(OAAA is following member companies through the small-business loan process — “Payroll Protection Program” — to help explain this stimulus benefit. In this update, five out of home media companies share experiences, good and bad. Banks are processing $349 billion in loans for the Small Business Administration; these loans will be forgiven if worker-retention standards are met.)
“It was easy. We applied on Friday (April 3). Our bank called on Tuesday (April 7) saying we were approved. It’s not a huge amount of money, but it’s more than I thought we’d ever get from stimulus.
For the application, we had to pull payroll information. Our third-party payroll processor was great, getting this information quickly. In general, I’ve heard it’s easier to work with smaller banks. The bigger banks have made it (the small-business application process) harder.”
“Our first attempt, with a large national bank, was painful. We applied on Friday (April 3). The bank called on Monday (April 6), telling us to go to another bank, because they had hit their lending limit. Since then, the big bank’s limit has been raised, but by that time we had applied through another bank.”
“We received approval yesterday (April 8) on our Payroll Protection Plan loan, and expect funding fairly quickly.
The application was fairly easy however the caveat is my internal controller/CPA worked with our external CPA to prepare the application. They did spend significant time reviewing federal guidance to assure the application was accurately prepared. We took our time, as worst case is to have the application kicked back for some reason.”
“We filed Friday at 11:45 a.m. (April 3). We have confirmation that our application was accepted.
Big banks are funding slower than regional banks, I am hearing. The volume is too big for their ratios without the feds formally giving them waivers.”
“We had information ready for our application on Friday (April 3), but still haven’t been able to submit an application. We got an email from our bank last night (April 8) saying they would start processing applications from multi-owner companies. We probably won’t get our application in until Friday (April 10).”
(Note: Congress is considering additional funding for small-business “payroll protection” loans, due to heavy demand.)
Published: April 10, 2020