Researching for another matter I clicked over to Company’s House Webcheck service to look at what Crunch Accounting has filed. Imagine my surprise when I found that there was a Gazette notice. For those reading this who are not familiar with The London Gazette, it’s the official journal for notifying the public that (among other things) a company will or has been struck off. There are many reasons why this might happen. In this case, Crunch had cocked up the filing of its own Annual Return. What? OK – it happens. And yes – we all hate the bureaucracy. But if you want to have the privilege of limited liability status under the Companies Act then like it or not, you have to follow the rules.
The omission was corrected within 9 days of the initial notice date posted at Webcheck and Companies House withdrew its notice of intended striking off.
But…Crunch offers services that include the filing of Annual Returns for an extra £15 above its standard service fees.
Click on each of the images in the gallery below to see what happened and what Crunch says on its own web pages about AR services.
And in case you think this is a tiny wee thing that can be swept aside, then check what Crunch says:
We’ll ensure you are never late or get painful penalties. This is truly worry free accounting!
That’s comforting isn’t it?
I can think of at least one professional who might have something to say about that. Cue Stuart Jones who said this back in March, 2010:
Don’t forget that the “minimum accounts” will be inaccurate, they may be rejected by Companies House and HM Revenue and Customs and worst of all may result in you paying too much tax.
I’ve long held the view that the profession is ripe for disruption but when services dont keep their own house in order, then what can you say about their ability to deliver? Stuart has long been concerned that the proliferation of these kinds of service will lead to problems for clients. He regularly picks up shoddy work that has to be refactored. A service is in a slightly different position because in many cases the idea is to operate a factory style of operation at the lowest possible cost. That most frequently means you rarely if ever attend the service office. If something does go wrong then what are your options? How can you be sure that you are being protected? What checks can you perform to ensure that what the service says it will deliver is in fact delivered? Can you rely on recommendations?
In this particular case I would be asking what kind of alerting mechanism does the company have in place to ensure that filings occur on time and how can it demonstrate that it both exists and works?
This is not the first time I’ve caught out Crunch. The last time it happened they tried to get me to tear down a recording I made of a conversation with one of their people. That was never going to happen. They then had a crack at trying to impune my integrity. That didn’t work either. At the very least, they should be embarrassed.
Side note: Companies House Webscheck is a very good source of information. You have to pay £1 per document and because of the filing requirements in the UK, it is out of date with most goings on. Even so, sometimes it can reveal real gems.
