Essential Steps for CPA Firms to Take During the Coronavirus Crisis

With a blink, the coronavirus has degraded the functioning of the whole world along with businesses and firms. The industries and firms are closed with the aim to further protect their employees from the pandemic but there is still hope. Many of the CPA firms are still into business and technology is playing a crucial role here. The offices have permitted remote work or work from home to the employees in order to manage the workflow and to sustain the situation. 

They say you can always find a reason to look forward even when the world surrenders. In the same way, some of the CPA firms are taking major steps to fight the pandemic and grow simultaneously. This blog will go through the preparation steps and solutions that the firms could take to tackle this tipsy-turvy situation.

1. Enable Work From Home 

The CPA firms should make sure that the employees should have the same setup as they have in the offices including monitors and essential equipment. This will help the employees to work efficiently even when they are working remotely. Also, they can ensure that they are completing the work deadlines and managing everything at the same time. 

If it is somehow not possible to provide the essential equipment, the workers should have applications like GoTo MyPc and maintain all the tasks while connecting to the office desktop. 

2. Encourage Work From Home As A Part Of Firm Culture

Encouraging work from home as a firm culture is a suitable way to prepare the employees' stability in case of any emergency. If the companies provide work from home to their employees on a normal basis, the employees will not panic in situations like natural disasters or pandemic leading to closed offices.

As the pandemic and natural disasters are unpredictable, it is easy to adopt practices like WFH which are revised even in the normal days. 

Implementation

1. Close the offices

The very first and major step that the CPA firms can take during the pandemic is to close the offices as soon as possible. The firms should prioritize the security and safety of the employees and avoid physical contact as much as possible. 

Deliver the necessary files using cloud servers or electronic systems

Take necessary precautions while delivering something using hands or physical contact.

Assure drop off times or client meetings using cloud applications rather than a physical meet-up.

2. Foresee productivity drop 

The world is facing delayed productivity at the time and you can handle a little yourself. The firms should anticipate a drop in productivity and it is quite understandable. The work is still done and the employees will work harder later. This is the time when the firms should provide reliability to the employees and compromise a little productivity.

3. Provide COVID-19 updates on your site

It is very difficult to constantly keep up with the latest information as the situation is drastically changing. The firms should update their site with the latest pandemic news and info. They can send emails and contact clients to build a dedicated webpage for the pandemic info to keep everybody updated. A mail should be sent to every employee so that they can check the updates daily. 

4. Communicate finances with the employees 

Communication is an utter need in the situation and the firms should do the same. The leaders should communicate with the team members about any kind of layoffs or furloughs. Maintaining transparency will make employees feel important and they will not panic in situations like layoffs. 

5. Keep calm 

Being calm is something that could provide huge advances to the firms at the time of the pandemic. The CPA firms are in a much better position than other businesses when it comes to dealing with economic slowdowns. It is necessary for the accountants and CPAs to be calm so that they can help people who are seeking help financially. 

6. Update your crisis management plan 

If your organization has a crisis management plan this is the best time to update it and if not, it’s high time to build one. The firms should have a crisis plan to build better opportunities for all the ongoing and developing workforces. They should adopt plans that could lead to better customer service, all-purpose emergency management, and secure future events at the very same time. 

7. Know about the bank loan modifications

The CPA firms should have an accurate analysis and understanding of banking loan processes at regular times and especially during the pandemic. The banks have now eased many restrictions that could be a help for the borrowers and the CPA firms themselves. The banks have eased short term loan modifications, an extension of repayments, and changes in payment deferrals.

8. Proper management to manage cash flow

During times like pandemic, all businesses are struggling to manage cash flow.  The firms need to work with the customers in order to understand the new working way and also to negotiate with the vendors.     The whole team should know the timings, ongoing negotiations and key decisions. 

9. See the crisis as an opportunity 

This pandemic was totally unpretentious and if this happened once it could happen again. It is undeniable that the situation is worsening everyday but things still need to be done. There are businesses that have completely lost control or shut down in the past few months but it is possible to fight the situation with some measures. The firms can adopt tax software and accounting software to maintain the required work. The firms that never adopted work from home now is the time to change the work strategy and inculcate work from home in the work structure. This way they could learn how to manage workflow in situations like a pandemic or sudden shutdowns. At times like these, the best way to develop the ongoing workflow is to move ahead of the office infrastructure and rely on hosting services to ensure better productivity. 

The CPAs need to take the required steps in order to maintain the progress of the firm and to maintain proper management for the sake of the organization. With quality calculations and measures, it is an efficient step to look forward to the growth of the firm.