Live Q&A: Restaurant Revitalization Fund for Square Food and Beverage Sellers

[Ani_]

Hi Seller Community!

I'm excited to announce the Small Business Administration has developed a partnership with Square to distribute the Restaurants Revitalization Fund (RRF) relief to the food and drink industry. The Restaurants Revitalization Fund (RRF) is part of the U.S. Government’s American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. This plan includes a $28.6B fund for awards to eligible food and beverage business owners, administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA). 

On Thursday, April 29th at 1:30-2:30 PM PST /4:30 PM-5:30 EST, we'll host a Live Q&A with the Small Business Administration (SBA) to answer any of your questions about the application process. Please make sure to ask any questions directly on this thread below. Keep in mind, the SBA will only be addressing questions related to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF), not PPP.  

How does the application process work?

We expect to start enabling applications for the Restaurants Revitalization Fund (RRF) on Monday, May 3rd at 12:00 PM EST. The award application program is owned by the SBA, and they are finalizing the process. We know how important these funds are to you and your business, so we are working as quickly as possible to get the application ready!  

Unlike the PPP program, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund are awards and are not loans. They are not serviced as loans, and have no forgiveness component. There are no intermediary banks involved. Awards are determined by and allocated by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and not Square.

If you qualify for a Restaurant Revitalization Fund grant, you’ll have the option to apply Monday, May 3rd on Square Dashboard or through the SBA’s secure website. To help support applicants throughout the process, the SBA will offer phone and district office support.

• Call center hotline (844-279-8898): Applicants can call this number for multi-lingual application or program support. 
• SBA District Offices: Applicants can reach out to their local District Office for tailored regional SBA support.

For more information about eligibility or to start your application, please visit the SBA Portal. You can also find more information about the Restaurant Revitalization Fund on the Support Center. Let us know if you have any questions for the SBA below!

Note: 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_]

Hi @dabrad-01 We plan to open our portal at the same time as the SBA opens their portal on May 3.

[abefroman]

We've been impacted so hard by the pandemic, and getting assistance to make sure we continue our long term survival has been an exercise in frustration. What is the SBA doing to ensure that this program gets the help out to those of us that have been able to hold on as quickly as possible?

In addition, how are revenues from new business units (lines of services/goods) treated in regards to things that would have been a growth in revenue? Will our award be reduced by growing our business units? Or will we be only using the revenues from 2019 locations against 2020?

[NmontaSBA]

Hello @abefroman,

SBA is working to get relief to our nation’s restaurant community as soon as possible. We are extremely grateful to have the opportunity to partner with Square as a way to provide relief quickly, and meet Applicants where they are. 

Applicants are presumed to have at least 33% of 2019 gross receipts in onsite sales of food and beverage to the public, but understand you might have pivoted in 2020 to survive the pandemic. Your funding calculation will include all streams of revenue for the eligible entity, not only the revenues from 2019 locations.

[UrbnPHX]

Hello there - we file ONE Federal Tax Return at a parent entity level but have 8 subsidiary EINs that each have their own Square instance, file their own payroll etc.  Will we apply at a subsidiary (location) level?  

[NmontaSBA]

Hello @UrbnPHX,

You will apply using the tax identification number for the entity that files taxes. 

You may only include gross receipts (or eligible expenses if using Table 3) for your locations that are eligible for RRF.

[iloaders]

Are funds available only to restaurants that lost money? I have a very small shop but demand has increased greatly over the last year. I am trying to expand to serve my neighbors and employee more of the people who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Are their funds available? 

[Ani_]

Hey @iloaders - You can learn more about eligibility by going to sba.gov/restaurants. This program is specifically focused on food and beverage businesses.

[Knockboy]

Good morning Ani,

I understand the reluctance to include PPP questions, but the application for RRF reduces the grant by the amount(s) of PPP. Will the amount of RFF reduced by PPP make those PPP dollars categorized forgiveness-wise as RFF dollars?

[NmontaSBA]

Hi @Knockboy, No - your PPP loan will be treated the same, and you are still able to apply for forgiveness in the same way.

[brandonlee]

Hi, I use a combination of Square + Shopify to process sales for our shop. Will Square users be able to utilize the Square portal for an RRF application if we have multiple merchant solutions for a single LLC?

[cobraclubbk]

We are in a similar situation to @kimapollo in that we previously only used Square for a small portion of our business sales, and pivoted to using Square for all credit card sales. Our 2019 and most of 2020 sales within Square will not accurately reflect our actual gross receipts. So, is there a benefit to applying for the grant via Square or are we better served to apply directly on the SBA site?

[Ani_]

Hey @cobraclubbk and @brandonlee! You will be able to apply through Square with processing data from 2019 and 2020. You’ll be prompted to indicate external revenue and later upload supporting documentation through the SBA portal once your application is submitted.

[ElizZwicker]

In 2019 we were in business - as a cottage kitchen (not applicable for this grant, as cottage kitchens are not able to apply for this grant) -- HOWEVER We signed the lease for our retail space in October 2019 -- and opened our doors in May 2020. We exclusively used Square as our POS once we opened our storefront (we were using Clover when we were a cottage kitchen) so the square details are accurate for when we opened. 

In doing the calculations for the eligible amount -- do we apply as if we opened in 2020, because we did -- or do we have to use the number from our taxes on 2019 when we were a single person sole proprietor cottage kitchen (making us NOT eligible because we made less in 2019 than we did in 2020 -- but 2020 has 10 employees + MASSIVE overheads that we didn't have in 2019)

Is this something I should/can include an explanation for in the application as it is such a weird gray area/situation?

If this isn't something that can be answered the day of the live Q&A - could you aim me in the direction of who I could get clarification on this from?

[Ani_]

Hi @ElizZwicker If the cottage kitchen operates under the same EIN, then you’d need to use the 2019 opening date. We recommend that you apply through the SBA portal or reach out directly to the SBA for more information!

[ReverieKitchen]

We have been following this topic and would like an update on when the application process is opening.  We printed, reviewed and completed the draft application.  Are we only to upload the 1099's?  How do we upload the fully loaded POS report showing total sales? We have been in business using Square POS since 2016. We have participated in Square Beta software in the past and would like to be included in the Beta rollout of the Revitilation Fund.

Paul S.

[Ani_]

Hey @ReverieKitchen - It sounds like you’ll be able to apply through the Square portal on May 3rd when it opens. Square will prefill the processing data we have available for your account.

[SSCOFFEE]

Does SBA have an anticipated launch date for the application? 

What about the beta testing, when will they contact the beta tester?

How do you qualify for the beta testing application? 

thank you,  

[Ani_]

@SSCOFFEE The current launch date is May 3 for both the Square and SBA portal. We will let you know if there is the option to beta test though!

[uppercrustpizza]

How can we find our SBA PP loan number if we received the PPP from another source and not Square as we will need this information to apply for the RRF?

[kimapollo]

I called my issuing bank.  We never got any kind of paper work. 

[michael28east]

Yes, your issuing bank will provide the information