Accountants played a crucial role in helping millions of organizations, most of them small businesses, receive $525 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans last year.

Now, the PPP is back and businesses will again be looking to CPAs for advice and assistance in accessing the program, which provides forgivable loans that borrowers can use for payroll and other essential expenses as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to roil the economy.

What do CPAs need to know about the new PPP? How is it different from the program that ran for five months before its loan application window closed in August? And what should accountants be doing to help businesses access the $284 billion available in the PPP's second iteration?

Those topics and more are addressed by Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO of the AICPA's business subsidiary CPA.com, and Lisa Simpson, CPA, CGMA, the AICPA's vice president–Firm Services.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• When lenders can start submitting PPP loan applications to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
• Details about the new PPP second-draw loans.
• Why many banks won't be submitting PPP applications at the beginning of the application period.
• What the AICPA has been doing to support the accounting profession with the PPP over the past nine months.
• Why it is important for PPP borrowers to have two paths they can take in pursuing a second-draw PPP loan.
• More information about the CPA Business Funding Portal (see link in resources below).
• What CPAs can do to help businesses prepare for increased SBA scrutiny of PPP loans.
• The importance of helping businesses know their E-Tran number from their first PPP loan.
• Why firms will play a more important role in the second round of the PPP.
• The importance of keeping the intent of the PPP in mind when choosing the accounting method for calculating the decline in gross receipts to determine whether a business qualifies for a second-draw loan.
• Whether a business seeking second-draw PPP loans must spend all its first-draw PPP loan before the second-draw funds are disbursed.
• That some banks may require PPP borrowers to file for forgiveness on their first loan before processing a second-draw application.