This means war!!

So I usually don't talk much (or at all) about my work on this blog. Mostly because I think it would just bore you all to tears. The working life of a non-profit accountant is not best-selling material, trust me. But today I'm going to talk about it, mainly because I need to vent.

Today I inadvertently started a war with our Audit/Tax firm. Well, mainly with the tax side of the business. So, it's that time of year where we have to file our tax return. Non-profits don't pay taxes, but we still have to file an extremely detailed form with the IRS reporting everything from our net income to how much we pay our executive director. Our audit firm sends us a planner that they use to help us provide all the information to them that they will need to prepare our return. I dutifully filled in all the information that they requested and we sent the info off to our tax partner. About a week later, they shot the completed forms back to us. Wow, what a super-fast turnaround time, we thought... (please note the foreshadowing here). And I set to reviewing the forms to make sure they were prepared correctly. The third number I looked at on the forms was incorrect. Then the next number I looked at on the forms was incorrect. Then there were four or five numbers that I couldn't even figure out how they calculated. I ended up having to go through the entire (54 page) form with a fine-tooth comb and double check every number and word entered. They had our phone number wrong, for goodness sake. So I asked for some further information on where they had pulled all of their numbers from so that I could double check that they were right. The tax partner sent over a spreadsheet showing all of their calculations and it turns out that they hadn't even used most of the stupid tax planner that I had dutifully prepared for them. They pulled most of their numbers from our audit, and most of them were wrong. I should note now, for full disclosure, before I start really ranting, that I also noticed a few errors that I had made when preparing the planner. Fine, I admit and take full responsibility for my errors, and did so when communicating with the tax folks.

*I will now pause for a deep breath before I start to fly off the handle*

Wait for it....

Okay, so I summarized all the errors that they had made in email and spreadsheet form, provided them with the correct numbers so they could fix the returns, and sent them off to the staff accountant who prepared the forms and copied my boss and the tax partner on the email. Then I went to lunch because it was fricken 2:30 already.
When I got back from lunch, my boss (who was fully aware of the whole situation and the errors that had been made) comes and tells me that he just received a phone call from the tax partner and basically they got into a knock-down drag out fight over the phone. The gist of the tax partner's reason for calling was, "We don't have $15,000 in our budget to make all of these changes you're asking for."

*crickets*

What? WHAT? First of all, do the return properly in the first place, with the correct numbers THAT WE PROVIDED TO YOU and it won't cost you anything extra AT ALL. Secondly, I've prepared tax returns for non-profits. It's not going to cost $15,000 to take 10 minutes and make some changes in a software program that then generates the forms for you. That will cost approximately $30 (and that's at billable rates, not actual cost). Thanks. Thirdly, am I really having to argue with my accounting firm to get them to prepare a correct return? Shouldn't that be the other way around? Aren't they supposed to be the watchdogs? Finally, no apology at all for the mistakes that they made, and for sending us such an error-filled form. In fact, she actually argued with my boss about the some of the numbers, even though we had demonstrated exactly where they had made their mistakes.

So when the partner made the statement, "we don't have $15K in our budget to make all your changes" my boss's answer was basically, "not my problem" and then he literally said, "and if you're worried about how much it's going to cost you, then you should do it right the first time." And then the tax partner hung up on him. I guess we're now expecting a call from the audit partner on our account who the tax partner is going to "bring into the conversation," I'm sure to smooth our ruffled feathers, or to reprimand us for being such difficult clients. Hmmm...

Whatever tax lady - this means war!

Well, it's been a very professionally frustrating day. Thanks for letting me get that out of my system. My boss just stopped by my desk and we spent another 15 minutes ranting out loud about the whole things. Me suspects that we may be looking into a new tax service provider. I forgot to mention that this same thing happened last year.

The end (or is it just the beginning...)