Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/13/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Overall, Integrity Accounting *** provides responsive, courteous, professional client services. However, this business omitted a crucial detail about their atypical hourly billing practices, mainly that some staff's time is billed at 15 min increments (at staff discretion) and/or billed by the full hour (at discretion of the staff members). An hour could be billed as any interaction or work completed that takes more than 7 to 8 minutes (as verbally communicated to me on Thurs Mar 9th) or billed as .25 hour (at discretion of the staff members). This crucial hourly billing detail was communicated to me only after I asked directly on Thur, Mar 9th in-person. Charges were exceeding the initially quoted average monthly fees, so I asked for clarification. This atypical hourly billing practice (.25 or 1 hour billed at discretion of the staff members) deviates from local industry standards compared with other local businesses including *********************** ******, ***************** Services, *********************, Starlight Bookkeeping, ************************* CPA, and *****, ****** and ****** Law.As well, another atypical billing practice I overlooked. Most local payroll processing firms do not charge a set up fee. I was quoted a setup fee of $300 which I was happy to pay to support a local new business. Thus far, my set up fee has been approx $706, including $212 in Dec '22. In Dec '22, I processed my own payroll because set up was not yet fully completed.The invoices reflecting services provided in Dec, Jan, Feb ************ by .25 hour and full 1 hour (at staff discretion). As stated verbally to me on Thur, Mar 9th, sometimes staff charge by the .25 increment and at other times by the full hour (at staff discretion) when any client service takes more than 7 to 8 min. This atypical hourly billing practice, in my experience over the past 12 years of procuring hourly services here in the Greater Lafayette area, was omitted until I inquired directly about it on Mar 9th.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/27/2023

  Upon receiving this complaint from the customer, I reached out directly to the customer, as they had not made us aware in any way previously that they has questions or were unsatisfied.  It does seem there was a misunderstanding about billing practices that resulted from a meeting with the customer and a member of our staff.  We do bill in 15 minute increments.  We never bill for an hour of work when only doing 15 minutes of work.  

  Our firm is focused on providing full accounting services to clients and we do charge hourly rates.  Customers looking only for payroll services at a flat monthly rate may be better served by some of our worthy rivals in town.  We spent considerable time not included in the original setup estimate re-activating the customer's unemployment account as it had not been properly closed before and had past due filings required.

  The customer made a transfer of net pay from business account to personal account for December payroll, but our firm calculated, processed and paid all relevant payroll taxes.  Customer requested a payroll be processed before year end and the direct deposit was not yet activated, requiring them to make the net pay transfer.

  We work hard to provide the responsive, courteous, professional service the customer received.  We specifically charge by the hour so we are incentivized to do more for our clients, not less.  We regret any part we played in the miscommunication.  We have agreed to fully refund all fees paid by the customer and assist with the transfer of payroll services to another firm.  We always want our clients to feel that the services they received were worth the price they paid and we are regretful that was not the case with this client.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/28/2023

  Better Business Bureau:

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this response/resolution is satisfactory to me. 
  
  
  

  Regards,

  ***********************