Payne & Associates, Inc Richmond Rd, Williamsburg

Inspired by the chorus of others who have also given Payne & Associates a 5 star rating here and on their Facebook page, I am writing this as my very first Google Review. "Heroes" is not a word often associated with accountants, but for me it best describes the staff at Payne & Associates whom for more than two decades have selflessly given so much of themselves in providing a wide array of accounting and bookkeeping services to hundreds of individuals, businesses, and charities in the Hampton Roads area. While Payne & Associates is widely known for their philanthropy in the community, what sets them apart from other accounting firms is both their individualized approach to meeting the needs of their clients and their reputation for going above and beyond what is normally expected of an accounting firm. Over the years, there have been numerous occasions when Penelope, Monica and the staff at Payne & Associates have come to our rescue when we most needed their help. On one of these occasions, Monica provided us accounting services that we desperately needed on the very same day she was required to attend the funeral for her grandmother who had raised her as a child. We are merely one of hundreds of satisfied clients that the staff of Payne & Associates serves and are deeply honored that they have fulfilled all of our bookkeeping and accounting needs for more than ten years.

THE WORST EXPERIENCE! I made an appointment with Monica on Feb.18th, and when I arrived I was informed that she was out with another client and instead I would be seeing a junior EA who works with Monica. I asked why I hadn't been called and notified of Monica's lapse in schedule and given the option to reschedule and I was told Monica would be overlooking everything anyways. So moving forward with Bradshaw, the junior, initial paperwork was signed and I left him with an accordion file full of labeled files with all business invoices, receipts, bank statements, previous tax filing...everything they would need. I even left them with access to the business Quickbooks. He informed me that the taxes would be filed in two weeks. I called March 1st for an update on the taxes as I hadn't heard anything from them and left a message. My call was not returned. I called again March 2 and spoke to Leslie at the front desk and she transferred me to Bradshaw, as Monica was not available again, and he told me he would be sending some kind of review to me soon that our information was being looked over by their bookkeepers still. I never received any review/overview. I received an email from Monica on March 4th outlining questions she had about some of our Quickbooks business transactions/deposits. After reviewing the quickbook deposits I saw that their were a few deposits recorded twice and removed them. She emailed me back on March 8th stating, " I see you have taken care of the deposits already, thank you." 12 days went by and I hadn't received any update on their progress so I called and left a message both on Monica's voicemail and with Leslie at the front desk on March 25th, 29th and 30th. Monica finally called my husband and scheduled an appointment for us to sit down and review some information. On the morning of the appt, I called Monica and asked if we could go over the questions via the phone now, as my husband and I just had a baby on March 22nd and didn't want to bring a newborn out. We spent 30 minutes on the phone going over everything and I felt as if all issues were resolved at the end of the phone call. I called again on April 9th to check the status as the deadline for business taxes is April 15th and we were told almost two months ago, that this process would take two weeks. I left a message with Leslie and Monica returned my call and informed me that our taxes would not be able to be filed by the 15th as there were discrepancies in the quickbooks and that it would need to be reviewed by their book keepers again. She said that she had it all ready to go and to be filed, but I had deleted bank deposits which affected the profit and loss of our business and now its not ready. I reminded her that this was done at her request on March 4th and if it was an issue, why hadn't it been addressed this past month? I then reminded her that she has all the paper invoices/receipts, so if there is a discrepancy with deposits, there were only 24 business transactions for her to review to see the total amount earned/deposited. She stated she didn't have time to manually look over the paperwork I left her (IN A MONTH AND A HALF TIME) and transferred me to Penelope, who is suppose to be the woman in charge of this place. Penelope was so flustered, rude and unprofessional it was unbelievable! I was explaining how unresponsive my experience has been with Payne and Associates and she stated, "we aren't going to go there." When I explained I was told my taxes would only take two weeks and its been almost 2 months , she complained about how hard this tax season has been on her, how she needs a vacation, and how they have a lot more clients than just me to worry about. I expressed how unprofessional she was behaving, and how unprofessional my whole experience was and she kept repeating that they wouldn't be able to get them done in time and that I missed an appointment so its my fault. I now have less than a week to find a new tax accountant before the 15th deadline for business taxes! DO NOT TRUST THEM!

Shelby did my taxes last year. I am going back this year. They are not the cheapest, but they are worth every penny.

Excellent Service, Friendly and Professional! Penelope cares about her clients and goes above and beyond for personalized quality services.

This group is so awesome..easy to deal with every year!!