COVID-19 Update June 9, 2020

We’ve rounded up a lot of great information about HR 7010, the newest law to be passed that changes everything about your PPP loan forgiveness.

• June 30th is the last day to be approved for a PPP loan. No loans will be approved after this date. If you still haven’t applied, you should really do so now, because there is still money available!
• Payroll expenditures that count toward forgiveness include benefits, vacations, and even paying someone to stay home. However, with the passage of HR 7010, paying people to stay home really doesn’t make sense anymore, because you have until December 31 to meet the percentage of payroll required for total loan forgiveness (now 60% rather than the original 75%).
• To qualify as a Full-time Equivalent (FTE) and still count toward the FTE target you must hit for loan forgiveness, a worker must still log 40 hours per week on average.
• Although principal and interest payments are deferred for these loans, interest still accrues from the date of funding.
• In a joint statement issued from the US Treasury and the SBA, a completely revised application for PPP loan forgiveness will be coming soon. If past experience holds up, this means we’re probably weeks away from seeing something, rather than days.

Here are a few other answers to questions you might have:

• If you use all your PPP money before the 24 weeks has ended, can you apply for forgiveness before the end of this period? The short answer is no — you must wait until the end of the 24 weeks or December 31st.
• How long is the covered period for determining eligible forgivable costs? For purposes of determining forgiveness of eligible costs, the covered period begins on the date of the origination of the PPP loan and ends on the earlier of A) The date that is 24 weeks after the date of loan origination or B) December 31, 2020. Borrowers who received PPP loans prior to the enactment of the PPPFA may elect to use a covered period that ends 8 weeks after the date of the origination of the PPP loan.
• If you already have a PPP loan and your 8-week period passed before the passage of this new law, can you apply for an additional loan? NO! You can only obtain one PPP loan per company.

We will have a lot more info to share in the webinar we are having this Thursday, June 11, 2020. If you have questions about the PPP loans you’d like us to answer in the webinar, feel free to send them to me.

This shutdown has no doubt affected your employees in a manner that is not too dissimilar to you. To get your company completely back on track, you will need to address the fact that your employees are dealing with their own personal financial crisis.

To that end, we have added a new product that can help your employees get access to their paychecks or their 401(k) funds quicker if needed. This new product is called FinFit, and it is specifically designed to provide your employees with personalized financial attention, assessments, and education, along with new ways for them to access funds if they are financially strapped.

You might want to read this article that discusses the various “quick-pay” smartphone apps available that give workers immediate access to their earned pay in return for a transaction fee of a few dollars. These apps must be tied into the employer’s payroll system, and their use has surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tying into your organization’s payroll system is a process that can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of weeks, depending on the complexity of your system.

The beauty of our FinFit app is that it is already integrated with our payroll system, so you will have nothing to set up on your end. An additional benefit is that neither your company nor Delta has any liability when the employees borrow money.

Today’s downloads:

• Smaller Employers add a Personal Touch to Well-Being Benefits – Employees are likely to consider the value of benefits they receive, whether from a small or large employer, as they mull returning to the workplace and begin to evaluate future or alternative employment prospects.
• Support Health and Well-Being for a Successful Return to Work – A great article published by SHRM about how employers’ focus on health and wellness will change after COVID-19 and what steps HR should take now to facilitate a successful return to work.

If you want to know more about the changes to the PPP program, we invite you to register for the webinar we are hosting tomorrow, June 11, 2020, at 3 PM CDT. The first 15 minutes will be a review of the changes to the PPP forgiveness including a Q and A session. After that, we’ll go through some new benefit items, as well as a quick session reviewing new technology that Delta clients can utilize to make your HR experience and processes more efficient. Once again, please register for this informative webinar!