How We Work
As VAT advisors, we often get enquiries about "how we work" and what services we offer. The short answer is that we offer whatever level of service you'd like - we have some businesses we only ever speak with for an hour or for one short project, and some clients who have been with us since we started the business and we speak with at length regularly. So, although we'd like to think that our level of service to our clients is the same top quality, regardless of how often we speak and how big or small your business is, most of our scopes are bespoke to the individual needs of our clients.
We appreciate that this is probably not very helpful for businesses trying to find out more about us and how we work, so we've set out below our typical approach, which we hope is helpful.
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How do we start working with you?
Although we are pretty flexible, we normally suggest one of three main approaches for new clients. This will often depend on how much you know about VAT and exactly what you're looking for (or indeed whether you know what you're looking for!). Our normal starting point is a "hello" call with Paul who will be able to get some information from you on your business and your VAT requirements. He'll suggest what may be best in your circumstances, but its always up to you and these are the most common ways we start with new clients:
1. 1HR VAT CONSULTATION
Our 1hr VAT consultations are our most popular starting point for businesses and we suggest these to businesses who are not quite sure exactly what they need, but may have a few specific questions and/or want to understand and improve their VAT position.
We think these calls are a cost-effective way to gain some understand on your VAT position and we usually find that businesses get many answers in these sessions. We can't guarantee that 1hr will be all you'll need to solve your VAT issues, but these calls provide you with a full 1hr of time with Laura, an experienced VAT advisor. She will take time to understand your business and give as many answers as she can within the hour. In some cases, businesses get all they need from the hour. In other cases, we suggest follow up work and send over a separate scope proposal afterwards. However, we really want to stress here that these consultations are not "sales-y" and we don't push further work on people - we genuinely want to give you an hour of our consultancy time which you can choose to follow up further or not.
Our 1hr consultations are carried out on Zoom or by phone as per your choice, and are offered at a discounted hourly rate of £200ph plus VAT. Please contact Paul to find out more or arrange a time slot for a consultation.
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2. VAT HEALTHCHECK
Our VAT Healthcheck is for businesses that do not have specific questions but want to try and ensure their VAT position is up to date and optimal. It is designed as a cost-effective way to give you some comfort and reassurance into your VAT position, and identify any possible opportunities, without posing a large investment to your time or finances. Our Healthcheck takes you through the key questions for VAT based on your business activities, as well as covering general areas of VAT that can go unnoticed. This service includes:
• A Zoom/phone consultation of 1-2 hours to chat through our tailored Healthcheck.
• A written summary of our findings and whether there are any opportunities or risks identified. This includes recommendations and guidance on next steps if opportunities or risks are identified.
Our fixed fee for this Healthcheck is £600 plus VAT.
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3. SCOPING CALL WITH TAILORED SCOPE
We also find some businesses have a particular scope or review in mind and know broadly what service they require (for example, a full VAT review, a contract review, an HMRC investigation or a specific list of questions). In these cases, we will usually suggest a scoping call so that we can find out a bit more about the issues you face and about your business, and then we will provide you with a tailored scope and quote for your circumstances.
We are also very happy to hold agreements with businesses for ad hoc advice based on time costs, and these are quite common.
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I just have a quick query...can you help?
One point we want to be clear on is that for our clients, past and present, we do not ever "start the clock" as soon as we connect the call. We are always upfront about our pricing and when we are going to charge for something, and will always agree this with you in advance so that there will never be any surprise bills. We are always very happy to chat with our clients and answer short queries where we can without a charge, and don't want our clients to fear that they will be charged for each minute of our time - we know firms like this and aren't a fan!
However, regretfully, this does not extend to businesses which are not, and never have been, clients. This is for a number of reasons, but perhaps the most important of these is risk. Understanding and advising on VAT issues properly takes time and experience, and is very rarely a quick yes/no response, because there are so many grey areas. We need to understand the business, the background and the exact circumstances to provide quality advice. As such, it would be a risk to us and to you to answer queries in a quick 5 minute call, and we are not prepared to take this risk.
We hope this gives you a good idea of the typical ways we work. We are flexible and are always happy to consider other options - please do just get in contact and we'd be very happy to discuss how we may be able to help you and your business.
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