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.

[krischris2]

I would like to know if Square Portal for the application is open on April 30 

[Seanse07]

Just to register a log in. you wont be able to fill an application out until monday

[Ani_]

@krischris2 No, Square will open for applications on May 3 at the same time that the SBA portal opens. I believe the April 30th date you’re referring to is for registration with the SBA. If you plan to apply through Square, then this is not necessary.

[xgolftc]

How do we get registered for the live Q&A?

[Bsferra]

I am looking for the same answer

[Seanse07]

no live Q&A. They will just respond live for the next hour here on this forum. confusing title, i know

[FMCorp]

Thanks for clarifying. 

[Wtr4920]

If you have to close for a couple days to make the renovatoins required for a safe re-openning are the lost revenues covered?

[Ani_]

Hey @Wtr4920, the SBA has released the formula that it is going to be using to calculate the awards a business is eligible at sba.gov/restaurants. We recommend reviewing the formula that applies to your business (e.g. based on when you were in operation) to get visibility on whether the change in your income and any associated expenses would be part of this calculation.

[aluelcellars]

Two Questions:
1) Will Square take into account the minority communities as well when submitting the application?
2) Are there documents that we should have prepared ahead of time on Monday to ensure that we can submit our application efficiently?

[Ani_]

Hi @aluelcellars, Yes, we will enable you self attest if you are part of this group. Our Support Center has some information on how to be best prepared to apply with Square.

[kelsenvana]

If a restaurant is partially open in 2019 - first day of sales Nov 14, 2019 but only 6 days of open (sales) in November and 25 days in December - how many months is that considered for calculation Table 2? Is it 31 days and 1 month or is it from Nov 14 through Dec and it's 1.5 months? 

[NmontaSBA]

@kelsenvana In this example, it is 11/14-12/31/19 so 1.5 months.

[txkeepercider]

Can you send us the application square will use so we can gather then necessary paperwork for Monday's launch?

[Ani_]

Hi @txkeepercider, if you decide to apply through Square we have some information on you can best prepare for Monday’s launch on our Support Center.

[corvonyc]

The person associated whose name is on the Square account is no longer associated with the business. Can anyone sign as the authorized owner or can it only be the individual that is on the Square account?

[Ani_]

Hi @corvonyc, The application will only be available from the owner login in the Square Dashboard. Owner information will be prefilled as the existing Square account owner, additional owners can be updated or adjusted.

[epartee]

If I apply for the RRF through Square instead of directly on the SBA website, will there be an electronic way to fill in form 4506-T?

[Ani_]

Hi @epartee - There will not be a way to fill out the 4506-T form through Square.

[KVSteam]

Hi, For 2019 we had two different square account first 5 month on one account and the rest on second square account. Is there a way for square to consolidate it? or what advice would you suggest? Thank you

[Ani_]

Hi @KVSteam, Unfortunately there is not a way to consolidate the two accounts. If you apply from the second Square account (which sounds like it also began processing in 2019), you will be able to indicate that you opened prior to when you began processing in that account, and upload supporting documentation via the SBA portal after submitting your application through Square.