Ep. 73 - Mazars USA: CARES Act, PPP, and Business Planning

Mazars USA Links:

https://mazarsusa.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/mazars-usa/

https://mazarsusa.com/ledger/

https://mazarsusa.com/pandemic-event-preparedness/

https://mazarsusa.com/consulting/ppp-services/

https://mazarsusa.com/services/business-financial-sustainability-program/

https://mazarsusa.com/paycheck-protection-program-analysis-tool/

Contact Our Featured Speakers:

Alisha Jernack - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisha-jernack-69882350/

John Confrey - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnconfrey/

Ryan Vaughan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanjvaughan/

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Adam: (00:05)
Welcome back for episode 73 of Count Me In, IMA’s podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I am your host, Adam Larson, and I'm happy to share this very timely conversation held by my cohost Mitch and a small panel from Mazars Business Advisory. He spoke with Alisha Jernack, Ryan Vaughan, and John Confrey about what Mazers has done to help clients with the PPP loan, a proprietary tool to help analyze its client's applications and calculations and the overall business, as it relates to the CARES Act. Our guests also discuss what the recent crisis has done to financial and operational opportunities for sustainability as we enter the new normal and next phase of business. For a highly informative and firsthand experience on this valuable topic. Keep listening as we head over to the conversation now.

Mitch: (00:58)
So obviously there's been a lot of interest in various discussions around the PPP loan. I know you have done the significant amount of work with this for your clients and tailoring different solutions. So I'm wondering if you can just tell us a little bit about your stance and what you've done for your clients when receiving questions about the loan.

John: (01:17)
So I would say with the loan and that that's, you know, a lot of moving parts have come about the PPP, you know, at first got introduced rather quickly. I think the bill was, was put out out of necessity, with some speed behind it and with that has come, some fluidity that's been needed as the bill evolves and the guidance evolves, you know, the bill is compounded interim final rules, there's treasury FAQs. So a lot of different things, I think what we've been able to do and it had to do with our clients and be flexible and be nimble, and also having our clients, you know, adapt to the changing environment, which has been an interesting approach for us.

Alisha: (01:56)
Yeah. We saw from the onset, right with the signing of the CARES Act that there was a, a big rush, upfront to get everybody to apply. I know, I think the bill was signed late on a Friday, and we had all come through it and we were working literally throughout the weekend to make sure that we were able to understand, you know, what benefits there were within the CARES Act for our clients and then come that Monday, we were ready to roll. And I think, you know, each one of us, we were scheduling, 30 minute calls, you know, over, over two days to make sure that we were having conversations and letting our clients know what the benefits were, and how it applied to them and then, you know, we got hit with a big rush. We were able to develop a tool internally, that we were able to use and help our clients to quickly apply and it ended up being a good thing because soon after the funds quickly ran out, and then some time passed before they, then came out with second round of funding. So it was interesting and it continues to be ever changing, and we're learning every day and adjusting every day.

Mitch: (03:09)
So you just mentioned a model that you put into place. Can you tell us a little bit about what went into that and really, you know, what made you decide to take on this kind of initiative and pursue this kind of solution?

Alisha: (03:21)
Sure. So yeah, at Mazars we work with a lot of privately owned businesses. What would be, you know, deemed small businesses as defined by the SBA and, you know, depending on the size of those clients, they don't necessarily have the teams in place to be able to execute quickly, and with this, we knew that time was of the essence. We also knew from going through the CARES Act that there were certain stipulations in there, and credits and benefits that you couldn't take, you know, it was one or the other, you couldn't take both. So we knew that we had to be...