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.

[ChukE]

SBA's RRF registration opens tomorrow 04/30, application opens Monday 05/03.

Will square also have a registration step tomorrow?

[pk4]

From the SBA website: You can apply through SBA-recognized Point of Sale (POS) vendors or directly via SBA in a forthcoming online application portal: https://restaurants.sba.gov. Participating POS providers include Square, Toast, Clover, NCR Corporation (Aloha). If you are working with Square or Toast, you do not need to register beforehand on the https://restaurants.sba.gov application portal.

[Aokuzog]

We acquired a new business as an additional location in March 2020.  Can we add the previous owners sales for that location for gross receipts 2019, so that the variance in gross receipts are an accurate reflection of the new business.

[NmontaSBA]

@Aokuzog 

If you do not have the financial records from the previous owner (including payroll records), you may apply using Application Table 3. 

If you have the financial records from the previous owner (including payroll records) you should apply using the appropriate Table that corresponds to the length of time the business has been open.

Regardless of which Table you use in the application, you must include all Paycheck Protection Program loans received by the business in 2020 and/or 2021, regardless of ownership, in line 3 on Table 1, 2, or 3 of your funding calculation.

[UrbnPHX]

Is there a template for documenting  the 33% for those that are required to do so?

[NmontaSBA]

@UrbnPHX Examples of documentation include TTB forms, state or local sales tax filings, or internal inventory management reports or financial statements.

[tinaford1]

Ani, We opened our first location in April 2019 and our second location June 2020.  Can we use form 2 for location 1 and form 3 for location 2 and use the aggregate of the two as the funding amount?

[Ani_]

Hey @tinaford1 - Yes, you would use Table 4 to aggregate the two if under the same EIN.

[ChukE]

RRF application requires reporting of all sales. In 2020, some of our sales came through Doordash etc. 

How will the total sales reporting be handled in Square's application site? Will sales through Square be populated automatically?

[Ani_]

Hi @ChukE, You will be able to add supplemental income information through Square’s application. However after you submit your application, the SBA may require some documentation that verifies this income so have that readily available.

[PureDC]

We signed our lease in Q4 2019, were on hold for construction in 2020 due to COVID until summer, we officially opened our doors in April 2021 with square POS, where should we apply, through square or directly through SBA? Thanks.

[PureDC]

Also, since we opened 4.1.2021, do we include gross sales in April or are we not to include gross sales beyond March 11, 2021. Please advise. 

[NmontaSBA]

@PureDC  You do not include sales beyond 3/11/21.

[Ani_]

Hi @PureDC, We recommend to apply through the SBA as you will have a lot of eligible expenses that you won’t be able to submit through Square.

[QCGBill]

Has the SBA begun to provide answers to these questions?  How can we see?

[ThirdPlaceJen]

Yes, I am watching pop ups from with Ani or an SBA

[dripespressobar]

Am I the only one not able to figure out exactly what this live Q & A is???  I don't see any answers to any questions and I'm tired of scrolling through pages to see nothing.  Frustrated.

[PPastry]

I feel the same way.  I can't access anything

[Alison1]

It would be nice, to see questions answered on the thread.  I asked a question, and I think I will get a response emailed to me

[Tom]

Hey @allison1, @PPastry, and @dripespressobar — thanks for bringing this up and I'm really sorry for the frustration. We're still working to get the answers to the questions people raised here. We'll respond on the thread and tag the appropriate people as soon as possible.

[patika]

If we are applying through the SBA portal directly, not through Square's portal, will Square be providing an SBA-customized 2019 / 2020 Gross Revenue report that can be submitted as a supporting document?