COVID-19 Update May 5, 2020

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Hope everyone is enjoying a margarita right now!

One big item for those of you who have not yet received your PPP loan proceeds, the original “use it or lose it” deadline of June 30th or 8 weeks, whichever comes first, has been changed.

It was updated to say: “The eight-week period begins on the date the lender makes the first disbursement of the PPP loan to the borrower. The lender must make the first disbursement of the loan no later than ten calendar days from the date of loan”.

This is good news for anyone that has not been funded yet.

For those of you who have received your PPP loans and your 8-week clock has started, the rules are changing daily.

Yesterday, I wrote about the new SBA and the Treasury Department notice that went out over the weekend. In this notice, it stated that you must make a formal written job offer to all employees that were terminated due to COVID-19, and if they refuse work, it must be documented.

If you have documentation of an employee’s refusal to return to work, then you can lower your overall worksite average number of employees or offer a new employee the job as a replacement.

All of this must be documented for you to have forgiveness of the loan at 100%.

If you need clarity on this, please call me and we will do our best to help you protect yourself. We recommend business owners talk to their SBA lender or their CPA to get advice on this. Unfortunately, the rules for forgiveness are still rather incomplete or vague at best.

One item we are trying to get a jump on in this new pandemic world is the benefits situation. What do you do about the benefits that are currently offered to employees versus what is really needed in the workplace for employees to safely return?

We are going to be sending out a survey to our clients, and we ask that you think creatively on what you believe is really needed for employees to feel comfortable returning to work. Some ideas we have kicked around internally are:
• Some sort of help with childcare,
• Confirmation that PPE is on-site, and
• Assurance that all the proper guidelines for a safe work environment are in place.

We really need some input from you regarding what you think people need in these changing times.

We sat through a great webinar today on Post-Pandemic Operations, and it goes through what is known currently versus what is not known. The slide deck is available for downloading below. I highly recommend you look at it, and let us know if you have any questions.

Today’s downloads:

• Do your employees have to wear a face mask – the real answer: it depends on your local or state authority, but great info here.
• Post-Pandemic Operations – this is the webinar slide show I mentioned that has great info to review.
• OSHA Issues Restaurant-Specific Guidance for Curbside Pickup and Takeout Services – good info for our Hospitality clients to share.
• Will your loan be forgiven if employees refuse to return – this spells out what to do and what happens when employees refuse to return to work.

Go enjoy some Mexican Food! Have a great evening.