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...