Don't know what I cut out for this or is this the norm and need to suck it up

wally1990

**I don't know how to change the title but I meant to say '' I don't know if I am cut out for this ''



More of a rant but I'm interested to hear your perspective and experience.

I'm Currently working in an accountants (whilst studying chartered exams) but the workload is destroying me.

I currently manage/point of contact for 350 self employed clients with the support of a back office team.

We do everything from Ltd company set up, insurances, payroll, pensions, accounts reconciliation, revenue returns, expense management, time sheet review, invoicing, agreeing contracts, tax return, dealing with their debtors and more etc for a fixed monthly fee

Now, even with the support of a back office team and they are very good, the absolute amount of admin is killing us

The main gripe is emails and phone call volumes outside of the accountancy related work which is never ending.

In this new age they say everything is automated and its so easy people can do it themselves, but christ I don't know so much about his,,

yes I can create an invoice at the click of a button, but that is such a narrow minded and ignorant perspective of the accountants work plus when you factor in the time spent on answering emails and trying to get some clients to self serve is killing me

I pride myself on my customer service provision with my clients

I chat anyway with them, laugh and joke whilst being professional about their business affairs and try to build that relationship piece because its good for the company and our client whilst delivering the service.

But on bad days, it's like the amount of emails is frightening, people send an email and expect an answer in 2 hours or they reply again.

Or if missed their call I try to get back as soon as a I can but I'm snowed over and they may think your not on hand to answer them

Today alone I had 2 complaints that took circa 2 hours to resolve(exceptional circumstances) ,
110 payrolls to create whilst reconciling income to invoiced and do individual bank transfers,
spent 3 hours on the phone with clients,
and that brings me to 5 30pm

Now I've another 66 client emails to handle ,
5 callbacks and a zoom meeting with a client tonight and 12 debtors to ring and email

My BO team is busy pre cresting payroll for tomorrow and Monday and other tasks while setting up 3 new clients

I try to structure my day,
emails between X and Y,
calls between X and Y,
task A between this time and so on
, but Christ that doesn't work at the best of times

Then to make matters worse, it's like a race to the bottom nowadays with fees,
clients don't want to pay accountants or don't see the value and its soul destroying.

I don't know if I'm in the wrong area of accounting or just need a new career path or man up and that's life

What are your experiences of this '' industry''?

****ing headache from the screens too which doesn't help

Btw we can't employ more staff, we are on a hiring ban,


So what's your experience of this industry?

benjy1000

Yeah back in the recession I spent 5 years in practice and I definitely stayed 2 years too many , people moved on and I was left with the majority of their client portfolio , ended up with circa 180 clients with one junior doing the bank rec etc for me!
Constantly Plagued with Emails , needless queries and calls from clients wanting everything done yesterday, constant pressure on fees and been under budget, a budget which was getting lower each year as the competitors down the street used the job bridge scheme and employed a lot of juniors for €50 a week!!
But yeah it was a nightmare you end up been all things to these clients & I ended up once taxing a blokes car online for him , as he didn’t know how to do it!!
Ended up feeling quite low and just quit and left as if I continued I would have had some kind of breakdown!
And all these **** for €25k!!
“Accountancy practices you’ve done your time in hell”’
My own fault though I should have had more confidence in myself and just quit earlier!

Anyhoo ended up with a gig in industry & have moved on to different roles within industry and I can honestly say I haven’t worked near as hard since as I did in those practice days and I’m thankfully a hell of a lot more better off financially & mentally now!

There’s Plenty of gigs in industry for you & after a few month ends you’ll be fine .
Best of luck

marizpan

I think your experience is unfortunately typical now.

Clients expect a lot for the lowest possible fee. They expect instant replies to emails etc. There is always the pressure of billable time, fee pressure and being available to answer queries.
Outside of Big4 there is a race to the bottom in terms of fees.

I moved to industry and I haven’t looked back. Better resources and pay. I also lecture and it’s a lovely mix.

antix80

It doesn't sound like much of an accounting role if you're just doing an unmanageable amount of admin.. How much longer til you qualify? Do you have to stay with the same practice?
Any thoughts on what you want to be doing after you qualify?

More and more accountants are talking about what you're describing. Too many accountants have too many clients on too low a fee. Trying to be all things to all people all of the time is an impossible business model and there is already evidence that low cost providers are rowing back on the "spray and pray" type strategy. In the UK, KPMG launched their small business accountancy venture in 2015 at £150 pm only to pull out of the market five years later.

Pricing and niching is going to be a major topic for accountants post covid. Blindly collecting clients at unrealistic fees is an impossible business model. The mistake accountants make when pricing is that they go out to the market to see what the competition is charging, they come across the low prices online and think the only way to compete is to operate at that rate or below it. The problem with this approach is that everybody is competing within the same bandwidth, and if you can’t articulate your differences or your expertise (because you’ll take on any client that walks through the door), the client’s decision will inevitably come down to price.

I did a deep dive on this topic a few weeks ago here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/never-waste-crisis-brendan-brady/

gudede

I am sorry but that’s not normal!!!

Yes, you’re busy in practice but that’s the joys off it. I would say move practice as your employer is taking advantage.

In general though, Partners in practice need to;
- pay staff more,
- realise it’s quality over quantity. That covers expected hours and the clients your servicing.
- lower the fee, greater the work required to service the client, as they’re the one emailing and ringing all of the time.