{"id":7702,"date":"2020-06-19T12:40:08","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T11:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/?p=7702"},"modified":"2026-01-29T11:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T11:31:10","slug":"moore-accountancy-supporting-clients-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/moore-accountancy-supporting-clients-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"Moore Accountancy: ‘Supporting our clients during coronavirus has been really important’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStrategy, Legal & Operations<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMoore Accountancy: ‘Supporting our clients during coronavirus has been really important’\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\tSid Moore<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In our Your Story<\/a> series, we speak to business owners about the challenges they\u2019re facing and the steps they\u2019re taking to overcome them.\u00a0<\/strong>Sudipta \u2018Sid\u2019 Moore is the founder and principal accountant at <\/strong>Moore Accountancy<\/strong><\/a>, based in South Manchester. Here, she provides advice and insight for any service-based businesses adjusting to the new normal in light of the coronavirus outbreak. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Getting through the past few months of coronavirus<\/a> (COVID-19) disruption has been like ploughing through a dense forest. You can see your goal on the other side and have to persevere in order to get through it.<\/p>\n

Having adjusted to home working, I now find myself making plans for the remainder of 2020.<\/p>\n

Can I get my staff back into the office, and how should that be done? And how can I help ensure my clients are still around when we get back?<\/p>\n

Take advantage of the situation to get a jump on the tax year<\/h2>\n

We\u2019ve found that some of our sole trader and individual clients have had more time on their hands, because they\u2019re not working during the disruption, so they\u2019ve already dropped off their 2019\/20 accounts.<\/p>\n

This is very different to most tax years!<\/p>\n

But getting it done early helps them plan, because they\u2019ll learn ASAP what their liability is come January. And the rest of this year may be just as tough for them, so this is useful.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still working in the office but none of my staff are. Obviously, I avoid contact with clients.<\/p>\n

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“With some clients who aren\u2019t generating income, we\u2019ve reduced their fees temporarily to help with their cash flow”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We have a box in the porch where they can drop stuff off. We ask them then to text me to let me know when they\u2019ve been. I let the documents sit in the box for a while to decontaminate.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re the registered office for lots of businesses, of course. We\u2019re continuing with our usual policy of scanning in documentation, and then saving it out on a cloud drive.<\/p>\n

The difference is that I\u2019m doing the scanning now, rather than somebody else.<\/p>\n

But because we\u2019re saving the documents in the cloud, the relevant member of staff can still pick it up at their home and then email it out to the relevant client.<\/p>\n\n

Support your clients and communicate regularly<\/h2>\n

We\u2019re on retainers with many clients, and haven\u2019t seen much difference in fees. With some clients who aren\u2019t generating income, we\u2019ve reduced their fees temporarily to help with their cash flow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Q4 of this year might be hard for us and our clients because that\u2019s when the government help schemes<\/a> all seem to end. But we\u2019re regularly communicating with clients and this helps both us and them.<\/p>\n

We can see what work we\u2019re likely to see as the year progresses, but we can also help clients plan<\/a> and forecast.<\/p>\n

Come September, we\u2019re going to have to expect more regular hours from our staff. We can\u2019t keep up completely flexible working forever, because accountancy is a service industry \u2013 we just can\u2019t service our clients that way.<\/p>\n

Even if our clients resume nine-to-five working patterns, they might still expect to get responses within 24 hours.<\/p>\n

Right now, they might get a response, but it might be at 10pm at night if one of our employees has not been able to work in the afternoon because of childcare issues, for example.<\/p>\n

Request colleagues update their status<\/h2>\n

The issue I\u2019ve found most frustrating is simply not knowing where people are up to.<\/p>\n

In the office, I can physically see a person\u2019s presence, but right now I\u2019m not sure if somebody\u2019s back from lunch yet, or has had to take a few hours away from their desk for their mental health.<\/p>\n

The Band-Aid solution we have in place is a WhatsApp group, where I ask people to declare what they\u2019re up to: \u201cI\u2019m off for lunch,\u201d for example, and then: \u201cI\u2019m back from lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

I encourage people to communicate regularly but, inevitably, they tend to forget.<\/p>\n

Training\u2019s been difficult too. We took on a new recruit who\u2019s aiming for an AAT qualification. But screen sharing, Zoom calls, and phone calls aren\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

He needs to be in a real, physical working environment where he can make mistakes and ask questions instantly of people around him.<\/p>\n

Experiment with scenario-planning your office return<\/h2>\n

In a few months, we\u2019ll probably start to reintroduce staff back into the office \u2013 perhaps starting with those who don\u2019t have children.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll do it slowly, perhaps asking people to work in the office one or two days out of their week.<\/p>\n

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“Our new recruit needs to be in a real, physical working environment where he can make mistakes and ask questions”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Everybody has shown they can work effectively from home<\/a>, or at least as effectively as possible given the current situation. To me, that means they\u2019re still productive and able to maintain a good work\/life balance.<\/p>\n

But I would hope that, as soon as the school situation is sorted out<\/a>, people are more in the office than they aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Shift work for the office might be the answer, to avoid staff overlapping. We may have to experiment.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re aiming to maintain the two metre distancing between people and desks. Yes, we\u2019ll still have to share toilets and kitchens, but we hope that lots of hand sanitiser and wipes will help.<\/p>\n

Some friendly traditions such as one person making a brew for others might have to stop.<\/p>\n

My top three takeaways<\/h2>\n

Here\u2019s what worked best for our business.<\/p>\n

1. Keep clients in the loop via regular communications<\/h3>\n

It helps them, because you can provide advice, and also helps you understand your position.<\/p>\n

2. Take time to celebrate your strengths<\/h3>\n

My team has battled through this, and we\u2019ve come out stronger on the other side. We\u2019ve realised how resilient we are.<\/p>\n

3. Keep people motivated<\/h3>\n

This is actually more of a mental health concern. Keeping people happy means they want to come to work each day \u2013 even if that\u2019s working from home.<\/p>\n

Sid Moore was talking to Sage Advice\u2019s Keir Thomas-Bryant.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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Want to share Your Story? <\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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If you'd like to tell your business story on Sage Advice and share how you've overcome challenges, send us your details to learn more.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet in touch<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n

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Join more than 500,000 UK readers and get the best business admin strategies and tactics, as well as actionable advice to help your company thrive, in your inbox every month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe now<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The founder of Moore Accountancy talks about helping clients and managing her workforce during the coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":727,"featured_media":7705,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"sage_hide_published_date":false,"sage_hide_read_time":false,"sage_hide_share_buttons":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[191,34],"business_type":[115],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[67],"imagine_tag":[220,98,109],"coauthors":[499],"class_list":["post-7702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people-leadership","category-strategy-legal-operations","tag-business-continuity","tag-your-story","business_type-accountants"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-gb","author_name":"Sid Moore","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/06\/sabri-tuzcu-wunVFNvqhfE-unsplash.jpg","imagine_tags":{"220":"Accountant accounting","98":"Business continuity","109":"Small business"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice UK","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/727"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/7705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7702"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=7702"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=7702"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=7702"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=7702"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=7702"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=7702"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}