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_]

@uppercrustpizza Yes, you will need to provide your PPP loan numbers. If you received your PPP loan through Square, we will prefill the number. If you did not receive your PPP loan through Square, then depending on your lender, it may be printed in the signed/approved loan documents you received when you got approval for your PPP loan. We recommend you reach out to your lender for the loan number if you are not able to find it.

[ACAcatering]

Question for the Q&A:
Can you please define payroll?  In the FAQ page it says that owner's or employees can't take more than $100,000 of the funds.  This leads me to believe that owners do have access to the funds.  Is this the case?
Being in the catering business without being a restaurant has really taken a toll.  We depend on groups meeting.  Without knowing when groups will gather again, we've taken very little from the little business that we've been able to generate.  We've had to rely on both PPP programs to free up some funds, two different grants, as well as unemployment.  We don't like doing business this way, but it's been the only thing that has kept us going.  It would be a breath of fresh air if owners were able to supplement their income with this fund.

[NmontaSBA]

Hello @ACAcatering,

Sellers can refer to sba.gov/restaurants for detailed information on what payroll costs entail. In general, the definition is the same as payroll costs in PPP.

An owner draw based on profit is not an eligible use of RRF funds.

However, RRF funds may be used for owner wages such as W-2 income and regular and expected guaranteed payments. Additionally, if the owner has accrued unpaid wages for W-2 income or regular and expected guaranteed payments, RRF funds may be used to bring those unpaid wages current.

All forms of owner wages (W-2 income and regular and expected guaranteed payments), in the aggregate, must be less than or equal to $100,000 on a pro-rated annual basis.

[Neutrals]

We have two locations, both under the same EIN. The second location was opened in December 2019 for two weeks. Does this still fall under Calculation 1 regardless of when location two was opened? Also, for each Calculation when subtracting for PPP loan amounts, does this include both First Draw and Second Draw? 

[NmontaSBA]

Hello @Neutrals,

The location that opened in 2019 would use Calculation 2, as opposed to calculation 1. Different locations can use different calculations, and aggregate as part of Table 4. When subtracting PPP loans in your calculation, include both First and Second Draw loans.

[Neutrals]

Thanks for the reply @NmontaSBA 

Would you divide the total PPP loan amounts by the number of locations and use them to subtract for those locations? 

For example, $100,000 PPP Loan for two locations, so we would use $50,000 for each location's calculation?

Thanks!

[NmontaSBA]

@Neutrals

You must apply using the EIN for the entity that received the First Draw PPP loan. You must aggregate your calculations for your separate locations that are eligible for RRF. You may not include gross receipts (or eligible expenses, if using Table 3 from the application) from locations that are not eligible for RRF.

However, there is an exception: If your locations file taxes under a parent company's tax returns, you must apply under the parent company's tax identification number, and you must include gross receipts and/or PPP loans from eligible entity types/locations (for example, restaurants). You must also include PPP loans (but not gross revenues) received by any business that reports revenue through the parent company, regardless of business type.

[Gcparada]

Thanks for all the info and updates. I understand and have all my docs ready for applying on day 1. How long will the process take? days? weeks? My business is still in the 'desperate' zone--even though we are now at 50% indoor dining capacity--folks are still very cautious about eating out, so I have seen only a small increase in revenue, still not enough to sustain.

[Ani_]

Hi @Gcparada! The SBA together with our Square partnership is working to get relief to businesses like yours as quickly as possible. On average, it will take 14 days to receive funds. Applying through Square will help streamline the application process for you, and provide all the right data and documentation SBA needs to review and process your application as quickly as possible. Once you’ve applied, you’ll be able to check in on the status of review on the sba portal and receive messages when there are major status changes. 

[blackdogtavernc]

Please let me know, blackdogtavernnc@gmail.com when and how to apply. 

[BagelMuncher]

I too would like to know if the portal would include a subsection to include outside sales figures obtained outside of Square to add to gross receipts (for example sales obtained through DoorDash, GrubHub and other third-party delivery partners)

[BagelMuncher]

here is the SBA's Restaurant Revitalization Fund Knowledge Base

leaving this here for others doing their research

[Ani_]

Hi @BagelMuncher 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 (eg. from third party delivery providers) through the SBA portal once your application is submitted.

[kic1]

For restaurants that opened during 2019, I understand the calculation will be the (average monthly sales for 2019 minus average monthly sales for 2020)*12.  Also I understand you must subtract PPP funds already received.  Is that a correct understanding?

[Ani_]

Hey @kic1 Yes! That’s correct.

[ericrud76]

Hi Ani!

Now that the SBA announced the RRA application portal will be open Monday at noon, will square be ready at that time as well?

Thank You!

[Ani_]

@ericrud76 Yes, we will! 🙂

[weredoughcookie]

What kind of financial proof do we need at the point of application? taxes? sales? etc? or is the ammount we are asking for certified after the fact? I just want to have everything ready

[Ani_]

Hi @weredoughcookie, if you have processing data for 2019 and 2020, you’ll be able to apply through Square using processing data already in your Square account. If not, we recommend you review the required documentation section at sba.gov/restaurants. Supporting documentation can include point of sale reports, tax returns, bank statements, etc.

[Seanse07]

This is a complex question regarding the RRF and will require some background info, so please bear with me. We own 5 food trucks, (2 were open in 2015, one opened in 2019, two opened in 2020). They are all under one EIN. SBA has put an example in their program guide (ex. 3, page 13 of 21) that states...

"HIJ Company owns three restaurants under the same EIN. HIJ opened location 1 in 2015, location 2 in July 2019, and location 3 in June 2020. The application will allow HIJ Company to calculate the potential fund amount for each location using the different calculations and roll that amount up to a total potential funding amount."

Therefore, a restaurant with multiple "locations" can use the multiple application tables to calculate their total revenue. They will use table 1 to showcase revenue from location 1. Use table 2 to show their monthly average revenue from opening location 2 in 2019. Lastly, using table 3 to show their expenses they incurred to open restaurant 3 in 2020. Then they are allowed to aggregate the total of each calculation for a requested total fund amount. 

However, the SBA program guide has gone on to say that food truck operations are null/void of this opportunity because we lack "physical locations" (see definition of physical location in the program guide page 20 of 21) that the SBA has deemed can only be defined by permanent structures. My question is 2 fold, 

1. Why is the SBA permitting restaurants to use this multi-calculator function and not allowing an operation like food trucks? I understand the SBA trying to limit the size of a financial cap for an operation (i.e. 10 food trucks wouldn't be allowed to EACH have a $5m cap, therefore able to apply for $50m in funding). I do not understand why they won't allow us to showcase the damaging effects our business endured from operating expenses of opening new food trucks in 2020 or allow us to show the monthly revenue that a new food truck generated in 2019 and applying that to the delta of 2020 revenue for that specific location. These both GREATLY effect the total out come of this RRF grant and are being allowed for some businesses but not others. Additionally, all of this information is readily available on the Square dashboard and is separated per location. 

2. If we do process our application through Square, we have multiple locations set up within squares dashboard to represent each trucks operational revenue. Why can't Square submit this application using the POS to prove that each location is generating its own revenue and use the multiple tables in respect to each location? 

I understand this is complex but it is something that needs to be addressed, it is an inequitable problem and something that has not been directly addressed by SBA, only determined by me through reading the program guide. I have yet to get an answer directly from anyone and hope this platform can provide that for me. 

[NmontaSBA]

@Seanse07 We appreciate the feedback regarding using multiple calculations for food trucks. At this time because food truck operators are considered to have one location (the headquarters) they must use the table that corresponds to the date the business first began making sales with its first food truck.