Technical Accounting guidence

Marcus29

Hi everyone

Do any of you have a resource for technical accounting guidance that you use? Whether that be advice for accounting for lease incentives, disclosures, anything technical. AAT used to offer a helpline with ICAEW but that ended a year or two back, and I havent found anything that can assist. Any thoughts or advice most welcome!

MarieNoelle

Good question!
@AAT_Team what is the AAT's view on this?

@Marcus29 I have attended conferences organised by the Mercia Group. I can see on their website that they also offer a technical helpline, although I have no experience of this and it looks quite expensive...

Marcus29

@MarieNoelle - thanks for the post! I've just had look at their website and they could be a good resource to help out in such situations, thank you. It would be good to hear the AAT's view - we have a lot of good material and resource with the AAT, but it doesn't always cover some more of the complex technical elements. I sometimes feel a little lost on where to turn to for assistance on these matters. Certainly the Mercia resource could be a good one, although I agree, the cost looks a little high. I used the ICAEW helpline a couple of times and they were very helpful - the AAT had their reasons to not offer it anymore, I'm sure, but there doesn't look to be any steer on alternatives for more complex issues.

reader

I think they got rid of ICAEW helpline around 2 years ago to offer Croner tax products. However I believe AAT are withdrawing most of the Croner products offered from 1 July 2019. Therefore we are left with very little with regards to financial reporting and VAT with the AAT membership.

MarieNoelle

reader said:

I think they got rid of ICAEW helpline around 2 years ago to offer Croner tax products. However I believe AAT are withdrawing most of the Croner products offered from 1 July 2019. Therefore we are left with very little with regards to financial reporting and VAT with the AAT membership.

I also got the email today regarding Croner-i being withdrawn. We will still have access to the tax helpline but it's a shame the technical content won't be available any more.

AAT_Team

Thanks all for your comments on the changes to services to members. Over the last two years we’ve been faced with significant cost increases from the suppliers we have traditionally worked with. We have often had to respond to these at quite short notice and to make decisions that would not cause a significant increase in membership fees. We are also seeing changes in the market for suppliers of these services as well as the impact of technology in this area.

We recognise that the last two years have created challenges in terms of the services we can offer to members. We are now starting a review of technical support services to identify what technical support members need and the methods in which this can be delivered. We are also very mindful to make sure we offer support and services that members will use and that these represent value for money for your membership fees.

We will be asking members for their feedback in July and encourage you to join our online research community at AAT Green Room, so that you can be part of that process. It’s really important that we hear from as many of you as possible so we can plan and deliver the support services for the future that you need.

MarieNoelle

Thanks for the feedback @AAT_Team ?

ian_c

In anticipation of the withdrawal of existing support services, we have recently contacted Croner about taking up their support expecting a cost of around £90 per month (based on the email to members from AAT). We have 2 directors, one of us deals with practice management and bookkeeping, the other with final accounts and tax and needs the technical support. So, Croner wanted to charge us £216 per month (discounted from £270) plus VAT......I eventually negotiated a slimmed down package at £117 pm (which didn't cover all the aspects of support we would like), but then told if we didn't commit to more than a 12 month contract (3 years) then our fees would increase significantly after 12 months expired. Furthermore they required 6 months notice of cancellation - this we particularly considered unreasonable terms. The Croner fees were unpublished and not at all transparent and there appeared to be a strong 'sales/commission' approach towards us. The AAT discount of 25% is only useful if we have a defined cost to take this off. We have had previous discussions last year with Croner and the negotiated price was very similar to the 'discounted' price now offered. As a small practice we need to be able to manage our expenses flexibly, and given that we require support only once every 2 to 3 months the price is very high, particularly when added to the existing Licensed member fees being paid by 2 of us to AAT. I don't feel that Croner are helping us to get value here from our membership. When I look at the chartered accountant bodies their member fees seem comparable to AAT licensed member fees and yet the support their members receive is very comprehensive.

MarieNoelle

That's interesting @ian_c, thanks for sharing your experience.
I have registered to participate in the webinar next Wednesday - although this might just be a sales pitch by Croner-i.
I am disappointed that this service is withdrawn for Licensed members and I hope the AAT will come up with a satisfactory and affordable solution in the future.

MichaelBeechFMAAT

I wanted to just ask any AAT's out there in Practice, like ourselves, we are tied in to Croner in a 3 year subscription with 2 years to run. My understanding is once you are in you cannot get out? In other words you are tied to 3 years?
Anyone else in the same boat as us?

leeGrant77

HI Michael,
Im in the same situation as described by @ian_c - i signed up to Croner after a sales pitch and am tied in , have had barley any training and it doesn't seem to fit what i was told when being sold it.
When you're a sole practitioner you need some kind of support to turn to and or me, corner onset providing it but are happy to collect £160 pcm - im going to look into cancelling