Businesses of all sizes are encouraging remote work and many are curtailing business travel as everyone grapples with the impact of the coronavirus. Many are also trying to make things easier on employees if they get sick while many conferences are being postponed or canceled.Intuit has made the decision that all employees who can work remotely work at home at least through April 6. It has suspended business travel and CEO Sasan Goodarzi wrote on the company’s web page, “We’ve also offered extended sick leave for our employees should they need it.”
CEO Joe Adams noted RSM has suspended domestic air travel through March 31 and international travel through April 15. Any projects requiring air travel to client sites will be evaluated by leaders who will consult with clients on the best way to proceed
“We are also evaluating all events and meetings through April 30 and making prudent decisions to reschedule, transition to virtual meetings or cancel in alignment with our travel guidance and circumstances in our local offices and communities,” he wrote on the firm’s web site.
It is requiring individuals who are ill or live with anyone who is ill to stay at home “If they are not well, we are supporting them in taking time off to manage their health needs, he noted/ RSM is also following strict quarantine rules for employees who have been in contact with someone who has been exposed to or diagnosed with the disease and those who have “traveled to China, Iran, Japan, South Korea, the European continent or any other impacted areas.
In addition, some companies are making offers involving their applications. Salesforce is offering is offering free access for qualified emergency response teams, call centers and care management teams for health systems affected by coronavirus through is Health Cloud. Its Tableau operations has developed a free data resource hub to help organizations see and understand coronavirus data in near real-time drawing on data from Johns Hopkins University, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sage Reseller, RKL e Solutions, is telling clients its tools can the firm remotely handle many of their needs, including document drop-box tools for client document submissions. “In addition to underscoring healthy hygiene and cleanliness habits among the RKL team, we are also offering flexible work and leave options to accommodate our team members who may be ill or caring for family members,” president Joe Noll wrote in a recent email.
On the conference front Oracle canceled the in-person part of its Modern Business Experience event this week. However, keynotes were being delivered remotely while registrants can attend Oracle OpenWorld in September. Oracle’s NetSuite unit moved its SuiteWorld Conference, scheduled to begin on April 20, to August 10 through 13. Zoho canceled its Zoholics Austin event, slated to start on April 27.
One important body that firms are waiting to hear from is the Internal Revenue Service. The AICPA has urged the IRS to extend deadlines that fell on March 15 and to give individuals additional time to file and make payments through October 15. It also urged an automatic extension through October and asked the agency to waive late payment penalties if at least 70 percent of individuals tax due is paid by April 15 and to waive interest through October 15.
