How MAT Provided Support During COVID

We’re proud to say that we team up with our customers. We’re not a Time and Materials partner with our finger on the time clock; one fixed fee and we’re there with support. COVID is a case in point. Learn how MAT provided support during COVID.

First, MAT’s belief and investment in the best cloud-based systems, Intacct, Salesforce, Bill.com, Dropbox, GoToMeeting, and Expensify meant that we could seamlessly support MAT’s customers remotely. That’s not just because the nuts and bolts are off-site, but also MAT’s employees can work as easily in remote environments as from a centralized office. MAT has employees in multiple states, with no need for central office support.

Second, it’s odd to say, but beyond the economic disaster and personal tragedy of COVID, MAT has smoothly handled the massive amount of extra work needed by our customers, for which we have not charged a penny more. Here are just some of the additional tasks:

Guidance

MAT’s CFO was there for our customers to rely on when thinking about support for their businesses, be it PPP, EIDL or additional grants.  I think we all understand that the Government’s response to COVID-19 focused on providing aid quickly, not on getting the details right. Congress passed bills and gave Treasury just ten days to write the instruction. Unsurprisingly, the guidance was clear as mud. Further, a lot of the interpretation was kicked downhill to the banks and lenders. Just one example was MAT has a customer who reviewed the Treasury Guidelines for PPP loans, which directed the applicant to ask their bank. When they asked their bank they were directed to review the Treasury Guidelines. Not very helpful! All this came at a time when small business owners were stressed as they struggled to keep their businesses afloat. MAT was a voice of calm in the storm.

“Hi, Bruce – I just wanted you to know that we successfully submitted our second PPP loan request; jumped through all the hoops; and we were approved very fast – within a couple of weeks. We also submitted for loan forgiveness for our first PPP loan, and we’re in the cue at SBA for their decision. Our financial lender said it usually takes 60 days to go through their system to move on to SBA. We got through in less than a week. I was still nervous as heck as I worked on both items, but I had the notes from our conversation and great help from MAT with a couple of specific reports for us. So THANK YOU for talking with me about what the documentation requirements meant for us as an LLC with no employees and for generally helping me see a path forward. Your level-headedness was exactly what I needed. “

Katherine (Kate) Robinette, CPSM Go Strategies LLC

Planning Cash Flow During a Crisis

MAT understands the detail of our client’s outflows the strategic impact of the government’s programs and how to marry them together. One of MAT’s first responses to COVID-19 was to work with our customers to get a handle on what the future looked like and what to do about it. Whether the customer’s need was sophisticated modeling, detailed analytics, the ability to see the “forest for the trees”, or in many cases simply keeping calm and providing an accurate assessment, MAT was up to the task.

“MAT knew that many of our customers were unsure how the different stimulus packages applied to them. Where necessary we reached out to them.

One funder has pledged a large donation, and I know that person’s confidence in our viability is based on the revised forecast Bruce presented at the Board meeting that incorporated the second PPP loan MAT helped us with, so thank you for that presentation and for all your help along the way.

How’s that? I mean there are so many testimonials, it probably sounds like all the others. There are only so many ways to say thank you, especially in written form, but I want you to know that my feelings are sincere — I could not do this without you.”

– Leisha Wharfield, Executive Director, Decision Science Research Institute b.d.a Decision Research

Specialized Reporting

Many of MAT’s clients needed multiple reports using proscribed reporting periods to either demonstrate economic hardship, justify loan application amounts or apply for loan forgiveness. Despite the fact that everyone was under a lot of time pressure, our capabilities using sophisticated systems meant we could meet every request. There was no scrambling for printed reports, digging through file cabinets or wasting time as systems failed. These were industrial-strength systems like Intacct, not QuickBooks and paper files. Whether it was Federal programs like PPP, requests from regional banks like Columbia Bank in the Pacific Northwest, or local grant programs in Oregon, MAT was there for our customers.

Accurate and Consistent Records

 

MAT’s monthly workbooks ensure that tracking into the numbers to justify loan or loan forgiveness applications. This means that when challenges occur – and they will – there’s not a mad scramble for the numbers. MAT has everything at our fingertips.

Third-Party Verification

Lenders and the government know that some less than scrupulous companies will “fudge” the numbers, and I promise that some heads will roll as the government audits applications, a third-party provider, like MAT, means our customers will have an easier time than in-house bookkeepers. While this is working in our client’s favor during Covid, there’s a broader point that applies to a much wider set of issues – partners can rest assured that MAT is an “honest broker”; bankers or potential investors know MAT is independent; the chance of fraud is far less.

Online Documents

 

MAT securely stores all our customer’s records online using the highest standards of backup to ensure when our customers needed a copy of their lease to justify loan forgiveness, or backup to prove payment of forgivable expenses, there was easy and reliable access.

The Future

If you’ve been listening to the news you’ve undoubtedly heard experts like Fauci state that a sad fact of the modern world is that even when COVID is defeated, there will be other pandemics. The inter-connectedness of our global economy guarantees it. The beauty of relying on a system like MAT is that it doesn’t rely on a single person. During last year a couple of our employees contracted COVID, but their customers could sleep easy in the knowledge that we employ sophisticated task management systems complete with detailed instructions to re-assign tasks. Companies with individual bookkeepers were not so lucky. Of course, while COVID was a tragedy that highlighted the flaws of relying on a single person, it applies just as much to many more mundane transitions.

COVID Business Strategies Summary

These are just a few of the specific ways MAT helped our customers during COVID, but we hope you get the picture. It also highlights the benefits of a robust process in any time of change, crisis, or challenge. That could be the need for financing, the sale of your business, succession planning, the addition of a partner, or an IRS audit. Having your financials in order with MAT eases the burden. Unfortunately waiting for an event often means it’s either too late, or it’s a fire drill. COVID was a tragedy, but at least MAT’s customers were prepared.