I have unfortunately had a rough time with Jonathan Ford as of late. Back in May 2024, I had a lengthy conversation with Alison Brown, about what I could expect from her. However, as soon as I had signed contracts, I was told I would be working with Shenice, who would be dealing with my day to day bookkeeping. I had not signed off on this handover before the fact, and noticed early on that there were some small mistakes happening, that I had to step in and rectify. Although I found both Alison and Shenice very personable, myself and Alison did not communicate again properly until well over a year later, despite me calling the office several times to get through to her, and never hearing back. Meanwhile Shenice had some issues logging into the FreeAgent software. I was messaged repeatedly about this, and had tried in my own way to fix this issue for her, albeit it being well out of my responsibility to do so, and when I finally fixed the issue by a quick Google search, I then realised that no one had been looking at my books for 5 months. 5 months of no bookkeeping, and in which time I went over the VAT threshold. We were then 3 months late in submitting my VAT change to HMRC, which exposes me to future investigation. It is deeply frustrating to know that I have paid close to £600 since May to have zero work done for me. My FreeAgent software also let me know that Alison never logged into the backend of my accounting software until September 2025. 16 months after I contracted her. That makes me worried about how she could have worked on my last year’s accounts with any degree of depth without actually accessing my accounts. I did not agree to have a junior bookkeeper file my taxes, and feel very led astray by how everything has been dealt with. It is hard for me to be so candid when I find both people to be great personally to work with, but professionally, and in terms of my business, this has not even come close to the standard I would expect. There is a reason I have outsourced all my accounting needs, and nearly all of them have not been met. Both Alison and Shenice have mentioned my lack of communication as to why they abandoned my books for 5 months. This is not strictly the case. I would reply to 50-75% of Shenice’s messages, but when the request became the same every time, and I had no further advice to give them (as to how my accountants could access the accounting software) I became disillusioned, and refrained from responding with real frustration at a situation that seemed baffling to me. – How would you describe our performance overall?

• 4/10 – How satisfied are you with our service?
• 3/10 – How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?