Callanaccountancy Reviews

2 years with this company first one ok the second a total nightmare Sent in my data received and paid Callan s upfront fixed fee invoice a month later for completion of abbreviated accounts full accounts and self assessment then heard nothing for months Emails went unanswered for weeks on end up to and beyond the filing deadline so naturally I was concerned about having missed it The accounts were apparently filed on the deadline WITHOUT me being informed or given the chance to see or approve them I was not given the abbreviated accounts until 2 weeks after the deadline I was not given the full accounts at all Emails I sent asking for the full accounts went unanswered and because I asked publicly on their fb page for a reply I got a rare email response from Stephen in which he ranted in a barely comprehensible manner and resigned as my accountant WITHOUT completing the work I paid for or refunding the portion of the work he couldn t be bothered doing They had also insisted that I pay monthly towards NEXT year s fees which I did and although they will not be doing that work they refuse to refund that money too In what universe is this ethical professional or honest behaviour Callan are not accredited with any of the regulatory accountancy bodies so they are not bound by a code of conduct The icing on the cake is that I have since hired a properly qualified and professionally accredited accountant to do what I already paid Callan to do and they have informed me that the figures in the abbreviated accounts are total nonsense I would not go near Callan with a barge pole and definitely would not recommend giving them any money upfront In response to Stephen s comments below The matter is now being discussed in public because you refused to resolve it privately despite being given multiple opportunities to do so The issues arose because you have not fulfilled your side of the agreement and appear to lack the ability to do the right thing It is not reasonable to take the money not do the work and yet keep the money It is absolutely your right to refuse to do work but in that instance you refund the client for what you fail to complete I have not made any statements which are not true If you are in fact now accredited with one of the regulatory bodies please advise which one and I will address them about your conduct Neither you nor your firm show up as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants you do not show up as a member in the records of ATT and you do not show up in the records of the Chartered Institute of Taxation After my negative experience with you I was careful to check out my current accountant prior to agreeing a contract Funnily enough they do show up in the records of their chartered institute have a communication policy which means they always reply within 24 hours complete the agreed work and show up with a professional attitude in every communication You could learn a lot from this 15 4 2015 Further to your additional comments - So much misinformation to address so little time 1 I offered to have a face to face meeting to resolve this a couple of months ago you ignored the suggestion 2 We had a fixed fee agreement I have this in writing from you in multiple forms I also have the initial terms of business we agreed upon 3 I paid the agreed fixed fee upfront to cover the work you were supposed to do I have proof of this 4 You did not do the work you were paid to do I have proof of this too 5 As you did not do the work you were paid upfront to do it is you who owe me money 6 Stating that I owe you anything is complete fabrication Given that you have performed zero work outside of our fixed fee agreement and performed less than half of what was agreed inside of our fixed fee agreement please state exactly what it is that you are asserting is chargeable 7 I would be delighted to present the compilation of evidence of this to any interested parties 8 I do not have the time to attend your office w c 18th April due to other pre-existing commitments I am available in Edinburgh the following week however 9 I am no longer receiving emails at my prior email address If you do in fact have constructive intent in resolving this matter please send it in writing to my registered office address outlining how you propose to resolve the matter and I will respond to you asap Alternatively you may leave a voicemail at my previous phone number and again I will respond as soon as possible 10 I had and continue to have an extremely positive relationship with my previous accountant I moved only because I did not require the size of offering that came with a large prestigious firm They did not warn you about me Your attempts to discredit both me and my new accountant whose conduct is exemplary are completely transparent 11 While you continue to dishonestly hold funds for uncompleted work which rightfully belong to me I will continue to leave this in place to warn other potential clients of your conduct

My brief history with Callan all of which can be evidenced First couple of years fine Then asked by Stephen to post positive reviews to counteract negative feedback by others Found out I was being charged for a service I wasn t receiving Received aggressive emails when I queried this Suddenly was forced to pay up front because I was receiving a service throughout the year Requested advice on several occasions No reply No acknowledgement No advice Big phone bill due to repeated calls to HMRC to get advice I was paying Callan to give Sent info for company return 2015-16 in May 2016 Had discussions with Callan in June to refine detail Contacted Callan many times throughout December 2016 expressing concern about not having received accounts for filing No acknowledgement No response No accounts Received letters from Companies House and HMRC telling me my accounts are almost due and if not filed on time will result in a penalty fine plus interest Contacted Callan many times in early January No acknowledgement No response No accounts Finally received a response on January 9th stating the matter would take a short time to look into and I would receive clarification that week One day before the deadline Stephen provides the information and tells me it was done in September The short time he said it would take to ideal with this turned out to be 21 days To look up a file The take away message is STEER CLEAR OF CALLAN ACCOUNTING FURTHER TO STEPHEN WARD S RESPONSE TO MY POSTI was told on several occasions prior to my posting last week that the member of staff to whom Mr Ward refers was no longer with the company To claim he was sacked as a result of my posting is in direct conflict with statements made by several Callan staff and by Stephen Ward himself After posting my positive review a while ago the level of service dropped significantly In the last 18 months many emails and phone calls went unanswered The stress this caused particularly over the past 6 weeks has been immense I always speak as I find truthfully and openly in the hope others will be able to make an informed decision

Stay well clear of Callan Accountancy to date I have had to pay HMRC in the region of 3500 for late tax returns I am a Limited company with only myself and my wife as employee s and they cant even manage that

SAVE YOURSELF THE TIME MONEY AND NERVES AND GO SOMEWHERE ELSEUnfortunately I must warn others not to use this firm as I could not imagine accountancy service that is worse than the one I received Stephen the director seems fine as long as everything is going his way but as soon as something changes he becomes very unprofessional This quote from him should give you an idea Now if you don t mind I will go back to enjoying what I do best which is make money Yes it seems all he cares about is making money and providing accountancy service or customer service in general is not his priority at all I am not sure what is Stephen s background I have not seen any evidence he is a qualified accountant He surely is a director of many companies his name shows up on Companies House search quite a lot next to some active and inactive tax advice firms In the short three month period when I was Stephen s customer two out of three people I dealt with left the firm One was a junior staffer tasked with all payroll and administration related work and the other was a qualified accountant I never met Stephen although he agreed to meet me on the first day when I asked to see him in his office I was greeted on the day by the senior accountant who left the firm shortly after She apologised for Stephen s absence My grim experience with Callan started with an email I sent out on 17 August 2017 to a number of accountancy firms Stephen replied quickly to my email promising all the things I was looking for as a small one person IT company I just started accountancy financial planning guidance and advice I was looking for a company who would provide a personalised service for a good price I quickly signed up My first disappointment was when they started asking for money I did not mind paying of course I wanted to pay by a bank transfer straight to their bank account instead of going through online payment gateway It took some time emails and phone calls before they gave me a sort code and account number I could pay the money into for full year ahead of course Then there was a whole series of events that eventually convinced me Stephen s company was not what I signed up for I felt I was being neglected as a customer They gave me incorrect advice on how to reference monthly HMRC tax payments what resulted in HMRC sending me payment reminders I was sent another company s confidential information in error monthly payroll and other confidential information which seriously undermined my trust in their service The worst part was that they were ignorant about their mistakes and very slow to admit their errors I needed to make repeated attempts to get them to provide reassurance my details were not sent by mistake to anyone else They were slow to respond to my emails and Stephen was never in the office when I tried to phone I finally decided to cease any dealings with Callan and deauthorise them to represent me on 29th of December 2017 requesting a refund for their services It became apparent at this point that Stephen had no intention of giving me any refund Long story short I paid Callan over 1400 in fees I left the company in December 2017 Stephen finally refunded me 520 by sending a cheque with no accompanying letter or refund calculation on the 26th of March This review is way too long already to describe the struggle I had to go through to get any money back from this man I want to warn others of Stephen s refund tactics Stephen keeps postponing the refund by weeks and months and that is if you manage to contact him In my experience the only way to get another promise of a payment from him was to send emails copying everyone in his office in This allowed him to claim he needs to deduct money from my refund because everyone in his office had to read my emails Getting Stephen to process the refund was one of the worst nightmares I ever had to go through I am absolutely convinced that I would never see any money back if I were not able to put some pressure on him by phoning the office and copying his staff in my emails I read the positive reviews about the company and I have to say they all seem to me to incredibly unrealistic given my experience with Stephen and Callan Accountancy

Please PLEASE -Do not be tempted into using this company I have been charged well over the agreed monthly fees-of around 140 per month-plus licensing costs for software The owner has a nasty habit of luring you in with a low monthly cost and then racking up another annual 200-300 extra annual feesAsked Steven for a breakdown-I never got it asked Steven to review this extra cost in 2022 as he managed to rack up an invoice for an extra 2k - forced a 1-1 meeting to ensure this was re credited into my bank account as again they were very swift to take the money out my account - Steven citing extra time incurred in setting the new company up Not professional as they never supplied me with any breakdown to any timesheets or a clear indication of costs to work done-it was at this point in 2022 when I thought enough is enough and made the decision to move to a firm who complied in a professional manner So in June 2023 I was not surprised when I gave them notice due to multiple errors-late filling a double registration for PAYE multiple fines my hand was forced by Steven to pay for-another fictitious invoice for extra time incurred -And this time for 9 months of work-an extra demand of approx 2 5k 9 months of months of work equating to move than the whole of 2022 I realised this company was acting unlawfully therefore I cancelled all direct debits till I received any back up information to their fictitious invoicing The reason I knew this company was acting unlawfully was that in 2022- I have in writing that costs for 2023 will be adequately covered within the monthly arrangements due to me managing my account efficiently And if there was any notion of Callan working professionally with their clients then regular meeting to discuss their time management linked to the hiked one off invoices would be in place to better manage customer expectations On another note-Also- if your company uses any of their recommended licences-DEXT or Quickbooks-they will hold you hostage as they will take ownership of the licences in order that when you leave- Yes you will Leave they will wipe the licenses and related company transactions from under your feet as they claim to own that information Pls if you are a current client act on this now Decided to promptly raise a court action against the company Due to errors in late submissions for SA errors in registering me twice for PAYE and overcharging me for invoices without any credible back up