ChrisScullard
Member Since: 9th Aug 2011
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I am a commercially focused accountant. My key objective is to add value to my clients' businesses whilst also ensuring that they are compliant with all necessary regulations.
Scullard & Co specialise in assisting small and medium sized owner managed businesses with their accounting, taxation and business affairs.
The firm has two key objectives. The first is to give clients the financial information they need to manage and grow their business. The second is to give clients peace of mind that all of their accounting and taxation obligations are taken care of so they can concentrate on their business.
I strongly believe in developing mutually beneficial, long term relationships with my clients. My objective in every engagement is for my client to believe they have received a better service than they expected for a fair and reasonable fee.
Specialties
Accounting & Bookkeeping
Management Accounts
Budgeting & Forecasting
Business Advisory Services
Start-up Support
Corporation Tax
VAT
Self Assessment
Payroll
Company Secretarial Services
My answers
To be fair we do a bit more than basic bookkeeping as we account for accruals, prepayments, depreciation, deferred/accrued income, etc every month.
However the post transactional bookkeeping adjustments are usually pretty straightforward.
I do have a junior doing most of the work as you rightly guess.
In my experience I have yet to find a client who can do their own bookkeeping properly. Whilst software vendors make a big thing of how easy their software is to use and anyone can do their own bookkeeping, in my opinion that's just a load of bull.
Not sure I agree with this KA. You assume that the bookkeeper who charges £15-£20 p/h is fully utilising the functionality of cloud accounting packages. Quite often this isn't the case.
We've just taken on a client where the outgoing bookkeeper charges £200 per month. We're matching that. However by utilising bank feeds, auto depreciation, recurring journals, Receipt Bank, etc if this job takes more than 4 hours per month I'll be disappointed.
Chatman, you might be right, but do you think the average employee would shed a tear over their boss, or any business owner or anyone receiving significant dividends having to pay some/more tax on their dividends?
It seems blindingly obvious to me that in recent budgets those that changes made in taxation are all about winning votes and fairness has little to do with it.
Let's look at who's been affected:
Private landlords - generally unpopular with the majority of the electorate as taking the blame for the housing market situation. Not enough of them (who may change their vote away from Conservative) to change the outcome of an election.
'Fat Cat Business Owners' - Business owners are generally unpopular with the electorate as the media makes out we all make a fortune and pay no tax. So dividend tax, etc popular with majority of the electorate. Not enough of them (who may change their vote away from Conservative) to change the outcome of an election.
Self employed - fact they pay less NI generally unpopular with most of the (employed) electorate, now they actually know about it. Not enough of them (who may change their vote away from Conservative) to change the outcome of an election.
Those with decent pension pots - hitting these people generally popular with most of the electorate who will never get anywhere near a £1m pension pot. Not enough of them (who may change their vote away from Conservative) to change the outcome of an election.
However I don't recall much (other than tobacco & alcohol duty rises) that would cause much taxation pain to the majority of the electorate (i.e.: employed and pensioners).
I'm sure I've missed things here but it looks quite clear that most moves to increase the tax take are levied on small groups that are largely unpopular with the majority of the electorate and who's numbers aren't enough to change the outcome of the next general election.
I completely understand where you are coming from. We are in the process of launching some new services that are aimed at a remote audience and Google looks like the number 1 way to approach said audience.
After 4 years of outsourcing web design, SEO and PPC with reasonable but frustratingly slow results we have now brought this in house. We recently brought a part time web guy onto the payroll with much success. The speed at which websites are built, amended and put live is like chalk and cheese. We're now moving on to some serious optimisation and PPC work. However I cannot simply let this guy get on with it. I NEED to know how this all works so I can supervise and manage efficiently. Ultimately I can't shell out hand over fist without knowing we're doing the right things.
Maybe it's because it's all a bit new, or maybe it's because at heart this boils down to numercial analysis (particularly PPC), but I'm finding learning these new skills a breath of fresh air.
In fact, one of the things I have enjoyed most since starting the practice four years ago has been learning about marketing, customer psychology and effective pricing. These are things that, even as an FD, we accountants are tought or get involved with. It's all very exciting really.......
I think it's a little unfair to make more of the situation re the commute than is there (per the OP). I know I, and a few friends/relatives, have accepted jobs in the past on the basis that the commute will be OK. However after nearly two years of hour plus (often nearer two) commutes in heavy traffic it gets you down, to the point it becomes intolerable which is worsened if you know you can get a similar job with a much shorter commute.
I can't help but think that, for the fees being charged by big 4 players in this market, they can only afford to have junior staff delivering the work to clients. I don't know what big 4 charge out rates are any more (it's been 14 years since I left PwC) but based on rates when I was there a newly qualified is likely charged out at not far short of £150 per hour.
Therefore for your £150 per month you get around an hour of time I expect, or trainees. Also it's quite likely that there will be little consistency in staffing for clients with their point of contact changing regularly. Let's face it, you don't join KPMG or PwC to work on Joe the plumber's accounts.
The smaller guys like most on Aweb should be able to defend against the big boys relatively easily in my opinion by stressing quality, volume and consistency of service compared to a PwC or KPMG.
We try to get a lot done before 31 July so we can assess whether payments on account can be reduced. Also the directors of our client companies can usually all be done by May/June.
Much of the reason we get SATRs done so early on the whole goes back to when I first set up and was permanently in need of money coming in to the bank account. I was chasing things in May/June mainly because I needed the money!! Those clients are now in the habit of getting information over early.
SA season starts in October???
My plan is to blitz the tax returns now so SA ends in October. Every client has been told when we've tentatively scheduled their tax returns, with the last ones (all bar one for their own unique reasons) scheduled in October.
So far no problems with that. By the end of today we'll hit 40% done/out for approval.
On a separate note, I'm pleased things are working out. Nearly all your blogs seem far too close to home!!
Wow - this all seems very close to home! Glenzzy, I have a feeling you and I both started around the same time (late 2011 for me) and I am in exactly the same position as you - i.e.: working far too hard but not having quite enough revenue to justify paying staff, probably doing too much for clients, in some cases just not charging enough (mainly a hangover from my early days when, frankly, I was pretty clueless and naive about pricing) and letting clients get away with being a PITA.
I took a view nearly a year ago that this had to change. I wanted to produce a 'product' that should appeal to types of client I want to work with. I think we all want the holy grail of ambitious, growing businesses who want far more than just a simple compliance job. Well now, I don't look for anything else (if something turns up I won't turn it down if the fee is right though).
Now there are basically two types of client we look for - those that want regular management accounts + compliance (and ideally virtual FD) and contractors. If the client won't use a cloud package and Receipt Bank I won't work with them. I never want to see a till receipt or a pile of paper dropped off again!
Also, the fees have to be right. Like KA I have a menu although I'm moving towards packaged services - a client can have A, B or C and each starts at £x, £y and £z, paid by monthly DD - take it or leave it.
I've always known, but it's now become very important, that the way we do things has to be standardised. It's impossible to work efficiently if every client's work is done differently, and once staff become involved it's critical that information about how to do a piece of work is not stuck in someone's head. Sure each client has it's own little foibles and different issues but posting bank transactions is posting bank transactions.
By the end of the summer I intend to have four unique brands, all offering much the same service done in much the same way, but targeted at different sectors. Three of these brands will be marketed nationally rather than just locally because the way we work means it's irrelevant where a client is. We'll work in the same way for the guy next door as the guy in London.
I've been talking about this for months now and not had time to get it done for one reason or another, but it's time for the talking to stop. Like you I've reached a tipping point where either things have to grow significantly quickly, or we stop taking on new clients.
I'm expecting to hire a web design student to work over the summer full time to make sure everything that needs doing gets done quickly as much of this will have the websites as the foundation.
After this there will be no excuses for not growing rapidly, bringing in staff and perhaps leaving work before 10pm once in a while..........