A flag can be useful in these situations. Now the method could return something useful without getting tangled up in success/failure issues. 
my $account_data = $ssh->add_account(
  login => q{bob},
  uid   => 123
);

if ($ssh->success){
  print qq{success: user added\n};
  # do something with $account_data
}
else{
  printf qq{failed: %s\n}, $ssh->error_msg;
  # try next user
}

sub add_account{

  my $account_data;
  # ...

  $ssh->{success} = 0;
  
  if (condition){ 
    $ssh->{success} = 1;
  }
  elsif (condition){ 
    $ssh->{error_msg} = qq{uid not unique}; 
  }
  else { 
    $ssh->{error_msg} = qq{unknown error};
  }
  
  return $account_data;
  
}

sub success   {shift->{success}   };
sub error_msg {shift->{error_msg} };

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In reply to Re: Dealing with errors in subroutines by wfsp
in thread Dealing with errors in subroutines by walkingthecow

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