To think our accountant is taking us for a ride

[Peaches39]

Here it goes,
My self and husband are both self employed.
We have been with our accountant since 2011. Initially he was working for accounting firm & then went on to another accounting firm and we followed him & now he work for him self & we are still his clients . Moving from one accounting firm to another so that we can follow him has been painful in it self but we have stuck with him. So he does our accounts inc. VAT, Self-Assessments , Payroll & Corporation tax and for this we pay him monthly fee . Recently he sent us an invoice with no warning whatsoever for £384 and told us is for Payroll fees , my husband spoke to him to understand what this invoice is for and he has said it is for doing the payroll automatically , so we said fine and paid for it. We recently had some queries from the HMRC for accounting years 2009 & 2010 and was asked by HMRC to fill in a form. My husband naturally had asked the accountant for some help & to make sure he completed the form correctly . All of the HMRC letters were emailed to him so he can have a look and he also suggested he will come home . My husband was fine with it & they have checked the form together & it was sent over to HMRC. It was agreed beforehand this will be a separate charge as it doesn't relate to the stuff he does for us now . But fee wasn't discussed as we basically trust this person . Today he sends an invoice for over £700 + VAT with explanation
£500 - daily rate discount & £150 - 3h analysis with 50% discount and told us it is for 6h worth of work.
we are literally gobsmaked & don't know what to think. We tried to ask to explain the £500 charge but all we got is for his trip to our home & the time he spent going over with my husband and also includes his travel.
Does this seem excessive to you !

I’m a self employed accountant and it seems steep yes. But I’ve also never encountered this form from hmrc. Was it very detailed??

Or I’m missing a trick and way too cheap 🤔

I’m afraid I have no idea how much accountants cost so have no idea if it’s steep or cheap (although seems a lot to me!) what I would say is if you’re happy with his explanation and feel that the work he’s done has merited the fee then pay it and carry on. If you have more questions and he hasn’t answered them to your satisfaction then I’d enquire elsewhere and maybe think about moving.

Thank you , the form was around contractors loans & using umbrella firms . & yes we this the fee is excessive

It’s probable that’s it’s taken a lot of research to complete correctly so I would say the fee is ok.

It’s not on to not give a heads up though. For the payroll bill or this. He should give you the chance to do it yourself or go elsewhere.