06/19/2020
Written by someone else I thought I would share.
I wanted to take some time to thank a special group of essential workers without whose dedicated and tireless work during this pandemic we would all be in a significantly worse state of affairs. This is a group of people not normally grouped with the people usually cited as essential workers such as nurses, doctors, ambulance workers, medical office personnel, non-medical hospital workers, police officers, fire fighters, teachers, supermarket and drug store employees, box store employees, restaurants and restaurant workers who are ALL selfless, sacrificing, critically important people. The people I am referring to are an extraordinary group of people I am not only proud to know, but also associated with as one of their own. I am referring to accountants.
For those of you who don’t know…..accountants have been working tirelessly since January getting tax returns filed, and sometime around the beginning of March needed to figure out new ways to get data from people in a completely digital way. Some who either never did that before or with no computer skills. We had to develop safe, secure email and uploading document protocols to keep the returns moving and our employees working all while we struggled like everyone else to stay safe, healthy, socially distant and worried about our loved ones. We made house calls to pick up and drop off returns for people who weren’t computer savvy, and/or confined to their home. We cancelled all of our in-face appointments past March 15th or so, scheduled our office staff on staggered schedules to keep them safe and allowed them to work from home which in many cases is very inefficient on more than a temporary basis as interaction is required often to get the work done. Working from home exclusively made the hours longer.
Aside from the tax returns, there isn’t a business in this country that got a PPP loan or an EIDL loan from the SBA or their bank, or other forms of assistance without having significant and lengthy assistance from their accounting firm. Accountants had to fit into their already crazy tax season schedule, anywhere from 2-6 hours a day just to answer questions regarding SBA loans, help clients apply for the loans, loan forgiveness, IRS stimulus checks, unemployment eligibility, acceptable labor practices, and a dozen or two other little matters related to the crisis. Without the assistance of accountants with these critical matters the financial hardship on people would be crushing. For the stability of the economy, the federal and state governments needed to get the money into the hands of its citizens so it wouldn’t shut down. Without the work of accountants, that either wasn’t going to happen or it wouldn’t have happened as effectively as it did. And let’s not forget that every accountant has to deal with questions about the rules that change (weekly) about all of the stimulus, forgiveness, legislation and regulations related to these matters minutes after the legislation is signed but before any guidance is circulated. And even when it is, it’s often conflicted, complicated and mostly not addressing all of the matters it should. And now as we move through the phases, we now have to advise our clients on how to move forward in reopening businesses which just added another dimension and job to the list.
All of this while dealing with their own safety, the safety of their parents, children, siblings, significant others and grieving for the people they lost and the people who they know who lost…….
Not looking for applause or sympathy…..this is just a shout out to my brother and sister accountants who by every definition are essential and should be thanked by one of their own. When I was President of the ######XX chapter I got a bird’s eye view of how the deep our bench is and this year we definitely played our best. I knew what a noble profession it was when I picked it. I cannot possibly express just how thankful and proud I am to be included with this crowd. Thank you for all that you do and your hard work guys.
