I've seen those webinars and they drive me to distraction, there's no magic to this job, do a good job for an acceptable fee and treat your clients fairly, kick out the trouble makers and miscreants and most of all retain the decent clients, every year you do the accounts they get easier and quicker.
I would expect some sort of push back if a rise in fees of 15% to 20% was put on the table, I know from experience the calls start coming in once the fee increase appears on next years quote and 20% has got to be hard to justify.
“Many people who want to make sure they ‘hit their hours’ will just sign up to a load of webinars - have these playing in the background while doing other things to clock their hours in.
“It creates a culture of just getting it done without actually engaging in the activity.”
The above comment hits the nail on the head, maybe there could be a competence test every so often.
Yes us, we found Iris was becoming far too expensive for what we needed, we looked around and had a few demo's , we found Taxcalc to be the most straight forward. We are an 11 employee practice, regulated and it suits our needs. The practice management side has been a long time coming I asked about time recording a few years ago and was told it wasn't on their radar.
Following on from Robert D, part of our work scheme is to sift out the garbage from that which is tax deductible, it seems to me that without the intervention of somebody with a bit of skill and knowledge then the HMRC will just be receiving a dogs dinner every quarter, but I suppose that if they receive enough for the public purse the HMRC wont care.
Agreed with the previous respondent, from start to finish with a no changes job 5 minutes including putting a paper copy on file, where exactly is the time saving. There was an old adage, if it aint broke don't fix it. We've now got to explain to our clients the changes to the Annual Returns, we wont get paid for this, a real benefit there then.
My answers
I've seen those webinars and they drive me to distraction, there's no magic to this job, do a good job for an acceptable fee and treat your clients fairly, kick out the trouble makers and miscreants and most of all retain the decent clients, every year you do the accounts they get easier and quicker.
I agree, when its down to serious business then a properly modelled Excel spreadsheet knocks spots of the restrictive cash flow Apps.
I would expect some sort of push back if a rise in fees of 15% to 20% was put on the table, I know from experience the calls start coming in once the fee increase appears on next years quote and 20% has got to be hard to justify.
“Many people who want to make sure they ‘hit their hours’ will just sign up to a load of webinars - have these playing in the background while doing other things to clock their hours in.
“It creates a culture of just getting it done without actually engaging in the activity.”
The above comment hits the nail on the head, maybe there could be a competence test every so often.
Yes us, we found Iris was becoming far too expensive for what we needed, we looked around and had a few demo's , we found Taxcalc to be the most straight forward. We are an 11 employee practice, regulated and it suits our needs. The practice management side has been a long time coming I asked about time recording a few years ago and was told it wasn't on their radar.
Following on from Robert D, part of our work scheme is to sift out the garbage from that which is tax deductible, it seems to me that without the intervention of somebody with a bit of skill and knowledge then the HMRC will just be receiving a dogs dinner every quarter, but I suppose that if they receive enough for the public purse the HMRC wont care.
Agreed with the previous respondent, from start to finish with a no changes job 5 minutes including putting a paper copy on file, where exactly is the time saving. There was an old adage, if it aint broke don't fix it. We've now got to explain to our clients the changes to the Annual Returns, we wont get paid for this, a real benefit there then.