I am writing this “protecting our clients” blog on the back of getting a very welcome letter from Revenue. Is there such a thing, I hear you ask! Well, yes, in this case. A client had a level 2 VAT compliance review that started a year ago. No extra tax, interest, or penalties. And a bonus of a €30k VAT refund that Revenue were holding, being refunded to our client.
We protect you. That’s one of our core values. Nice words to say, but only words if we don’t support those words with action. In this, I will give you two examples of how we protect our clients.
- Older client
- Our best client
- Starts with why
Older Client
Mad Karen is an older client. She lives up the country and sends a bag of documents to us once a year. Not our ideal client at all. No e-mail, no internet banking, all paper. I procrastinate like crazy. I know this is my job, as I can’t give it to anyone else. There’s too much to untangle. It wouldn’t be fair to hand this to anyone and expect them to come up with the numbers. They’d do it and hand in their notice shortly after.
“My boss was horrible to me. He gave me a bag of crap to fix, and I didn’t know where to start. It was just awful”
As a result, I leave that thick yellow envelope in my office for a month or so until it gets close to tax deadline time. Then I bring it home and lock myself in the office for hours to see if I can arrive at a number. Eventually, there’s white smoke. We have a number for Karen. I call her up, and she starts cursing and swearing at me
“How the f**k could it be that high. And I giving my money to those useless tools up in the Dail, and they haven’t a brain cell between them”
And other such ranting and ravings, but she’ll always pay her taxes.
2024 was different
2024 was different. I noticed something was up. Karen rents some apartments, and it’s her main source of income. Plus, the rent she charges is very reasonable, given current rents around the country. And the quality of her apartments is very high. We do rental computations for each apartment as you are supposed to do. So, you are cross-checking the payments into the bank with each apartment. From what I could see, there were no lodgements from apartment 5. No lodgements from that apartment for all of 2024. Not for rent or gas.
I could only assume that this continued to happen in 2025, but I didn’t have any proof until I saw the bank statements. When I told Karen this news, she was quite upset. She and the tenant were good friends, so she thought anyway. She confronted him and, at first, he mentioned a banking error and that he paid it into another account.
This got me wondering if I was wrong, as I wasn’t aware of another account. A day later, the tenant called into her and admitted he hadn’t paid. He was sorry and promised Karen he’d pay back everything he owed. I think it was a case of living beyond his means and not paying his most important bill. The one that put a roof over his head.
Fix the issue
It was time to fix the issue. I asked Karen to send me her 2025 statements, and we set up a meeting with the manager of her local AIB. The most important thing for us is to have access to her bank statements. We can check that the tenants are paying her every month, so we are not a year behind the times. The manager couldn’t have been more helpful, and we achieved plenty like
- Access to the statements, but Karen must send us the code, so she knows it is us logging onto her online banking
- Moving money between her accounts. This saves her money. She’s not paying high interest for an account in overdraft when she can transfer funds from a deposit account.
- The bank manager recommended transferring some money from a demand deposit account. This would go to another account where she’ll get a much higher interest rate.
- Stop making payments to two savings products when there is no longer a need. This will save her over €3600 a year
- Having a contact in the local branch for various queries
Karen will save thousands of euros, and we can keep an eye on this every month for her. I won’t be in a panic when the big yellow envelope comes in every year. She’ll be more protected, and any non-paying tenant will come to light much sooner.
Our best client
How do you know when someone is our best client? Ask the team in the office, and most, if not all, will say this client. Why? The client who ticks all the boxes
- Really nice person and family to deal with
- A successful business
- No issue with payments. Pays on time every month
- Values the work we do
- Only contacts you when they need help
- Not a pushover. Honest and will tell you if they are not happy with something
The parents, Tom and Bridget, passed the business to their son, Niall, in 2020. The parents built up an amazing business over 40 years of hard work and dedication. There was cash and investments in the trading company. Both parents wanted Niall to get the trading business but to keep the cash and investments. We hived out the trade into a new company, as a starter. The parents continued to work in the new company, and we exited them to make way for Niall after a year or two.
Tom passed some shares to Niall. We did a share buyback, so the parents got cash for their shares, and Niall ended up owning the company. All legit and very tax-efficient with the use of
Niall needs help
Niall went from an employee to the 100% owner of a super company. A third-generation business. One of his earliest problems was the impending retirement of his bookkeeper. She was old school, but excellent and meticulous. He asked if we’d know of anyone who could replace her, or if there was any way we could help.
We took on the bookkeeping, or I should say Aedin took it on. She had Ger in the background, sorting out the teething problems and the tech. They went from hard-backed ledgers to cloud accounting. XERO as their cloud accounting solution, and DEXT to capture invoices and store them. Cloud-based too. Bank feeds go from AIB directly to Xero, so Niall doesn’t waste time calling the bank or posting statements. There are hundreds of transactions every month. Lots of invoices go straight to DEXT. We are not 100% paperless with Niall yet, but we are getting there.
Bookkeeping and payroll
Aedin is meticulous when it comes to accounts and bookkeeping. A rare gem that gets a huge kick when things balance. The quality of her and others’ work means that the numbers are right. That protects the client. The VAT in their business is tricky as there’s a margin scheme. Niall isn’t one of those who has a massive interest in examining the numbers, but three things concern him most
- Staff are looked after, and their salaries are right
- Revenue are paid on time, and the figures are spot on
- Creditors get paid on time and the right amount
Izabela, our payroll specialist, looks after all the wages. and the big plus for Niall is that his employees have someone to ask questions of if they have queries. He had the foresight to invest in his finance function. It didn’t mean hiring a new bookkeeper, but outsourcing his finance function to us.
Given that we have access to all the information, his year-end accounts are done early the following year. He’ll know what the company’s Corporation tax liability is then, too, and we can also sort his tax return. The constant visibility of his numbers and documents works great for him and is super for us
I’ll usually meet him a couple of times a year, and if I ask him how he finds our service, the usual answer is
“Ah sure, I’d be lost without Aedin”
To hear that about one of our team is just brilliant.
Start with Why
Start with Why is a book by Simon Sinek. A very interesting read. We give this to our new accounts clients when they sign up with us. The idea behind it is to understand why you went into business in the first place. For me, it was to help people and businesses improve. To protect and look after our clients and help them navigate the accounting and tax issues they face.
Being a business owner can be difficult and lonely, too, at times. You are working long hours and love the business. It can often be overwhelming. You are the salesperson, the purchasing guru and the marketing specialist. Plus, you are the boss and make decisions that impact people’s lives and livelihoods.
As a business owner, it’s fantastic to see the team in here doing that every day. Trying to help and getting things right for clients. To be there for them when they need our help, like when a Revenue audit letter arrives. But also, to advise them about ways to do things differently and better. Having a quality bookkeeping system in place to make sure the numbers are right is the main protection. Payroll, VAT, RCT and other taxes are complex. Dealing with the CRO and Revenue can be challenging. Auto-enrolment is on the way, and what should I do?
The business environment is constantly changing. You want a quality relationship with your accountant in good times and bad. Someone who’s there for you. Knowing what you are paying, no surprise fees, and a dedicated manager to look after your business tick a lot of boxes.
We love protecting you and your business. If that interests you, start here
