Handling a client complaint
How an accounting firm receives, logs, investigates and answers a client complaint about its work or fees, and feeds the lessons into its quality system.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A client complaint usually arrives on a bad day, in an angry e-mail, about something that looks small from inside the firm: a fee that was higher than the estimate, a return filed late, a phone call not returned for a week. The temptation is to fix it quietly and move on.
That is understandable and usually a mistake. A complaint handled well can keep a client who was ready to leave. A complaint recorded properly tells the firm something its own reviews may have missed. And for audit and assurance firms, ISQM 1 expects policies for receiving, investigating and resolving complaints and allegations, so a complaint that disappears into one partner's inbox is a gap in the system of quality management.
This article sets out a simple process from first contact to lesson learned.
Acknowledge and log
Reply quickly, even if you cannot yet answer. A short acknowledgement that names the person dealing with it and when the client will hear back defuses more anger than a long explanation sent a fortnight later.
Then log it. Achekam keeps the firm's quality registers on its server, and complaints is one of them, with every version of an entry and who changed it. Record:
- the client and the engagement or service concerned;
- the date received and how it arrived;
- what the client says went wrong, in their words;
- whether it is about the quality of work, fees, service or conduct;
- who is investigating.
Keep the client's own words. Paraphrasing at this stage tends to soften the complaint, and the softened version is the one that gets investigated.
Who investigates
The person investigating should not be the person complained about. In a firm with several partners, that usually means a partner from another team, or the partner responsible for quality. In a small firm it may mean asking a trusted practitioner from outside to look at the file.
Objectivity is the heart of it. IESBA's page introducing the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants sets out the five fundamental principles and the framework for identifying and addressing threats to them, and a partner reviewing their own disputed work faces an obvious self-review threat.
Decide early whether the complaint could become a claim. If it could, tell your professional indemnity insurer as your policy requires, and take care with any admission in writing.
Reading the client's history
Before forming a view, read what actually happened. Staff can open any client's Client 360 record, which reads the client's services, contacts, timeline and profile from the server. Start there.
For a complaint about fees, the receivables ledger holds the firm's client invoices, receipts, credit notes and statements of account. Compare what was billed with the engagement letter and the estimate.
For a complaint about communication, look at what was sent. E-mails drafted and sent from a lead, an opportunity, a client contact or Client 360 are kept on the record. Note that "sent" there means only that the mail provider accepted the message, not that the client read it, so do not tell a client "you received our e-mail of the third" on that evidence alone.
For governed records, Record Governance keeps a log of changes showing who did what, when and with what result. It covers records under record governance, not every screen, and viewing it needs the AUDIT_LOG_VIEW permission.
Responding in writing
Write the response once the facts are clear. A good one:
- Restates the complaint fairly, so the client knows it was understood.
- Says what the firm found, plainly, including what the firm got wrong.
- Explains what will happen now, with dates.
- Says how the client can take the matter further if not satisfied.
Where the firm agrees a fee concession, process it properly. In the WIP Register, write-downs above the firm's threshold and every write-off wait for approval by another partner, which keeps a fee settlement from being one partner's private decision. Writing WIP up, down or off explains the approvals.
Record the response and the outcome on the complaint entry in the register, and close it only when the client has the answer.
Tone matters as much as content. Avoid technical language the client did not use, and do not hide behind the engagement letter if the firm simply fell short. Where the complaint is unfounded, say so courteously and show the evidence: the dates documents were requested, the reminders sent, the scope the client agreed. A firm that answers a weak complaint with facts and a strong one with an apology is far more credible than one that defends everything.
Lessons into the quality system
Each closed complaint should end with one question: is this a one-off, or a symptom? A late return caused by a client who sent documents late is a one-off. Three late returns in a season from the same team point to capacity or scheduling.
| Complaint type | First place to look |
|---|---|
| Quality of work | Review notes and sign-off on the engagement |
| Fees | Engagement letter, estimate and time recorded |
| Delay | Capacity planning and how work was allocated |
| Communication | What was sent, when, and to which contact |
Where the answer points to a weakness in how the firm works, treat it like any other quality finding and run a root cause analysis. Report complaint themes to partners at least once a year, alongside inspection and file-review findings.
Put the process on one page
Write the steps above into a single page of the firm's quality manual, name the partner who receives complaints, and tell staff that every complaint, however small, goes into the register on the day it arrives.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
