Results announced during Mental Health Week reveal what accountants are hearing from their SME clients
Accountants are taking on the pressures of their SME clients about the impact of Covid-19, reveals the latest weekly ACCA UK and The Corporate Finance Network (The CFN) SME Health Tracker.
An expert panel of accountants representing over 16,000 SME clients in the UK have reported that 61% of firms that made enquiries for CBILS are still awaiting a response, with just 4% progressed to full application and 9% accepted.
Findings also reveal that 55% of clients have decided to defer their tax payments.
The Corporate Finance Network is calling on the Chancellor to consider a further overhaul of the CBILS scheme, or to supplement this with other grants to support the working capital needs of the country’s SMEs as he announces that the furlough scheme is to be gradually withdrawn.
Research from nineteen accountancy firms,
Please note: This news item has now been superseded by more detailed guidance for employers issued by Department for BEIS on Monday 11th May which can be found here
Following the Prime Minister’s address to the nation yesterday evening (Sun 10th May, transcript here) I received many messages asking my opinion on what that meant for xx business or yy business and I think that the following must be possible before a business is ready to re-open:
On 5th May, The Corporate Finance Network researched its accountancy members to ascertain their latest experiences of attempting to secure a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan (CBILS) for their SME clients. Despite the much-heralded launch and apparent success of its younger sibling, the Bounce Back Loan on 4th May, CBILS still plays an important role in the rescue and recovery of more sizeable SMEs,
Kirsty McGregor, Chairman of the national accountancy group, The Corporate Finance Network, has identified that some businesses are missing out on extra grant support because their area hasn’t launched a top-up grant scheme, whereas other areas have provided that for their local businesses.
She explains: “As part of our work across the country,
Accountants representing over 20,500 SME clients in the UK have reported more businesses have decided to dissolve or liquidate in last week, despite a bounce in confidence about the long-term situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The results are revealed in the latest ACCA UK and The Corporate Finance Network’s (CFN) SME Health Tracker,
The Telegraph have seen the Open Letter to HMRC and realised that this probably explains why HMRC’s published statistics of completed furlough grant claims are so low.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/04/23/furlough-schemes-missing-millions/
The Corporate Finance Network is proud to have launched an initiative to raise awareness of the incredible pressure which independent accountancy firms are suffering on behalf of their SME business clients and to support the whole nation. This has been no more apparent than this week, when, as a result of the HMRC application process for the Job Retention Scheme for employers claiming a furlough grant for <100 employees,
Access to cash in the short and medium-term is still an uncertainty for many businesses as they struggle with trading conditions created by the Covid-19 pandemic, reveals the latest results from ACCA UK and The Corporate Finance Network’s (The CFN) weekly poll of accountants working for approximately 11,500 small business clients across the UK.
