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.

[username1234]

Can someone please give me the url for the live Q&A?

[mco407]

i can find it either

[mimiandsimoninc]

SBA begin to create user ID and password for RRF application tomorrow 9:00am.

If I want to apply through the Square dashboard, do I need to create ID and password somewhere?

[Ani_]

No you do not need to, @mimiandsimoninc. 

[KUSAKABE]

Which report do I need for RRF and where can I download?

We use multiple POS companies and Square is one of them.  Can I apply through Square for other POS reports or do I have to apply separately on SBA website for other reports?

[ThesisBeer]

If I register on the SBA portal on Friday the 30th as a backup in case there are issues with the Square application, will this affect my ability to still apply through Square on Monday?

[LakeBaked]

I would like to know the answer to this question as well. As I'm not seeing anything on my dashboard regarding the RRF (other than this feed), I'm a bit concerned that Square will know I'm an eligible restaurant.

[PPastry]

I too would like to know how Square will know that we qualify.  What type of business we are.  

[Ani_]

@PPastry Square is determining eligibility based on whether you are a food and beverage business, have fewer than 20 locations, and whether we are able to support your application (began processing with Square before 2020). For further information about eligibility, please see sba.gov/restaurants.

[Ani_]

Hi @LakeBaked, Square is determining eligibility based on whether you are a food and beverage business, have fewer than 20 locations, and whether we are able to support your application (began processing with Square before 2020). For further information about eligibility, please see sba.gov/restaurants.

[Ani_]

No it won’t @ThesisBeer. Square will provide you a unique login for the SBA so make sure to use the one we provide you with when accessing the SBA portal after you submit and e-sign your application.

[adamMi]

If I have two different Square logins for my two locations, yet one company EIN, will Square recognize both logins by my EIN and combine the application revenue data?

[Ani_]

@adamMi if the two Square locations are not within the Square same account, then unfortunately you will not be able to apply through Square and we recommend you apply through the SBA.

[mco407]

DO 2020 business taxes need to be filed?

[fogro]

I just checked and noticed my Square 1099-K document shows a different revenue number (much lower number) than my Square POS report for the year (2019), a material difference. And my tax return shows the same number as my Square POS report. If Square is going to validate our numbers, which one should we be using? What if the 1099-K is lower than actual?

[ThirdPlaceJen]

I believe that the Square 1099-K reports reflect only the cc sales that go through Square. There is an explanation at the Square 1099-K tab

[Ani_]

Hi @fogro @ThirdPlaceJen is correct, please reach out to our Support team if you have any questions about your 1099-k. or POS report Square will be using gross sales numbers.

[john36910]

if I purchased a restaurant 11/2019 and do not have any copies of 2019 Income Taxes but do have  access to bank statements and Square 2019 data.  Can I use Gross Sales from square 2019 Sales Data?

[NmontaSBA]

Hi @john36910,

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.

[prestonrosefarm]

i'm thinking it might be smart to go ahead and register with the SBA tomorrow (even though i'm planning to apply thru square), in case we run into significant problems in square on monday...is there any reason i can't do this?

[Ani_]

Hey @prestonrosefarm, Technically it’s fine to register today and then apply with Square! It’s not necessary, but you can.