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.

[Gigis1]

If I download my taxes, will my Form 1065 be enough documentation to prove my income or do I need to download income from all of my other delivery service.  Also, will I have to download 3 months of bank statements if I apply thru Square?  I have used Square for over 3 years now.

[Ani_]

Hi @Gigis1, You will not need to download 3 months of bank statements as part of your Square application. If you have used Square for over 3 years, then we have enough processing data to support your application.

[NmontaSBA]

Hi @Gigis1, As long as your tax form 1065 includes all of your gross receipts (including income from other delivery service) you will not need to download income from all other delivery services.

[warrenorens]

I have the same question...

[Ani_]

Hey @Gigis1 @warrenorens! You will be able to apply through Square with processing data from 2019 and 2020. You’ll be prompted to indicate external revenue and later upload supporting documentation (eg. from third party delivery providers) through the SBA portal once your application is submitted.

[SideStreet]

We are a small restaurant, eligible for RRF, and we use Square for Retail (not Square for Restaurants).  Will the portal still be available for our RRF application process?

[flyingbull]

I have the same question. 

[SPBS]

This question is actually for the SBA.   It says on their site for applicants in operations prior to 2019 to calculate 

• 2019 gross receipts minus 2020 gross receipts minus PPP loan amounts.
•  If the ppp second draw was disbursed in 2021 why would be it subtracted to the 2020 revenues?

[NmontaSBA]

Hi @SPBS, You must deduct all PPP loans in the funding calculation.

[patika]

Hi!  I have 2 locations, 2 separate companies, 2 separate EINs, 1 Square login.  Will I be able to apply for each of them through the Square RRF application process?  Thanks!

[oxido]

2019 gross receipt reported in IRS form1120 is based on our fiscal year which ended 12/29/19.  So there is about ~$8k difference compared to the entire year 1/1/19 to 12/31/19.  So is it okay to use $ as reported from Square for the entire year?

[Ani_]

Hi @oxido, 

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.

[Gigis1]

Yesterday the SBA had a webinar that showed what the actual Application process would look like.  On the left side of the screen it showed the progress of your application.  If I apply thru Square, will I be able to monitor my application on the SBA website just like I would if I apply directly thru the SBA?  They also said you do not need to register on Friday thru the SBA if you plan on applying thru Square, but how will I be able to track the progress of my application on the SBA site if I do not have an account set up with the SBA?

[Ani_]

Hey @Gigis1, Yes, you will be able to track your application progress both through the SBA portal and through the Square Dashboard. Once your application is submitted through Square you will receive an SBA username and be prompted to log in to the SBA portal to eSign. You do not need to register ahead of time if you plan to apply through Square.

[warrenorens]

Hi Ani_

We have square as our POS in our retail locations and for part of our ecommerce platform.  We do have our other website for ecommerce as well as goldbelly, uber eats, and doordash.  My question is, will the Square application allow me to input other sources of sales outside of the Square universe?  Or are will we have to go direct to the SBA with multiple platforms from which we receive sales income.

[Ani_]

Hey @warrenorens, Square will provide space for you to input external revenue. However, you will still need to be prepared to provide supporting documentation via the SBA portal after submitting your application through Square.

[manousheh403]

I opened in 2020 and have to use calculation 3.  Square has been my only POS, can I still apply through Square or do I have to go through the SBA?  I read that we had to be using Square in both 2019 and 2020, but that doesn't take into account calculation 3.

[Ani_]

Hey @manousheh403 - Unfortunately Square will not be able to support your application if you fall in to the table 3 calculation, we recommend you apply through the SBA.

[Bruce57]

What if the Gross Sales in Square differ from Gross Sales on our tax returns? Will this hold up my application? 

[corvonyc]

same question

[PizzaOutpost2PL]

QUESTION: How do we communicate extenuating circumstances on the application? It appears there's nowhere on the application to share failure/closure of any locations but they demand we included that in gross receipts for all calculations (Tables 1-3). My gross receipts include a location that opened Christmas 2019 and failed by March 2020. To save my original restaurant, I'm now operating under an approved CH11 SubV plan. We didn't qualify for any PPP due to CH11 still being in process at that time. The failed location makes it appear we did better in 2020 than 2019 and we lost our life savings over it.