Custom Tax $ Business Services, Inc

Beginning October 1,2015,Custom Tax and Business Services was contracted by *** *** and JD *** *** to provide bookkeeping and payroll services for both *** Incand *** IncStarting August 20,2015,we provided business consulting and bookkeeping assistance that they were
not charged for in October Their$down payment for bookkeeping was charged to the November billEmail dated September 30, shows they had not closed on the bar/grill yet and asked us to prorate the bill until they were officially underwayWe agreed although we were already at work to set up accounts with ***,L & I,ESD,and DOR.*** online was purchased by the ***'s and entries were made in the *** program though it was not ready or set up properlyHours were spent cleaning up and removing double entriesWe discussed transferring to *** desktop from the online program as downloading statements from the bank made it look like everything was double enteredThey declined changing systems andthe double entry of transactions caused *** concern because she thought that there was an erroneous entry made, when in fact it was the importation of the banking information that was creating the errors.There were a few months wherereconciliationsand Department of Revenue tax returns were on the cuspof being late becausewe could not get till sheets and end of month statementsMany times I had to send staff down to the bar to pick up and drop off needed documentation to make sure things were done in atimely mannerThis was above and beyond the scope of our contractand obligation to them.They transferred banks from Numerica Credit Union to Wells Fargo Bank and did not give account access to us for reconciliation purposes for almost weeksThen once ready to reconcile account, we hadno access to the old account and needed to wait for the paperstatement.While our engagement letter, signed by JD ***,lays out the scope of the work we were to perform and the deadlinesnecessary to accomplish it, we were unable to complete the obligation withoutaccount access and correct information.*** ***, while a partial owner,was not who we had our engagement with and information between the two parties JD *** and *** *** was often inaccurate or muddledWe spent countless billable hours adjusting and re configuring their *** account, and many hours in meetings and phone conversations making sure everything was accurate and presentableMiss *** wanted monthlyP & L's but did not understand that without that month reconciled and all expenses and income accounted for, it would not be an accurate assessment of their businessSince bank statements do not come out until the month after the one you are working on, it is not possible to get an accurate "pulse" on the businessWhile I understand Miss ***'s frustration and unhappiness, I am not willing to refund any portion of their final bill as we have done everything in our power to make them happy.As an added "perk" for our bookkeeping clients, we do not charge for any Partnership return, which is a$1200.00 valueThey also received a large discount on their personal tax return.MY ASSESSMENT:Delayed access to bank account after change of accounts Too many hands in the online account making entriesChanging chart of accounts without talking to us first.Not giving documentation needed in a timely manner.I hope this timeline with the attached emails, invoice and engagement letter, will put this matter to rest.Thank you,Carol L***

Again, our engagement letter was signed by *** * *** for *** and *** and he is listed as the contact and owner. Our engagement was to start October 1, and even though the business was not opened we were still doing set up for *** and state taxes
October 2015, set up completed and billed and paid in September as per engagement May 2016, was completed and billed and eventually paid in October
November 2015, work completed, billed in December and paid We started working with *** in July of with meetings and expectations set. They were never billed for any meetings in July, August or September
December 2015, work completed in January and billed in January and paid All work was completed per engagement letter . *** gave us notice on May 25th that she was taking her books and we handed them over on June 1st. We
January 2016, work completed in February and billed and paid in February did not get days notice per the engagement letter
February 2016, work completed in March and billed and paid in March
March 2016, work completed in April and billed and paid in April
April 2016, work completed in May and billed and paid in May

Complaint: [redacted]The customer service was poor and so was our experience.  Others should know what to expect when working with this company when it comes to attention to detail and accuracy.  [redacted] is listed as an owner on both businesses and was engaged through all of the processes.  No ownership of any of the erroneous reporting was ever taken by Custom Tax and that is a shame. 
Thank you Revdex.com for attempting to resolve.  Custom Tax will not get our business again as they do not deliver on services paid for as evidenced by the information we presented.Sincerely,*. [redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
We do not accept the response from Custom Tax. First, please see Attachment A, which is made out to ONLY [redacted][redacted], contrary to the statement that ‘was not who we had our engagement with.' This letter is clearly made out to [redacted][redacted] for services. [redacted] and [redacted] both own both businesses and therefore the agreement was between both [redacted] and [redacted] and Custom Tax.
Next in reviewing the assessment from the owner regarding ‘changing of accounts without Custom Tax's knowledge' please see Attachment J dated on March 11th which was addressed to the bookkeeper notifying her that we were planning to change accounts. In that email we also asked ‘if we were holding her up on completion.' There was no response from the bookkeeper on us holding up anything contrary yet again to ‘not giving information in a timely manner.' Then on March another message (See Attachment K) was sent to our bookkeeper with her login information for our account. To state they had no knowledge that we planned to change accounts or that we did not speak to them first is untrue. They had full access and no concerns that were ever voiced to us about us changing accounts
To supplement our complaint we will detail out our concerns with supporting information clearly labeled and a narrative that we were unable to send along with the original complaint
Starting on 12/8/that there were problems with the reporting that the bookkeeper was supposed to be doing. We received the first of many notices from DOR that a delinquency fee would be assessed because reports were not received. After contacting the bookkeeper, a relative of the tax pro owner, she responded that she completed October and November and was able to resolve the delinquency fee
At that time we asked for monthly financial statements and were informed that she was in the process of setting everything up, but that we could login to [redacted] online to see what was going onAt that time very little was filled out online and we decided we would patiently wait for her to finish up. We were also notified at that time that because we were going to be utilizing [redacted] online that there would be an additional monthly fee to cover the cost of the software in addition to our monthly service charge
Fast forward a few months to January when we opened [redacted] online we noticed that our payroll transaction report contained numerous duplicate entries and that due to the duplicate entries the total payroll amount reflected the initial entries and all of the duplicates. We spent hours reviewing this in and were able to confirm that we did not pay the employees twice, but that the entries were in [redacted] multiple times. We brought this up the bookkeeper and requested this to be reconciled. Though she reconciled some of those duplicate entries, several were still overlooked and the total payroll amount shown in [redacted] inaccurately reflects the total amount of payroll paid out still to this date. This poses a major problem as we could not quickly and accurately determine what percentage of our income that was being spent on labor(Please see Attachment B) This problem was shown to the owner of Custom Tax, and she explained she would review our concerns with the bookkeeper and attempt to resolve the issues. She repeatedly told us that the bookkeeper was an expert with [redacted] and that things would be cleared up soon. We did not ask for any credits, just voiced our concerns that our time should NOT be spent pouring over books that we were paying someone to prepare accurately and in a timely manner
Though the books didn't get completely cleaned up from January we continued to move forward, but soon were frustrated that we still didn't have accurate financial statements from January, February or March, let alone October/November/December even though the bookkeeper would have had bank statements by that time. On April 1st we contacted the bookkeeper inquiring about whether or not payroll taxes were paid on the erroneous amount listed in our [redacted] account or on the actual amount since the duplicate entries were still not fully cleaned up. This question was never answeredWe asked the bookkeeper what she needed from us to clean this up and move forward on April 1st via email, and she responded by stating, ‘I do not have any questions for you.' And that, ‘I have January and February done.' Therefore on April 2nd we reviewed January and February again only to find out that a plethora of duplicate entries still existed and there were not any usable monthly reports still. We restated via email again on April 2nd (See Attachment C) specifically that if we were holding up the progress that very clear instructions needed to be sent to clarify what she needed to complete the books and asked for an in-person visit.
On April 4th the bookkeeper responded to our email stating that everything was done, but she was ‘reconciling.' Keep in mind this is April 4th. We are unsure why on April 4th we were still waiting for books from January and FebruaryShe went on to now say, ‘I need receipts.' Which we gave to the owner who then passed those on the bookkeeper. The books we had already paid for months ago were not anywhere near being done. We were then told in the email by the bookkeeper on April 4th that, ‘I worked on it as much as I could on Friday, but I also have other accounts to work on.' (See Attachment D) We found this to be inappropriate. The amount of money we were paying and the time we were personally spending on the books to try to correct errors did not warrant such a heinous response
In addition to those comments the bookkeeper came up with a laundry list of items that she then claimed she needed even though we had already asked on various occasions what it was she needed. One of the items being bank statements. The bookkeeper was set up for full access to our accounts and had access, so we were unclear as to why she had not pulled any of the statements online as we do in a timely manner. Essentially, it just seemed like we were being fed a bunch of excuses as to why none of our books were done and why there was little to no attention to detail and we were left responsible to spot check the books for errors rather than rely on this person that was being paid to do this service
Moving on to April 4th we received another notice of a penalty being assessed to the business for late payment of taxes from the DOR(See Attachment E) We quickly took a screen shot and sent the picture to the owner asking for an explanation in regards to how the penalty would be handled and why there was a penalty again. Apparently, our revenues were not reported on time and we were then assessed a penalty. The penalty was in excess of $200. The bookkeeper responded and said that the fee would be paid by Custom Tax if the penalty could not be waived by DOR. It was at that time that we decided to end our relationship with Custom Tax. The reports that were from business inception to date were never completed and are laden with errors.
In addition to the plethora of bookkeeping problem we had we also had difficulty getting an asset list done that our bookkeeper had said she would prepare for us to turn in to the tax assessorMultiple correspondence emails were sent on the dates of April 28th and May 5th regarding the status of the asset list. (See Attachment F) To date we have never received a copy of the asset list that she prepared, just an email stating that the bookkeeper stated she talked to the assessor and that she had a copyOn May 5th the secretary at Custom Tax responded to us that a copy of the asset list would be sent to us the following morning. No such copy was ever sent to us. We followed up with yet another email to our bookkeeper only to be told that a completed copy would not be sent to us until she received one from the assessor. Only after contacting the assessor's office ourselves did we finally receive an asset list. (See attachment I) We were not given an opportunity to approve or discuss what was turned in as a final product which we found to be unacceptable
On May 25th we sent an email to Custom Tax and advised that due to a plethora of problems and not having books done in a timely manner that we would be taking our business elsewhere. Custom tax responded promptly stating that they were not provided with the information to do the books. (See Attachment G) We disagree with this completely. We had gone out of our way to provide information as evidenced by all the attachments and multiple in person meetings to try to resolve issues amicablyWe also asked for clarification as evidenced in the emails if anything was neededInstead of receiving information and the services such as monthly financial statements and reconciliation, as stated in our letter of engagement, we were provided with books laden with errors and lots of excuses as to why things were not done. The owner refused to acknowledge that our books were incomplete and a complete mess.
We turned our books over at the end of May to another firmThe new firm charged us $to reconcile the books given to them from the beginning of the year that Custom Tax had prepared. We were unable to again get complete books from Custom Tax for April even though they insisted on billing us for work in April. Nearly $in expenses in April went uncategorized when the books were given to us(Please see Attachment H) We were handed a final bill in excess of $which included fees for some checks at the end of May. We informed Custom Tax that due to the amount of errors, incomplete reporting, and failure to perform duties as stated in the letter of engagement that we would not be paying the bill. Custom Tax then stated they would send us to collections if we did not pay. There was no accountability, or recognition on their part of any wrongdoing which was appallingApparently it was acceptable for them to charge us and to never reconcile January properly, or categorize April, and to turn in our asset list without our permission. As evidenced by all of the attachments services were not provided as stated, our books were not completed, and were frankly laden with a plethora of errors that required us reconciling them on our time in addition to paying them to try to make sense of what was going on.
It's unfortunate that part of the response from Custom Tax is them touting about all the great deals they gave us on our taxes. We do not dispute the owner is a tax pro and excellent at what she does, but her relative and bookkeeper was not capable of doing the job we had hired her for, bookkeeping, and therefore we were displeased and unhappy with the service providedThe great ‘deal' on our taxes in no way makes up for the hours we spent cleaning this up or the money we paid that left us without monthly P&L's that were error freeThe tax pro and owner was not involved in the majority of this problem because we dealt directly with the bookkeeperShe was unaware of the issues or choose to ignore them despite the email records, accounting mistakes, and meetings in person. This business relationship cost us hundreds of dollars to clean up and countless hours of our own time reconciling.

Wow! What a great office, the staff was so courteous, helpful, friendly and professional. I love that it is a family owned and local business, it makes the service so much better and more personal. The owner, Carol is the most knowledgeable person ive ever spoken with about taxes, and she thought of things that my past accountants never did, and got my balance due to the IRS gone completely and got me a good size refund. All her work is backed up by insurances so I know if I get audited that I am taken care of.

I have know these ladies for many years and would trust no one else. They will bend over backwards and make what you need happen. No one else can do it better! Love you guys!

Tax Season has never been so easy and stress free