How to Fix Years of Accounting Neglect
A company with several retail stores scattered across Lothian in Scotland approached me. It initially seemed like a straightforward transition from their previous accountants, whose capacity had been outgrown by the client's rapid expansion.
3 Years of Neglected Accounting
However, it quickly became clear that the service provided was never up to standard, and the backlog in recording millions in revenue extended back at least three years. Understanding the scope of the work involved, I quoted a price very quickly. Our pricing, as our clients often note, is significantly higher than that of other Polish accounting firms. And that's precisely the point – TaxOne isn't just an accounting firm; our services operate on a completely different level. When the client heard the price, they were quite taken aback. We had to explain that the company's accounting needed to be completely redone from scratch for the entire past three years.
Incompetent Accounting Firm
The owner met with the previous "accountant," who, when asked why nothing had been done for years and why tax filings to Companies House and HMRC were submitted as "dormant" (i.e., zero) despite the company operating normally and doing well, replied, "because it was easier that way." The second one (as there had been multiple accountants during that period) responded, "because the client wasn't paying enough."
"Why then did no one tell me how much work this would entail and what it should cost?" the owner wondered. It's simple – many people are still focused on quick profit and minimal effort, and they won't deviate from that. They know that accounting errors will always fall on you, not the accountant, and they expect to get away with it.
At TaxOne, we focus on the needs of businesses. Each team member is assigned no more than 10-15 clients; otherwise, we wouldn't be able to meet your expectations.
Within five months, we brought all the client's accounting up to date. Three people worked on the documentation from the past three years; we had to organize and process several boxes of documents. Penalties and legal matters, including suing the previous accountants, still needed to be addressed. Everything is now on track, but it was certainly a stressful period for the owners.
The owner mentioned in our last phone call that he's opening another store location soon. After his experiences with the previous accountants, he wants to be handled exclusively by TaxOne. These are the moments when we, as a team, feel the greatest satisfaction from what we do.
