Paychex Expands Paycheck Protection Program Solutions with Support for Employee Retention Credits

According to a recent Paychex survey, only 39 percent of employers with fewer than 500 employees are aware of the employee retention tax credit. However, under the provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, the Employee Retention Tax Credit can now be used in combination with a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan.

This important change provides another source of financial relief for businesses that continue to struggle with the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. To help maximize the benefits of available stimulus options, Paychex, Inc., the HR software and services company that provides the power of simplicity for increasingly complex workplaces, has expanded Paycheck Protection Program support in Paychex Flex®.

Paychex Flex is the first HR software solution to introduce integrated tools to help businesses maximize tax credits without impacting PPP forgiveness. In the application, employers can easily navigate the complexities of the Paycheck Protection Program and Employee Retention Tax Credit changes concurrently.

“We’ve expanded our PPP Forgiveness Estimator to give clients the ability to run ‘what if’ scenarios to determine how the inclusion of non-payroll costs may increase the payroll dollars available for use towards tax credits,” explained Martin Mucci, Paychex president and CEO. “Building this functionality into our PPP solution can help customers identify money they may be leaving on the table if they are not taking advantage of tax credits.”

“PPP funding has been a tremendous help to businesses, but managing cash flow continues to be extremely complicated,” Mucci added. “Because of that, I’m incredibly proud of the Paychex Flex solutions our team has continued to develop to help our customers maximize the financial relief available to them.”

According to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, the Employee Retention Tax Credit is now available to businesses that took a PPP loan, including borrowers originally ineligible. The new law also expands the definition of non-payroll costs under the PPP, increasing what can be forgiven, including operation expenditures. By allowing users to track such payroll and non-payroll costs and run calculations in real-time, Paychex Flex is the only HR technology application that helps businesses understand how the relief packages work in conjunction with one another and maximize potential stimulus for the Employee Retention Tax Credit and PPP.

This new functionality is the latest enhancement to the robust PPP solutions Paychex has made available to its customers and the CPA community over the last year, often in near real-time as new legislation passed. To date, Paychex customers have secured $30 billion in PPP relief funds.

“Paychex is the only provider in our industry delivering an end-to-end solution that connects employers with an SBA-approved lender, tracks costs for forgiveness, identifies opportunities for additional savings through tax credits, and prepares a signature-ready forgiveness application,” said Tom Hammond, Paychex vice president of corporate strategy and product management. “Our solutions are making very complex processes easier by using customers’ actual business data from one HR application.”

For Mike Biewer, executive producer of Funnelbox, a video production company out of Portland, Ore., Paychex solutions made it easier for him to secure PPP funding and keep his employees working.

“I knew getting a PPP loan was really the only shot we had at keeping the staff employed through all of this,” said Biewer. “Turns out, getting the loans – and getting them forgiven – ultimately comes down to providing the right payroll documentation. Paychex has all of that information right at hand – it’s all right there. We got funded in the first round, and luckily, we were able to keep the whole team together. I know when it’s time to apply for forgiveness, I won’t have to waste time digging through a bunch of files to get the information that I need. I can focus on shifting my business. That’s what having a partner like Paychex lets me do.”

For more information on these solutions and other available resources to help businesses navigate cashflow challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, visit the Paychex COVID-19 Help Center.