dealing with pedantic clients...

JodieR

got an email this morning which reads...

'We’ve received a payment for HMRC of £461.61 but our VAT Control Account shows an amount due of £461.62. Please can you sort this out on your next visit?'

I have a range of responses I'd like to send but maybe as I'm suffering from a mild case of PMT today i should just reply with 'OK'! Does this kind of thing annoy anyone else? how do you deal with it?

coojee

JodieR wrote: »

got an email this morning which reads...

'We’ve received a payment for HMRC of £461.61 but our VAT Control Account shows an amount due of £461.62. Please can you sort this out on your next visit?'

I have a range of responses I'd like to send but maybe as I'm suffering from a mild case of PMT today i should just reply with 'OK'! Does this kind of thing annoy anyone else? how do you deal with it?

"Certainly and here's my bill for £500" That'll teach you to quibble over 1p. Actually thinking about it, £500 probably wouldn't be enough to find a difference of 1p

JodieR

It's just because I work out the VAT on a spreadsheet and there must have been a rounding issue at some point. grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

James Patterson

JodieR wrote: »

It's just because I work out the VAT on a spreadsheet and there must have been a rounding issue at some point. grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Easy find right? Thats alot easier than trawling through figures Silver lining

JodieR

It just annoys me that when i took over this client a year ago i found that the previous (ex-vat inspector) bookkeeper had (a) never entered journals for fuel scale charges into the accounts system despite accounting for them on VAT returns, (b) never reconciled the sales VAT or purchase VAT accounts and therefore frequently declared transactions on the wrong VAT return or missed them off entirely and (c) had made an error of £220000 on the sales figure on the last vat return he filed. And now I'm made to feel like i need to grovel for an apology over a 1 penny discrepency.
I'm sure i'll have forgotten about it by tomorrow but today it's got me riled!

Monsoon

JodieR wrote: »

Does this kind of thing annoy anyone else? how do you deal with it?

Yes.

A variety of ways:

Swear.
Forward to other staff with the title LOL [NB: I don't actually do this for fear I will accidentally send to client]
Swear.
Call client rude names, such as derpnozzle or duncecanoe.
Swear.
Email client "This is just a rounding difference and can be disregarded. I'll get rid of it when I'm next there."
Swear.

JodieR

I'm thinking of either photocopying a chapter in a textbook on the materiality concept & plonking it on her desk or maybe printing off every email I've received from her & highlighting every typo / spelling mistake / grammatical error with a bright red pen. Probably a good thing we're bound by professional codes of conduct or i'd end up in some sticky situations!

Monsoon

Jodie, close your email and have a cuppa. Not worth your time.

You could just ignore the email. That might actually get your point across!

James Patterson

Chillax i'll give you a penny to make up the difference

JodieR

haha I'm chill really, it was just fun plotting revenge yesterday, I'm over it now!

esimps

We all get clients like this and it is crazy what some clients ask questions about. I just take this type of thing with a pinch of salt and not worry about it.