We hope everyone is doing as well as possible during this time. We know that the changing environment both socially and economically has created obstacles for many, and the last eight weeks has at times been challenging.
We hope that our support during this time has made your financial and accounting decisions a little bit easier to manage. We send our thoughts to you, and we continue to be here to answer your questions.
At this time, we wanted to provide you with an update regarding our office and how we plan to deal with safety moving forward post stay at home order.
On Monday, May 18, 2020, phase one of the St. Louis County re-opening plan will go into place. As an organization, we have decided that our support and accounting staff will remain working from home until June 1, 2020. Both Jeremy Klaven and Brad Rotermund will be working from the #1 First Missouri Center office Monday – Friday during this time. We are asking that during the period from May 18, 2020 – May 31, 2020, client meetings and planning sessions take place via telephone or Zoom conferencing.
Beginning June 1, 2020, our staff will return to the office. At that time, meetings and planning sessions that cannot take place remotely can be held in our office. Although we will open our doors for client meetings, please understand that for the foreseeable future visits to our office will look different then they have in the past. In accordance with county regulations and in our best effort to keep our staff safe, we will be laying out the following COVID-19 protocol:
- Upon entering our office you will be asked to answer some standard COVID-related questions. These questions include confirming travel, contact with others, etc. The answers to these questions will remain confidential and only be shared with others in the event they are needed for public health safety.
- After answering these questions we will ask that visitors take a quick reading of their temperature. Anyone over 100.2 will be asked to reschedule their appointment for a later time.
- Our waiting/lobby area will be partitioned off with room dividers. Only one client (with partner or spouse) will be allowed in that lobby area at a time. If more than one client is at the office at a given time we will place the second client in the conference room.
- K&R loves to see the kids come to client appointments, we usually have coloring books and games to keep them busy, during this time we ask that you try and attend client meetings without children. If you need to bring your kids please let us know at the time of scheduling so we can plan accordingly.
- Client meetings will be kept to 45-minute sessions. We will have a 15-minute gap between client appointments. That gap time will be used to sanitize surfaces used during the meeting.
- Face masks, hand sanitizer, and other PPE may be provided upon entering the office. We may wear a face mask during client meetings when space is limited and when requested by clients.
- We ask that all visitors, whenever possible also wear a face mask when waiting for their client meeting and speaking with support staff in person.
- Other things that can be done in the office to limit the spread of COVID-19
- Limit cell phone usage during visits to our office.
- If you have gloves on, please remove them before entering our office. Used gloves spread disease, we will have a replacement set of gloves for you.
- Please wash your hands in the bathroom prior to entering.
- If possible wear a face mask while in our office.
- Provide electronic or scanned files rather than paper copies
- If you are feeling sick or under the weather, reschedule your appointment. There is no fee for rescheduling.
We are excited and looking forward to the next step in this process. We are looking forward to seeing all of our clients, as well as getting back to business and helping the local economy get back on its feet. We understand that for many of you the time to come in is now and for others it may not be for a few more weeks or longer. We are going to do our best to accommodate all of our clients needs in safe environment. If you have any questions about the information in this email, feel free to email or call our office.
COVID-19 Resources We continue to provide information related to the government response to the COVID crisis on our Facebook and website. We encourage you to check out our Facebook Page and website for updates. https://covidtaxportal.com/FmqQpFCChYRx
Hand Sanitizer We recently received a large shipment of hand sanitizer. We have 5.5 oz packets designed to refill your existing hand sanitizer bottle. If you are in need of hand sanitizer please contact Jeremy Klaven for more information.
We want to make your taxes less taxing during these trying times and provide you with the highest level of tax preparation and tax advice possible. Thank you for your continued business and support.