.
Depends whats involved, generally £95 is expensive, £30 is too low but again depends on whats involved - non vat reg contractor with hardly any transactions and no payroll might just about be able to do it for that.
Depends whats involved, generally £95 is expensive, £30 is too low but again depends on whats involved - non vat reg contractor with hardly any transactions and no payroll might just about be able to do it for that.
But who’s advising contractors not to have a payroll scheme (*conditions apply - obvs I mean in general).
We do £95 VAT client records on Excel, £115 VAT, I provide apps & we do the bkpg. £20 deduction on each if not VAT reg.
Am I too expensive? What would you/others charge for the same?
Thanks
We have had a £65-£85 price range for VAT reg contractors for a while now, we drop to £45-£55 for non VAT.
The difference in price for us depends on what software they want, if they are with RBS/natwest we usually go with Freeagent as its free, but Xero will push them up to the higher end.
Another way we have been able to keep costs low for us is using software not excel, to get a daily bank feed makes such a difference, there are always times in the week, month or year when there is less work to do, and with having the feeds we can catch up as and when we want, most of my work is done between 6am and 10am for example.