Accountant offering 50% reduction

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Niall M

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Hi there, I received an email from a guy offering accountancy services. He is doing an offer for first 25 customers to guarantee a 50% reduction on what your current accountant is charging.

what do people think of this, should i meet up with him, or does it sound a bit shady
 
It sounds a bit shady to me.

From what I have seen, most accountants have already reduched their charges in order to stay competitive.

Has yours?

If so, then the new guy would be working for peanuts and this is never a good thing.
 
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Agreed.

I suspect that if you call, you will be told "hard luck, we got such a massive response that the offer was snapped up in no time. ARe you unhappy with your accountant?"

If by any cance you do get the deal, I suspect that you would not get the service.

Brendan
 
Im going to call and see what its all about. will keep ye posted. worst case i can always go back to my own accountant and make him match what this guy is offering.
 
Maybe it's just a new accountant trying to build a customer base.
They might even offer a better service than established accountants to get a good vibe out there.

It's inevitable that accoutancy costs are going to go down. Businesses just don't have the money any more.
 
Niall M said:
Hi there, I received an email from a guy offering accountancy services. He is doing an offer for first 25 customers to guarantee a 50% reduction on what your current accountant is charging.

what do people think of this, should i meet up with him, or does it sound a bit shady
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Cold calling with offers to shave existing fees, Ethically I'm not impressed already.

How did (s)he get your email?

How is your relationship with your accountant, if (s)he has given you reductions already over the last year or so, don't be surprised if your told to go ahead to that accountant.

I'm always surprised that this approach works, bet you're asked for fees early on or signed onto a DD very quickly.
 
umop3p!sdn said:
Maybe it's just a new accountant trying to build a customer base.
They might even offer a better service than established accountants to get a good vibe out there.

It's inevitable that accoutancy costs are going to go down. Businesses just don't have the money any more.
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Accountancy costs are going down, they may offer a better service, they may not, its just an approach that I don't like, its also a possible limitation of scope on any audit assignments that they take on.
 
may not need an accountant after today watch the news at 6pm
 
Why so? I called them, he sounded very genuine on the phone, said he was looking to expand and this was one way he was going about it. I am going to meet up with him next week I think, I might give him a chance.
 
I think you are right to give him a chance.

If he is qualified, has practising certificate etc etc, he might just be a young guy starting out.

I had a new client come to me recently who I quoted €600 for the year.

I asked him what his previous accountant was charging him ...€2000. When he had asked for a reduction, he was told 'I am too old to work for nothing'.
 
This new audit threshold will have a minimal impact IMO

It would be far better to remove the ridiculous law requiring companies whose CRO return is late being subject to an audit (they could impose a late time limit of say 12 months or something like that)

Also, small groups should be audit exempt, where all companies within the group would themselves be audit exempt but for the fact that they are in a group.

This would remove thousands of smaller companies from the audit net
 
DB74 said:
This new audit threshold will have a minimal impact IMO

It would be far better to remove the ridiculous law requiring companies whose CRO return is late being subject to an audit (they could impose a late time limit of say 12 months or something like that)

Also, small groups should be audit exempt, where all companies within the group would themselves be audit exempt but for the fact that they are in a group.

This would remove thousands of smaller companies from the audit net
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+1 on all counts.

Statutory Audits are, in general, an utter waste of time and resources, both for SME companies, and for their auditors. Not too many would shed any tears if they were scrapped entirely for private companies.
 
Agree totally with previous posters.

I'd imagine that more regulations will be introduced for audit exempt accounts though. Not a bad thing in some respects as some of the stuff you see is just shocking.

I blame the Instititues for allowing this to happen.
 
Paddy199 said:
I'd imagine that more regulations will be introduced for audit exempt accounts though. Not a bad thing in some respects as some of the stuff you see is just shocking.
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I don't think there's any need whatsoever for more regulations for audit exempt accounts. What is needed is basic enforcement of existing regulations (ie Companies Acts disclosure requirements)
 
If the guy is qualified and will work for less what is the problem, surely this is good? Presumably it's someone starting out and hungry for work and willing to work for less. Something to bring down the costs of doing business in Ireland is good.
 
Paddy199 said:
Who's going to do that? The CRO accept any sort of dirt thats lodged.
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Agree with above posters re audits and the lack of necessity for same for SME's.

However have to agree with paddy199 re the comment above. From what i see the CRO & ODCE are so understaffed and focused on the big fish that they are essentially facilitating the rise in rogue accountants that seems to be going on.

I ve seen balance sheets that dont balance submitted to them, with no notes etc and nothing is done. You could prob hand write the abriged balance sheet on a kellogs box and get away with it at present. They are so tied up in knots with anglo et al that it will be many years before they get around to looking at SME's again properly.

Audit exemption however has the curse of some accountants taking no responsibility and using extended letters of representation rather than doing any actual verification work of any sort.

Anyway im getting off topic now, apologies.
 
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