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• # 71633
• Tue 31 May 2011 10:01 PM

I have to vent my wrath!

I have just been passed a new client from their Accountant. The client is at year end and VAT quarter end, and the Acct wants to relinquish the bkk duties, just taking it back on an annual basis. The client is a small independent retail outlet, whom the Acct has on Sage Instant. The Acct completes all the Sage postings from data given to them by the client on a quarterly basis.

As far as the Acct is concerned, I just need to load on the trading data from 1.2 to 30.4.11 and run the VAT return. She says there are a couple of outstanding bank rec items from December which I need to solve, and a coupleof outstanding invoices which I need to hunt down and load...but apart from that, the accounts are all done to 31.1.11

I have just opened up their Sage...what a mess!

* T1 = 15%, T2 = 20%, T3 = 17.5%, T0 has never been used, Tax Exempt does not exist
* Postings dated 2009 were included in a VAT rec dated 2011
* Payments to Utilities are sometimes posted as BP, sometimes SP, leading to duplications
* There are outstanding supplier transactions from 2008
and best of all...
* No bank rec has been done on Sage. Ever. Now 5 years worth of trading.

That's after just one hour of nosing around, who knows what else i'll find.

What irks me the most is that most small businesses trust their Accts to do a good job and produce accurate accounts. They pay hard earned cash for it.

I have asked the Acct if I can strip and rebuild the data for the current financial year - would certainly ease the closing down of the year. However, she may take it as a personal attack on her bkk skills!!

Yours angrily,
Helen.

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• # 71634
• Tue 31 May 2011 10:15 PM

Bless, I so sympathise with you. That is shocking for an accountant to give you that. If it was vice versa you can just imagine the bad name bookkeepers get. Sorry for the synacism (probably spelt it wrong) but I live in an area where small businesses want to deal with accountants and pay in excess of £40p.h for bookkeeping!!
In this situation I would agree with you and start form scratch

Regards

Angie

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• # 71640
• Wed 01 Jun 2011 07:43 AM

Hi Helen,

I have found in my experience that some accountants are useless when it comes to bookkeeping, but in their defence, accountancy degrees and professional courses do not really cover bookkeeping in a great deal of depth. I have a degree in Accountancy and Finance and I am also studying for my ACCA qualification and this is what I have found.

It does seem silly, because without the bookkeeping they cannot do their accounts!

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• # 71669
• Wed 01 Jun 2011 10:42 PM

Hi

.  I am a fellow and I have also set sage up to have all the codes .  You need to have this information for the HM or they will try to say you have underpaid.   I sure the vat rate will change again. 

With regards to other points I have not really looked at.   But I would be careful about question whether he has done a good job. He may not be paid by the client to do a  bank rec or the payments or the Creditors rec , and it is possible there are old items that needed to go into a return. 

I think you need to check with your client exactly what he or she is been paid for and what jobs its covers .   If a clients does not want to pay me to do the bank rec  that I would expect that they are doing it.   You may find with a new client , that there not that great at paying for all these services.

I would write to your client and the Accountant to tell them both your findings and ask for a response from both of them as the accountant has a right to reply.
With regards to sage codes I agree with the accountant but you still need to configure an exempt code and leave T9 as it is is TO is for supplies and services with no vat.  

The HM are planning to pick on every small business they can.   I can guarantee you that they will choose vat.

especially in Cash Vat Accounting I want to be able to show the Vat man in my detail reports which were 15% , 17.5 and 20 %.

I have seen inspectors just do a quick calculation during an inspection and said a client had under paid .     I was quickly able to show him that was not the case.  




Edited at 01 Jun 2011 10:51 PM GMT

• Sarah Douglas C.FICB

  HouseTree Business Ltd 

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