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 @Grassroots1,

You must apply using the EIN for the entity that received the First Draw PPP loan. You must aggregate your calculations for your separate locations that are eligible for RRF. You may not include gross receipts (or eligible expenses, if using Table 3 from the application) from locations that are not eligible for RRF. Unfortunately, the entire PPP loan will be subtracted, we cannot subtract portions of PPP loans at this time.

[xgolftc]

Do we know what we are going to need to provide for the RRF Funding if we use the Square Dashboard?  The webinar stated that we did not have to register on April 30 if we are Square customers but did not provide anymore information about what we need.

Also - we are a 50% women owned business and a 50% veteran owned business but it appears that we don't meet the requirements for the priority processing because we are not 51% of one or the other.  Are there any exceptions to this?

[Ani_]

Hi @xgolftc! If you processed with Square for a portion of 2019 and 2020, then Square will prefill data available through your account.

[gbaca]

How do we register for the live Q&A?

[Ani_]

Hi @gbaca, no registration needed! 🙂 All questions will be answered directly in this post tomorrow in real time from 1:30-2:30 PM PST /4:30 PM-5:30 EST. 

[alinblair]

Hello. We had an Azlo business checking account. Azlo closed all accounts on March 31, 2021. We opened a new business checking account in March. Will this disqualify us or will this circumstance beyond our control be viewed as such? Thank you!

[NmontaSBA]

Hi @alinblair! This will not disqualify you from RRF.

[aacole]

We are a 98% woman-owned business. Is a self-attestation of that fact all that is needed or is additional documentation required? Does she need to physically put in the application or can I (1% owner) do it on her behalf? (I handle all the the office work + Square payroll and accessing the Square system/Dashboard) for the bar)?

[flyingbull]

I read that if you are audited you would need to prove that you are woman owned over 50%.  Same for Veteran owned. 

[Ani_]

That's correct, @flyingbull.

[NmontaSBA]

Hi @aacole,

A small business concern that is 98% woman owned can certify to belonging in the priority groups. There is no supplemental documentation required at this time, but SBA reserves the right to request documentation supporting your certifications.

[aacole]

Is tax form F4506T all SBA needs or should we have the 1065 from 2019 (2020 not ready yet) with K-1s as well?

[NmontaSBA]

Hello again @aacole,

Applicants should upload the 1065 from 2019, some form of eligible 2020 gross receipt documentation including POS reports, as well as the executed 4506T that is provided within the application.

[CurbsideCafe]

I'm a sole prop who has had my EIN for a long time.  I recently started a curbside restaurant in August 2020, and my husband and I bought another restaurant with a closing date of Jan 2021.  We then merged the two together into one location.  Will I qualify for this?  Square has ran all of my restaurant transactions starting in the fall of last year.

[NmontaSBA]

Hi @CurbsideCafe,

If you meet all other eligibility criteria, it sounds like you are eligible for the 2020 location. You can reach out to our call center for more help on specific examples at (844) 279-8898.

[meaghan1960]

So it is confirmed that square will be partnering with the sba to facilitate the grants.  will square applications take a priority status or get preferential attention?  Or will this just be an extra step added to the process.

[Gigis1]

I have a similar question......Will the SBA be expediting applications that go thru Square since they do not need to verify that we are a legit business since we have already been using Square?  Will the speed of the verification process be the same if you go thru the SBA website and Square or will one be faster?

[NmontaSBA]

@Gigis1 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. On average, applications will take 14 days to process, review, and fund all applications.

[Ani_]

Hi @meaghan1960 Yes, Square is partnering with the SBA. Square applications will have prefilled data based on what is available through your Square account.

[aacole]

What day/time does the Square portal open for applications?

[meaghan1960]

If i register with the sba on friday then later decide to apply thru square will that be ok?