We hope everyone is safe and able to enjoy their family Easter weekend.
We wanted to update on the PPP loan process.
We have to say this has been the most trying week of our careers. It has been frustrating, exhausting, fast paced, sleep deprived, anger at times, kick the computer off the desk!! But in the end we did it for all of you, and will continue to do so, hopefully not all at the same time now. It appears after this week and the banks have gotten into a flow and more community banks are opening doors to local customers it should be a smoother process. We do recommend you find a local lender it has been much easier for them to process than some of the bigger banks.
We are happy to report that as of today we have submitted over 425 applications to hopefully secure over $25M in PPP loans to help keep employees being paid. We know there will be more but over this week we have built reports and processes that is helping make it an easy process for the banks to process. We have worked in conjunction with a couple banks to get exactly what is needed to secure the loans.
There will be more guidance in the coming weeks with exactly how the forgiveness will work. All of our clients have different needs in regards to this, so there really isn't any standard answer or way to determine exactly what to do once loan is secured, so we will wait until there is more guidance on this. Any businesses that are fully functioning keep running with this and keep paying your staff. Others who are shut down/partially shut down or fear workers not coming back on staff, it's a bit trickier to give a straight answer right now. Between PPP, paid sick/FML, and unemployment, with it all intertwined makes it difficult.
We have helped complete step 1, now comes step 2 and what to do next. Those answers are hopefully forthcoming.
What to keep track of over the coming weeks. Payroll records (for those we do, we have this), copies of checks/bank payments for utilities(not sure about phone/internet but throw in for now), rent/lease/mortgage and interest on business loans. I would start a folder labeled PPP documentation and scan or put paper copies in. We will need this on the certification down the road and preferably in electronic format. You must have documentation or it will not be forgiven.
The 8-week clock starts ticking the day you have access to the funds, that's the understanding today. Not sure if there will leeway on allowing payroll dates to change, I certainly believe there will. This is an assumption not official guidance.
I know everyone is thinking about their individual situations, but there are a lot of unanswered questions. Who should I pay, if I'm an owner how am I treated, can I do bonuses, etc. Can I prepay rent. A lot of items we have zero answers to.
My professional advice is to not use these funds for other than intended and let the SBA issue guidance in the coming weeks because they have to. Other than what they may allow, operate normally with these funds during the 8-weeks as if you would have had a virus not come along and created chaos. The SBA will issue guidance that prevents any manipulation with the funds. Others with businesses that have a legit problem with employees not coming back to work, those are the ones we have to think through.
In closing, those we assisted through the process please send us loan numbers once you have so we can track. Others who did on their own or with their bank's assistance, we would love to have the application so we can track just how much this program helped the H&T clients.
Wishing everyone a safe, happy Easter and enjoy your families.
Brett and I are BLESSED with the greatest team/family in the world. It took a total team effort this week and everyone was up to the task. We did all of this work mainly from our homes and it was not easy building a process on the fly. Because of them we accomplished our goal. To put 425 of the packages together in 6 days is nothing short of amazing. There is still a lot to be done, but because of our group we will make it happen.
