4Thought Blog

Manufacturing firms normally create a business plan at year end that focuses on the upcoming year. However, today's market conditions are anything but "normal."

So, it's important to take the time this summer to revisit your company's plan. A comprehensive mid-year review can help determine whether your business is on track or your plan needs some adjustments.

Here are four pillars that will help create a solid foundation for your business plan.

As more Americans get vaccinations and an economic recovery is within sight, manufacturers can bring lessons learned during the pandemic to accelerate growth.

However, a recent BDO poll found that manufacturers are split; some are in growth mode and are focusing on product or service innovation and tech investments, while others are looking to weather the rest of the economic downturn and restructure.

During a recent webinar, BDO polled manufacturing executives on their business priorities, strategies for resilience and growth and overall outlook for their business. Here’s what we learned:

In recent years, lucrative tax breaks for energy-efficient investments have enticed many manufacturers to "go green."

At the end of 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) was enacted, which includes various provisions that expand and improve certain green tax breaks. Here are five examples that could benefit your company.

Do you ever get an uneasy feeling that your purchasing system is out of whack? Are you concerned that expenditures are being made on your company's behalf that would never meet with your approval?

An effective purchasing system is essential to survival in the competitive manufacturing industry.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) — the massive spending package passed in December 2020 — includes many provisions designed to help small businesses that have been struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Specifically, the new law contains the following seven tax-related provisions that may be of particular interest to manufacturers.

The manufacturing industry's dependence on foreign suppliers, especially those in China, has caused concerns for many years. But the COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on this issue, forcing some manufacturers to rethink their offshore business arrangements.

Would your business be better off switching to U.S. supply chain partners? Here's some important information to consider.

Manufacturers that adopted an effective pivot strategy or are recovering from a COVID-19-related slowdown may need to acquire additional equipment or machinery.

Here's some important information to help you decide whether it makes more sense to buy or lease these assets — and why it could be a tax-smart move for some manufacturers to act before year end.

When fraud strikes manufacturers, the effects can be devastating.

The median fraud loss in the manufacturing sector, one of the industries most affected by fraud, was $198,000, according to the 2020 Report to the Nations published by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). That's significantly higher than the median fraud loss for all industries ($150,000).

Here are some other key findings from the latest biennial ACFE report:

From February to August, U.S. manufacturing employment declined by 720,000 due to adverse conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the industry has been slowly recovering. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the sector's employment grew by roughly 403,000 jobs over the summer.

If your business has plans to rehire workers or expand its workforce, there's a valuable tax credit that you should consider: the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC). This tax break may be a limited time opportunity, however, unless Congress acts to extend it beyond 2020.

Using sophisticated inventory management software is supposed to solve the problem of inaccurate counts for manufacturers, but that's not always the case.

Delays in order fulfillment and angry customers are inevitable if your warehouse is plagued by erroneous inventory counts.

If your inventory data doesn't match what you physically have in your warehouse, it's time to take corrective action.