IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR 2021:
President Biden has signed an extension of the PPP loan program until June 30, 2021.
Key PPP updates for 2021 include:
- PPP borrowers can set their PPP loan’s covered period to be any length between 8 and 24 weeks to best meet their business needs;
- PPP loans will cover additional expenses, including operations expenditures, property damage costs, supplier costs, and worker protection expenditures;
- The Program’s eligibility is expanded to include 501(c)(6)s, housing cooperatives, destination marketing organizations, among other types of organizations;
- The PPP provides greater flexibility for seasonal employees;
- Certain existing PPP borrowers can request to modify their First Draw PPP Loan amount; andCertain existing PPP borrowers are now eligible to apply for a Second Draw PPP Loan.
The PPP quickly ran out of its initial funding, but congress approved an additional $320+ billion in a second round of funding on Friday, April 24, 2020. This also ran out, and in December 2020, congress approved a bill to re-fund the PPP program, and extended the PPP application deadline to March 31, 2021. However, congress approved a further application deadline extension and President Biden signed the PPP Extension Act of 2021 into law on March 30, 2021. The new application deadline is May 31, 2021.
On June 5, 2020, President Trump signed into law new updates to PPP loan forgiveness requirements, extending the covered period to 24 weeks, reducing the minimum loan funding that must be spent on payroll to 60%, and easing the requirements for maintaining staffing and compensation levels. Please read the details here.
If you haven’t yet applied for your emergency COVID-19 disaster relief funding, you should submit your application ASAP.
The Paycheck Protection Program’s initial $350 billion in forgivable loans was spoken for as of April 16, 2020, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Approximately 1.5 million businesses were been approved for the first round of forgivable PPP loans.
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Has all the PPP money been spent / allocated?
As of April 16, 2020, the original allotment of $350 billion dedicated to the Paycheck Protection Program for small business loans ran out. The Senate approved an additional (round 2) influx of about $320 billion on April 21, Congress approved it on April 23, and President Trump signed the bill on Friday, April 24, 2020.
As of the 16th, only a very small percentage (less than 10%) of approved loans had been funded, by our estimation. It often takes 10+ days for many banks to start delivering approved funds to businesses.
Since congress approved a new funding bill for the PPP program in late December 2020, and now the application deadline has been extended to May 31, 2021, there is sure to be a crush of fence-sitters finally deciding that it’s time to get their applications in for a PPP loan.
Can I still apply for the EIDL grant program?
The EIDL program also quickly ran out of money under the first round of CARES Act funding. However, the EIDL grant program has been re-funded with $10 billion as of January 2021. SBA is currently accepting new COVID-19 EIDL loan applications from all qualified small businesses, including agricultural businesses, and private nonprofit organizations. Apply here. See this article for more info about EIDL loans and grants.
Recommended PPP next steps
If you have not yet applied for a PPP loan, we recommend you submit your application immediately. The revised deadline is May 31, 2021.
IMPORTANT: Every business seeking PPP funding needs to get an accurate, complete application approved by a verified SBA 7(a) lender in order to be assigned an E-Tran number. This acts as a virtual place in line to receive PPP funds. If you want a shot at PPP funding in the event the program receives additional federal money, you need to follow these steps to save your place in the queue.
If you started but did not complete your application through a Womply affiliated SBA lender: Please follow the instructions in the email you received to complete your application.
If you have completed your application through a Womply lender: Please wait while they process your application. We’ve deployed our support team to augment our lenders’ staff so we can process applications faster. But we’ve asked our team to stop providing individual status updates unless we actually need you to fix something in your application. Given the millions of businesses scrambling to apply, we feel it’s preferable to process your loans efficiently rather than spending time providing status updates.
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