Below, please find stories that we have experienced with our clients where we solved problems and continue to grow together. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
FROM FEAR OF CLOSING TO EXPANSION
There are two specific clients of Cade CPA Firm PLLC that inspire this story even though these clients do not really have that much in common otherwise – Lucy who owns a salon and Rick who owns a medical practice. Like many, Lucy and Rick both experienced adverse effects to their businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lucy’s salon was shut down by government mandate while Rick’s medical practice experienced a dip in revenues as non-essential medical services were halted. Business for both clients was doing very well and up trending at a quick pace pre-pandemic, so both knew the potential growth possibilities at play with their respective businesses.
The situation with Rick was different in that expansion plans for his business were already rolling well before the pandemic. New employment contracts were already in place as well as the construction of a new and larger facility that was nearing completion right when life as we all know it in the U.S. was turned upside down by COVID-19 pandemic. Rick’s initial plan was to front much of the expansion investment with the caveat that the investment would result in return on investment within six months. Those six months turned into nearly 18 months.
Both, Lucy and Rick, are business savvy and know their people are their greatest assets – without them, their businesses would be nothing once things started to open back up following the pandemic and return to normal. Both made it a priority to make sure their people were taken care of during the unprecedented times experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, there was only so much that could be done with little to no incoming revenue. Lucy and Rick knew their respective “hourglasses” to keep things open and going for the future were running out quickly. Both were extremely worried – and for absolute good reason.
Both clients turned to Casey to help them with COVID-19 relief funding. Casey was able to assist both, Lucy and Rick, in obtaining relief funding through a mixture of the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (“EIDL”) programs, state relief programs, and application of the Employee Retention Credit (“ERC”) program. This funding helped Lucy and Rick retain their greatest assets – their people – and get through difficult times caused by the pandemic.
We are happy to report that Rick’s expanded medical practice was able to start operating at full capacity in March of 2021 and things are going well. Meanwhile, Lucy’s salon consistently has a two-day waiting list which has caused the need for the expansion. Lucy’s expansion will be completed in August of 2021 where the salon will have double capacity going forward. Congratulations to Lucy and Rick for their perseverance and keeping their American Dreams going despite the challenging times caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
To date, Casey has assisted approximately 45 small businesses in obtaining approximately $3.8M in COVID-19 relief funding. Although most of the relief programs have now expired, the ERC program remains to be a viable option through the end of 2021. If your business paid employees in 2020 and was shut down due to government mandate in 2020 AND/OR experienced a significant decrease in gross revenue during any quarter in 2020, please contact Casey today for a complementary analysis to determine if you are eligible for ERC tax credits.
PLUMBER JOE
Joe came to meet with Casey in February of 2020 and shared that he owns a plumbing business and had been with his prior CPA (and friend), Bob, for years. Unbeknownst to Joe, CPA Bob had been on the decline for quite some time due to poor health. Joe had no way of knowing of CPA Bob's deteriorating health as CPA Bob was a poor communicator and they rarely communicated by phone. Joe was convinced CPA Bob did not even know how to work email and - text message - no way!
Joe was sending his typical information to CPA Bob on a monthly basis and just assuming CPA Bob had it under control. It was not until Joe started receiving notices for missed payroll tax filings and was unable to obtain updated bookkeeping records that he knew there had to be an issue with CPA Bob. After many attempts to contact CPA Bob, Joe finally learned of CPA Bob's unfortunate health situation. However, there were still problems with payroll tax filings that were never made and the bookkeeping for Joe's plumbing business was about 8 months behind. In addition, the provider of the workers' compensation insurance for Joe's plumbing business was trying to complete their annual audit and unable to do so due to CPA Bob not responding and providing the information that was needed. This meant the workers' compensation insurance premiums for Joe's plumbing business were about to increase. Fortunately for Joe, he had been enduring the very time-consuming tasks of all handling all of the payroll and sales tax deposits in-house or the situation could have been much worse.
After Joe explained all of this to Casey in their initial meeting, they immediately formulated a plan to resolve the problems at hand. Within two months, all of the payroll tax filings that were missed had been made and Casey was able to get abatement and/or forgiveness of any penalties and interest assessed due to the unique situation that Joe found himself in with CPA Bob. In addition, the bookkeeping work was brought up to date and Casey was able to provide the needed information to the workers' compensation insurance provider so they could close their annual audit which also resulted in keeping those premiums from increasing.
Today, Casey prepares all of the bookkeeping and income tax returns for Joe and his plumbing business. Casey also provides Joe with full-service outsourced payroll and sales tax processing in addition to helping with the annual workers' compensation audit for Joe's plumbing business. The services that Casey provides Joe has allowed Joe more time to focus and grow his plumbing business as well as a little extra time to fuel his fishing addiction. Most importantly, Joe has peace of mind knowing he has Casey caring for him and his business. Joe and Casey communicate, on-average, 2 to 3 times a week via phone, email, text message, or face-to-face.
BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
There was a business that had the same lady that served as the bookkeeper for 30 years. The lady performed 95% of her duties using the old #2 pencil and paper method. The lady performed quality work, but her duties consumed all of her full-time schedule. As the lady was nearing retirement, our team was used to help with a transition to the new bookkeeper.
Using BPI, we leveraged technology to automate much the bookkeeping entry that was previously hard-keyed, implemented a modern payroll processing system that included direct deposit which eliminated the need to print and ship payroll checks as well as eliminated most of the manual entry, and created sales tax calculation templates that would require as little manual input as possible each month. Not only did this BPI implementation improve the quality of work as the new processes mitigated the risk of human error significantly, the same amount of work that was previously taking 170 hours, on average, per month to produce was now being produced in 15 hours, on average, per month.
The business already had an administrative assistant on staff whose time was not fully utilized, and the administrative assistant had somewhat of a bookkeeping background as she assisted the retiring bookkeeper often not to mention she was already established in the business and its culture. With some training, the administrative assistant was able to take over for the original bookkeeper when she retired. The business operations transitioned smoothly, the administrative assistant earned a bump in compensation which made her happy, and the business saved a significant amount of money as the original bookkeeper earned an annual salary of approximately $50,000.
There is always room for improvement within your business processes, contact Cade CPA Firm PLLC today to get started on your BPI implementation.