Outsourced Accounting Services Can Support Your Post-COVID-19 Transition

The business chaos of March 2020 was intense. What did a shutdown entail? How long would it last? How would the bills be paid? How would we interact with clients? How would we keep employees, families, vendors, and co-workers safe? Does your chest feel a little tight as you recall last spring? Take a deep breath; we are emerging from the crisis.

Building strength in recovery

The pandemic is not over yet, but I am grateful that we have reached the milestones necessary to consider the future. I believe that elements of our business world have changed permanently, but that is not necessarily negative. The last year has provided an opportunity to reassess the way we do business. Maybe we needed this profound disruption to alter the way we look at the world and adjust our approach to business.

Leadership through the storm

Leaders have shouldered a lot of responsibility for their organizations during the last year, but the end of the pandemic does not signal a return to business as usual. In fact, in the next few months, leaders will be making some critical decisions about the future. Getting back to our physical workplaces may be one of the first issues we address, but other strategic needs may have become clear in the last year. Formally evaluating your workforce, leadership positions, and organizational structure may be necessary. Prioritizing the processes and positions that need immediate attention is probably the next step. Reviewing your strategic plan in light of what we have learned in the last year will involve a long-term discussion over the next months. So, what can you do to restore a sense of stability in an organization that has gone through such a period of change and, no doubt, some staff turnover?

Strength in finance and accounting positions

Although there were times in 2020 that felt like a seemingly never-ending challenge, the world continued to turn. There were layoffs, retirements, reorganizations, and promotions. Each of those changes provides an opportunity to review organizational structure and consider how people and processes are working. Among other issues, the pandemic has forced all of us to look at succession planning and teams in a whole new way.

This moment is an opportunity for change. You may need to fill some key positions that your operation depends on such as a bookkeeper, controller, or director of finance. These team members are critical to your daily operation and though filling the positions is important, adding the right person to the team is more important, and that may take some time, and perhaps, a national search. For the interim, you might pause, take a deep breath, and use a qualified professional who understands remove work environments, new legislation, restrictions, and regulatory matters that have evolved over the past year.

You might also wonder if your current organizational structure and the processes you have relied on are the most productive and efficient. Now is the time to ask these questions. In viewing your operation from a new perspective, you may find the potential in some reorganization.

Right now, I believe there is an openness to doing business differently. For example, for years there was resistance to working from home. There were concerns about productivity, distractions, and risk management. These are valid concerns that quickly dispersed when there was no choice but to adapt to working outside of the office. Now, the long-term leases and the number of unutilized square footage in office buildings naturally raise questions about how to integrate work-from-home schedules when everyone understands that it is a viable, safe, and secure option. What other issues that we took for granted deserve a new look?

Getting the structure and support you need to grow

The question on many minds right now is this: How stable is the future?
There is no easy answer. Will we ever return to some sense of normalcy? It is a little hard to remember what daily work life used to be like. When is the last time you shook someone’s hand when you met them?

You can’t change all at once, and you don’t have to do it alone. MGO’s outsourced accounting team can help support you through this time of transition. We can provide you with experienced professionals at any level, from to bookkeeper to controller to chief financial officer. The flexibility will allow you a second to breathe while you evaluate your situation, consider some changes, and then confidently move forward into the Post-COVID-19 era of your operation.