After the initial shock of COVID-19 wore off and a new way of carrying on had to be found, work life a year ago settled down with a new set of tools: Zoom, the contactless drop-off, client portals finally used to something closer to their full potential. Now it seems the coronavirus may be at least a little caged, and some preparers are again eying tools that their practices once relied on.
Among them is the face-to-face meeting, a concept met with eagerness by some, hostility by others, and uncertainty in many more.
Doing more face-to-face? “Absolutely — as people feel more comfortable, we anticipate having more live rather than virtual meetings and events,” said Daniel Morris, a CPA and senior partner with Morris+D’Angelo CPAs in San Jose, California. “We’re already scheduling group meetings for special groups, and of course we’ll continue to have smaller meetups and there will always be an ongoing concern for safety. We’ll still have some or even a majority of participants using masks and [taking] other safety steps.”
“For the first time in recorded history, clients have been very excited to see their CPA: They came flying in without their mask because they’ve been vaccinated,” said Scott Kadrlik, managing partner at Meuwissen, Flygare, Kadrlik & Associates, in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, whose firm has resumed in-person staff meetings.
“No, we’re not doing more face-to-face. We’re still doing most of our meetings via Zoom and some via phone,” said Daniel Henn, a CPA in Rockledge, Florida. “I don’t anticipate that we’ll start face-to-face meetings until September or October. The biggest reason is that we want to be as safe as we can. We’ve kept that policy since the pandemic began, and all but two — now former — clients have been fine with it.”
Vaccinations and flexibility
Among its
“We’ve had a few more face-to-face meetings with people who’ve been vaccinated,” said Morris Armstrong, an Enrolled Agent and registered investment advisor at Armstrong Financial Strategies in Cheshire, Connecticut. “Face-to-face through plexiglass is better than Zoom through HD. The key is that everyone is vaccinated, and nearly all my clients have been and there are only a handful who are anti-vax.”
“Everyone in our office has chosen to be vaccinated,” Kadrlik said. “A couple of staff still wear masks and we social distance as much as possible. Staff have workspaces that allow for separation. [We] have now resumed staff meetings in person.”
Kerry Freeman, an EA at Freeman Income Tax Service in Anthem, Arizona, allowed clients to determine the level of face-to-face meetings.
“We’ll still reduce the need for face-to-face. We have to be mindful of the clients’ concerns,” he said. “COVID isn’t going away, and as long as some are at risk, we have to be mindful of that.
“We did accelerate our move from face-to-face to virtual styles of meeting with more drop off, telephone and Zoom,” Freeman added. “This gave us new flexibility in workflow that we didn’t have before and allowed us to continue to grow to new levels.”
What about job flexibility? Will the firm’s office be the anchor again for tax preparers who don’t necessarily want it to be?
“I like working remotely,” said Larry Pon, a CPA in Redwood City, California. “No need to commute or get dressed. I like just talking to clients on the phone or over Zoom. Traffic is getting bad again, so I don’t want to see clients grumpy about their drive to my office.”
Pon does, however, want to attend conferences and seminars live. “I miss the networking,” he said. “The virtual conferences haven’t been that great. Many great live speakers were horrible virtually.”
April 2022
Next season remains a question mark for preparers when it comes to office and meeting policies. “Over time, we’ll see a lessening of concerns,” Morris said. “We believe regional differences will exist.”
“I am still ambivalent about how the next tax season will be,” said Manasa Nadig, an EA and owner at MN Tax and Business Services and a partner at Harris Nadig in Canton, Michigan. “My plan is to wait for the CDC recommendations around November or December … and make a call.”
The pandemic has hardened some priorities. “We have an office of five people and we’ve all managed to stay away from COVID-19. We’d like to keep it that way,” Henn said. “Worst-case scenario, we open back up in time for [next] tax season.”
“I like to think that we won’t be needing to think about it,” Armstrong added, “but we will.”
