To help certified public accountant (CPA) firms advising small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) on Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgiveness and additional financing choices, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) along with its CPA.com division and Biz2Credit said in an announcement that they are rolling out the CPALoanPortal.com platform.
CPA.com President and CEO Erik Asgeirsson said in the announcement that CPA firms have “played a defining role” with their customers when it comes to business relief initiatives, particularly the PPP during the last six months.
“We have been helping the 44,000 firms provide advice and direction to their clients through our weekly AICPA Town Halls and resource tools,” he said. “We’re now taking the next step in launching a cloud-based business relief platform for firms to use in providing these services.”
The platform provides new functions centered around CPAs to the automated PPP loan forgiveness technology at PPPForgivenessTool.com that the firms rolled out over the summer.
CPALoanPortal.com has the basic loan forgiveness technology with bolstered features for CPA firms to more effectively help their customers, according to the announcement. Those functionalities include connection with further lending options for clients; bolstered customer service for CPA firms; and features that let companies simply aggregate customers, tailor engagements and monitor financing/loan application status.
Biz2Credit CEO Rohit Arora said in the announcement that the PPP loan forgiveness process is just the beginning of the path to recovery for a number of SMBs. Arora said many of them will require further support and solid financing as the economy has its gradual rebound.
“That’s why the additional lending options we’re providing in CPALoanPortal.com are critical,” Arora said.
In July, the AICPA and CPA launched the PPPForgivenessTool.com website. The Biz2Credit-powered technology harnesses the AICPA-created PPP forgiveness calculator and can be used by firms that have received approval for a PPP loan.
“This online platform will produce a finalized forgiveness application that a borrower can take right to their lender for submission without any extra work,” Arora said at the time.