While another stimulus plan waits in the wings, we’re still learning about the impact of the previous one on small businesses.

It was a long time coming, but it’s finally here. On December 27, 2020, then-President Trump signed a $900 billion stimulus bill into law, the Consolidated Appropriations Act. Along with many new provisions, the CAA expanded some elements of the earlier CARES Act.

President Biden has unveiled a $1.9 trillion package that would provide, among other things, more support for small businesses, the unemployed, and poverty-stricken individuals. It would also include funds for state and local governments and COVID-19 vaccinations and testing, in addition to $1,400 stimulus checks to qualified Americans.

When and if the American Rescue Plan gets passed and signed, there will be a lot more relief coming your way. For now, we’re still unpacking the details of the late 2020 $900 billion package, as we’re told its funds have not all yet been allocated. Here’s a look at some of what your small business needs to know.

The Paycheck Protection Program

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was very popular when it was rolled out last year as a part of the CARES Act. So popular, in fact, that we heard numerous stories about small, struggling businesses being shut out because larger companies with existing banking relationships and more financial resources beat them to it. $285 billion in loans has been reserved for the PPP this time around. And the rules have gotten stricter and more targeted, allowing those missed the first time to secure much-needed funds. These loans are now capped at $2 million. They’re earmarked for companies that experienced a minimum 25 percent reduction in sales for at least one quarter during 2020, and which employ fewer than 300 individuals.

Further, $12 billion in loans has been reserved for minority-owned businesses. And publicly-traded companies will not be allowed to apply. Businesses can now deduct expenses incurred in administering their forgiven PPP loans that would previously have been considered ordinary and necessary business expenses. This change is retroactive to the CARES Act.

Relief for Restauranteurs

The restaurant industry, which was hit particularly hard by COVID-19 closures and reductions in business, will benefit from the tax break for corporate meal expenses. Rather than the 50 percent deduction that’s been allowed since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law, companies will be able to deduct 100 percent of business meals at restaurants for the 2021 and 2022 tax years.

Extension for Deferred Payroll Taxes

You may recall that President Trump allowed businesses to defer payment of the employee-side payroll tax between September 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 in certain cases. The repayment deadline has been moved from April 30, 2021 to December 31, 2021. The original deferral deadline of December 31, 2020 still stands.

Extension of Paid Sick and Family Leave Tax Credits

In response to work absences due to COVID-19, eligible employers could receive refundable payroll tax credits for compensation paid to employees who had to take time off between April 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. Employers are not required to offer this leave between January 1. 2021 and March 31, 2021, but they will be eligible for the tax credits if they do.

Additional Funding for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL)

Small businesses and nonprofit organizations who have suffered temporary revenue losses because of COVID-19 were eligible for loans to cover financial obligations and operating expenses that they were unable to meet due to the pandemic. Funds for this program ran out in mid-2020, but the CAA added $20 billion for new EIDL grants. The deadline is December 31, 2021, but you should apply as soon as possible in case the money is depleted quickly again.

Employee Retention Credit (ERC) Extended

This provision in the CARES Act was designed to encourage eligible employers whose businesses were affected by COVID-19 to keep employees on their payrolls. It was a fully-refundable tax credit that was equal to 50 percent of qualified wages (with limitations). It originally expired on January 1, 2021, but the CAA extended this to June 30, 2021 and modified the original regulations in ways advantageous to both employers and employees.

Many Critical Limitations

As with all tax laws, the individual provisions of the CAA come with many restrictions. Your business may or may not be eligible for all of the individual elements mentioned here. Rules for the second round of PPP loans are especially complex.

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If your operations and finances have been affected by COVID-19, contact an accounting professional to see if you can get some relief from your losses.

Our Albuquerque, NM CPA firm provides accounting services  for all types of small businesses. Call us at 505-200-0094 now and tell us about your business or request a complimentary consultation online.

 

What is FFCRA?

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) was passed in response to the spread of the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19. The Act became effective on April 1, 2020, encompassing two other acts, the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLEA) and the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA).

The purpose of FFCRA was to:

• expand the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) until December 31, 2020, for leave and income loss for employees who must stay home to care for children due to school or childcare closures in response to COVID-19
• create two weeks of paid sick leave for childcare and other coronavirus-related leave
• provide tax credits related to paid leave mandated by the act

THE IMMEDIATE QUESTION: What Happens Now that FFCRA has Ended?

When the Act was proposed, no one anticipated that coronavirus would be part of everyone’s daily life, nor that “pandemic” would become a household word. Now that this is the case – and now that there’s a new POTUS – questions buzz about the FFCRA’s fate. While the FFCRA no longer requires employers to provide COVID-related sick pay or paid leave, employers who choose to do so will receive a tax credit for those wages through March 31, 2021.

The IRS is expected to provide further guidance soon to businesses impacted by the FFCRA. Until then, employers are on their own in terms of deciding whether to provide leave. If they do, they must carefully navigate their decision to avoid potential discrimination issues.

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT FFCRA

Which Employers are Responsible?

Government agencies and private businesses with fewer than 500 employees must comply with the FFCRA. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from the FFCRA if they can show that providing benefits would put them at risk of going out of business. Businesses with fewer than 25 employees do not have to reinstate employees that return from leave. All businesses with 25 or more employees must reinstate employees after returning from leave.

Which Employees are Eligible and What do They Receive?

Full-time employees who have been employed for at least 30 days and are unable to work (i.e., via remote) and who must care for children at home due to the coronavirus health emergency are eligible.

Part-time employees are eligible for the number of hours of leave they work on average over a two-week period.

Employers first offer unpaid leave (or accrued vacation time) for ten days (80 hours). After that time, paid leave begins at two-thirds of the employee’s regular pay rate. Compensation can continue up to 10 weeks as long as daily pay does not exceed $200 and total pay (for the ten weeks) does not exceed $10,000.

For employees unable to work because they are quarantined for COVID-19 exposure, illness, or symptoms, employers must pay them at their full pay rate for ten days (80 hours). A 10-week extension exists for full-time employees at two-thirds of their regular pay rate if needed for a total of 12 weeks for these employees.

Qualifying Reasons for Leave

An employee qualifies for paid leave if they are unable to work at their place of employment OR via remote (i.e., from home) due to:

• Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation related to COVID-19
• A health care provider’s advice to self-quarantine due to COVID-19
• Symptoms of COVID-19 while in the progress of actively seeking a medical diagnosis (i.e., testing)
• The need to care for a quarantined individual or an individual who is having symptoms of COVID-19 (i.e., a child who cannot attend school or daycare or a child whose school or daycare is closed due to COVID-19 restrictions)

What Tax Credits are Businesses Entitled to under the FFCRA?

Private companies can seek reimbursement through fully refundable tax credits each quarter for paid sick leave and paid family leave (i.e., FMLA). The tax credits are applied against an employer’s already-owed Social Security taxes. If that is not enough to offset the payouts to employees, the Treasury Department helps cover the balance.

What’s Next?

Since Congress did not renew, the FFCRA employers are no longer required to offer paid sick time or paid leave to employees. However, employers who choose to do so voluntarily can still claim tax credits for doing so until March 31, 2021. In light of this federal ruling, employers should keep in mind that state and local laws in their areas may not be the same. Some states extended rulings that require employers to cover pay for COVID-related leave. Check with your state and local government to know the laws where you are.

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And as always, your tax professional should be up-to-date on all the latest guidelines and regulations about FFCRA, so check with them first so that your business is on track moving ahead in these still-uncertain times of the pandemic.

All Business CPA is here to help you successfully navigate the unprecedented economic challenges you face, and get your business back to business as quickly as possible. We provide assistance with finding the right program(s) for your unique set of circumstances, filing necessary forms and documentation, and providing sound financial advice at a time when you need it most. Contact us today at 505-200-0094 or fill out our simple form to get started right away.

Much like a map or a GPS provides clear directions to your destination, a business plan can help define your goals and spell out the steps your business must take to achieve them. It can also establish a set of benchmarks to measure your progress. A business plan is critically important when it comes to obtaining financing. Here are the key sections that a business plan should include.

Executive Summary

Your executive summary outlines the primary points in the subsequent sections and touches on your company profile and goals.

Company Goals/Mission Statement

This section summarizes your company’s purposes and goals. It defines who you are and what you want to achieve.

Market Analysis

Here you can demonstrate your industry knowledge and present conclusions based on your assessmenAt of the industry, your potential market and its demographics, and your main competitors.

Company Description

Provide information on what you do, how you do it, the markets your business serves, and what differentiates your business from the competition. You can include examples of recent projects that were completed and, if advisable, the names of some of your major clients.

Organization and Management

Here you can outline your business’s organizational structure and identify the company owners, management team, and board of directors.

Service or Product Line

This section provides the opportunity to explain what you sell and how your products or services benefit customers.

Strategy and Implementation

It’s important to summarize how you plan to market your business and what your sales strategy is. This section should include information on how you will reach target customers and penetrate the market and should provide details about pricing, promotions, and distribution.

Financial Plan

This is where you present an overview of your finances. It is where you lay out your assumptions about revenue growth, operating costs, and cash flows. Include balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow schedules as well as details about capital requirements.

Our Albuquerque, NM CPA firm provides accounting services  for all types of small businesses. Call us at 505-200-0094 now and tell us about your business or request a complimentary consultation online.

…and how QuickBooks Online can help you with the mechanics.

If you already have a budget, it’s probably been difficult for you to stick with it for the last several months. Unless you provide products and/or services that have been in great demand since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, you’ve had to adjust your budget significantly.

Better days are ahead, though, and now is a good time to start doing some planning for 2021. While there are still likely to be uncertainties next year, creating a budget will give you a starting point. A budget increases your awareness of all of your projected income and expenses, which may make it less likely that you’ll find yourself constantly running short on funds.

Here are some ways you can make your budgeting process more effective and realistic.

Use what you already know. Unless you’re starting a brand-new business, you already have the best resource possible: a record of your past income and expenses. Use this as the basis for your projections.

Be aware of your sales cycle. Even if you’re not a seasonal business, you’ve probably learned that some months or quarters are better than others. Budget conservatively for the slower months.

Distinguish between essential and non-essential expenses. Enter your budget items for the bills and other expenses that must be covered before you add optional categories.

You can use data from a previous year to create a new budget in QuickBooks Online.

Keep it simple. Don’t budget down to the last paper clip. You risk budget burnout, and your reports will be unwieldy.

Build in some backup funding. Just as you’re supposed to have an emergency fund in your personal life, try to create one for your business.

Make your employees part of the process. You shouldn’t be secretive about the expense element of your budget. Try to get input from staff in areas where they have knowledge.

Overestimate your expenses, a little. This can help prevent “borrowing” from one budget category to make up for a shortfall in another.

Consider using excess funds to pay down debt. Debt costs you money. The sooner you pay it off, the sooner you can use those payments for some non-essential items.

Look for areas where you can change vendors. As you’re creating your budget think carefully about each supplier of products and services. Can you find less costly alternatives?

Revisit your budget frequently. You should evaluate your progress at least once a month. In fact, you could even start by budgeting for only a couple of months at a time. You’ll learn a lot about your spending and sales patterns that you can use for future periods.

How QuickBooks Online Can Help

QuickBooks Online offers built-in tools to help you create a budget. Click the gear icon in the upper right corner and select Budgeting under Tools. Click Add budget. At the top of the screen, give your budget a Name and select the Fiscal Year it should cover from the drop-down list by that field. Choose an Interval (monthly, quarterly, or yearly) and indicate whether you want to Pre-fill data from an existing year.

QuickBooks Online supplies a budget template that already contains commonly used small business items.

The final field is labeled Subdivide by, which is optional. You can set up budgets that only include selected Customers or Classes, for example. Select the desired divider in that field, then choose who or what you want included in the next. Click Next or Create Budget in the lower right corner (depending on whether you used pre-filled data) to open your budget template. If you subdivided the budget, you’ll see a field marked View budget for. Click the down arrow and select from the options listed there.

To create your budget, you simply enter numbers in the small boxes supplied. Columns are divided by months or quarters, depending on what you specified, and rows are labeled with budget items (Advertising, Gross Receipts, Legal & Professional Fees, etc.). You simply enter numbers in the boxes that apply. When you click in a box, a small arrow appears pointing right. Click on this, and your number will automatically appear in the rest of that row’s boxes. When you’re done, click Save in the lower right. You can edit your budget at any time.

QuickBooks Online provides two related reports. Budget Overview displays all of the data in your budget(s). Budget vs. Actuals shows you how you’re adhering to your budget.

We know creating a budget can be challenging, but it’s so important – especially right now. We’d be happy to look at your company’s financial situation and see how QuickBooks’ budgeting tools—and its other accounting features—can help you get a better understanding of your finances.

SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

Don’t have a budget set for your business? QuickBooks Online has tools that can simplify the process of creating one.

When you’re creating a budget, it’s helpful to distinguish between essential and non-essential expenses. QuickBooks Online has tools that can help you, including budgeting for necessities first.

When was the last time you shopped for new suppliers? Now is a good time to see if you could save some money and help with your budget. QuickBooks Online has many tools that can help both you and your business budget.

Did you know QuickBooks Online allows you to use existing income and expense data to create a budget? Here is how this is done.

 

Call us at 505-200-0094 now and tell us about your business or request a complimentary consultation online.