As Congress weighs renewed economic stimulus, CPA firms should be gearing up to assist small businesses whose survival depends on a new round of funding under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and its business and technology arm, CPA.com, recommend. Small businesses should be reaching out to their trusted advisors, as well.
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“We are encouraging the 44,000 CPA firms affiliated with the AICPA to start identifying clients who will meet the proposed criteria for the next round of PPP,” said Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO of CPA.com. “As part of that, they should begin the process of gathering key information, such as 2020 revenue. It’s also important for firms to put in place processes and PPP platform capabilities. Firms have a great opportunity to be much more proactive and strategic on how they support clients with this stimulus compared to the original PPP round in April .”
The AICPA is urging swift, renewed funding of the PPP and other business relief programs.
“Small businesses, the engine of our economy, continue to struggle,” said AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon, CPA, CGMA. “We strongly support Congress’s efforts to deliver more relief funding as soon as possible.”
During the initial rollout of PPP, CPA firms were forced to set up manual processes to serve clients and often operated with limited guidance. To provide better support, the AICPA, CPA.com and fintech leader Biz2Credit in September launched a financing platform for CPA firms, the CPA Business Funding Portal , to help practitioners guide small businesses through PPP loan forgiveness, as well as any other small business financing options. Versions of the portal’s tools, developed by CPA.com and Biz2Credit, have been used by more than 37,000 business owners and almost 7,000 CPA firms since this summer.
Once so-called “PPP2” funding is authorized, the portal will be quickly updated to make loan application processing efficient and aligned with the latest guided assistance, Asgeirsson said.
Among other features, the CPA Business Lending Portal offers:
- A free basic service for small businesses or CPAs advising only a few clients
- A more robust set of tools in a single platform to help CPA firms manage multiple clients in a standardized way
- Upfront integration with leading payroll providers (with more providers being added regularly) to intake data automatically from official payroll reports
- Access to the power of AICPA technical input and calculators
- Payment of agent fees for firms registered for one of the paid plans available through the platform (assuming this is permissible in PPP2, as it was in the original PPP)
“We’ve learned a lot of lessons about simplifying the application process for small businesses since PPP was first introduced,” said Biz2Credit CEO Rohit Arora. “The CPA Business Funding Portal is built on our Biz2X Platform, which is tailor-made to the specifications of the SBA and the Treasury Department and is adaptable as regulations change. It has become a trusted platform for lenders, small business borrowers and their trusted CPA advisors.”
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