A productive day.   As I noted in my earlier note, the checklists and guidelines are coming together (there is some chatter about some last minute Treasury changes but we will see what April Fool’s Day brings).

Attached is a plain English explanation.

As I mentioned earlier, really important to visit Chamber of Commerce site for their checklist. www.uschamber.com

Also attached is the SBA application.   You will apply online (www.sba.gov) and this application should be identical or very close to the application online.   I provided it in a word doc so you can fill it in.

One of our banking partners, Frank Heston of Riverview Bank, is available to chat with anyone who desires to work with a bank other than their current bank.  Not all banks are SBA certified and obviously some bankers are better and easier to work with than others.  You are NOT required to execute the PPP with your current bank.  Frank’s email is on the cc line.  Reach out to chat with him.  He will give you honest and correct advice.  I have worked with him for many years and he is the guy that I call when I need an answer.

Finally, my earlier note mentioned payroll providers and the request for a custom report for the previous 12 months of wage and salary and exclusions info.   I was the first to ask my provider and they agreed to create the detailed report in a day or two so I suggest you do the same with your payroll provider.   A certified payroll report will obviously make it easier for a banker to review and approve your request.  I will let you decide how to determine your healthcare costs for the previous 12 months.

Remember you have 8 weeks from the authorization date to spend the money you receive AND the spending must be for INCURRED and PAID expenses so timing may be a little clunky or at least require your attention to dates of checks.

Thanks for the documents and suggestions that I received from some of you.  I know folks are reading these updates and hopefully we get back to work in a month or less.

PS   IF you serve on the board of a non profit, share this info with the right people as most non profits will qualify for this loan program.

Stay safe.

Just finished a very informative webinar on SBA PPP program from our partner Christopher Santomassimo and his team of lawyers in NJ.
 Chris is a partner for our NJ CFO Forum group.

Key takeaways:

  1  www.uschamber.com has a great checklist for PPP
  2  Base period-prior 12 months of payroll (capped at 100k rate for individuals) plus healthcare costs  (last three quarters and first quarter of 2020 for most of us assuming you want to file asap)
  3  Maximum amount of the loan is 2.5 times the above monthly average payroll and healthcare costs.

  3 Expenses incurred AND PAID for the 8 weeks after the loan origination date are forgive-able.  Those expenses are payroll, rent, utilities, healthcare costs and certain interest expense.

  4  Reduction of the forgiven amount is based on change in headcount.   Website has the formula so visit www.uschamber.com

  5  Anything not spent carries over as a loan at 4% interest.

  6 Forms for PPP application are not available yet but their advice is to use the standard 7A SBA application.   It is likely that these forms will be used-perhaps with some of the questions eliminated but those forms are available at sba.gov to get you started.

I hope this helps.  Well worth visiting the Chamber’s website.

Their slides as well as the slides from Multi Funding and from Fox Rothschild CCI Consulting are available at their websites.

Suggestion-contact your payroll provider to provide the payroll info that you will need for the application.  Likely to be last 9 months of 2019 and first 3 months of 2020.

I have been asked for feedback on “recommended” payroll providers.

Give me your comments-if you like your provider OR if you are looking for a better payroll provider.   I will scrub your comments so tell me who provider is and your assessment.  Maybe this is a topic for a future session since a bad payroll provider is not worth a few dollars you might save every month!

Couple of quick points.

  Sam Aul has reported that the major payroll providers are developing payroll reports for the base period and for the period to be covered by the PPP.  So check with your payroll provider since the payroll data has to be correct (for example, salaries capped at 100k for reporting purposes) and certified so might as well have them do it for you.

  IF anyone gets a hold of the “final” PPP application PDF and the EIDL application PDFs, feel free to send to me and I will share them.

  Any other suggestions for the good of the group, send to me and I will communicate them.

We have a zoom meeting planned for April 17th.   I expect that we will reschedule it since our priorities have certainly shifted.

Good morning.  Ami’s updates are among the best that I am reading so I am sharing with you.  Many thanks to Ami for his great work and for sharing with our community.  There are well over 100 on this distribution list.

I have noticed some major inconsistencies of some of the emails from advisors and I don’t forward those.  Be careful because it is our advice that our owners and CEOs rely on.

Your input is appreciated.   Reply to me with other sources of information and I will review it.  NO risk of a reply all blast since I organized the distribution list to prevent that.

AGAIN, if you don’t want to receive these emails, just tell me and I will remove you from the list.   Thanks for the many encouragement replies that you have sent in these crazy times.

We sent some general info on SBA financing two days ago and the SBA website continues to crash so it’s hard to see the forms, get information and apply online.

Ami Kassar, who founded Multifunding about ten years ago and continues to help the private business community with lending solutions, has graciously offered CFO Forum participants to his webinar-NOON on Thursday  (TODAY) and NOON tomorrow (Friday).   Some info is below AND the link is at the bottom.

Many thanks to Ami. I am not surprised he is in front of the curve on this info!   Visit www.multifunding.com to learn more and to register.

Maybe I can get Ami to attend one of our meetings and share his knowledge and best practices with us once we are allowed to have a meeting!

PS   I know several of us have already started the application process-if you have, please share any advice or tips back to me and I will share them.

Meanwhile, I am trying to get space on the www.thecfosolution.org site to catalog the information that we have been sharing with you.  I know email blasts are clunky but it is the quickest way right now.

Business owners and entrepreneurs are increasingly concerned about the impact of the Coronavirus on their businesses cash flow over the next 6-12 months. The hope is that the government backed or issued loans will offer the relief that small-mid-sized businesses need to survive.

We will review the SBA Emergency Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and bolstered regular SBA program criteria the government are offering, with focus on key elements that have come out of the CARES Act.

Takeaways

In this one-hour interactive session you will learn:
· SBA emergency loan status – after CARES Act approval
· Existing SBA program initiatives – after CARES Act approval
· Importance of filing 2019 returns
· Do you have liquidity you can leverage?
· Calculating Operating Expenses (6 mos. burn rate)
· Online loans to watch out for and stay away from

Ami Kassar, www.multifunding.com