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_]

Hey @IAwine! If applicants are using the SBA portal, they can register for an account starting Friday, April 30th. If applicants are applying through Square, they do NOT need to register for the SBA portal! Applications for Square and SBA will open at the same time, at noon edt on Monday, May 3rd.

[2A311117]

Took several of the SBA webinars on this over last few days.  The SBA's supporting documentation was very clear and they recommended going through Square especially if all sales went through Square in 2019 and 2020.  They seemed to hint that the documentation if you went through square would be much easier because Square has the exact gross sales for both years and would be able to populate some special report.  Is this correct and does this mean we don't need to submit our 2019 and 2020 Business Tax Returns as well.  Shorter version: will the documentation be different or less on the Square Dashboard than the SBA site?

[Ani_]

Hi @2A311117, Square will prefill processing data from 2019 and 2020 and complete the calculations for you. Documentation may need to be uploaded through the SBA portal in the case that you indicate revenue outside of Square, but this path should provide a more streamlined experience with prefilled data.

[Lovewell]

If your business shows a profit are you still eligible for the grant application?

[Ani_]

@Lovewell No, unfortunately not. 

[Ash3]

We had to combine our two restaurants becsuse of covid so it appears we have made more through square but our LLC we operate under much much more in 2019 than 2020 with a different POS. I am a woman and the sole owner will I be able to apply even though to square it appears we made more?

[NmontaSBA]

@Ash3 If, when considering all of an Applicant’s gross receipts, 2020 gross receipts are greater than 2019 gross receipts the Applicant will not be eligible for funding.

[Ani_]

Hey @Ash3, If you processed with Square in both 2019 and 2020 (either Table 1 or 2), you’ll be able to apply through Square and indicate revenue outside of Square, you will need to provide documentation to the SBA of outside revenue.

[louisgerbier]

We have 6 locations on Square and they have 2 different ownership structures: our locations (each with their own FEIN) are held by 2 different parent LLCs and the tax returns are filed at the parent companies level and not at the restaurant level. The restaurant LLCs are listed on IRS form 1065 - schedule B. 

Will the Square portal allow to file 2 separate applications for each parent company combining the relevant gross receipt or will each location/LLC file for an application separately or will all locations be combined under 1 single application? 

Thank you

[ParadisosdelSol]

I only do straight retail out of Square. I keep my wholesale customers separate and invoice them out of QuickBooks. So they never appear in my Square reporting.

Would it be better for me to skip going through the Square portal and just go straight to the SBA portal?

[NmontaSBA]

Hi @ParadisosdelSol, Applicants should include the non-Square revenue in their Square application and upload supporting documentation.

[WineSneak]

The State of California Governor has not signed the bill deciding if PPP is taxable or not. Consequently we cannot file our 2020 income tax yet. SBA indicated a filed tax return will speed up the application process. Is SBA making concessions for California businesses?

[NmontaSBA]

Hi @WineSneak, SBA has guided that tax returns are preferred but there are other acceptable forms of documentation such as Square POS reports.

[WineSneak]

We are a husband and wife business and file taxes as a Sole Proprietor. Should we apply as partners or sol proprietors?

[NmontaSBA]

@WineSneak You should apply in the same way you file taxes.

[Kristy2801]

The live q&a starts yet?

[Tom]

Hey @Kristy2801 — thanks for checking in! Answers to questions will start posting today at 1:30-2:30pm PT / 4:30-5:30pm ET. Keep watch on this thread for updates. Appreciate your patience.

[WineSneak]

RE: Protected Class

Preference will be given to businesses owned by protected classes. We are both in a protected class but 50-50 owners. Will we be classifies as such?

[NmontaSBA]

@WineSneak The SBA will consider an applicant to be eligible for priority in awarding funds if the Applicant is a small business that is at least 51 percent owned by one or more individuals who are women, veterans, or socially and economically disadvantaged and if the management and daily business operations of the applicant are controlled by one or more women, veterans, or socially and economically disadvantaged individual.

[hotandcoolcafe]

Hello - we used a different POS company in 2019 and switched to square in 2020. Can we still apply through square and show other documentation for 2019 gross receipts?

[breakwaterhg]

I would like to know if you can upload documents at the time of applying for the RRF?

Thanks