Dear clients, please remember that we're humans.

2020 has been a challenge for everyone, but this week has been exceptionally difficult for our firm. Between our 7 full-time employees, there have been 3 funerals and a health scare that resulted in an overnight stay at the hospital and extensive testing. I'm happy to say that everyone is okay, but it was a very unpleasant and stressful week.

I am not writing this to elicit sympathy. I'm writing this to remind you, our beloved clients, of something very important that sometimes it's easy to forget: we're humans.

We strive for excellence in everything that we do, and we do our best to be efficient and deliver our work with a very high standard of care. We take our work more seriously than you may know.

However, we're people. A very small team of human people. And as people, we have lives, responsibilities, and emotions outside of our work. These things are often not obvious to or typically shared with our clients.

If you chose us as your accountant, then you know that we care about our clients to an amazing extent. We know that relationships are the reason our clients choose us. We know that these relationships are why you stay with us (sometimes for decades). I am very aware that those relationships have deep roots.

You probably also know that our firm is a very family-oriented and team-focused environment. The only people who we (as a company) care about more than our clients are one another, and so if one person on our team is suffering, that takes a toll on all of us. This week, many of us were suffering, and the price we paid for being so close-knit was our productivity.

Most clients who we've had contact with during this trying time have been incredibly understanding. Some have sent us kind words and thoughts, while others have been supportive by way of flowers, snacks, or silly gifts. Big shout out to the client who sent us a pinata filled with booze.

However, it's been disappointing that some have expressed a complete lack of sympathy or empathy for the fact that we are real-life human people going through some heavy real-life shit.

This week has taught me that our company needs to adjust our approach.

While we will continue to run our firm in the spirit of forming long-term relationships between our team and our clients, we're going to need our clients to be comfortable and confident working with members of our team who they may not usually work with. Rest assured, I thoroughly vet everyone who works for us, and I know that you will be in excellent hands regardless of who you're working with.

Additionally, I expect that our clients are mindful of our humanity, and treat us with the same respect that we have for them. Anyone who deems it appropriate to be abusive or rude to our staff as a result of a human error or momentary lapse in ongoing contact with their normal point-of-contact can expect that I will invite them to seek the expertise of another professional in our industry.

We appreciate your understanding and look forward to a continued professional relationship with all of our clients who can remember that the team at CSA Accounting is comprised of human people who occasionally need support from the rest of the awesome team at CSA Accounting.