Turn around on business accounts
Discussion
Quick question about how long you wait for your accountant to finalise your annual acounts. I think my accounts are fairly simple and I am pretty organised, yet typically I wait 5 or 6 months before an amount of chasing gets them done.
Our company year end is at the end of November and typically I get final accounts in April/May. My small two man (well man and wife) business turns over about £150-180k. All clients are government departments and local authorities, so I work, I invoice, they pay within 28 days, so I think it is fairly simple. It's not as if I dump a large box of mixed paper at his office. I do my own PAYE, keep a monthly spreadsheet of expenditure broken down by the accountants headings, and keep all monthly receipts and paid invoices in an envelope for that month. I keep a list of invoices issued, dates paid and VAT quarter accounted in. He gets that in a spreadsheet with the 12 monthly sheets of expenditure, a summary sheet of expenditure under each of his headings and the lists of cheques (cross referenced to the monthly sheets). I keep a running log of activities during the year such as share dividends paid, assets acquired and disposed of, noticeable events (such as duplicate payments reverased, bank account changes, company car changes) and other events which may complicate things. I even do a final tally of bank balances and outstanding invoices and the interest paid to us on bank deposits.
I like to know here I am in terms of how much CT I need to keep safe, whether I got the VAT right and how much extra tax I may be liable for come April.
Every other aspect of their service is great but every year at this time I am chasing them, when I delivered the papers within a week of the year end. Why does it take 6 months? What is a realstic amount of time to wait?
Our company year end is at the end of November and typically I get final accounts in April/May. My small two man (well man and wife) business turns over about £150-180k. All clients are government departments and local authorities, so I work, I invoice, they pay within 28 days, so I think it is fairly simple. It's not as if I dump a large box of mixed paper at his office. I do my own PAYE, keep a monthly spreadsheet of expenditure broken down by the accountants headings, and keep all monthly receipts and paid invoices in an envelope for that month. I keep a list of invoices issued, dates paid and VAT quarter accounted in. He gets that in a spreadsheet with the 12 monthly sheets of expenditure, a summary sheet of expenditure under each of his headings and the lists of cheques (cross referenced to the monthly sheets). I keep a running log of activities during the year such as share dividends paid, assets acquired and disposed of, noticeable events (such as duplicate payments reverased, bank account changes, company car changes) and other events which may complicate things. I even do a final tally of bank balances and outstanding invoices and the interest paid to us on bank deposits.
I like to know here I am in terms of how much CT I need to keep safe, whether I got the VAT right and how much extra tax I may be liable for come April.
Every other aspect of their service is great but every year at this time I am chasing them, when I delivered the papers within a week of the year end. Why does it take 6 months? What is a realstic amount of time to wait?
As an accountant in practice, I can sympathise to some extent with your concerns - but also understand the pressures under which your accountant works.
Your company's year end is November and it seems that you are well organised enough to get reasonable records to the accountant soon after that year end. However, the months of November through to January are probably the busiest and most hectic time in an accountancy practice, primarilly because of the Self Assessment deadline of 31 January.
There is also the likelihood that your accountant will be trying to finalise and advise clients who have limuted companies with 31 March year ends (the most popular accounting date for small companies). They need to know their Corporation Tax liabilities by 31 December and they need to submit their accounts by 31 January.
Although it seems a bit unfair on you, with all this deadline pressure forcing us as accountants to prioritise what jobs need to be done in what order, your 30 November year end accounts may be put on the back burner until after 31 January.
I'm not making excuses for him/her, but deadlines pay a large part in our lives these days and we tend to organise our work around meeting these deadlines.
The best course of action would be to enphasise to your accountant that you really would like at lesast some idea of your CT liabilities soon after the year end. I would suggest that one month after leaving in the records would be a reasonable date to aim for - even if the accounts are only to draft stage.
Your company's year end is November and it seems that you are well organised enough to get reasonable records to the accountant soon after that year end. However, the months of November through to January are probably the busiest and most hectic time in an accountancy practice, primarilly because of the Self Assessment deadline of 31 January.
There is also the likelihood that your accountant will be trying to finalise and advise clients who have limuted companies with 31 March year ends (the most popular accounting date for small companies). They need to know their Corporation Tax liabilities by 31 December and they need to submit their accounts by 31 January.
Although it seems a bit unfair on you, with all this deadline pressure forcing us as accountants to prioritise what jobs need to be done in what order, your 30 November year end accounts may be put on the back burner until after 31 January.
I'm not making excuses for him/her, but deadlines pay a large part in our lives these days and we tend to organise our work around meeting these deadlines.
The best course of action would be to enphasise to your accountant that you really would like at lesast some idea of your CT liabilities soon after the year end. I would suggest that one month after leaving in the records would be a reasonable date to aim for - even if the accounts are only to draft stage.
Thinking 'out of the box' here, but compared to a lot of small business owners not only do you have a reasonably simple income structure, you also sound pretty diligent in keeping the accounts!
With a small amount of research into the CT percentages and such like, why don't you have a go at working out your own set - for your own purposes of course so you get an idea of what the figures will be?
With a small amount of research into the CT percentages and such like, why don't you have a go at working out your own set - for your own purposes of course so you get an idea of what the figures will be?
Another thing to consider is that the amount of work to do is largely irrelevant, (as Eric points out) the job will get done when it gets to the top of the pile! Even if this was only half a days work I doubt if it would move any quicker.
Another aspect is that some accountants won't turn things around very quickly as it's helps to justify their fee! If you got them back in 2/3days with a bill for £1000 you may complain, it if took three months...........
Another aspect is that some accountants won't turn things around very quickly as it's helps to justify their fee! If you got them back in 2/3days with a bill for £1000 you may complain, it if took three months...........
JustinP1 said:
Thinking 'out of the box' here, but compared to a lot of small business owners not only do you have a reasonably simple income structure, you also sound pretty diligent in keeping the accounts!
With a small amount of research into the CT percentages and such like, why don't you have a go at working out your own set - for your own purposes of course so you get an idea of what the figures will be?
I do keep a summary with my CT liabaility etc and it is usually quite close but it is the depreciation etc that I can't do and when I see all those numbers..twlevety!With a small amount of research into the CT percentages and such like, why don't you have a go at working out your own set - for your own purposes of course so you get an idea of what the figures will be?
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