Brookson One

I have been with Brookson for over a year now and I have nothing but praise for the exceptional level of customer service I have received. Starting off in contracting can be quite a daunting experience but Brookson made it very easy for me. From setting up my own limited company to claiming for mileage and expenses, they gave me the right advice at the right time which helped me to manage my accounts in the best possible way. Picking up the phone to ask a question, no matter how small, knowing that you'll always be greeted with a friendly knowledgeable voice at the other end, is the embodiment of true customer service and that is how I'd describe Brookson in a nutshell. What's more, they do not rest on their laurels, they are continually trying to improve, striving to provide the best service possible to their customers. A perfect example of this is the online Brookson Connect system which is used to manage everything from claiming expenses to submitting your yearly Tax Return to the HMRC. They have recently released version 3.0, an update to the previous version 2.0. This new version was released in direct consultation with Brookson customers, the feedback was then taken on board and was implemented into the final product. The new version gives users a more streamlined and faster experience with a modern look and feel. This is a perfect example of Brookson putting their customers at the heart of how the company is run and I think it's what keeps customers loyal. Brookson's legal team also carry out IR35 reviews as part of their service, this gave me peace of mind knowing that I was getting the best advice to ensure I was compliant with the most up to date IR35 tax rules. Finally I'd like to touch upon their amazing referral scheme they have in place. If you refer someone to them and the person ends up joining Brookson, not only do you as the referrer get a free gift, the new customer gets one too! Now you can't get any better than that! I know this may sound like a paid review, but it honestly isn't. I have had such a positive experience with Brookson from day one, that I just had to share it with everyone. I can't recommend Brookson Accountants and their services enough.

Been with Brookson for over 10 years and rate them 5 star. Sure it helps if you understand a little about the concept of The client .. The agent...The accountant..The director and The employee..but if you don't perhaps limited company isn't for you. Top class IMO

Useless.. Good luck getting through on the phone come Friday when they have messed you're pay up.

Incompetent and a complete waste of space. Go else where or you will end up paying HMRC late fees.

I certainly would not recommend Brookson as an Umbrella company. Initially very helpful and responsive to set you up. They give you false information to entice you to join. I’ve not been paid on time on several occasions and no effort has been made to rectify or apologise. Payslips difficult to understand and not consistent. A lot of time is wasted on trying to get your pay on time. Despite not delivering the service agreed, they’re still happy to charge you. There must be better umbrella companies out there.

Worst excuse for an accountants I have ever heard of. Here are some of their highlights: - Registered our company for VAT even though it wasn’t suitable. - Set up a bank account that couldn’t deal with cheques even thought that’s what we needed. - Never filed any PAYE to the revenue, so we incurred a fine. - Sent one of our clients an invoice when they received a remittance advice from another of our clients (even though we handled invoicing). - Constantly passed from pillar to post with customer service representatives. Nobody took any responsibility or ownership of tasks. Despite all this we paid their fees promptly. They tried to dissuade us from leaving and then held up our information for 2 months so our new accountant was working blind. Quite frankly giving them a star is awarding them more than they deserve.

Really poor service! I have to call them all the time and make sure they have done the work I have asked for. I feel very depended on them regarding managing my business. I strongly DO NOT recommend them.

Gone down hill fast Been with them over 10 years , this year my tax return has had 2 different figures , their illustration for tax payable even though I did the hours , mileage and rate specified left me with a huge liability , and was a load of rubbish ,I now have had to take out a big loan to pay my tax bill. Will be changing accountants in new year once they sort the tax return , they are one of the most expensive but you get very poor service they only seem interested in generating their fees and not the best interests of the customer . and I feel they have got too big to care. My advice avoid them .

Brookson do a really good job of holding your hand through the initial setup of a company, always informs you of any actions that you need to carry out if you are not savvy with certain legal deadlines and the online Connect service is reasonable good if not a little behind with updating your income. The negatives that I have encountered is contradicting information/instruction from Brookson employees, which is incredibly frustrating and I think the service is over-priced, however, the free gift when you refer a friend is always a pleasure.

I think I was too soon to give them a 5 star rating! I was swayed a bit by their responses over phone and gave them a positive feedback by mistake. Here is the REAL feedback after 6 weeks of constant requests via email and telephone to give me my LEAVER's Certificate i.e. my final account statement AFTER I have stopped using their service. I still havent received my account statement and I am almost sure that they are going to treat me as a NOBODY since I have stopped paying them. The guys over phone promise that they will get back ASAP and get this sorted as PRIORITY, but their words and promises are written in water. Watchout guys. Please go for an accountant where there might be a possiblity of one to one with one person. I am feeling real bad to have chosen Brookson One now! Very disappointed Arun ************************************************************ I am an Engineering contractor (first time) with a ltd company. I chose Brookson since the company I am contracting for recommended it along with few other options. Let me summarise my experience here. 1. They are at least 10-20% more expensive than the average accountant would charge, but I do believe they have some unique selling points as below - if you feel the extra few hundred pounds worth the following, better go for them 2. The connect website where all the account details reside is really good. Intuitive, very useful and tells you how much we can afford to take out of the company at any point in time 3. I have probably had 10-15 telephone calls with them in the past 9 months and my average waiting time was 10-15 secs (YES!) 4. Mostly the person answering the phone would have the right answer or the call back/ email reply service with the accountant does the trick (again - never missed the call back appointment and longest I had to wait for an email was 48hrs which is OK from my perspective) 5. Staff are polite throughout (even when I told them I am leaving Brookson as I was going to work as an Expat) - very professional I believe when I come back and restart the company I have absolutely no doubt I will go to Brookson again and its all down to the staff and their attitude. Kudos guys. Regards Arun ATS Engineering and Design Ltd

Finally managed to extract myself from their service. Like other reviews give you lots of the gab when you first contact them, and you would expect their advice to be appropriate and accurate. Please don't be fooled. They failed to listen to anything you say, make incorrect assumptions (because they haven't listened). Not entirely sure what they actually do, given that you send in the receipts, the. You have to log them and allocate them. Left me in debt and having to revert from self employed contractor to looking for a PAYE role just after husbands death as I not longer trusted them. Still having to pay them 10 months later while I wait for them to submit personal tax account. 3 times I've tried to leave this time I finally managed. PLEASE TREAT ALL ADVICE with caution, and ,aye even pay someone reputable. Worst mistake I ever made

Sh*t company who doesn't know what they are doing. I asked them to provide information to my new accountant and they are not replying to me and to them. Not recommending at all!!!!

Utterly hopeless — they have a turnaround time of 5 days to return an email enquiry, and the reply is usually a waste of time! When I first signed up they sneered at my previous high street accountant, and also Crunch (who are even worse) and pointed out that they were better. This is not the case, they are not proactive, you spend most of the time dealing with customer service operatives who are no-where near qualified to deal with your accounts. The actual accountants — who are so clandestine — must be under lock and key in another department that you cannot access. The software 'Connect' is an utter joke it's like they are beta testing it constantly on paying customers. My accounts have never been up to date since I signed up. They also managed to miss my VAT deadline last year between god knows how many people, and with me chasing things up regularly they still got it wrong! This could potentially mean a fine from HMRC. They were also trying to up-sell me their insurance products immediately after signing up. Avoid at all costs. EDIT The above was written a while ago, since then the service has improved, and so has connect. However you must keep on top of things yourself.

Easy to transfer to, good regular advise and monitoring of your business finances, The online portal allows easy update of of day to day expenses as well as monitoring your business bank account, tax liabilities, and completing your corporate and personal tax returns. Brooksons also offer other business related services and insurances to support your business. Pricing structure is similar to most other companies.

Being new to contracting I needed an accounting support that helped me land running (there are enough other stuff that needs attention) and Brookson certainly filled that role Them having a team who are friendly, professional and patient enough to take a novice through the pitfalls was a boom - and all this is done using language not filled with confusing jargon!! Add to this an easy to use fully comprehensive website that facilitates easy loading of documentation and you get a damnably fine accounting support package!!

Brookson bought out 1st Online Ltd I believe. Since then i've gone from faultless customer service, to non existent. I call almost everyday, and am never allowed to speak to the people managing my account. I email with zero response or acknowledge ment and am given empty promises on the phone for follow up calls which never happen. All I want to do is shutdown my Ltd. company, and it's taken 3 months and I'm still no way nearer. I know a merger can cause issues, but this is simply attrocious.

This firm have recently taken over 1st option consulting. Since then, dealing with them has been awful. Please do not choose them as your accountants. I have had to move accountants mid year (costing me and my company) and they have not handed over information requested by my current accountants for months. I have to email and call numerous times and still no action. I will be making a formal complaint as they have caused me fines through delays of their own laziness. Disgraceful

They do a good job when you are with them fair enough. However... Be sure before you join them that it is what you want. Beware if you need to close down your account, be prepared for a long drawn out process (they are obviously very willing to help snap you up when joining, but god forbid you ask to leave). Without realising, I spent large amounts of money on their premium rate number trying to extract myself. Never again.

Be very careful before signing an agreement with these people.Now i am older and wiser having visited several accountancy practices learning that you pay an accountant per hour for the work they do . With Brookson you sign for a fixed monthly fee regardless of your earnings in my case this was over £2000.00 per annum even if you have no work..When asked if the account could go into a dormant state i was told this is not possible. Effectively paying them for nothing.Many of the employees are ex Abbey National telephone bank staff who have completed the Brookson 6 week training course ie not fully trained accountants.

I would score 2.5 out of 5. Initial discussions and set-up were good but after signing up level of service is poor to mediocre. Things you ask to be done don't happen unless you chase them which is made harder by not having a single point of contact. They seem to focus on "doing" customer service rather than delivering the basic service accurately and promptly. I don't want "nurture calls" and constant promotional emails, I just want them to deliver the service! The Connect portal is ok, some good features but too much unnecessary info and pointless graphs. If they got rid of all the fluff they'd have a better service that they could charge less for.