Coronavirus (COVID-19): How to react as an Organisation

Financial situation assessment, business continuity

With COVID-19 spreading across the globe, businesses face increased levels of uncertainty. Mitigation strategies such as social distancing can affect a business’s value chain on many levels.
In order to avoid liquidity-shortages and covenant-breaches, the implications of COVID-19 on your business’s financials need to be understood. So we recommend assessing the short- and medium-term financial implications of COVID-19.
To assess your financial situation and ensure business continuity, our experts recommend the following:

• create a 13-week short-term cash-flow forecast
• update business plans, budgets and forecasts
• perform sensitivity analysis and model different scenarios (best-, base-, and worst-case)
• take immediate measures to protect liquidity by:

1. Unlocking trapped cash
2. Improving working capital
3. Drawing credit-lines
4. Applying for government loans
5. Identifying possibilities of coverage and compensation (insurance)

• consider the position of key stakeholders and establish communications early
  

Integral financial planning with dynamic forecasting of liquidity and equity

In a crisis, liquidity and equity must be monitored on an ongoing basis and with precision. The financial impact of any possible measures must also be validated using scenarios.

• Is it going to remain solvent over the next few months?

• Will additional financing be required? In what amount, and when?

• Is there a risk of becoming overindebted? If yes, when?

• What happens from a financial perspective in different scenarios?

• When will it realistically be able to pay back any additional financing?
  

Massnahmen und finanzielle Führung als Schlüssel in der COVID-19-Krise (German only)

Indirect tax

The COVID-19 situation makes it difficult to manage all indirect tax obligations and risks, but at the same time, if managed correctly, substantial amounts of cash can be freed up.

• Implementation of COVID-19 measures related to indirect tax announced in various territories
  

Various short-term indirect tax measures have been taken by governments to support business. These measures mostly comprise of extending VAT filing and payment deadlines, waivers of sanctions and accelerated VAT refunds. We can support you in navigating through these measures and implementing them, providing you with liquidity.

• Use of VAT cash-flow solutions
  

VAT measures can also be taken to protect and improve your cash position in these unprecedented times. The solutions we can help you implement may have a short, medium or long implementation period. They can include renegotiating commercial policies/payment terms, managing bad debtors, timing VAT return submissions, reclaiming VAT on employee expenses, optimising import procedures, etc.

• Managing the VAT impact across the supply chain
  

The changing demand for certain products has resulted in an increasing need for storage. As storage in many terminals may be reaching its limits, supply chains must be adapted to meet operational needs (e.g. new locations for storage, diversion of cargo destinations). We can support you in making sure the VAT consequences of the adapted supply chains are taken care of and no risks and unnecessary costs are created, or even improving overall cash flow. 

Emergency cash tax points for Swiss companies and groups

Protect your global cash tax position and support the overall liquidity management of your group or company.

• How the tax function contributes to the increase in your company’s liquidity in these unprecedented times?

• Minimise cash tax expenses

• Maximise tax refunds

• Delay of cash tax payments

• Accelerate tax refunds
  

Learn more:

Emergency cash tax points for Swiss companies and groups flyer (English only)

Navigate Tax, Legal and Economic Measures in response to COVID-19

COVID-19 Regulatory Radar

In response to COVID-19, financial market regulators around the globe have taken comprehensive measures to adapt the regulatory framework to ensure that financial markets can continue to function. Our COVID-19 Regulatory Radar helps you navigate the complexities of policy responses and keep up with the rapidly changing regulatory landscape.

• What temporary measures have been introduced by financial market regulators?

• How do regulatory changes affect me and my firm?

• How can I keep up with all the regulatory changes while focusing on successfully navigating through the crisis?

• What is the regulatory impact of COVID-19 on financial markets worldwide?

• How are regulators reacting globally? (our Regulatory Radar shows the regulatory response in a range of countries)
  

The answer to these questions: our COVID-19 Regulatory Radar closely monitors regulatory changes in the financial markets on a global scale and summarises the key aspects and impact.

Critical roles contingency planning

Many organisations do not have contingency plans in place if key roles become vacant. Potential replacement(s) have not been identified or may not have the skills, experience or training that is required for the role.
Many organisations don’t have contingency plans in place in case key roles become vacant. Potential replacement(s) have not been identified or may lack the required skills, experience or training for the role.

• Do you know what are the critical roles in your organisation and who currently occupies them?
• What are the key skills and competencies required for such roles?
• Have you identified potential replacements for your critical roles?
• Do the potential replacements have all the necessary skills and experience?
• What immediate training and coaching will you provide to these potential replacements?

Leading virtual teams and managing remote working

Some organisations do not have the policies, processes and tools to drive and support a productive, motivated and healthy remote workforce. Working from home and leading virtual teams is not just about having the right technology in place, it requires a certain mindset, behaviours and training.

• Is my policy for remote working fit for purpose and legally compliant?
• How do I make sure my leaders are able to lead their teams in the new remote-working setting?
• Is my workforce equipped with the right tools and training to work productively from home?
• How can I support my workforce remain in good mental and physical health while working from home?
  

Workforce cost management

Companies need to proactively review their workforce costs (e.g. overtime, annual leave, short time, salary reduction).
In the mid-term, they may need to carry out more significant workforce cost reductions: downsizing, targeted workforce reduction or generic workforce cost reduction.

• How can I reduce my workforce costs without losing key talent and affecting productivity?
• Which measures would be most effective and aligned to the culture of my company?
• How do I manage the communication with my workforce as I implement potentially unfavourable measures?
• What are the more transformational changes to my workforce that I should consider?
• How can I balance the short-term with the longer-term needs of the business?
  

Workforce communication

Communication is crucial during the COVID-19 crisis. It is absolutely vital that you communicate with your employees promptly and in an appropriate manner. With Beekeeper’s app, you are always in contact with all your employees, even those on the front line and without a fixed workplace.
Thanks to the Beekeepers app, you are able to manage the crisis period better and more securely thanks to:

• a simple and easy-to-use two-way communication channel with employees and staff

• efficient communication of current safety regulations, work instructions and new duty rosters in compliance with data protection regulations

• live feeds and campaigns relating to hygiene measures and standard guidelines

• information and instructions aimed at specific target groups

• quick integration of additional staff

• flexible digital coordination of requirements and resources

• improved employee protection against contagion

• interactive chat rooms for questions and concerns about the coronavirus.
  

Global Mobility

For employees involved in cross-border activities – whether business travel, secondment, cross-border commuters, local transfers, or regular activities in multiple states – it is necessary to clarify whether the measures taken by their employers and regulatory authorities in response to COVID-19 may put the company as well as its employees unintentionally at risk in terms of their social security, immigration, and/or tax positions.

• Mitigating cross-border travel risks and immigration requirements for employees travelling/commuting to and from Switzerland

• Identifying where employees are or have been, in order to manage unforeseen compliance risks and provide satisfactory duty-of-care

• Making sure that employees that are currently not able to travel back to their usual work locations, or are working from home abroad, do not possibly trigger unexpected additional social security and individual income tax costs as well as foreign employer and other compliance obligations

• Clarifying actions/duties if employees’ secondments are interrupted, delayed or cancelled
  

Flexible Legal Resources (FLR)

The global pandemic is creating an unprecedented recession, causing both business and budget uncertainty. Distance from their offices and teams has hampered the capacity and effectiveness of in-house staff unaccustomed to remote work. With supplemental legal talent on a full- or part-time basis we can flexibly expand our clients’ Legal & Compliance teams or transfer clients’ headcounts to our talent platform.

• A large diverse pool of top Legal & Compliance talent which we can second to you to fill in resourcing gaps, working on-site or remotely, under your supervision and guidance, integrated in your team (“extended workbench”) as long as you need without creating additional headcount.

• A managed legal service solution to conduct contract and policy reviews and assess risks (e.g. force majeure) and define/implement solutions to address these risks.

• A commercially viable way to support your business with specialists from our Flexible Legal Resources at attractive daily rates, in the event of headcount freezes in the legal department.
  

Payroll advisory services

The authorities were quick to put in place various provisions in light of the spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are happy to help you implement issues relating to employment law.
Payroll is our area of expertise, covering wage types and calculations like time recording as well as the creation and filing of salary statements. This includes all aspects of short-time work compensation, the types of compensation for loss of earnings and other effects in payroll accounting.

• What about high salaries? How can short-time work compensation be applied here?

• How are monthly salaries correctly accounted for? Is there any compensation for work performed during annual leave or on public holidays?

• What is the impact of absences and compensation on the continued payment of salaries and on expenses?

• How can evaluations be (partially) automated for the authorities?

• How is everything presented on salary statements? Is there anything to note in particular?
  

Customs & international trade

Businesses face challenging times as a result of the governmental decisions to lock down public life. While some companies can at least continue their operations at a reduced capacity, others are fighting to keep their businesses running and will end up with a vast lack of cash due to revenue losses.
At the end of March, the Federal Council announced it would support affected companies with a package of measures. Among others, the Swiss Federal Tax Administration and the Federal Customs Administration have granted simplifications regarding the filing of returns and declarations, payment settlement and operational customs clearing handling for specific types of goods and professional groups.

Affected companies should now evaluate their opportunities to benefit from these measures included in the support package and check the following:

• Reduce the impact on your cash flow by reclaiming customs cash securities paid for guarantees , change how often you file your VAT return (credit position) or ask to postpone filing returns and declarations.

• Review your cash management by negotiating beneficial payment terms with both authorities and business partners, postpone paying invoices due or discuss settling them in instalments.

• Improve your operational business by making use of simplifications in the customs clearing process, duty and tax exemption programmes and special customs regimes, and achieve short-term savings.