Playbook, accounting firm
A client wants their fees back after the work has started
A refund request at a practice almost never arrives labelled as one. It arrives as a complaint about a bill that was larger than expected, a piece of work the client thought was included, or a penalty they believe the practice caused, and the money is the shape the grievance takes. There is nothing to return, the hours are already spent, and what is owed depends on facts nobody in a chat window can see.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for refund requests holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- What was bought is time already recorded against a job, so partial delivery is the normal state of a disputed fee here rather than an unusual one.
- Most refund requests are scope arguments wearing a refund label: the client believes the fixed fee covered the piece of work that got billed separately, and the resolution sits in the engagement letter rather than in the payment.
- A refund demanded because a penalty was charged is a claim about the practice's own work, and the deadline in question belonged to the client even where the practice was preparing the filing, so nothing in the reply may concede whose fault anything was.
- Fees are frequently paid ahead of the work rather than after it, so somebody leaving mid cycle is asking about money paid for a return that exists in draft, which is a different question from a refund on anything delivered.
How it arrives
- can i have my fees back you have not filed anything yet
- i want a refund the bill was much more than the quote
- i got a penalty and i want my money back
- i paid for the year and i am leaving after six months
- can i get a refund if i do the return myself
- do you refund if i am not happy with the accounts
What has to be indexed for this to work
| What the fee covers and what triggers a separate charge | The exclusions list, in the wording the client agreed to. Most of these messages end here, because the argument is about scope and the client has not looked at the list since the day they signed it. |
|---|---|
| How a fee query is reviewed, and by whom | Who looks at it, what they need from the client, and how long it takes. A fee query left for a week becomes a complaint about the practice rather than a question about a bill. |
| Your position on fees paid in advance | What happens to money paid ahead of work that is part done or not started, and how the practice works it out. Vagueness is expensive here, because the client fills the gap with their own figure. |
| The complaints route, running alongside | Refund demands and complaints arrive together in this trade. Give the client the procedure in the same breath rather than leaving them to find it after the answer about money has landed badly. |
The reply
I am sorry this has come up. What the fixed fee covers and what is billed separately is set out in the engagement terms, and that is usually where a query like this gets settled [1]. Where fees were paid ahead of the work, how far the work got matters, and I cannot see any of that. I am not able to make a decision about a refund either way. Leave me your name, an email and what has happened, and whoever reviews fee queries will look at it and reply [2].
It points at the scope document first, because that is what the dispute is actually about and the client has usually forgotten the document exists. It says that how far the work got matters without estimating how far it got. And it declines the decision explicitly, since a sympathetic sentence that sounds like agreement becomes the screenshot later.
Where it stops
The trigger. Any request for money back, any statement that a penalty or an interest charge was the practice's fault, and immediately on any mention of a professional body, an adviser or a claim.
A refund is decided by the practice after somebody has looked at what was agreed and what was done, and I am not able to do either. Leave me your name, an email and a short note of what happened, and it goes to the person who reviews fee queries.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say a refund will be given, is likely, or is what the practice usually does in this sort of case.
- Never accept that the practice caused a penalty, a late filing or an interest charge.
- Never say what proportion of a job has been completed or what that portion was worth.
- Never suggest the client stop paying while the query is being looked at.
Questions
- Is it safe to publish what happens to fees paid in advance?
- Safer than the silence. Clients assume either that everything is refundable or that nothing is, and both assumptions produce an argument. A written position with the work cycle attached settles most of these before they escalate.
- Somebody says we caused their penalty. What should it do?
- Hand it over in the same message, with no view at all on whether that is true. This is a claim about the practice's work and it belongs with a principal on the day it arrives, not in a queue.
- Can it look at the invoice they are quoting back?
- No. It cannot open an invoice, see a payment or check what was billed. It explains how fees work from the material you index and captures the reference so the person who can look does not have to ask twice.
Keep reading
- Everything for a accounting firmDeadlines drive the volume. What an accountancy practice can automate, and why no answer may touch a caller's own numbers.
- Handling refund requests in generalA refund question is really about eligibility and timing. What to index, what the reply may promise, and where it has to reach a person.
- Publishing hours when the working week changes with the calendarReception hours are the easy half. What to publish about the weeks nobody can come to the phone and the payroll cut off that never moves.
- The arrival question at a practice is usually about carrying somethingWhere to park to carry a year of paperwork in, whether anything can be posted, and what happens to originals left at a door.
- Routing an accountancy complaint without conceding anythingSorting a service complaint from a claim about the work, and why nothing may concede whose deadline was missed.
Try it on your own material
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