Diana B.
2/5
The final tax return was professional and top notch. Fees were raised approximately 15 to 25 percent each year for the past few years except in 2016.
The two stars is for poor client communication regarding billing and fees for 2016 preparation. I was unaware that presenting books with a paper ledger rather than digital thumb drive would cause this sudden uptick since it had not in the previous 4 years.
I hire tax prep as a value added service, and for 2016, they proved to be neither!
Charging me double from the previous year (over twelve hundred for a sub s corp service business with one employee and avg gross of less than 80K ) because of their inadequately educated employees' difficulty transferring paper books to a digital file is an internal challenge that should not have become my entire financial burden. Yet those costs were cheerfully passed right down the line--- effectively doubling my costs. A remarkably unpleasant surprise for which I ended up paying in full.
By comparison, the bookkeeper I used to transfer my data for 2017 was easily able to complete the job in half the time and for a third of the cost.
Once this fact was established, I spoke with them again in an attempt to understand their motivations and expectations as well as to establish a clear framework for our business relationship The result of that conversation, upon reflection, was less than satisfactory, and I will neither continue to use their service nor recommend them.
Hind sight being 20/20, this could have easily been circumvented or entirely remedied with the simple requirement for books now being delivered via digital only or by their firm taking at least partial financial responsibility for a poorly trained employee.
The bottom line? It wasn't the employee's decision to bill me for that, it was her manager's. It was also their decision to inform me after the fact and refuse to alter the course of that decision. I get your point!
Doing business has challenges, and everybody makes choices.
Hope you treat your new clients better.