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.
Robert Mazur is the New York Times best-selling author of "The Infiltrator," a memoir about his undercover life, much of which was spent acting as a conduit between ruthless drug barons and corrupt legitimate appearing senior executives that cleaned billions in blood- stained money through otherwise respectable international banks and businesses. For years, in the eyes of organized crime leaders he was a highly successful, mob-connected money launderer who helped manage their illicit fortunes. His clients, some of the most famous and deadly drug cartel bosses, issued a $500,000 contract on his life when arrests were made around the world and he was revealed to be a highly trained U.S. federal undercover agent. After completing a highly decorated 27-year career as a federal agent in three U.S. agencies, Mazur is now the president of KYC Solutions Inc., a firm that provides speaking, expert witness and consulting services to companies worldwide. More information about Mazur, his book and the film based on his life can be found at https://www.robertmazur.com/. The views expressed are his own.
Josh Jones is a manager and client-facing consultant at aspirant Consulting, LLC --- an Atlanta, GA-based consulting firm which specializes in data analytics. With more than a decade of industry experience as a consultant, developer, and team manager; he is proficient in developing solutions that transform data into business-relevant insights. Josh works primary in Tableau, relational databases, and teaching best practices between the two. For more information, please visit, www.aspirent.com. He can be reached at josh.jones@aspirent.com.
Craig Roth is research vice president at Gartner Inc. focused on digital workplace trends, messaging, products, segmentation and best practices. This includes cloud office suites, collaboration tools, content services, and how they are dependent on digital dexterity and digital business trends. He researches how knowledge workers get their jobs done today and how they are likely to get them done in the future (the future of work). He speaks to a wide range of general managers, technology CEOs, product marketing, and product managers, service providers, and IT leaders on how to capture the productivity that new ways of work have to offer.
Mr. Roth is the creator of Gartner's Digital Dexterity Index, a scoring model for showing where workers ready for new ways of working are more likely to be found by country, industry, age grouping, and company size. This index helps vendors prioritize sales and marketing efforts and helps companies and agencies to assess their workforce's openness to changing how they work against benchmarks. He has also engaged in special research projects around Enterprise Attention Management (a response to information overload) and how AI and automation will impact the future of work.
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.
