How the Georgia CPA Community is Responding to COVID-19

For many people, working from home occasionally is a nice perk. But when stay at-home/shelter in place orders were issued as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home was no longer a luxury – it was a necessity. Read how GSCPA members and their teams handled the quick change from office to off-site.

Ready or Not 

Cecily Welch, CPA, PFS, CFP®, has made it through 24 tax seasons. She says every year she warns her staff to “plan for something bizarre to happen.” This year, the tax software she uses blew up, taking with it five days of hard work. Welch hoped that meant she was done with this season’s bizarre stuff.

Enter COVID-19, which took life from merely bizarre to Twilight Zone status.

Welch is a sole proprietor with one full-time employee and three contractors. Her team was already familiar with remote work – everyone works off-site two days a week – so when the stay at home order came for Atlanta, they transitioned easily.

Marlan Nichols, CPA, CGMA, CVA, CIA, managing member at Nichols Cauley in Warner Robins, rates his firm as 60- 70 percent ready for full-time remote work when the order came. Many staff already worked at home on a part-time basis. “We had the technology and capacity, but we probably weren’t as prepared on the responsiveness side to deal with uncertainties,” Nichols says. “We’re making up that other 40 percent as we go.” He says the firm had quasi-policies in place in terms of expectations and productivity and how things are supposed to work. “This has made us better at it.”

In early March, Jones and Kolb in Atlanta began encouraging its staff of 30 to work from home, says Joel Pascaner, CPA, Principal. Prior to COVID-19 changes, staff were required to be in the office during core hours with flexibility built in, but in general, working from home wasn’t a common practice. Now, the staff is at home full time, working hard, and meeting deadlines.

Keeping the Flow in Workflow

As a partially virtual firm, Welch already had formal policies in place to guide her staff as they switched to full-time, at-home work. The biggest challenge came from Welch’s client base, 40 percent of whom are elderly. “They’re very paper-based,” she explains. “They like to meet face-to-face, which we’re not doing now. They understand the current circumstances, but they don’t like sending confidential information through the mail.” Her clients struggled to use a portal system, so to ensure security, she uses a software package that sends and receives encrypted emails.

Welch says this tax season brought in some new clients that she hasn’t even had the opportunity to meet yet because of social distancing. She holds video meetings to review more complicated returns, but many clients say they’re happy to wait and see her later in the year.

Nichols says the firm’s auditors, who were already used to working remotely, made the transition easily. Accounting services staff also had the tools and technology to work remotely. The tax team had the most to do to prepare for remote work. Nichols says scanning and distributing information to preparers went smoothly thanks to the technological upgrades the firm invested in over the years. “It was all possible, but we hadn’t done much of it until now,” he says. Client documents are scanned and dropped into a client’s files and ready for access in the cloud. Team members can log in from anywhere to access information. “When they work from home, it’s just like they’re sitting at their desk in the office,” Nichols says.

Most Nichols Cauley employees already had laptops and were ready for remote work. A few individuals worked on desktops, so those were packed up and sent home. Nichols says that does create a challenge when desktop users need to return to the office – now they don’t have a workstation. “We hadn’t even planned for our paraprofessional group to work from home long term, so we’ve had to make some adjustments,” he says.

Nichols Cauley staff is meeting with clients via video and voice calls, or occasionally outside sitting on the bed of a pickup truck. They’re observing social distancing guidelines, of course. There is a station outside the office where clients can drop off documents if they’re not comfortable using the firm’s portal. “We’re not bringing anyone into the office,” Nichols says.

Collections are happening in a variety of ways at Nichols Cauley. The outside dropbox allows those who still insist upon writing checks to do so. Otherwise, the firm is asking for credit card and ACH payments.

Jones and Kolb staged a dress rehearsal to iron out problems – which of course, there were – with connections, speed, screens, etc. It took about a week for IT to resolve everyone’s issues. “It’s not as efficient or easy, but it’s working,” Pascaner says. “Work is going out and coming in. Things are getting done. We’re all doing the best we can.”

Welch says trying to get regular tax work completed in addition to understanding the stimulus package and helping clients apply for loans and unemployment have given new meaning to the busy season. “Our workload is easily up 50 percent, and everyone’s need is urgent,” she says. “I wish I was simply doing tax returns now.”

As clients needed and wanted more and more information more quickly, client communication was another area that firms needed to ratchet up to new levels.

When the stay-at-home order seemed imminent, Nichols says the firm began sending client email blasts that directed everyone to visit the firm’s website for the most up-to-date information. The firm also began disseminating more information via social media. “We’re using it far more than we ever have before,” Nichols says.

Finding the Balance at Home

The Welch household is trying to balance two professionals working from home and online school for their son. They created a family calendar to help everyone manage their time. It also helps their son understand when he can approach them with questions and when they might be on calls and shouldn’t be disturbed.

To help her team complete their work while possibly trying to homeschool and share a workspace, Welch encouraged her staff to set project goals as opposed to hourly goals. “It’s overwhelming if they just think about completing 200 returns,” she says. “Counting hours isn’t meaningful anymore.” Instead, she tells them to break projects into small chunks, maybe setting a goal to complete ten urgent returns. “Even if they stop to take breaks, they work until those ten are finished. Then they can check those returns off their list.”

Welch knows working full time from home, especially during busy season, could quickly morph into a 24/7 on-call mentality – something she wants to avoid. She told her team to complete their work when they can. “Just because I send an email at a late hour, that doesn’t mean you have to reply. I’m working when I can. You should work when you can.”

Pascaner says Jones and Kolb isn’t strict with chargeable hour requirements either. “It’s the honor system. We know many people have kids at home right now. Everyone works hard here.”

The Jones and Kolb office manager is in touch with staff daily to check in on their health, especially those who live alone. The firm also has weekly events that can be enjoyed remotely, such as a baby picture contest and bingo. “It’s challenging to keep people connected in a time like this,” Pascaner says. “This is a way to help lighten things up.”

Welch says while she believes her staff is doing OK, they all miss those cultural check-ins that happen naturally when people are together in one place. “There’s no ability to let off a little steam with people in similar situations,” she says. She sets a reminder to reach out to her staff, even if it’s via text, and have conversations about non-work topics. “It’s a way to maintain some sort of culture.”

“This situation has forced us to do a better job of communicating where we are, what’s going on, and what the next step is,” Nichols says. “The long-term effects on our culture remain to be seen, but for now, our team knows we care about their problems. Whether someone doesn’t have daycare and has their kids at home or they’re having a health issue, we’ll figure it out together.”

Nichols says as long as staff are available, accountable and getting work done, it’s all good. “Young folks today work weird hours anyway,” he laughs. “If work isn’t getting done, we’ll have discussions. But it isn’t any different from what I expect when we’re in the office every day. I don’t run around checking on everyone’s work.”

This is an Opportunity

Will the accounting profession be forever changed thanks to COVID-19? Absolutely, says Welch. She predicts more firms will realize that working from home can be not only productive but also a great recruiting and retention tool. “I’m hoping this forces firms to trust that they hired a professional who can do their job, and realize their productivity has nothing to do with working in an office. We’ve used our clients as an excuse for not changing, but they’ve shown they will work differently with us. This is an opportunity.”

Welch also speculates that older accountants who might have been on the bubble of deciding to transition out might do so now, further consolidating the profession. “There will be people who survive well and others who say they don’t want to work in the new environment. And that’s OK,” she says.

Nichols says he finds it easier to work in the office than at home, but he has learned a few new tricks from all of this. “Social interaction and looking people in the eye are important to me, but I’m learning there are other ways to accomplish that.”

One of the biggest positives Nichols has observed is how generations are learning from each other. “This time has allowed the Millennials and Gen Z age groups to appreciate the older folks and how and why we do what we do. In turn, the older generation has observed that the youngsters know how to work and produce in different ways. These false walls we’ve built between generations are improving. We’re not as generationally stiff as we thought we were. That’s a big plus.”

COVID-19 has caused everyone to reevaluate how work gets done, Pascaner says. “We’ve had no choice but to try things that we were reluctant to do in the past.”

Pascaner says while the firm wasn’t unprepared, they weren’t fully prepared. “We were caught off guard to a certain extent.” He says even though no one would have ever imagined anything like COVID-19 occurring, it demonstrates the need to think further outside the box when creating a disaster or crisis plan. “When things calm down, we’ll consider and address issues that will help us be more prepared for any unexpected emergency. We’ll have more specific requirements and steps that need to be taken.”

Getting to the Other Side

For now, firms are working to balance the here and now with what comes next. Nichols Cauley staff are on the phone constantly with clients. Nichols says it’s a challenge to complete urgent work because of the constant flow of client calls, emails and questions. “Understandably, there’s a lot of fear and panic out there,” he says. “Someone’s portfolio just dropped 30 or 40 percent. Someone else’s employees can’t show up for work. Some businesses just can’t operate remotely. A lot of what we’re doing now is psychology. People want to call, talk, and be reassured there is something on the other side. We’re trying to help them plan for what’s on the other side.”

Natalie Rooney, a freelance writer from Colorado, has been writing for CPA societies for 15 years. She can be reached at nrooney@ centurytel.net