Impact Of COVID-19 On Our Business Processes

Taxation and accounting are two of the most complex processes that people have to work and deal with. Whether the individual is running a business, company, or their individual accounts, they have to have their finances and their books in place. Not dealing with their books properly could lead to significant issues with the authorities when it comes to taxation. If they do not pay the correct amounts, individuals can face fines and penalties, even leading to jail time.

During the pandemic, with most companies struggling to get through and retain many of their employees, they were not doing too well. For the most part, people were not allowed to interact with one another for their safety during the pandemic. Whenever there was a spike in the number of people with the Coronavirus, most countries would implement a national lockdown, with people not being allowed to leave their homes unless for groceries or medical requirements.

With most people getting work done online because they were not allowed to go to work, it was challenging to get through with most companies remote working. While many companies moved, others were struggling to get through. Overall, most companies noticed a decrease in productivity with most of their staff at home while dealing with aspects of their lives, like errands, personal commitments and other distractions.

We noticed a lot of changes taking place through the pandemic. As a company, we also had to make and adapt to all these changes. If we have to predict what would happen in the upcoming six months, we would be doing fewer walk-in appointments and more online and “drop-off “type tax preparations. For the most part, people were not meeting one another in person because they reduced the chances of catching the virus. 

We found that we were quite restricted during the lockdown, but as things started opening up, we were allowed to get a few things done. We no longer had to stay locked at home. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, we can only have a certain number of clients at our office at any given time. Clients should call or email ahead of time to book an appointment if they must come in.

We did not have to make significant changes to the way we were communicating, but we started using some approaches a lot more than others. Tax papers can be dropped off, mailed in, emailed or faxed to our office. Our competent tax accountants would be working round the clock to ensure that we communicate (through regular detailed phone calls and emails) with each client every step of the way, ensuring optimum service and timely tax returns filing.

With all our clients’ documents and other information relating to their previous tax years, the work they handle and everything else was all stored at the office. It was a lot easier for us to get things done from the office as opposed to our house because most of the files and information were kept there. So as soon as they were easing up on the restrictions, we started working from the office. 

We can’t accommodate the regular number of walk-in clients we used to be able to accommodate. We have to make sure that we do not have meetings lined up one after another because we are no longer using the waiting room to reduce the chances of people coming in contact with each other. We started timing our meetings and leaving gaps between two meetings, to sanitize the place before the next one. We were having a lot fewer meetings now than we were in the past. Currently, we were only allowing two clients to come to the office at the same time because we had enough room to accommodate them while maintaining social distance. We would schedule other clients for a later point in time, which would make the process a lot more convenient. We disinfect every work station at the start of each day, end of the day, and midday.

If you are looking for professional tax accounts, get in touch with us at Can-Am CPA Professional Corporation. We are an independently owned and operated full-service accounting and taxation firm in Toronto. We were around for more than three decades, understanding and changing with the times, learning the ins and outs of the taxation process. We have clients across the place and have even considered and succeeded in working remotely with them through the pandemic. We are always looking to explain and if you think we can assist in any way, get in touch with us, and we are more than happy to get through the process. If you want to get a better understanding of the services that we provide, please click here. If you want to get in touch with us, please click here.