Helping you prioritize where you can invest in your tribe.
With the $8 billion allocation of CARES Act funds into Indian Country, your tribe has the opportunity to put these dollars toward a range of qualified investments, including remote-enabled technology solutions; enhanced health services and access; communication improvements; cybersecurity infrastructure; and disaster planning services.
The Treasury dictates these CARES Act tribal funds must be used by December 30, 2020, but do you know where to start?
We’ve put together resources to help tribal governments and their grant-funded arms prioritize and strategically invest their CARES Act allocations, helping tribes put dollars in the places that will enable them to better serve their members.
How to strategically plan, spend and track your tribe’s CARES Act dollars
With the deadline in place, it is imperative that tribes immediately begin to identify, research and select services and solutions. Because of the flexibility — and to some degree uncertainty — of how these CARES Act tribal funds can be allocated, Wipfli’s Tribal Practice team has been partnering with tribal governments to strategically evaluate the governmental spend planning of many individual tribes.
This guide will help you identify and understand the areas you can put your CARES Act dollars to make the biggest impact on your tribe.
Additional resources
Success story: Ho-Chunk Tribe of Winnebago Nebraska
With Wipfli as their implementation partner, the Ho-Chunk Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska chose Sage Intacct to gain digital and finance transformation, grant compliance reinforcement, process automation, zero IT maintenance, and real-time and audit-ready financials.
Success story: The Lac du Flambeau Business Development Corporation
As a multi-entity business, the Lac du Flambeau Business Development Corporation was struggling to gain visibility, internal controls, and reporting and process efficiency from QuickBooks. Being on multiple instances of QuickBooks instead of a common chart of accounts prevented their accounting team from closing the books and reconciling due to’s and due from’s in a timely manner. Additionally, real-time reporting for consolidated operations and a clean audit was impossible.
Sage Intacct offered the multi-entity capabilities the organization was looking for, and Wipfli offered the extensive implementation experience to maximize their return on investment with the new accounting software.
Article: Tribal-focused summary of CARES Act released by federal government
The CARES Act gives tribes and tribal entities access to $8 billion in relief funds, but if you have questions about the funds, here’s a summary of the legislative authorizations, funding, appropriations by the numbers and background information.
Article: 4 strategies to help tribes track expenses during COVID-19
One thing has become very clear during the pandemic: Tracking your expenses specifically related to COVID-19 will be critical. From applying for loans or grants to claiming insurance to pursuing tax credits, you’ll need data. To help, we’ve put together four strategies on how to best track expenses.
Article: HUD provides tribes with regulatory relief and funding under the CARES Act
The Housing and Urban Development Office of Public and Indian Housing published PIH Notice 2020-5 under authority provided by the CARES Act, waiving many statutory and regulatory requirements for the public housing program and the housing choice voucher (HCV) program. These waivers provide administrative flexibility and relief to public housing agencies, tribes and tribally designated housing entities (TDHEs).
Article: How can insurance help tribal organizations with business interruption during the COVID-19 outbreak?
One question top of mind for tribal organizations is: Do we have any form of insurance that might help us weather COVID-19 pandemic? In this article, we dive into whether business interruption insurance can help and what actions your tribe can take.
Featured Thought Leader
Jason Winkler is a senior manager in Wipfli's technology consulting practice. He focuses on partnering with clients and prospects who work in highly regulated industries. Through the implementation of advanced technology, these clients are looking to drive digital transformation with greater levels of control and gain higher levels of business intelligence while reducing resource waste.
