Office Assistants says ‘Leave bookkeeping to the professionals’ as they find one client £6,000 in unclaimed VAT
It was a case of ‘should have left it to the professionals’ last week as Office Assistants was called in to bail out a small business with a big bookkeeping problem.
The Essex based firm, which provides bookkeeping and office administration services to small and medium businesses in Essex and London, soon found themselves on a mission to correct several inaccuracies which were a result of accounts related tasks being left to an untrained member of staff. And not only did they successfully do this; they also found £6,000 worth of VAT that had not been claimed previously and immediately improved the business’ cash flow as a result.
Lynn Watson, Managing Director of Office Assistants explains the task she faced when the job was added to her to-do list. ‘Basically it was a case of making a whole host of corrections where items had been put in the wrong accounts and dates had been entered incorrectly. There was paperwork missing and all sorts of problems.’
Unfortunately issues like this are commonplace in smaller businesses where they try to get away with keeping staff and admin costs down by not using fully trained or qualified personnel. Literally thousands of pounds are being lost every year where things like VAT claims are not being executed correctly, and in this case the amount that had been overlooked made a colossal difference to the business.
Lynn explains how what looks like the cheaper option in the beginning can often turn out to be far more expensive in the long run. She says: ‘All in all I have spent days on this problem and I still have more work to do. If the client had used us in the first place they would have accurate figures, prepared properly and on time. They would also have the benefit of being able to plan ahead financially. I’m sure they now consider our monthly fees a small investment by comparison!’
Office Assistants provides bookkeeping and office services to businesses throughout Essex and London.
