We all know Covid-19 has had a worldwide impact and most businesses have had to re-engineer both their internal processes and resource management, especially cash resources, at some point during the last 18 months. At the onset of the pandemic, business owners grappled with fears surrounding business shutdowns, managing cash flow, and maintaining an established workforce. In addition, they worried about relationships with customers and suppliers. The inability of these key partners to stay afloat during the pandemic could have drastic repercussions on business owners. As a result, many business owners found themselves navigating never-before-experienced rough waters, and they needed someone by their side to help them traverse the storm.

While everyone was reeling from the shock of the COVID pandemic, CK Accounting Services got to work researching how to help our clients. With our recurring accounting and payroll engagements, the CK team has a working knowledge of clients’ industries and companies. We were able to quickly:

• Identify the effects of the economic downturn and the ramifications of inaction.
• We stayed (and continue to stay) current with legislation and researched all opportunities and changes to guidelines.
• Advised all clients through our thought leadership and many emails, on resources available to them.

As legislation was passed (and subsequently amended with enhancements), CK proactively reached out to clients to ensure they were aware of these programs. In many instances, we were able to determine eligibility and potential opportunities from various funding sources. We were also able to chart the course to successfully apply for and receive the funds.

Here’s an example of how CK’s deep customer knowledge helped one distribution client navigate a particularly challenging journey to maximize COVID relief funds.

In April 2020, we reached out to our client to advise them they had an opportunity to apply for the Paycheck Protection Program Loan and assisted them with the payroll cost calculation for the loan. Using SBA guidelines to help maximize the loan amount, the client received over $860,000 in PPP funds.

Many business owners who tackled the payroll cost calculations on their own often left money on the table. They neglected to include other eligible payroll costs such as employer paid health insurance and retirement contributions which would have resulted in a higher PPP loan.

In October 2020, we provided full-service assistance to help the client with the PPP forgiveness application. We prepared their PPP tracking, calculated their full-time employee equivalent counts, prepared supporting docs, completed the forgiveness application, and submitted forgiveness on the client’s behalf. Within a few weeks the client was notified that their PPP load was forgiven in full.

In January 2021, we acted on our client’s behalf once again when the Federal government extended the PPP to include a second round of funding to certain businesses that received relief under the original PPP. The second round of PPP included an eligibility check that left many companies confused about the ability to apply for funding. Once the eligibility test was met, an employer could calculate the loan amount using either 2019 or 2020 eligible payroll costs. The CK team ran the test and determined that our client was indeed eligible for the second round of PPP. By using 2020 numbers, they stood to receive $1.3 million versus the $860k received in the original PPP. We are proud to say we did all of this proactively. When we advised the client of the opportunity, they didn’t even know a second round of PPP was available, let alone that they qualified.

Finally in April 2021, while preparing our client’s quarterly payroll service, we took a proactive approach to determine their eligibility for 2021 Q1 employee retention tax credit based on changes to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.  After reaching out to the client to let them know of their eligibility for this credit we proceeded to calculate and include the refundable credit of $265k on their form 941. 

Knowing our client and staying current on the ever-changing legislation related to COVID relief programs, CK was able to assist this client in receiving over $2.4 million in much-needed funds.  Sometimes it takes more than one approach to help our clients, which is why we live our core mission each day by providing trusted advisor services to empower our clients to financially succeed. In this case, we helped them to weather a (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime storm by navigating them through the complicated government support programs. Please contact us at Cray Kaiser for more information on how our Accounting Services team can empower you.