Bicknell Business Advisers Limited

Tom Oldham
5 Star
We have used Bicknells as our small business' accountants for around 2 years, this is our first business and we had no prior experience at all. Bicknells have been very patient with us, they are great at getting back to you, efficient and knowledgable. We definitely recommend.
Tuesday 25th April 2023

Damon Tran
5 Star
I can highly recommend Steve and his team at Bicknell Business Advisers. It has been truly invaluable having their support and advice in our property journey so far. Their whole team is extremely patience and dedicated at helping us with our queries, however trivial. And that in process we have learnt a great deal in business accounting and mastering the Sage booking system. Thus, a massive thank to the team at BBA.
Tuesday 31st May 2022

Liam Allen
2 Star
I had a frustrating experience with Bicknell's. I've given them 2 stars as I did initially get some useful tax advice from the owner, Steve, and he also allowed me to have some training for free on how to use their invoicing software. That's where the positive part ends. The company has been set up to be as hands off as possible, with automated emails being sent regularly informing me that my self assessment tax return is due, then another that my VAT return is due, my Corporation tax is due etc etc, which is great if they have not already been posted to HMRC. However, when the returns had already been posted (by Bicknells themselves) receiving these automated emails caused me a fair amount of stress thinking they had not been done. I'd reply to each email asking Steve why this hadn't been done yet, only to be told that it had and I should just ignore the email. In my experience of owning various businesses and dealing with HMRC directly, it is never wise to ignore any email telling you that a return is due without checking it out. Why not just turn this automated email off for the clients that you've already posted returns for? It would save a lot of stress and wasted time for your clients and yourselves surely? The other problem that was incredibly frustrating and ultimately led to me going back to my old accountant was being repeatedly spoken to in accountancy or book-keeping terminology and abbreviations. This completely and unnecessarily slowed up the process of me providing Steve and his team with what they needed from me in the way of paperwork or answers to their questions. In the end it was taking maybe 5 or 6 emails back and forth for me to finally pin down exactly what they needed from me. Once I knew that, I could locate it and send it to them usually within a few minutes. This is an incredibly inefficient way to run a business. Despite me repeatedly asking Steve and his staff to use layman's terms when needing anything from me they continued to ignore my requests. Until the next time they needed something and the layman's terms had switched back to accounting terminology and unnecessarily complicated words I even stated at one point to 'talk to me as if I'm stupid', which after running several successful businesses I can assure you I am not. I finally asked if there was any reason why my requests for us to talk in layman's terms were being ignored, I did not receive any reply to that email at all. The final nail in the coffin was a huge and almost very costly mistake on a tax return that they had sent me to electronically sign off and post to HMRC which would have given me a Corporation tax bill liability of over £95,000 for that financial year. I knew it should have been around the £40,000 mark so I realised something was seriously amiss. When I flagged it up and went through the figures with Steve it turned out they had put through £306,000 of income that had not yet been received and therefore should have been deferred into the next financial year. I may not understand accountancy terminology but I am astute enough to know that a company does not pay tax for profits that it is yet to receive. There was no explanation, ownership or apology simply a new automated email showing the correct figures to sign off. The correct amount owed to HMRC was actually £37,000. £58,000 less than Bicknell's almost had me pay out. Although there are many positive reviews for the company, I've been honest in my experience with them and for me they were difficult to work with, created much more work for me than my previous accountants, were far less approachable, did not listen to my requests or suggestions to make our partnership simpler and smoother and almost cost me £58,000.
Saturday 25th March 2023

Lidia Talai
5 Star
Steve and his team are very knowledgeable, responsive, patient and always give a 5* service. They look after our company accounts and always there to answer any query. As well as company accounts, Steve has helped us with company restructure and guided us through purchasing a property in a correct company structure. Every time we have a question, Steve and Bridget will patiently take time to answer. Everything is hustle free, systemised and digitalised making it easy to communicate, sign documents, arrange calls. I really couldn't wish for a better service
Tuesday 8th February 2022

Daniele Olmeda
5 Star
Great first call! I've decided to go with someone else but he was one of the top contender
Monday 26th February 2024