Published Date: August 26, 2020 . Last Updated April 27, 2021
CPAs Portal – There’s little doubt that, as the coronavirus disturbance of 2020 continues, many accountants have been alongside their clients for every step of the journey.
Suddenly, accountants have discovered themselves superheroes of the economy because the aid from governments and other bodies has been chiefly financial. They’ve both provided and explained the data needed to get the help and helped complete the forms.
Covid-19 A positive disruption in CPAs Portal
We’re talking here about making the most of chances to help businesses to capitalize on the new norm, after the events of 2020. The good news is that this year’s Practice of Now survey and report recognized an accounting industry more than ready for this trial. Although the survey was finished just before the coronavirus issue occurred, the picture it paints from the outcomes of speaking to more than 3,000 accountants worldwide is positive.
The key theme is that the accounting occupation is on the brink of positive disruption. The survey shows not only do clients progressively expect business and strategy advice that is far beyond the normal, core remit of accountancy and bookkeeping services but that accountants are retorting to the need for a diversified service menu.
It’s logical to suggest that the visible trend of customers’ needs and expectations driving innovation will, arguably, only be fast-tracked by a coronavirus.
We know that accountants are best placed to address these urgent needs were already pivoting from traditional service models at the beginning of 2020, and utilizing new technologies, before coronavirus.
Creating Service Offerings For The New Normal
There are steady themes around which accounting professionals can focus their consideration to create new service offerings, or simply to be of use to their clients during this problematic time and beyond. Some involve core capabilities, while others are outside traditional comfort zones. But all must be careful moving forward if a practice is to thrive.
Offer Clarity Around Government Support
It’s vital to help your clients to comprehend what support is available to them. After all, their constant success enables your success and it might even be suggested that, following the events of 2020, helping clients succeed has become an existential query for accountants.
Many governments all over the world have been offering support schemes. Some governments have set up dedicated advice sources.
For the accounting CPAs portal moving forward, it’s vital to be fully aware of all such schemes and to connect clients to them. This can be challenging because many of them evolve rapidly. But, more than the above requirement, the online client portal needs to understand the full details of these schemes so that relevant information can be shared with clients easily. This must be coordinated by a knowledge of the client’s situation and their trade, without which it will be impossible to know if the scheme applies.
Never accept that your clients know about these support offerings, no matter how well-used the scheme may be.
A constant line of client communication may be compulsory to keep them up-to-date of any progresses and this can be achieved through regular email newsletters, blog posts, personal calls, or even town hall meetings.
Support Clients With Applications
Once education is taken care of, you should be ready to support your clients to submit grants, loans, or other applications for the government’s ongoing emergency actions. You may need to offer key financial reports for them, for example. Whether you charge for this or not is a problematic decision and in some ways may be dictated by the client’s circumstances. You might focus instead on lasting goodwill from the client or security benefits such as increased referrals or positive reviews online.
There’s a reason that clients are turning to account professionals for help at times such as these, and it’s because they realize that CPAs have the expertise and experience to make sense of things.
Some government schemes around unemployment or furloughing of staff might fall outside the direct area of the skill of an accountant. But the accountant is still likely to have the competence to pick-up the particulars and translate it into everyday language so people can comprehend. This ability is a superhero skill and is one more way that bookkeepers can provide value to clients, and therefore alter their service offerings at this difficult time.
Provide Technical Support
Nobody likes being the tech support guy, but there are very few accountants recently who haven’t been asked for some information of this nature. That might be basics on how to video conference, all the way through to the core task of being able to access accounting data while outside the four walls of the office.
With one to one client meetings on hold, for now, your clients will be working with you from their home to go over their financials. If they need support with their CPAs portal for CPA to do this, you’ll be in a good position to help them.
By providing CPAs portal in this area of remote working, you could offer a valuable facility to your clients. Any help you can offer will be certainly warmly received even if it’s outside your practice’s comfort zone.