Many businesses and charities suffer because they do not have adequate systems of bookkeeping, risk management and financial control. The results of this can be:
- Additional and unexpected accountancy fees at the end of the year.
- Unpleasant and protracted enquiries by HM Revenue & Customs
- Undetected theft and fraud by customers, staff or suppliers
- Failure to supply bankers with accurate information, leading to loan facilities being refused.
- Unanticipated financial losses
Alternatively, it might be that you suspect fraud or misappropriation, or weaknesses in your systems or the performance of staff and require a forensic accountant to make enquiries and investigations with tact and diplomacy.
For charities or businesses with income of less than £100,000 our retainer services (product references ANA/998 for £60 or ANA/999 for £100) will be the most cost effective way of tackling these problems. For larger businesses ,our systems review and report service will tackle the problems.
As registered auditors, we are used to conducting full business risk assessments. This is an essential part of an audit. These are skills that are no necessarily held by accountants who are not registered auditors.
Using these techniques and skills, we will look at the systems in place in a business and identify the system weaknesses, and the risks to which the business is exposed. This will include non financial risk areas.
We will produce a report and full recommendations, and if you wish, will assist with implementation of the recommendations.
If, on the basis of our advice you purchase any Sage products through ourselves, we will give a refund of up to £80 of the fee, the size of the refund depending on the particular Sage product purchased
Our systems review and report service is on a normal professional basis. You sign up for this service by paying a deposit of £100 plus VAT.
When you sign up for the service, we will contact you to agree with you precisely what is required, and will send you a letter of engagement confirming our agreement. This will include a fee estimate based on what you require and what we anticipate will be the work involved, based on the discussions between us.
Until we have held these discussions, we cannot have any understanding of what the fee might be, because the fee will be based on the time to be spent, which will depend on the scale and nature of your business, and the degree of the problems that need to be looked at. However, fees have, in the past, ranged from £100 to £2,000, with the average being about £500.
If, after consideration, you feel that the fee estimate is too high, then you may withdraw, and we will refund your deposit, except that we may, at our discretion, retain £50 to cover the administrative work involved in the initial discussions.
We also carry out the required checks under the Money Laundering Regulations. We will require to see the usual photographic identity and residence information, in either original form, or copies certified by a solicitor in your locality. We will also need the name and address of your accountant, if you have one, as we are required by our professional rules to inform them we are advising you
If the Money Laundering checks are not satisfactory, we will decline to act, and your deposit payment will be refunded in full. Assuming the Money Laundering checks are all in order, we will then arrange to commence the work, which may involve a visit to your premises.
We will prepare a full report with recommendations at the end of the assignment.
At the end of our work, you will have a report that will identify:
- A range of business and system weaknesses
- Whether there is any likelihood that there has been fraud or misappropriation or losses due to inefficiency or bad practices
- The degree to which improvements in bookkeeping and control systems might be made
- A list of detailed recommendations
This should help:
- To keep your accountancy fees as low as possible
- Reduce losses
- Make it easier to deal with HMRC enquiries
- Prevent fraud and theft
- Make it easier to produce accurate and timely information for bankers
- Perhaps, help you sleep better at night !!!
Fees
By negotiation and discussion, after payment of a £100 deposit , of which up to £50 is non returnable if you decide not to proceed
If, on the basis of our advice you purchase any Sage products through ourselves, we will give a refund of up to £80 of this fee, the size of the refund depending on the particular Sage product purchased
From 1st January 2015, there is no VAT added to our fees.
PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE PAYMENT MADE FOR THIS PRODUCT IS A DEPOSIT ONLY AGAINST A FEE TO BE AGREED
