Need English-speaking accountant for small company in Krakow

You don't write if you've worked with an individual (freelance) accountant or someone who is part of a team.

try trinitycs.com they have an office in krakow and speak English, everyone speaks of them very highly. But remember a book-keeper is not a CFO

So I'm sorry to be tough today, but there are really a few things in Polish mentality for which there is still a long way to go...

I'm convinced from reading your posts that you have been very badly advised - which is very common in the accountancy profession in Poland, perhaps due to the fact that they've only had 20 years of 'real' accounting.

First of all, you want to recover the costs from the accountant - she ****** up, not you.

Secondly - how much were you paying her?

1000zl + VAT for a small single shareholder Sp. z o.o.? I take it that you are the sole employee with just a handful of invoices a month. I’m about 35 km outside of Krakow, and I think that would run you about 250 – 400zl with a local accountant.

I'm happy to meet regarding this issue, but first you must tell me exactly what you want me to do. (...) If you are happy to work in French then I suggest you try Partenaire Pologne on ul. Mikolajska. They may be able to help you find someone.

I'm in Poznań and I pay 100zł + VAT for an accountant.

Isn't it a little too short? 100zł for accountancy? Maybe you are "just" (nothing derogatory here) a freelancer? I'm in Sp. z o.o., which requires more operations.

I went to Trinity this morning, they seem very professional but their basic fee exceeds what I'm already paying now.

Maybe you could have a cheap bookkeeper and go to a tax adviser from time to time to advise you on a particular problem regarding taxes?

I’m about 35 km outside of Krakow, and I think that would run you about 250 – 400zl with a local accountant.

I had a long meeting with them. Great capacity for listening to the customer. English.
- one-time fee for taking over from my previous accountant : 1500zł
- monthly fee : 2000zł

- monthly fee : 800zł + 20zł for each invoice billed to a customer outside Poland (I would have 2 or 3 per months)

Taking full responsibility for executed services on behalf of our customers, and so that that our customers can bestow their full confidence in us - we are insured in PZU S.A. firm from the civil responsibility to the sum of 15 000 EUR.

To answer your question, her price is 1000zł +VAT monthly, and she will ask for a bit more during the summer for the additional operations. She does the accounting, book-keeping, and manages everything with urząd skarbowy and ZUS on my behalf, so I don't even have to go there myself.

Stay away. As I understand it, there should be no extra work involved at all with foreign invoices. I could be wrong - but charging 20zł for each overseas invoice is scandalous. I'd be interested to hear their justification for charging this.

There will always be an extra charge when cross border activities occur especially when dealing with two or more currencies.

I don't pay anything extra for the processing of my invoices in whatever currency I choose. I do quite a few invoices in Euro each month, for instance.

Did you have a contract with her in which you set out in detail what you expected from her/company and that she would be held responsible for any fixed penalty/loss that your enterprise was subject to, that fell under her/company responsibility as stated in the contract. The spoken word in Poland has NO value in the eyes of civil law everything must be written in a contract and signed by both parties.

There will always be an extra charge when cross border activities occur especially when dealing with two or more currencies. (...) Firstly for the tax office all information should be in PLZ, so if a invoice is issued a currency other than PLZ there is other work involved ( very little ) but other work. If you have a relationship with your accountant whereby you pay no extras then I am sure that is reflected in the standard charge.

Yes, there is a contract. Pardon me, but if EVERYTHING must be written down in a contract then it is a country of thieves in which it is considered normal to screw people up under the pretext that a contract didn't make any provision for this or that.

There are things which are obvious, especially when it comes to the behaviour in business relationships. Well, I come from a country where the concept of "gentlemen agreement" is part of the business culture, it may be a concept that not many people understand.

But at least people should learn to be accountable for their own mistakes instead of just "being sorry".

As she finally changed her tunes and fixed everything at her expense, as I said things are OK now. I may perhaps being better off by going on with her, as I wasted enough time already studying other offers. Can't waste anymore time in a transition process, if the difference in pricing will be so small.

You'll find that people who work for multinationals have the same attitude as you - because they simply can't get away with "Sorry". But then again - society here has to learn that they can walk away or they can complain loudly - many people simply feel "oh, it won't achieve anything, why bother?"

What I would do is make it very clear to her that you aren't happy, but you'll give her one last chance. Make it clear that you have another accountant waiting to take the business from her at the blink of an eye - perhaps even showing her an offer or two to make it clear that you're serious.

Now when I'm outside such contexts, I feel frustrated, really poor. My patience and tolerance for people who work in a disorderly way, without consistence and capacity to put things in perspective has come to zero. It stresses me and makes me waste time.