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Restaurants Revitalization Fund: Common Questions & Answers

Hi Food and Beverage Sellers! 

 

Square will start enabling applications for the Restaurants Revitalization Fund (RRF) today Monday, May 3rd at 12:00 PM EST. This plan includes a $28.6 billion fund for awards to eligible businesses, administered by the SBA. Square is working with the SBA to help business owners apply for an award if they are eligible. If you meet the program requirements, you can submit your application through your Square Dashboard or through the SBA Portal. If you are eligible to apply through Square, we will pre-fill your application with information you have on your Square account.

 

I encourage you all to take a look at the Live Q&A: Restaurant Revitalization Fund for Square Food and Beverage Sellers for common questions and answers. I’ve also included an overview of the Live Q&A below:

 

When can you apply:

  • Applications start on Monday 5/3 at 12:00 p.m EST / 9:00 a.m. PST.
  • The SBA has a registration window open on Friday 4/30, but if you plan to apply through Square you do not need to register with the SBA. 

 

Who can apply through Square:

  • To determine if you are an eligible business type, you’ll need to visit SBA’s website (sba.gov/restaurants).
  • If you processed with Square in 2019 and 2020 (Table 1 or 2 in the RRF application), you can apply through Square’s dashboard or the SBA. If you used multiple POS providers during that period or had supplemental income e.g. from online ordering apps, you can still apply with Square. You’ll be able to add supplementary income information — but the SBA may require you to provide additional documentation before you e-sign your application.
  • If you began processing with Square in 2020 or 2021 (Table 3 in the RRF application), then you will need to apply through the SBA. You can get useful information from your Square account to include in your application — to learn how, please take a look at our Support Center.

 

Why you should or should not apply with Square

  • If you apply through Square can save time completing and submitting your application with pre filled data from your Square account.
  • Submitting through Square can help you get your application in front of the SBA quickly — before the RRF funds run out.
  • Square will enable you to add supplemental revenue information in your application for either Table 1 or Table 2 applicant. However, if you are a Table 3 applicant, you will need to apply via SBA because Square will not let you upload supporting documentation for eligible expenses. 

 

How can you apply with Square:

  • If you are eligible to apply through Square, you’ll need to log in to your dashboard when the application window opens, using the owner’s login. From there, you’ll find a specific RRF module from where you can start your application.
  • Square will have pre-filled your application with the information we know about your business. That said, there is information we do not have access to. To complete your application as fast as possible we recommend to have the following information handy:
    • The date (day, month, and year) you began operations.
    • How many months you operate in every location. This is especially important if you operate a seasonal business. 
    • Any additional income you may have earned in 2019 and 2020 that was not processed through Square. Ideally you are tracking this income by location. If this information is not available feel free to distribute this across locations ensuring the total revenue by location (through Square and other sources)stays under $5M.
    • Your PPP loan information — especially if you did not process these loans with Square.
  • After submitting your award application through your Square Dashboard, you’ll need to eSign your application. Here’s how it works:
    • Open an email from Square with the title “Your RRF award application is not yet complete.” Follow the link in the email to visit the SBA portal.
    • If you see a page with the title “Third Party Signup,” you are in the right spot. Enter the text you see in the grey pixelated image in the appropriate field and click Complete Sign Up.
    • You’ll then receive an email from SBA with the title “SBA Restaurant Revitalization Fund - Password Reset E-mail.” Click the link included in the email to reset your password.
    • Once you complete your password reset, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Sign and Submit Application to sign your application via DocuSign.
    • The SBA may also require additional documentation for your application if you indicated revenue outside of Square. From the SBA portal, you will be able to upload supporting documentation to the Additional Info Needed section if required by the SBA.

 

How can you get help if you have more questions?

  • If you have more granular questions about the application process, eligibility, or awards, please reach out to the designated SBA helpline (844-279-8898) or the SBA district office. Applicants can call this number for multilingual application or program support.
  • Reach out to your SBA District Office: Applicants can reach out to their local District Office for tailored regional SBA support.

 

Note: You will be able to apply through Square if we have available processing data for at least a portion of 2019 and 2020 available through your Square account. If you are able to apply through Square, you will see a module on your online Square Dashboard prompting you to begin the application. If you apply through Square you do not need to register through the SBA portal. If you began processing with Square in either 2020 or 2021, we recommend that you apply through the SBA Portal. Square will not be able to support these applications and you will not see a module on Dashboard to begin your application.

 

Update: The SBA has announced that they will officially stop accepting applications for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) on Monday, May 24, at 8 p.m. ET.

Ani
Gestora de la Comunidad de Vendedores / Seller Community Manager, Square
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Apologies for the issues! Here is the latest in updates:

  • Withdrawing applications - In the instance that you made an error or submitted an incorrect application, you are now able to withdraw your application from the SBA Portal and restart your application through your Square Dashboard. To begin this process, login to the SBA portal with your SBA user ID and click “withdraw.” Once you withdraw your application, you will be able to see the RRF “Start Application” module on Square Dashboard. Please keep in mind, fields that you previously filled out in your application will not be retained and you will need to fill out your information again. Once you submit the application again through Square, you will receive a new SBA user ID to login to the SBA portal and login to eSign your application.
  • Annualizing receipts - We were informed by the SBA that there was an error in some RRF award calculations. Impacted sellers have been emailed and will need to re-submit their application through Square. This will ensure that the potential award amount is correctly reflected in their application. We apologize for the inconvenience and encourage you to resubmit your application. Square is not involved in the allocation or determination of any funds. For any further questions or information, please reach out to the SBA.
  • Issues with emails not received -In the case that we were not able to successfully submit your application through Square to the SBA due to an error in the application, you will receive an email letting you know that there was an error with your application, what the error was, and prompting you to resubmit through your Square Dashboard to resolve the error. If Square was unable to submit your application to the SBA, you will receive an email prompting you to apply through the SBA.
  • General application glitches - If this issue is still happening after signing out/signing back in, please reach out to our Support team so they can file a ticket with our engineers.

I'll be sure to share any additional updates on this thread. 

Ani
Gestora de la Comunidad de Vendedores / Seller Community Manager, Square

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673 REPLIES 673

Did your application go into IRS Verification? and if it did how long was it there. Thanks for the help

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I've been stuck in IRS verification since May 3rd, opening day. But I abandoned Square because of all the problems and applied directly through SBA. What a cluster#$%@!^

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Exactly the same! Square had more than what I had on my taxes, and didn’t recognize in part of the app that I was priority group, then I was in limbo for a day & could not reapply. So I went SBA direct with taxes & have been in IRS verification ever since 

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Same for me. I couldn’t use square because they were taking all my locations. We only have one main but use multiple locations so we can track sales at each event we attend. So that created a huge problem. They kept asking how long we were at each location and only gave a month time frame. We would only be at the event for one day or three at most so I wasn’t able to move forward with square. I went straight to SBA on Monday May 3 and have been stuck in IRS verification since. I had a notice on my portal when I checked status one day and it said that those not in the first priority group would stay in irs verification until 21 days were up. The next day I checked and the notice was gone. I am a priority business. Funny thing was Tuesday May 4th I had small change deposits into my bank account and then this past Wednesday I had the deposits returned back to sba. I don’t know what all of this means. Feeling like I fell between the cracks. It happened with EIDL so don’t feel positive at this point. Still patiently waiting. 

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Mine is still there…more than 5 weeks 

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@Square you did it you big beautiful beech. I was funded today

Shawn Nickerson
10 Years of Coffee in Bellevue
cafecesura.com
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How long after your approval did it take for you to be funded.

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1 day

Shawn Nickerson
10 Years of Coffee in Bellevue
cafecesura.com
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How do i check to see if i was approve for RRF loan

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You can log in to your portal but they will send you am email with approval information.

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Has anyone received restaurant revitalization funds yet? 

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Awarding is seemingly going on size, all applications under 100K have been funded to the best of my knowledge, and now they are working up. Funding 100K To 250K In the next ten days. This is based on my own experience and no direct knowledge from the sba  🙂

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I have a priority group run business with less than 100k and haven’t heard a thing. 

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I have yet to receive an esign email or any notification about status of my application. I applied on 5/3 through the square portal. Is this normal? Should I be worried?

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@capsicum wrote:

I have yet to receive an esign email or any notification about status of my application. I applied on 5/3 through the square portal. Is this normal? Should I be worried

 

Have you tried checking your status through the Sba portal? Are you in the priority group?


 

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I am not top priority category, but I am in the under 500k category. I do not know how to check through the sba portal, as I applied through square. I thought I was doing everything correctly, but then saw something about esigning, which I haven't received word about, and was wondering if I had missed an email or if they only ask for esignature after reviewing? 

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 I applied through square as well but was asked to provide an email and password to log in to the sba portal, it wouldn't allow me to fill out the rest of the application without that information. You can call Sba and they will tell you the status but if your not in the priority group, your application will not be fully processed until next week, at least that's what they told my friend who wasn't a priority. I would call just to make sure.

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No, that does not sound normal and yes you should follow up ASAP as portal closes Monday and I don't think your application is done and complete until signed so it may not actually even be on file yet. Call Square, call the SBA or do whatever else you can do. There were lots of people having the signing issue, but I did not hear about anyone going almost two weeks

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Is anyone still receiving funding? I did not and it says under review, so I'm wondering if I will get anything.  Very disappointing. 

 

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They are making progress. A lot of people are receiving approval emails now. Have you checked Caweb? Did you receive any kind of Sba number? 

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What is Caweb? I just keep checking the portal and that's it.  

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