To charge or not to charge? That is the question.
Right now many business owners are in desperate need of support to help them get through the current crisis. These are unprecedented times and the question keeps popping up “should accountants charge for the additional help to their clients?”
As a family run business, with strong family values at our core – we say NO.
We have approached this current crisis head on and have offered our clients help and support as an extension to their current service. We are extremely proud of the 1 Accounts team for delivering extra services such as processing furlough claims, applying for grants for our retailers and small business rate relief clients and preparing forecasts to help get essential funding from the banks. Not to mention giving advice to all our clients on how to get through this crisis. This approach has not been adopted by all accountancy firms, and has even been scrutinised.
We have looked at why we are able to adapt and support our clients so quickly and this is what we have done to secure our business and help others in their time of need:
- 100% digital. Meaning the team can work from home easily.
- We don’t have time sheets and are happy to give extra support and not charge for every 6 minutes.
- We operate on fixed monthly fees that are easy to understand – http://fomvk.nimsite.uk/
- We furloughed three of the team, two admin and one Director
- We received SBRR grant of £10k. This enabled us to keep paying our landlord and office services.
- We applied for a loan from our bank under CBILS.
- We deferred our VAT payment although we expect to pay this very soon.
- We reviewed our expenses and reduced some of our spending.
- We paid for Zoom to enable us to service our clients easier
- We have appointed a marketing company to adjust our website
- We have been sending our regular updates to all clients
- We have become a shoulder to cry on and a much needed sounding board.
Many traditional accountants will be struggling with this current crisis. We sympathise with them as they are business owners too. However COVID-19 has highlighted even more that online accounting is the way forward. It is time to embrace technology not to hide in the shadows. Due to the way our business is set up, we have not had to furlough our whole team nor ask anyone to take a pay cut. We will also not be sending out a bill in the post for every 6 minutes of advice we have given. We genuinely want to help our clients – after all we are all in this together.
If you need some extra help and support, and would like to hear more about our services, please email jade@1accounts.co.uk to arrange a zoom call.
#weareinthistogether
