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.

[NmontaSBA]

Hi @rossobryan24, 

Eligible expenses do not include all startup costs. However, costs related to construction of outdoor seating, regular business operations, business maintenance, and food and beverage supply costs are eligible. Business debt is an eligible expense if it was incurred between 2/15/20 and 3/11/21. For a full list visit sba.gov/restaurants. 

For eligible expenses, you will be asked to provide documentation supporting these expenses incurred between 2/15/20 and 3/11/21. Qualified Third party Accountant, Bookkeeper or CPA Comfort Letter with associated Profit and Loss Statements and Balance Sheet documentation will provide the fastest SBA review. However, we understand not everyone has access or ability to provide a comfort letter and we will accept  Profit and Loss Statements and Balance Sheet documentation.

[danandcatherine]

If I use Square as the portal for submitting my Restaurant Revitalization Fund application, will my grant be deposited into the banking account linked to my Square account?

[Ani_]

@danandcatherine Yes!

[kinoscoffee]

At the start of the pandemic we added an entire bakery line to help cash flow the business. However due to this our gross receipts are technically up since 2019 although net is not. Is there anything we can do about this? We do not qualify for any of the programs because we were being proactive and trying to keep our head above water

[CoffeeRoasterMI]

This fund applies to cafes/coffee roasteries, too? 

[Ani_]

Hi @CoffeeRoasterMI - It sure does! ☕

[Kristy2801]

For the gross receipt number we put in the calculation table, should include sales tax or exclude sales tax? As I know the 1099k Square provided is including the sales tax, so we should deduct the sales tax manually by ourselves? Thanks. 

[flyingbull]

I have the same question.  Also will tips be deducted.  Are the reports needed for gross receipts going to be automatically created or do we have to run them, export, and upload? 

[NmontaSBA]

@Kristy2801 Taxes collected for and remitted to a taxing authority if included in gross or total income, such as sales or other taxes collected from customers (this does not include taxes levied on the concern or its employees should be subtracted from gross receipts.

[Kristy2801]

Case:  I have 3 locations for one Ein number and I only have one PPP and file one tax return as one company for all locations. one of the location is closed. 

1. When I entering my gross receipt number in the calculation table, should I include the closed location sales? If so, the loan amount will be including the fund for the closed location? 

2. Two of the locations open before 2019 and need to use calculation table 1. However, in your application form, there is only one table. Should I combine the two locations sale into one table or you will have more table to different locations in the live application. 

3. Since I have different locations open in different timeframe, I will use both calculation table 1 and table 2. However, I only have one PPP loan for all locations. Should I put the entire PPP in one of the calculation tables or I should decided by my locations number and put it into each calculation table for each location?

4. The gross sales receipt is including sales tax or excluding? 

5. I have couple bank accounts for different locations. You need the statements for just checking the validation of the bank account or you want to see more business deposit transactions to verify our sales? I just want to provide the best bank statement to meet your requirement. or use the business account for depositng my PPP is better?

[NmontaSBA]

Hey @Kristy2801,

1. You do not need to include receipts for the closed location.
2/3. If you want to use multiple calculations, you can do so in the SBA portal and subtract your PPP loan for all locations from the aggregate amount (it only needs to be subtracted once).
4. Taxes collected for and remitted to a taxing authority if included in gross or total income, such as sales or other taxes collected from customers (this does not include taxes levied on the concern or its employees) can be excluded from gross receipts.
5. You will supply bank statements for whichever accounts your potential award will be deposited into.

[TabardInn]

Hello- I am looking at the Application and have a question about Table 1. In the 1st box of table 1 it asks for gross receipts as they appear on our 2019 federal tax return. We are not on a calendar year  but a fiscal year. Our 2019 federal tax return accounts for June 2019 to May 2020. This is significantly decreasing the amount of money we are eligible for. Is it possible to use CY 2019 vs CY 2020 instead of the tax return amount?   

[Ani_]

Hi @TabardInn,  

Square will base calculations on your calendar year. 

If you apply through the SBA portal, you may calculate your RRF funding amount based on either your fiscal year or calendar year. If you are providing fiscal year tax reports but you're calculating your funding amount based on the calendar year, please provide documentation of your calendar year gross receipts to ensure the fastest review of your application.

If you are using Application Table 3, you will need to document your eligible expenses on and between Feb. 15, 2020 and March 11, 2021, and your gross receipts on and between Jan. 1, 2020 and March 11, 2021.

[Kristy2801]

If I have tax return, 1099k and P&L, I should submit all three proves are better or just submit tax return and 1099 will be easier for you?

[NmontaSBA]

Hey @Kristy2801, If you are using calculation 1 or 2, and if you have a tax return for 2019 and 2020, that is sufficient documentation. If you do not have a tax return for 2020, a 1099k or P&L are sufficient, and a 1099k is preferred.

[shannyrie]

Be sure to have a look at the payment calculations before you get your hopes up about a big payout. For us, our PPP payments more than covered our losses in business, so we do not qualify for additional funding through this program.

[kimapollo]

Isn't that the way it's supposed to work? You've already come out ahead.  It's a limited fund, folks who have lost the most should come first.

[phillyguy]

We use Square for all of our sales so the Square sales reports accurately reflect our revenue.  But I am trying to decide if I should apply for the grant on the SBA website or through Square.  It's pretty clear this will be time critical.  If we apply for the grant on the Square website will the application be immediately (like instantly) submitted to the SBA?  Can you assure us that we will not jeopardize our chances of getting a grant if we apply on the Square site?  The SBA seems to suggest it would be better this way as you can verify the sales numbers.  But I want to be careful to get a good spot in line.  Sorry if this seems fussy, this is existential.  

[Ani_]

@phillyguy You will be able to apply directly through Square! SBA encourages applicants who can apply through Square to do so. This is an amazing partnership we have worked together on to make sure you as an Applicant have all the data and documentation you need, in a platform you are already comfortable with. When you apply through Square, the application will be immediately submitted to SBA.

[mapromonyc]

Is it possible to use the gross receipts average for 3 months consecutive prior to COVID shutdowns as a calculation?  We soft opened in Nov 2019 and as you well know it takes time to ramp up.  We showed month over month improvement until we had to close our doors March 16, 2020 and didn't reopen till June 2020.   I believe it is not fair to include the months (Jan & Feb 2020) in our calculations since we were not aware of this pandemic until we were forced to close down. 

[NmontaSBA]

Hello @mapromonyc,

If you opened partially through 2019, you have the option to use calculation 2 or 3 as outlined in the program guide at sba.gov/restaurants. If you choose calculation 3, you should apply through the sba portal at restaurants.sba.gov.