How Strategic Financial Advisory Services Can Help Your Company During the COVID19 Pandemic

Published April 13, 2020

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The coronavirus pandemic has impacted businesses unlike anything we have experienced before, leaving businesses scrambling and fearing for the future of their business. This situation has changed the way we work and has changed  future business models.

During the past several weeks, businesses have had to forego strategic planning and decision making to deal with the situation at hand. While the shift has been a necessity, it has likely forced many businesses to ignore critical short and long-term business decisions without thought to future consequences. Here are some things your business should be considering when making decisions to have a more successful future:

Short-term considerations

  • What does my cash flow look like for the next 30 / 60 / 90 days?
    • Has a cash flow projection been prepared, and does it consider all possible scenarios related to revenues and costs?
      • This potentially should be done on a weekly basis and should consider multiple scenarios related to receipts and disbursements.
    • How long will the cash last?
      • If it runs out, what are other sources of net working capital?
    • How long can we operate at our current pace?
  • Take a deeper look at expenses:
    • What are some of less obvious costs that can be delayed or eliminated?
    • Does eliminating these costs hurt the business in the long run?
  • Am I making decisions that may be beneficial now, but could be detrimental 6 to 12 months from now? For example:
    • Am I maximizing my loan forgiveness opportunities under the SBA Payroll Protection Program?
    • Am I having discussions with lenders, directors and investors in a way that gives them confidence in the business and management team, and keeps them informed about our active management given uncertain revenue and cash flow circumstances?
    • Is the business cancelling inventory purchases to save immediate dollars at the risk of not having inventory to produce future revenue? Many vendors have lead times that must be considered.
    • Will cancelling purchases have a lasting effect on vendor relations? If my company is overcapitalized, can I use my balance sheet to secure advantageous purchasing terms, now or in the future?
    • Am I working with customers in a manner that may be detrimental to future relationships?

Long-term considerations

  • Are you identifying the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on your businesses and preparing financial models to plan for the future?
    • This may include analyzing certain aspects of the recent legislation passed by the federal government related to SBA loans and their forgiveness.
  • Should operations be “normalized” for this event when reporting to banks in future quarters?
    • The impact of COVID-19 is likely to affect businesses relative to lending covenants going forward, causing some companies to be in non-compliance. If required for an insurance filing for business interruption claim, what are the normalizations to the financial performance that should be made?
  • Long-term cash flows of the business will likely be impacted. Once the immediate crisis ends, the lasting effects may be experienced for the next 12 to 24 months. What impact does this have on your business?

Outside financial consultants  play an important role

External financial consultants and advisors play important roles in guiding companies in operations and in the financial management of the organization, taking the long and short-term considerations listed above into account as well as offering a perspective from outside the organization. The strength of your current finance team will ultimately determine the level of services that would be warranted to assist your company’s ability to address your financial concerns.

Engaging a strategic financial consultant could help your business in evaluating critical financial and operation decisions during this pandemic. These roles will help your company strategize and analyze critical different financial aspects of the business  so critical and strategic decisions can be made on a factual basis.

What do they do?

Some of the things our group could assist with include:

  • Cash flow projections
  • Preparing and monitoring budgets and forecasts
  • Assessing profit margins
  • Economic damages analysis
  • Financial modeling including:
    • Normalization adjustments
    • Best case v. worst case scenarios

We’re here to help

For more information about these roles or if it’s right for your business, contact us at covidcorp@mcmcpa.com. A member of our team will contact you.

Nothing in this document should be construed as providing tax advice.  Please consult with your own professional tax advisor.  In addition, this document represents the information that we have up to the date the presentation was made and cannot be relied upon for additional updates beyond that date. 

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