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Other info from the director -
Hartley Jackson
Our
Fixed Price System
We use a Fixed Price Matrix. First of all we
find out if you use computerised systems, or manual ones. Then we
ask you to rate the standard of your accounting records, from excellent
down to very poor, or even 'no proper accounting records' (please see our
Resources page for this)! Then the
third factor is the level of your income. Your fee is based on these
three criteria.
Here's the good thing - if your income drops to a lower band, you pay us less! (Of course, if your income moves up a band, you pay us more, but you won't mind that if business is good).
Our
60 Day Guarantee
We give you our guarantee that we will provide you with your final
accounts for signature within 60 days (excluding
bank and public holidays) of your
providing us with all your books and records. This is on the basis
that you provide us with complete information and answer any queries we
have quickly.
In
order to facilitate this and enable us to provide an efficient and
excellent service to all our clients, we ask you to agree
a date with us when you will be providing the records to us.
We ask that this is done as early as you can, but with a minimum of
three weeks' lead-in.
If you are unable to meet the date agreed, please let us know as soon as you can, so we can arrange a new date with you.
If
you keep to the date, and there are no missing items or information, we
will get your accounts back to you within the 60 days.
Practice
Assurance
Practice Assurance is a scheme of practice review operated by the
Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. The scheme
applies to all members in the UK (including the Channel Isles and the Isle
of Man), the EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechenstein who hold a practising
certificate.
It provides members in practice with a framework of quality assurance principles to help them assess and develop their practices, offering practical support and advice.
Practice Assurance has been designed to demonstrate to the business
community and the wider public the Institute's commitment to upholding and
developing public standards that command public confidence.
Jackson & Jackson is a Member of the ICAEW Practice Assurance Scheme.
Stationery
& Website Review
Changes to the Companies Act, which came into
force on 1 January 2007, mean that all the stationery of a business must
clearly show the company's name, registered number and registered office
address. Stationery includes emails and websites.
One of the services we provide is a stationery and website review - we can comment on the disclosure aspects as well as commenting on readability, spelling, grammar, and even our view on them.
Our
Specialist Tax Consultants Policy
We are different to other accountants because we use the top tax
consultancy firm in the country to advise on specialist tax matters.
Many accountants have in-house specialists, but we think that this is poor practice, because a specialist employed by a general practice, very quickly becomes a general practitioner - there just aren't enough specialist cases for him or her to handle in the general firm to maintain the specialist status, and his or her knowledge becomes quickly out of date, with disastrous consequences for the clients.
Our specialist tax consultants work in their respective fields on a daily basis, ensuring our work complies with current complex legislation, and the most recent case law.
Our Tax
Return Policy
At the beginning of the tax year, we write to all our tax return clients,
and send them a Tax Return Information Checklist. We ask them to
send us the info we need by 30 June, so we can have their returns
submitted to them for approval before 30 September.
In common with many accountants, we use computer software to generate tax returns for our clients and calculate their tax liability. HMRC require that these returns are filed online. We will file approved returns en bloc in October.
The benefits of early online filing are:
· Tax repayments will be received sooner
· Tax liabilities are confirmed earlier
· Tax payable may be collectable through the 'coding', in some cases
· No missed deadlines due to postal difficulties
· Confirmation of receipt of return obtained online
We will have a fall-back filing window in January for any returns approved after 30 September, but strongly advise that the September deadline be adhered to by clients.
Our
Booking In Procedures
Our booking in procedure is designed to check that we have the records
requested from you. We ensure that items such as bank statements are
supplied for the whole year. However, items such as supplier
invoices are only checked 'in principle' rather than for 100%
completeness. Accordingly, it may well be that, during the course of
our accounts preparation and audit, we may need to come back to you for
more information.
Again, bearing in mind, that, at this stage, we do not examine all the supplied documents, we occasionally might ask for a document which you feel you have supplied, but which we could not readily trace. If this happens, please direct us to where it may be found.
Our fees are based on criteria of accounting systems standards, and the income of the charity. Should your income, or your accounting systems standards, be in a different band - higher or lower - then the fee charged would be adjusted up or down according to our fee pricing matrix.
Our booking in procedure looks at the income level, but the accounting system standards can only be assessed after we commence our work. We would, however, do this as early as possible so we can advise you of any changes needed.
Customer
Identification (Money
Laundering Regulations)
Like all accountants (in common with solicitors, banks, etc.), Jackson
& Jackson are required to obtain evidence of your identity. By
providing this information to us, you are helping us to guard against
financial crime as much as we possibly can. The information makes it
harder for criminals to use false or stolen identities to access the
financial system.
We assure you that we are only following those procedures that are essential to comply with the law. Please note that we are by law unable to carry out any work for you until the documents required are in place. The relevant laws are The Money Laundering Regulations 2007, The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, and The Terrorism Act 2000.
All clients are required to comply with these regulations - by asking for these documents, we are not suspecting you of money laundering.
For details of documents required, click here.
Charity
AGMs and the Auditor
Charity clients have a statutory obligation to ask us to the charity's
AGM, giving the same period of notice as required for members.
As such, we are entitled to attend the AGM, and make a charge for our attendance.
However, we like to show our support to our charity clients as much as possible, and know that having the auditor 'show his face' at the AGM is a good boost to the charity members, staff and supporters.
We therefore always try to attend AGMs, and, in most cases, do so without charge. Our attendance is then on a goodwill basis, so we will not present accounts, answer questions on the accounts or similar.
We do also provide a service where we will present the financial statements to the AGM. This needs to be agreed in advance. We will make a charge for this, but this is at a special rate subsidised for charities.
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