Small Businesses and CPA Firms Should Be Readying for New Round of PPP Relief Funds, AICPA and CPA.com Say
Summary
“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. “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. 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 company has established itself as a thought leader on emerging technologies and as the trusted business advisor to practitioners in the United States, with a growing global focus. A subsidiary of the American Institute of CPAs, the company is also part of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, the world’s most influential organization representing the profession.