Between April 29 and May 7, 2020, the Company and eight of its operating subsidiaries obtained loans in the aggregate amount of $19,927 from BBVA USA (“BBVA”), as lender, pursuant to the Payroll Protection Plan (the “PPP”), which was established under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“the CARES Act”) and administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”). These funds were the only source of financing available to our companies and businesses and have been and continue to be critical to our ability to maintain operations, including the employment of our temporary and full-time employees, in order to provide our services and meet our foreseeable liquidity requirements in the midst of this continuing worldwide Coronavirus Pandemic. The Company accounted for the PPP loans as a debt (See Note 8) in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 470 Debt. Accordingly, the PPP loans are recognized as current and noncurrent debt in the Company’s accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

The Company and its operating subsidiaries have submitted applications for forgiveness of their respective outstanding PPP loans. During three-month period ended June 30, 2021, the Company’s subsidiaries, Triad Personnel Services, Inc., Triad Logistics, Inc., and Access Data Consulting Corporation were each notified by the SBA that their total outstanding PPP Loans and accrued interest were forgiven in the amounts of $408, $79, and $1,470, respectively. The SBA previously notified Scribe Solutions, Inc. during the three-month period ended March 31, 2021, that its PPP loan and accrued interest in the amount of $279 was fully forgiven.

Management believes that the Company and its subsidiaries whose loans have not yet been forgiven also qualify and are eligible for forgiveness based on existing available guidance; however, there can be no assurance that these remaining outstanding PPP loans and accrued interest will ultimately achieve forgiveness in whole or in part. Accordingly, the Company and its operating subsidiaries with outstanding PPP loans and accrued interest that have not been forgiven continue to account for them as outstanding debt in the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements. (See Note 16. Subsequent Event).

The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts and transactions of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. All significant inter-company accounts and transactions are eliminated in consolidation.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America for interim financial information and with the instructions to Article 8 of Regulation S-X requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Revenues from contracts with customers are generated from direct hire placement services, professional contract services, and industrial contract services. Revenues are recognized when promised services are performed for customers, and in an amount that reflects the consideration the Company expects to be entitled to in exchange for those services. Our revenues are recorded net of variable consideration such as sales adjustments or allowances.

Direct hire placement service revenues from contracts with customers are recognized when employment candidates accept offers of employment, less a provision for estimated credits or refunds to customers as the result of applicants not remaining employed for the entirety of the Company's guarantee period (referred to as “falloffs”). The Company’s guarantee periods for permanently placed employees generally range from 60 to 90 days from the date of hire. Fees associated with candidate placement are generally calculated as a percentage of the new employee’s annual compensation. No fees for permanent placement services are charged to employment candidates.

Temporary staffing service revenues from contracts with customers are recognized in amounts the Company has a right to invoice as the services are rendered by the Company’s temporary employees. The Company records temporary staffing revenue on a gross basis as a principal versus on a net basis as an agent in the presentation of revenues and expenses. The Company has concluded that gross reporting is appropriate because the Company controls the specified service before that service is performed for a customer. The Company has the risk of identifying and hiring qualified employees (as opposed to client employees), has the discretion to select the employees and establish their price, and bears the risk for services that are not fully paid for by customers.

Falloffs and refunds during the period are reflected in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations as a reduction of placement service revenues and were approximately $271 and $1,044, and $338 and $1,130 for the three and nine-month periods ended June 30, 2021, and 2020, respectively. Expected future falloffs and refunds are reflected in the unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheet as a reduction of accounts receivable as described under Accounts Receivable, below.

See Note 15 for disaggregated revenues by segment.

Payment terms in our contracts vary by the type and location of our customer and the services offered. The terms between invoicing and when payments are due are not significant.

The cost of contract services includes the wages and the related payroll taxes, employee benefits and certain other employee-related costs of the Company’s contract service employees, while they work on contract assignments.

Highly liquid investments with a maturity of three months or less when purchased are considered to be cash equivalents. As of June 30, 2021 and September 30, 2020, there were no cash equivalents. The Company maintains deposits in financial institutions and, at times, balances may exceed federally insured limits. We have never experienced any losses related to these balances.

The Company extends credit to its various customers based on evaluation of the customer’s financial condition and ability to pay the Company in accordance with the payment terms. An allowance for placement falloffs is recorded as a reduction of revenues for estimated losses due to applicants not remaining employed during the Company’s guarantee period. An allowance for doubtful accounts is recorded as a charge to bad debt expense where collection is considered to be doubtful due to credit issues. These allowances taken together reflect management’s estimate of the potential losses inherent in the accounts receivable balances based on historical loss statistics and known factors impacting our clients. Management believes that the nature of the contract services business, wherein client companies are generally dependent on our contract employees in the same manner as permanent employees for their production cycles and the conduct of their respective businesses contributes to a relatively small accounts receivable allowance.

As of June 30, 2021, and September 30, 2020, the allowance for doubtful accounts was $310 and $2,072, respectively. The Company charges off uncollectible accounts once the invoices are deemed unlikely to be collectible. The allowance also includes permanent placement falloffs of $131 and $287 as of June 30, 2021 and September 30, 2020, respectively.

Property and equipment are recorded at cost. Depreciation expense is calculated on a straight-line basis over estimated useful lives of five years for computer equipment and two to ten years for office equipment, furniture and fixtures. The Company capitalizes computer software purchased or developed for internal use and amortizes it over an estimated useful life of five years. The carrying value of property and equipment is reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that it may not be recoverable. If the carrying amount of an asset group is greater than its estimated future undiscounted cash flows, the carrying value is written down to the estimated fair value. There was no impairment of property and equipment for the nine-month periods ended June 30, 2021 and 2020.

The Company determines if a contractual arrangement is a lease at inception. Operating leases are included in operating lease right-of-use (“ROU”) assets, current operating lease liabilities, and noncurrent operating lease liabilities on the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheet. The Company evaluates and classifies leases as operating or finance leases for financial reporting purposes. The classification evaluation begins at the commencement date and the lease term used in the evaluation includes the non-cancellable period for which the Company has the right to use the underlying asset, together with renewal option periods when the exercise of the renewal option is reasonably certain and failure to exercise such option which result in an economic penalty. All the Company’s real estate leases are classified as operating leases. Also, the Company elected the practical expedient which allows aggregation of non-lease components with the related lease components when evaluating accounting treatment.

The Company evaluates its goodwill for possible impairment as prescribed by ASU 2017-04, Intangibles — Goodwill and Other (Topic 350), Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment at least annually and when one or more triggering events or circumstances indicate that the goodwill might be impaired. Under this guidance, annual or interim goodwill impairment testing is performed by comparing the estimated fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount. An impairment charge is recognized for the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit’s fair value, not to exceed the carrying value of goodwill. In testing for impairments, management applies one or more valuation techniques to estimate the fair values of the reporting units, individual assets or groups of individual assets, as required under the circumstances. These valuation techniques rely on assumptions and other factors, such as the estimated future cash flows, the discount rates used to determine the present value of associated cash flows, and the market comparable assumptions.

The Company allocates its goodwill among two reporting units, its Professional segment and its Industrial segment for purposes of evaluation for impairments. In determining the fair value of our two reporting units, we use one or a combination of commonly accepted valuation methodologies: 1) the income approach, which is based on the present value of discounted cash flows projected for the reporting unit or, in certain instances, capitalization of earnings, and 2) the market approach, which estimates a fair value based on an appropriate revenue and/or earnings multiple(s) derived from comparable companies. In applying our methods, we also use averages or medians to select assumptions derived from comparable companies or market data, and in the application of the income and/or market approaches if we determine that this will provide a more appropriate estimated fair value or range of fair value estimates of the reporting units. Changes to input assumptions and other factors used or considered in the analysis could result in materially different evaluations of goodwill impairment.

The Company considered and reviewed the recoverability of its goodwill during the nine-month period ended June 30, 2021 and 2020 and determined that no impairment charge was necessary. In reaching its conclusion, management determined that no triggering events or other circumstances have occurred or changed since the Company’s most recent annual evaluation as of September 30, 2020, that indicate the carrying values of the Company’s reporting segments are higher than their respective fair values. Management also considered the Company’s market capitalization as recently reported on the NYSE American exchange and determined that when adjusted for the assumption of a reasonable control premium over exchange pricing, exceeded its consolidated net book value (consolidated stockholders’ equity) as of June 30, 2021, and 2020.

The Company follows the provisions of Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 820, “Fair Value Measurement”, which defines fair value, establishes a framework for measuring fair value and enhances fair value measurement disclosure. Under these provisions, fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability (i.e., the “exit price”) in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date.

Basic earnings and loss per share are computed by dividing net income or loss attributable to common stockholders by the weighted average common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted earnings per share is computed giving effect to all potentially dilutive common shares. Potentially dilutive common shares may consist of incremental shares issuable upon the vesting of restricted shares granted but unissued, exercise of stock options and warrants and the conversion of notes payable and preferred stock to common stock. The dilutive effect of outstanding warrants and options is reflected in earnings per share by use of the treasury stock method. The dilutive effect of preferred stock is reflected in earnings per share by use of the if-converted method.

Common stock equivalents representing approximately 3,110 and 2,882, and 1,761 and 9,675 shares are excluded from the Company’s loss per share calculations for the three and nine-month periods ended June 30, 2021, and 2020, respectively, because their effects are anti-dilutive. For the three and nine-month periods ended June 30, 2020, the weighted average dilutive incremental shares, or common stock equivalents, included in the calculations of dilutive shares were 1,013 and 1,005, respectively.

The Company expenses the costs of print and internet media advertising and promotions as incurred and reports these costs in selling, general and administrative expenses. For the three and nine-month periods ended June 30, 2021, and 2020, advertising expense totaled $442 and $1,324, and $837 and $1,874respectively.

Separately identifiable intangible assets held in the form of customer lists, non-compete agreements, customer relationships, management agreements and trade names were recorded at their estimated fair value at the date of acquisition and are amortized over their estimated useful lives ranging from two to ten years using both accelerated and straight-line methods.

The Company recognizes an impairment of long-lived assets used in operations, other than goodwill, when events or circumstances indicate that the asset might be impaired and the estimated undiscounted cash flows to be generated by those assets over their remaining lives are less than the carrying amount of those items. The net carrying value of assets not recoverable is reduced to fair value, which is typically calculated using the discounted cash flow method. The Company did not recognize and record any impairments of long-lived assets used in operations during the nine-month periods ended June 30, 2021, and 2020.

The Company accounts for stock-based awards to employees in accordance with FASB ASC 718, “Compensation-Stock Compensation”, which requires compensation expense related to share-based transactions, including employee stock options, to be measured and recognized in the financial statements based on a determination of the fair value of the stock options. The grant date fair value is determined using the Black-Scholes-Merton (“Black-Scholes”) pricing model. For all employee stock options, we recognize expense on an accelerated basis over the employee's requisite service period (generally the vesting period of the equity grant). The Company's option pricing model requires the input of highly subjective assumptions, including the expected stock price volatility, expected term, and forfeiture rate. Any changes in these highly subjective assumptions significantly impact our stock-based compensation expense.

Options awarded to purchase shares of common stock issued to non-employees in exchange for services are accounted for as variable awards in accordance with FASB ASC 718, “Compensation-Stock Compensation”. Such options are valued using the Black-Scholes option pricing model.

See Note 11 for the assumptions used to calculate the fair value of stock-based employee and non-employee compensation. Upon the exercise of options, it is the Company's policy to issue new shares rather than utilizing treasury shares.

We account for income taxes under the asset and liability method, which requires the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of events that have been included in the financial statements. Under this method, we determine deferred tax assets and liabilities on the basis of the differences between the financial statement and tax bases of assets and liabilities by using enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which the differences are expected to reverse. The effect of a change in tax rates on deferred tax assets and liabilities is recognized in income in the period that includes the enactment date.

We recognize deferred tax assets to the extent that we believe that these assets are more likely than not to be realized. In making such a determination, we consider all available positive and negative evidence, including future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences, projected future taxable income, tax-planning strategies, and results of recent operations. If we determine that we would be able to realize our deferred tax assets in the future in excess of their net recorded amount, we would make an adjustment to the deferred tax asset valuation allowance, which would reduce the provision for income taxes.

We record uncertain tax positions in accordance with ASC 740 on the basis of a two-step process in which (1) we determine whether it is more likely than not that the tax positions will be sustained on the basis of the technical merits of the position and (2) for those tax positions that meet the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold, we recognize the largest amount of tax benefit that is more than fifty (50) percent likely to be realized upon ultimate settlement with the related tax authority. 

We recognize interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits on the income tax expense line in the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated statement of operations. As of June 30, 2021 and September 30, 2020, no accrued interest or penalties are included on the related tax liability line in the consolidated balance sheet.

The Company provides direct hire placement services and temporary professional contract staffing services in the fields of information technology, finance, accounting and office (“FA&O”), engineering, and medical within its Professional Services segment, and industrial contract services within its Industrial Services segment. The Company’s revenues, cost of services and a substantial portion of its operating costs and expenses can be divided into these two reportable segments. Selling, general and administrative (“SG&A”) expenses, including substantially all corporate expenses, are not entirely allocated among Industrial and Professional Staffing Services. Operating results are regularly reviewed by the chief operating decision makers at each segment who make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and to assess its performance. Other factors, including type of business, type of employee, length of employment and revenue recognition are considered in determining the Company’s operating segments.