coronavirus rattles tax season

can you turn a crisis into an opportunity?

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer
benchmarks, trends & analysis
join the survey. get the results.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

coronavirus—covid-19—is coming. don’t imagine it won’t reach your community. it will. and even if you manage to keep it out of your office, and even if its lethality is less than the flu, just the threat of covid-19 is already impacting many tax and accounting firms.

how accountants are preparing for the worst:

• do you have the portals, web-based apps, and cloud accounts necessary for staff to work from home? have you tested them? maybe you should have an everybody-works-from-home-day drill.
• do you have policies and procedures in place for home-based work?
• do individual staff have plans for caring for their family without disrupting work?
• have you prepared clients for the possibility of electronic delivery of data and documentation? do they understand what to do?
• are you ready to request filing extensions due to staff or client illness or local quarantine?
• have you established sanitation procedures for your office?
• do you have a vision of the worst-case scenario? this could include a) long-term quarantines of your office, other businesses, and all clients, b) widespread illness and absence of staff, c) general economic downturn, d) interruptions in cash flow, e) slower than usual responses from the irs, and f) well…what else can go wrong?

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer has always asked a variety of poignant questions about everything from the status of firms to the state of the economy. this is the first year, however, that it includes a question about disease.

the question was a late addition to the survey, a p.s. that didn’t seem necessary way back in early january. but now covid-19 is a thing—a real thing, a dangerous thing, a thing spreading all over the world, and to say it’s looking for a good cpa firm would be only a slight exaggeration.

judging by early responses to the survey, practitioners are aware of the problem, and most are already preparing to keep it at bay or minimize its impact. others believe the problem is being overblown by the news media. some are concerned for their clients more than themselves. some see clients bracing for a recession. roughly half have seen no impact on their firms—yet.

the timing could be crucial. will the virus go pandemic before april 15? whether it does or not, cpa firms are having to prepare for the possibility right in the middle of the busy season.

the upside of the downside

but there may be an upside to the generally downside situation.

it’s a complicated issue, so we had to ask a multi-faceted question:

1) what impacts, if any, will the covid-19 coronavirus have on your client base, your firm, or your family?

2) how might public response to the situation change the way you and your staff work together?

3) or, affect the financial outlook for some clients?

a firm in colorado answered each question in turn:

“1 – if there is a quarantine, we will request clients to upload their information through the secure portal and we will work remotely to complete the returns.

“2 – we are already sanitizing constantly and between clients.  wiping down all surfaces constantly.

“3 – it may cause a slow-down and the stock market is choppy.”

a houston firm seems to have the situation under as much control as possible, and its measures could be taken as advice. the director tells us:

“1. any wide-spread disease causes concern about protecting employees, clients, and the community at large. the key question is, can we produce the work while limiting office access or possibly shutting down for a few weeks?

“2. we have established home-remote connections and allow for chargeable work from home, so that could help mitigate some timing issues.

“3. if there is a widespread outbreak, we will certainly limit or stop all physical contact the best we can. we are currently preparing a two-step employee communication: (a) a general reminder about health, including notices from the cdc about washing, staying at home, or leaving work if feeling ill, and notifying management if they are diagnosed with an infectious disease.

“4. no crystal ball, but several client industries—tourism, retail, and insurance—could be impacted short and long term.”

the west coast has been hit especially hard, so a firm in northern california is taking serious precautions:

“de-socialization is necessary, and that will reduce client contact. we’re already encouraging it.  nobody will be shaking hands.  fortunately, we are a paperless office with a lot of technology at our disposal, and most of our clients can interface with us without a physical presence.  nevertheless, we have lysol, antibacterial soap and hand sanitizer at the ready. the staff has strict orders to not come in if they suspect they or their cohabitants are sick or have been exposed.   we have set everyone up with remote access. our office folks here should be able to ride out the economic hardship that may well be in the offing.”

a couple of upsides

if you want to know the downsides of covid-19, just turn on the tv or check facebook. but there are a couple of upsides that apply to the business of accountancy.

the accounting industry is advantageously structured for a pandemic crisis. cpa firms don’t depend on physical supply lines. few businesses are so readily adaptable to working from home. unlike retail businesses, cpa firms don’t see hundreds of people coming through the door each day. while working with clients involves some contact with the world outside the office, a lot of that contact can be accomplished digitally.

the pandemic, whether it actually happens or not, is forcing practices to redouble their efforts to work with web-based apps, cloud-based accounts, home-based staff, and broad-based technology. any firm that isn’t preparing for the possibility is being negligent. this crisis, even if it fizzles away, is an opportunity for firms to adjust the way they do business. the end result of all the preparation will be accounting firms that have expanded their technology to make their operations more flexible and efficient.

posted on march 5, 2020