As things stand, Hazlewoods remains open and we are available to assist you and your company in any way that we can. Many of our teams are set up to work remotely from the office and are contactable via e-mail.
If you have booked an audit or site visit over the coming weeks, senior members of our team will be in touch to discuss with you whether the plans in place are still appropriate and practical. Alterations or rescheduling will be agreed where possible.
We will, of course, work closely with you to manage any changes to minimise their impact on your business. Bearing in mind the current uncertainty of how long the disruptions will last, factors to consider are:
- The impact on your current business;
- What precautions need to be taken, with regards to restrictions to both premises and staff, to allow for the continuation of activities;
- Are you able to access resources based at separate locations, particularly those outside of the UK;
- Practically, can the audit go ahead, are you able to delay or can it take place remotely;
- Can stocktake arrangements change, do you have the facility to perform a count at a different time and roll back or forward the results;
- What will be the impact on your business if the audit report has to be qualified as a result of a limitation such as not being able to confirm stock held at the period end;
- Going concern considerations will be more of an issue as companies require additional financial support to keep their business running;
- How this will impact of your filing responsibilities.
These considerations are based on the presumption that there will be no contingency measures put in place by the government (such as extra financial support or extension to filing deadline). Hopefully this will not be the case.
Maintaining good lines of communication with your staff, customers, and suppliers will be vital in the coming weeks. We would also highly recommend that, if cash flow is likely to become an issue for you, that you speak with your bank now to secure facilities as soon as possible.