Toronto - Board meetings while petting your dog, formal suits collecting dust in your closet, phone batteries always on charge and a smile because “you are still working”. The new age work culture is here and here to stay! COVID-19 has brought significant changes to the way we work and more importantly the way we think. It cannot be stressed enough for how important it is for companies to be able to work digitally.

Sami Ghaith, an ambitious entrepreneur from Toronto has made the bold move to restructure his firm to transition into a digital firm of the future. He runs a CPA firm – SDG Accountant, in Toronto which offers tax and accounting services in Canada and USA. 3 months back when it was all normal, Sami was operating through a plush office at Yonge and Bloor Street in a neighborhood referred to as Yorkville. When the covid-19 situation escalated, he realized the need to adapt and adapt quickly. He made the blunt move of cancelling the lease and thus paying cancellation penalties. Since most of their clients’ files were already stored on a secure platform it was not a major challenge for them to move the remaining hard files onto the platform as well. He decided to set up productivity monitoring SaaS applications on his employee’s workstations to be able to ensure employees are not being heavily distracted by the work from home culture. By doing so, SDG Accountant became one of the few CPA firms to be fully digitalized.

All the tasks that were being performed remotely were happening through communication video platforms like zoom, TeamViewer and skype. What seemed difficult initially, suddenly became a way of life for his firm and was quickly adapted.

His new hire, Kanav Behal who came in with a few week training experience from Toronto’s Deloitte office, was interviewed via a video call during April’ 2020 and once his employment was confirmed, his onboarding kit with his laptop was mailed to him with a personal note from Sami. Sami had created several training and onboarding videos that new hires can watch from the comfort of their own home, which saved a lot of time on training and onboarding costs. The story is no different elsewhere now with most firms opting for the work from home or the digital route. “Several clients initially hesitated in allowing us to handle their documents digitally, but the transition slowly happened as people became more aware that working digitally has strong advantages”, explains Sami.

The companies are trying various modes to mitigate the loss in revenue which Covid-19 brought. Saving on office rental space and reinvesting that towards digitalizing the user experience in a secured manner is the need of the hour and will be the approach going forward. Sami stresses the need for businesses to follow suit and make use of the challenging times in creating new opportunities and a new work environment. Investment needs to be made by firms towards generating a robust infrastructure that enables employees to work digitally from their homes and provide the same standard of services that the physical office space allowed them to. “The businesses that will transform digitally will be the ones to thrive and survive in this era”, points Sami.

“Necessity is the mother of Invention”, covid-19 created the need to utilize resources and technology that allows offices and employees to be able to continue and thrive from their own separate spaces yet produce the same collaborative outcome that working together in an office offered. CPA firms which are traditionally all paper based and require much of a face to face interaction to perform seamlessly, have evolved with the current times.

They have made changes which were unthinkable before and have had to accept the new normal – catering to their clients digitally. SDG Accountant is one such firm which accepted the challenge and have been able to cater to their clients well even in the face of a pandemic. Kanav, who works at SDG feels that working remotely does have its fair share of benefits. With the flexibility and reduced travel, he saves almost 2 hours of daily commute time which he now utilizes on his family and extra-curriculars like Yoga. The money saved on Tim Hortons and Transit is an added advantage he points out.

The challenge is real and daunting but success stories such as Sami’s are a lesson which can positively impact the corporate path ahead! SDG Chartered Professional Accountant Toronto is a premier tax and accounting firm dedicated to servicing clients in USA and Canada. Started in 2014 by Sami Ghaith, the firm has quickly established itself to be a leading CPA firm in Toronto.