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Surly Thread of Business Owners/Managers, Etc. & Current Business Climate


VABuckeye

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I knew it wasn't you.  I'm not even sure if it was someone I referred but it pisses me off to no end that a guy is out there trying to help people he doesn't know in need.  Yes, his bank stands to make money from the deal but he's trying to help people.  Then some stupid fuckstick has to go and show his ass.

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PPP round 1 is closing soon. Hopefully they get guidance out quickly on what they are looking for on forgiveness. If I get one more call/text tonight on whether someone can put their spouse/kids on payroll for 8 weeks I may stab someone.

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PPP round 1 is closing soon. Hopefully they get guidance out quickly on what they are looking for on forgiveness. If I get one more call/text tonight on whether someone can put their spouse/kids on payroll for 8 weeks I may stab someone.
Hey, that's a good idea!
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They are all good ideas until SBA comes out with guidance. At this point I don’t see any way they don’t just take the easy way out and use payroll for the 8 weeks without a whole lot of detailed looking. That will lead to let’s run a payroll early, let’s run some “hazard pay” bonuses, let’s pay our wife and kids, etc being everyone’s plan. However, they don’t have the manpower for detailed testing.

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Welp, my company just announced salary reductions. Like everyone was saying a couple days ago, we're looking out a few months and doubting that contracts will renew. Right now work is good, but in '08 that dried up fast. Trying to be proactive now so we don't wind up in a bad spot and have to make drastic cuts, but it's going to be rough on some people. Y'all stay safe out there.

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Troph, have you heard any guidance on how SBA is going to deal with the 25% salary reduction issue when they are comparing 8 weeks to 12 weeks which automatically sets everyone to at least 33% reduction? Are they going to strictly look at pay rates or weekly average? I’ve just started running forgiveness estimates and that is an issue still unless I missed an update.

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Troph, have you heard any guidance on how SBA is going to deal with the 25% salary reduction issue when they are comparing 8 weeks to 12 weeks which automatically sets everyone to at least 33% reduction? Are they going to strictly look at pay rates or weekly average? I’ve just started running forgiveness estimates and that is an issue still unless I missed an update.

Nothing. We still seem to be in the dark. Super frustrating.
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8 hours ago, fuggled said:

Welp, my company just announced salary reductions. Like everyone was saying a couple days ago, we're looking out a few months and doubting that contracts will renew. Right now work is good, but in '08 that dried up fast. Trying to be proactive now so we don't wind up in a bad spot and have to make drastic cuts, but it's going to be rough on some people. Y'all stay safe out there.

Is that better than targeted layoffs?  We just did our first round, about 5 percent of the workforce.  Round 2 will probably be double that.  I see a 20 percent reduction by the time we’re done.  Some were without a doubt bad hires but I have a couple of good people that probably will get cut because I will not have work for them for at least 3 months.

 

I hate that this is happening but hopefully we come out with some momentum due to the government spending.  I think cities and state governments relying on sales tax are going to be turbo fucked.

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2 minutes ago, Hefeweizen said:

Engineering consulting.  Mainly land development and public infrastructure.  Everyone’s trying to figure out what to do.

Ouch. My law firm has a heavy concentration of real estate practice and my colleagues work closely with those folks on a daily basis. 

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3 minutes ago, Hefeweizen said:

Everyone’s trying to figure out what to do.

Indeed.

I pointed out to a couple of my younger managers that they needed to soak all this "strategy" in. This is real world management that no one could predict, no school could train you for, and there are no rules/correct answers. Welcome to the Big League.

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Couple of things:

1) Incredible time to be a leader - I have people of all different levels reporting into me from an org perspective - Brand new folks just starting their careers to seasoned executives who have been in workforce for decades. If you are a leader right now, you have the chance to really show your humanity while interacting with employees, clients and partners. Zoom does make an engagement more personal as due to SIP you are getting a look into someone's home. At the same time we do have financial objectives to achieve so you have to balance that "human-centric" approach with the task at hand. It really is an interesting paradox to work through.

2) All the noise around "re-opening" the economy is BS - There will be significant regulatory change around offices (safe distances, temp scans, masks at work, rolling arrival times etc). I cannot envision scenario where any state/city (well there may be a couple I can see - No CR) that just say "everyone act like it was". I see CA/NYC in particular having strict distancing regulations in the workplace.

Truly amazing times. Knock on wood I am ok in my spot for now, but you truly never know as there is no "social contract" between an employee and company any longer. Company I am with is in a VERY strong cash position and I can easily see some significant acquisitions made coming out of this. I feel for anyone at a midsize company/start-up right now, especially if they have been operating in red to ramp business. I know how many of my customers are asking for deferred payments etc and I can only imagine the impact that has for a smaller company with minimal to no cash reserves.

Good luck to everyone out there. All the best to you and your families.

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13 hours ago, RollLeft said:

Any updates on EIDL?

I have a pending “SBAD TREAS 310 Misc...” deposit for $1000 that I assume has to be it (have the $3400 already). $1k is very disappointing. 
 

We also just froze wages yesterday, the day before they were supposed to go in to effect. I can handle it, but there are quite a few hourly that are struggling with reduced OT. 

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Then we may be left out of the advance.  No money in our account yet.  SBA did pull our credit on Tuesday which was seemed to be the trigger for many companies to get the EIDL grant.  We have five employees so it would have been $5000.  We'll survive but every penny counts right now.

On a good note new business for data centers in streaming in.  We've been awarded seven new projects in the last week and it's immediate work.  Our largest data center also just sold two large deals that will be May/June builds for us.  Things are looking up.  A large national A/V company has also contracted us in the last two weeks for three prewires.  It's great to see new work starting to pile up.  March and the first week of April sucked.

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Interest issue with PPP a muddy one.  The final piece of Sec.1102 (F) of the Act allows for use of the funds to pay interest on "any other (non-mortgage) debt obligation."  Section 1106 addresses items eligible for forgiveness but there is no mention of this type interest.   In essence, we could use the PPP money to pay for interest on debt but it's not money that will be forgiven. 
 
Clear as mud, indeed. 
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1 hour ago, BrazilHorn said:

Couple of things:

1) Incredible time to be a leader - I have people of all different levels reporting into me from an org perspective - Brand new folks just starting their careers to seasoned executives who have been in workforce for decades. If you are a leader right now, you have the chance to really show your humanity while interacting with employees, clients and partners. Zoom does make an engagement more personal as due to SIP you are getting a look into someone's home. At the same time we do have financial objectives to achieve so you have to balance that "human-centric" approach with the task at hand. It really is an interesting paradox to work through.

2) All the noise around "re-opening" the economy is BS - There will be significant regulatory change around offices (safe distances, temp scans, masks at work, rolling arrival times etc). I cannot envision scenario where any state/city (well there may be a couple I can see - No CR) that just say "everyone act like it was". I see CA/NYC in particular having strict distancing regulations in the workplace.

 

Agreed - people are stepping up all over the place and it's great to see.

To throw a little sunshine around here, we're also seeing innovation that was LONG overdue.  

WSJ Innovation unleashed

Been wondering when I would see this article. I've been talking about this within my own company and with customers and vendors. It's absolutely amazing what you can get done when the bureaucracy is swept aside. 

We launched two initiatives this last week one of which never would have happened otherwise and one that was on schedule to happen about 2 years from now. Both idea-ted, developed, and launched inside of 14 days with little cost. Really makes you realize how much dead wood large companies have.  Part of what we're seeing is a lot of human capital being dedicated to just a few projects all aimed at helping us adjust to the current situation. These same projects would have received fewer resources if they were being completed during normal times. A lot of the dead wood or fluff is being put aside, but we're also able to divert some resources from necessary projects that are on hold because they can't move forward until things are back to normal.

I'm happy that we're being forced to address certain issues and that opportunities have arisen for innovation to occur. We should benefit long-term from what is happening, but I'm skeptical that we will do as much as we could (granted I have high expectations for most things). It helps that we've also brought in new senior leadership in most areas over the last 2-3 years, and they have been MUCH better than what we had in the past.

 

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20 minutes ago, VABuckeye said:

We've made the decision to use it for payroll and health insurance premiums only.  That should get us at or near 100% usage so it can all be forgiven.

If doable, yes, the clear and easiest path.   

We're going to bumping right up against the 75% min. on the payroll-type costs.   Thus, looking to fill the other 25% including the above question re: interest. 

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49 minutes ago, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:


Did anyone actually get a $10k advance or was it the $1k per employee?
Seems all efforts were geared towards the PPP and this was a step child.

 

Employee Retention Credit is being grossly over looked for those with less than 100 employees. If you have a high salary average/under 100 employees PPP would be the best option. If you have hourly employees and mid to low salary- ERC is the clear path.

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2 hours ago, Hefeweizen said:

Is that better than targeted layoffs?  We just did our first round, about 5 percent of the workforce.  Round 2 will probably be double that.  I see a 20 percent reduction by the time we’re done.  Some were without a doubt bad hires but I have a couple of good people that probably will get cut because I will not have work for them for at least 3 months.

 

I hate that this is happening but hopefully we come out with some momentum due to the government spending.  I think cities and state governments relying on sales tax are going to be turbo fucked.

You know, I tend to believe it's better than layoffs.  We have a pretty stringent hiring process, so bad hires are rare and there aren't a lot of weak links in our chain.  For us it's all about whether we will have work for these people.  Salaries were adjusted to a level we believe can sustain us for the rest of this year.  Part of the rationale is that we won't have to do multiple rounds of layoff and have people chronically worried about their jobs.

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So upthread the idea that PPP proceeds should be placed in separate account for tracking was dismissed.  Logically, I agree with the the reasoning if you have good accounting practices and accounts it should be very easy to identify use of proceeds for forgiveness tracking.

 

Yesterday I received a "hows it going" email from a  CPA firm that has been trying to solicit our accounting work for the last couple years.  He states in the email that a separate account probably should be set up and used to pay for "payroll, rent, some interest and some utilities".  The accounting firm is regional(offices in a couple western cities) and the individual has "shareholder" as a title.  

 

It honestly surprised me, any commentary by Surly accounting brethren?

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2 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

So upthread the idea that PPP proceeds should be placed in separate account for tracking was dismissed.

I disagree. We had the bank deposit our money into a new account. We'll spend from our normal account and be reimbursed from the PPP account. That would give an auditor (and the bank) clear traceability to all transactions.

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Just now, Incredulity said:

So upthread the idea that PPP proceeds should be placed in separate account for tracking was dismissed.  Logically, I agree with the the reasoning if you have good accounting practices and accounts it should be very easy to identify use of proceeds for forgiveness tracking.

 

Yesterday I received a "hows it going" email from a  CPA firm that has been trying to solicit our accounting work for the last couple years.  He states in the email that a separate account probably should be set up and used to pay for "payroll, rent, some interest and some utilities".  The accounting firm is regional(offices in a couple western cities) and the individual has "shareholder" as a title.  

 

It honestly surprised me, any commentary by Surly accounting brethren?

The rep I talked to at UFCU and my CPA told me that setting up a separate savings account would be best practice. In my case, I still pay from out checking account but just transfer the exact amount from the separate savings account for payroll, rent, and utilities (even though I haven't decided if I'll use it for utility payments yet)

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7 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

So upthread the idea that PPP proceeds should be placed in separate account for tracking was dismissed.  Logically, I agree with the the reasoning if you have good accounting practices and accounts it should be very easy to identify use of proceeds for forgiveness tracking.

 

Yesterday I received a "hows it going" email from a  CPA firm that has been trying to solicit our accounting work for the last couple years.  He states in the email that a separate account probably should be set up and used to pay for "payroll, rent, some interest and some utilities".  The accounting firm is regional(offices in a couple western cities) and the individual has "shareholder" as a title.  

 

It honestly surprised me, any commentary by Surly accounting brethren?

As long as you have good accounting practices, there is no reason you need a separate bank account.  You're still going to have to account for how the money was spent either way.

 

sounds like the CPA firm is trying to drum up business by scaring people.

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$349B PPP limit hit. Sorry to all of you we weren’t able to secure a loan number for. To those locked in CaboWabo is racing through the funding phase. 
Hopefully Feds can get their shit together before the next round. Our District 15 rep. says likely the week of May 4. 
 

FWIW don’t let my noob status fool you. I was BoogityBoy on HF and Shaggy in the past. Think the shagster who crashed his plane and posted a video. 

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Just now, MaclovioBrown said:

$349B PPP limit hit. Sorry to all of you we weren’t able to secure a loan number for. To those locked in CaboWabo is racing through the funding phase. 
Hopefully Feds can get their shit together before the next round. Our District 15 rep. says likely the week of May 4. 

So you get a little breather before the next round?

Thanks again.  You were a godsend and amazing to work with.

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In the “Insurance Companies are shitbags” category:

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/coronavirus-restaurant-closures-are-devastating-we-thought-we-had-insurance-ncna1184521?fbclid=IwAR3ACymgQIiIEKNIKZ9dsEdE-ieFTeMOInt1IeBNp61c7KfVAOoMvfhu3NM

 

Denying government interruption claims on insurance payouts. 
 

 

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7 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

Depends on your record keeping. But why risk it? Co-mingled funds seem like a bad idea.

Money is fungible.  Those aren't SBA dollars.  They're yours once they go in your bank account.  Doesn't matter if you co-mingle or not.  You're still going to have to report on how you spent the money.  A copy of a bank statement is not going to be sufficient.

 

And if your record keeping is so bad that you can't account for salaries, benefits and what the SBA deems to be utilities, you need to hire someone who can do that properly for you.

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Wow. I wish I had read some of this earlier and gotten my CEO in touch with the folks helping others here. Now it seems too late with the spigot closed. I understand he tried with 4 different banks and I don't think had any luck securing a PPP loan in time. We went half pay a month ago since some of our customers couldn't pay due to the nature of their businesses. Even if everything opens up May 15th, it will likely be a while before they can pay us if they survive. 

I'm not sure what the next steps are but I offered to take unpaid leave so I can go be with my mother and they won't have to worry about catching me up when things go back to normal. I have my doubts that happens fast enough for us to survive fully intact. I think it is best to put my focus on being with my dying 93 year old mother(liver cancer) than worry about this. My boss asked me to take my equipment and told me to stay down as long as I needed since I can do the job from there. For some reason, something with payroll taxes? it sounded like he still wants to pay me rather than have me go unpaid. Maybe he just needs to review the options but I'm going to finish up some things this week and start my leave/PTO next week. 

I've been with them 6 years and really hope we can pull through but I think this loan was pretty crucial to that happening so....yeah. But it is good to hear stories of others having the help needed to weather this storm and maybe keep their businesses afloat. 

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8 minutes ago, RollLeft said:

Having multiple bank accounts IS good accounting practice.  

Why?  

 

I'm a CPA and have been running small businesses (first for others, now for myself) for over 20 years.  Unless you're talking about having multiple entities (in which case you absolutely need separate accounts), or unless you're talking about lawyers who are required to physically keep retainers separate from operating funds, I see no reason to have more accounts that absolutely necessary.  

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12 minutes ago, MaclovioBrown said:

$349B PPP limit hit. Sorry to all of you we weren’t able to secure a loan number for. To those locked in CaboWabo is racing through the funding phase. 
Hopefully Feds can get their shit together before the next round. Our District 15 rep. says likely the week of May 4. 
 

FWIW don’t let my noob status fool you. I was BoogityBoy on HF and Shaggy in the past. Think the shagster who crashed his plane and posted a video. 

Sorry you got too busy to be able to work with you. Any chance o can get on your list if another round of funding happens?  I’m pretty sure my guys hosed me and never got me in for processing. 

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I'm going to make a few suggestions for those that didn't get funded in the last round.

Start contacting smaller banks and credit unions NOW.  Find out if you can get in their queue.  Move accounts there if you have to and this loan is critical to your business.

We've identified the banks that are going to drop the ball.  They've already done it.  Get on the phone, establish a relationship and get ahead of the game.

Get your documentation in order NOW.  IRS form 941, articles of incorporation, copies of drivers licenses, Schedule K-1.  WHATEVER IS NEEDED.  We were able to get a quick approval and funding because we had our ducks in a row.  Don't wait.  Do it now.

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9 minutes ago, VABuckeye said:

I'm going to make a few suggestions for those that didn't get funded in the last round.

Start contacting smaller banks and credit unions NOW.  Find out if you can get in their queue.  Move accounts there if you have to and this loan is critical to your business.

We've identified the banks that are going to drop the ball.  They've already done it.  Get on the phone, establish a relationship and get ahead of the game.

Get your documentation in order NOW.  IRS form 941, articles of incorporation, copies of drivers licenses, Schedule K-1.  WHATEVER IS NEEDED.  We were able to get a quick approval and funding because we had our ducks in a row.  Don't wait.  Do it now.

This is 100% correct.  Banking relationships matter.  Find a bank that will go to bat for you and get the fuck away from those that won't.

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29 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

Why?  

 

I'm a CPA and have been running small businesses (first for others, now for myself) for over 20 years.  Unless you're talking about having multiple entities (in which case you absolutely need separate accounts), or unless you're talking about lawyers who are required to physically keep retainers separate from operating funds, I see no reason to have more accounts that absolutely necessary.  

I think it depends on your business.  We now maintain at least six accounts at all times.  Usually more.

Operations - All deposits and payables to vendors / subs flow through this account.

Expense - Our employees have debit cards for small purchases where we don't have an account.  We keep the account that those cards are linked to separate to make it easier to reconcile and to prevent a runaway train if fraud occurs.

Payroll - Funds are transferred from operations to payroll then to our payroll processing company.  Makes it super easy for payroll reporting calculations.

Capital Investments - This is our slush fund.  We maintain a minimum balance here, and we take a "rake" of profits every quarter.  We use this for purchases of vehicles, equipment, etc.

Owner Equity - Remaining excess profits flow through here on a quarterly basis.  It gets disbursed to me and my partners annually and we hold back a portion for taxes.

PPP - We now have a PPP account.  I transferred all of our PPP proceeds to this account.  I just transferred my full payroll burden to the payroll account from here yesterday.  Will do the same on subsequent payroll runs, mortgage and utilities.  We'll keep a separate folder for these expenses, but it will make it nice and clean so that those funds don't get lumped in with our operational cash flow. 

We also create separate accounts for any job over $100K where we're the primary GC.  This allows us to prevent "robbing Peter to pay Paul" on jobs.  We keep job profits in there for one year to cover any warranty expenditures, then one year after completion, we close the account and transfer any remaining profits to the owner equity account.

Multiple accounts can be a pain from a banking and reconciliation standpoint, but it absolutely helps us keep everything in the correct bucket and gives me a good snapshot of cash flow on a real time basis.

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4 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Do we think there is going to be another round of funding for those who got fucked by their bankers?  Any idea when?

Thanks, I will hang up and listen.

Congress is fighting about it right now.  But everyone wants to add their own special deal to it, so who knows when?

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12 minutes ago, Spaulding Smails said:

I think it depends on your business.  We now maintain at least six accounts at all times.  Usually more.

Operations - All deposits and payables to vendors / subs flow through this account.

Expense - Our employees have debit cards for small purchases where we don't have an account.  We keep the account that those cards are linked to separate to make it easier to reconcile and to prevent a runaway train if fraud occurs.

Payroll - Funds are transferred from operations to payroll then to our payroll processing company.  Makes it super easy for payroll reporting calculations.

Capital Investments - This is our slush fund.  We maintain a minimum balance here, and we take a "rake" of profits every quarter.  We use this for purchases of vehicles, equipment, etc.

Owner Equity - Remaining excess profits flow through here on a quarterly basis.  It gets disbursed to me and my partners annually and we hold back a portion for taxes.

PPP - We now have a PPP account.  I transferred all of our PPP proceeds to this account.  I just transferred my full payroll burden to the payroll account from here yesterday.  Will do the same on subsequent payroll runs, mortgage and utilities.  We'll keep a separate folder for these expenses, but it will make it nice and clean so that those funds don't get lumped in with our operational cash flow. 

We also create separate accounts for any job over $100K where we're the primary GC.  This allows us to prevent "robbing Peter to pay Paul" on jobs.  We keep job profits in there for one year to cover any warranty expenditures, then one year after completion, we close the account and transfer any remaining profits to the owner equity account.

Multiple accounts can be a pain from a banking and reconciliation standpoint, but it absolutely helps us keep everything in the correct bucket and gives me a good snapshot of cash flow on a real time basis.

That sounds like a fucking nightmare.  But if it works for you, more power to you.

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14 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Do we think there is going to be another round of funding for those who got fucked by their bankers?  Any idea when?

Thanks, I will hang up and listen.

Should have already happened. That’s all I’m allowed to say on this board. 

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57 minutes ago, Spaulding Smails said:

I think it depends on your business.  We now maintain at least six accounts at all times.  Usually more.

Operations - All deposits and payables to vendors / subs flow through this account.

Expense - Our employees have debit cards for small purchases where we don't have an account.  We keep the account that those cards are linked to separate to make it easier to reconcile and to prevent a runaway train if fraud occurs.

Payroll - Funds are transferred from operations to payroll then to our payroll processing company.  Makes it super easy for payroll reporting calculations.

Capital Investments - This is our slush fund.  We maintain a minimum balance here, and we take a "rake" of profits every quarter.  We use this for purchases of vehicles, equipment, etc.

Owner Equity - Remaining excess profits flow through here on a quarterly basis.  It gets disbursed to me and my partners annually and we hold back a portion for taxes.

PPP - We now have a PPP account.  I transferred all of our PPP proceeds to this account.  I just transferred my full payroll burden to the payroll account from here yesterday.  Will do the same on subsequent payroll runs, mortgage and utilities.  We'll keep a separate folder for these expenses, but it will make it nice and clean so that those funds don't get lumped in with our operational cash flow. 

We also create separate accounts for any job over $100K where we're the primary GC.  This allows us to prevent "robbing Peter to pay Paul" on jobs.  We keep job profits in there for one year to cover any warranty expenditures, then one year after completion, we close the account and transfer any remaining profits to the owner equity account.

Multiple accounts can be a pain from a banking and reconciliation standpoint, but it absolutely helps us keep everything in the correct bucket and gives me a good snapshot of cash flow on a real time basis.

I feel as though I'm looking into a mirror.  

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