We believe that advice should be free. That is why at Knight & Co Accountants Ltd we will not charge for any meetings or telephone conversations. If we prepare your annual accounts for your business, we will meet with you at least once a year, but you can meet with us as many times as you need and you can telephone the office to ask a question as many times as you wish.

 

Working Together

 

Why do you need your annual accounts prepared by an accountant?

For most people, the annual accounts are prepared for the Tax Man. For some clients, they just want to know two things from their accountant:- how much do I owe the Tax Man and how much is your fee? Both of which are normally more than they want to pay!

If this sounds familiar, why don’t you allow us to work with you throughout the year? By working together, you will already know in advance how much your tax bill will be and you would have agreed our fee payable over 12 convenient installments, interest free.

 

Annual Contract – Not Pay as You Go

 

Our “Client Care Pack” means we will agree with you a price for all the services you or your business requires for each calendar year. For example, each year you may want us to prepare a set of accounts for your business and prepare your personal self assessment tax return and submit this electronically to HM Revenue & Customs.

We will work out a price for these services which we will agree with you at the start of the year. All we ask is that you pay us one twelfth of the annual contract value each month.

If you are registered for VAT and not on “cash accounting”, you will be able to claim all of the VAT on the annual contract at the beginning of the year. This means that it will not actually cost you anything until month three*.

 

* Depends on when your VAT period ends each quarter.

 

No Charge-Out Rates

 

Most accountants work out their fees on the basis of an hourly charge-out rate. This charge-out rate is normally divided into units of an hour, i.e. 1 unit equals 15 minutes or something similar. Some accountants even charge their clients by the minute!

 

But why should you pay your accountant by the minute or part of the hour? If you went into an electrical shop and asked the salesman about the latest range of Plasma televisions, you wouldn’t expect to receive a bill for his time. If you ask the salesman lots of questions about the car you are looking at buying, it does not affect the price you pay for that vehicle.

 

When you ask your accountant for advice about saving tax or whether you should lease your new vehicle instead of buying it on hire purchase, his time will be added to his time ledgers and you may receive a bill for this time or it might be included in his fee for doing your annual accounts.

 

We do not believe that this is fair, which is why we do not have any charge-out rates. Instead we believe in looking after clients throughout the year and giving them the opportunity of talking to their accountant about anything without the fear of being charged for it.