08 May Letter from Leadership
An update on our response to COVID-19
First, we want to say that we hope you, your employees, and loved ones are all safe and healthy. While our work environment was already flexible, we express our sincere gratitude for collaborating to ensure a seamless transition during this unprecedented time. As we do our part to stop the spread of COVID-19, our team will continue to work remotely until further notice. APN would not exist if not for our people and their health and safety is of utmost importance to us. We will reevaluate our internal work at home policy and provide an update at the end of May. In the meantime, we will continue to leverage the technology we have in place to provide an excellent level of service to our clients. We are also utilizing technology to keep our APN teams connected. We have weekly “Town Hall” meetings in addition to our Leadership Team Meetings. Looking ahead, once we do begin office visits, we will ask that our staff have the ability to socially distance and that workspaces are disinfected and proper protective equipment is provided if deemed appropriate for the situation.
SBA Loans
As most of you are aware, the CARES Act expanded the EIDL program and added the PPP. Some of you have already applied and secured a loan through one of these programs to assist in the continuing operation of your business. If you still need assistance in getting the loan, please let your APN consultant know so we can evaluate eligibility and assist with the application process.
What comes next once you get the funds? It is imperative that your need for the loan is documented. It is better to overprepare in an effort to avoid any appearance of impropriety and to seek loan forgiveness. We recommend writing a memo stating conditions that required you to have the loan. Additionally, we recommend creating a new bank account and liability account in your financials to track the use of funds. We can work with you to facilitate this utilizing a workbook that calculates and tracks amounts for forgiveness purposes. An additional step that we recommend is to create cash flow forecasts that show the additional funding was necessary to maintain your business during this time. To the extent these services are outside of the scope of our current engagement with you, we recommend that you consider this now to be well prepared for any reviews or audits in the future.
Disaster Preparedness for your Company
In the past, disaster preparedness meant having a plan for when our systems to go down. We made sure we had secure offsite storage for back up of data. But, as we live through this crisis, we need to think beyond the data. As business owners, we are constantly thinking about our customers and staff. At this time, we encourage you to also think about your own health and if it is compromised, what effect it would have on your business. Who would lead the company in your absence? Does someone know your passwords for bank accounts, credit cards, etc. that could enact transactions on your behalf? Do you have another authorized representative that could enter into transactions? Do you have officer’s life insurance? There are many aspects of disaster preparedness that go beyond system backups. If you haven’t done so already, let us assist you in the development of a plan to ensure the continued operations of your business in case you become ill due to COVID-19 or any other cause.
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