At GreenBook, we are among the hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses all over the United States trying to understand the implications and opportunities created by the recent legislation designed to address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We, therefore, wanted to share the following resources with you, hoping that you or someone else at your organization might find them helpful. If you do, please feel free to share them with others. We are here to serve anyone in the marketing and market research industry and welcome inquiries, comments, and ideas for helping our colleagues through this trying time.
There’s lots of information out there and it can be quite overwhelming to make sense of it all. Luckily, over the past week, we have been receiving incredibly helpful updates, guidance, and resources from our HR agency (Insperity), our accounting and tax advisor (LHF), and our bank (Chase).
We are re-sharing the following collection of resources to save you time by offering some initial direction. Our intent is to make it a bit easier for the business leaders in the market research community to (more quickly) determine what next steps to take on behalf of your employees and organizations.
All the usual disclaimers apply, you know what those are.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES)
The centerpiece of the CARES Act for small and medium-sized businesses is the Paycheck Protection Program. The initiative provides 100% federally guaranteed loans to small businesses that maintain their payroll during this emergency. These loans may be forgiven if borrowers maintain their payrolls during the crisis or restore their payrolls afterward.
The Treasury Department issued a brief, succinct overview of the Small Business Paycheck Protection Program. This is a good place to start if you are just beginning to learn about the program.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce put together a great, simple guide and checklist for employers to assess the resources available through the CARES Act.
GreenBook’s HR agency, Insperity, hosted an informative and practical webinar with a number of experts called CARES Act of 2020 – Opportunities for Small Businesses. They also compiled their own summary in the CARES Act Overview Guide.
Perhaps most importantly, the Paycheck Protection Program application is now available: Click here to download the application form.
To understand the application process in more detail, another useful document from the Treasury Department is the Paycheck Protection Program Information Sheet for Borrowers.
Filling out the application seems pretty straightforward, but one of the key pieces of information you will need is your total payroll costs so it’s important you talk to your payroll provider.
Companies with 0 to 500 employees can access the Treasury funds through their local bank or credit union (FDIC Lender). So, it is imperative that you talk to your bank to find out exactly what else may be required. For example, Chase requires that to apply for a Paycheck Protection Program loan, you must have an active Chase Business Online profile.
Lenders should start processing loan applications on April 3rd and the Small Business Administration is expected to provide additional details soon. One of the many places you can check for the latest information is the Chase for Business COVID-19 Program page.
The Family First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA)
The Act temporarily expands the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) on an emergency basis, provides federally mandated paid sick leave, expands unemployment insurance benefits, and provides tax credits for certain costs related to the implementation of this law. The benefits of this act are now effective on April 1, 2020.
Due to COVID-19, many of your employees are likely requesting paid leave to recover from illness, observe quarantine requirements, assist ailing family members, or care for children whose schools and daycare facilities are closed.
Employers will receive a dollar-for-dollar, refundable tax credit to cover leave expenses. You need to disburse the funds in advance and collect refunds through quarterly or special payroll tax return filings.
We’ve received several helpful resources from our HR agency:
To get a thorough, practical understanding of the Act, you can watch The Families First Coronavirus Response Act webinar. It’s relatively brief and it will be time well spent.
Same as with the CARES Act, Insperity put together their own summary document, FFCRA Act Overview Guide. They also published a FFCRA poster to share with your employees.
We sincerely hope that you find the resources included here useful.