The COVID-19 pandemic has upended lives across the country as officials struggle to curb its spread. As cities and states have put restrictions in place to slow infections, businesses of all kinds have felt the financial squeeze.
Certified public accountants have helped guide their clients through this troubling time as they try to navigate the sudden financial strain the pandemic has brought. The CARES Act provided some relief for businesses, dispersing more than $525 billion through the Paycheck Protection Program. As the time comes for businesses to apply for PPP loan forgiveness, CPAs can provide vital assistance to ensure success for their clients. Here are some things to keep in mind while helping clients with PPP loan forgiveness.
Do your clients qualify?
Your client was able to secure a PPP loan early on in the pandemic that helped them stay afloat. But, are they eligible for loan forgiveness now? This is an important question that business owners are counting on their accountant to make clear for them. CPAs need to keep their clients informed of the requirements throughout the loan process to ensure they qualify for full forgiveness. Keeping the right number of employees on the payroll and avoiding big payouts are important factors that will affect a business’s qualification for forgiveness. A CPA can help clients meet this and other requirements before submitting their application.
Completing forgiveness applications
It’s no surprise that PPP loans can be confusing, especially for business owners dealing with a mountain of stress just trying to keep food on the table for themselves and their employees. Having a good CPA on their side is an invaluable aid for business owners during these difficult times.
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Karen Monks is a Principal Analyst in Celent's North American insurance practice. She brings a broad range of insurance and consulting experience to her work; she has worked as a management consultant to and within insurance carriers and other financial services companies for over 25 years.
Karen's focus is life insurance technology and trends. Her research concentrates on life, all aspects of life insurance processing including illustrations, eApplications and eSignature, new business and underwriting systems, policy administration systems, claims systems, and digital enablement technologies. Her consulting experience at Celent includes new business and underwriting system selections, policy administration system selections, distribution management system selections, vendor product strategy reviews, a life claims system benchmarking project, eApplication and automated underwriting cost analyses, plus several small life insurance technology analyses. Karen led Celent's Knowledge Management team for seven years. The KMC supports Celent's vendor assessments across all practices and helps manage vendor data on Celent's online platform, VendorMatch. She helped build out Celent's VendorMatch Digital Services Platform.
Mary Mulcare, MD, FACEP, is the Chief Medical Officer at Summus and oversees all clinical aspects of operations. Mary also serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine, and has held several leadership roles at Weill Cornell, including Director of Undergraduate Medical Education in the Department of Emergency Medicine and Assistant Director of the Margaret and Ian Smith Clinical Skills Center.
Keeping track of expenses and documentation after the loan is received and getting the correct paperwork put together for the forgiveness application is essential. Make sure clients meet deadlines, turn in the correct forms, and stay in touch with their lender throughout the application process. Give clients the confidence that their application is thorough and accurate to give them the best chance of their loan being fully forgiven.
Staying on top of changes
Of course, the confusion that has occurred with the Paycheck Protection Program doesn’t belong just to borrowers. Some CPAs may find they have a few questions along the way as well. Lawmakers hurried to get financial assistance to cash-strapped businesses when COVID-19 shut down the country; there were bound to be a few snags and revisions to the program. The federal government has put out notices and questions and answers to clear up issues along the way, and changes have been made to the program as the pandemic raged on through the year. It’s up to CPAs to stay apprised of these changes and updates to FAQs so they can properly assist clients. There are still more questions to be answered, including tax issues, so this is a continual process.
CPAs can provide valuable assistance to their clients who are doing their best to stay in business in the midst of a pandemic. Stay informed about the PPP loan forgiveness process and give clients a reliable adviser in their corner to guide them through the process.
