Completing the Truist PPP Forgiveness Application Module
In this video, we’ll cover how to complete your PPP Forgiveness Application. In the upper right-hand corner of your dashboard, your middle option will be Start Application, and that’s where you’ll head to begin the forgiveness process.
On the first page, you will see the various types of applications that can be started in the portal. Today we will focus specifically on the forgiveness process, so I’m going to apply for the first option listed, which is the Paycheck Protection Program Forgiveness.
Starting out, you will see that we have populated a variety of fields in the “Tell Us About Yourself” section with information that you already provided during the origination process. We’ve done that work for you, so you shouldn’t need to enter the same information all over again, but there are some new data points that are required, now that you are a funded borrower advancing to the next stage of the process. Think of this as your first business lunch with someone you met at a networking event; you got the basics about them over hors d'oeuvres, but now you want to know more about their business so you can hopefully build a new working relationship. You gave us your name, number and email, but now we need some additional detail like your birth date. Why do we need this? It’s a requirement from regulators in order to confirm the identity of the individual filling out the forms on behalf of your business, and of course, you’ve already provided your address. In the unlikely event that you find pre-populated information that is inaccurate, you won’t be able to correct them here on your own. To make any updates or corrections, you’ll need to reach out to the help center at the number shown at the top of this screen, which is 1-800-891-3954.
And speaking of accurate information, I’d like to emphasize the message on the right about your mobile number. The mobile number you enter will be used as part of the verification step in the electronic signature process in a few minutes. This multi-factor authentication is an added layer of protection for you, where we will text you a one-time passcode to verify your identify when submitting this application. If you don’t have a mobile number, we can send you the documents to e-sign via email if you contact the call center noted here or send a message through the messaging center on the dashboard.
The next page is where you specify which business you are applying on behalf of. If you have participated in the origination of PPP loans for more than one company, they would all be listed here, and you’ll need to select one to proceed. You will notice an Edit button here. You can click that button to review indicative data about the business, but like the last screen, you will find this information is populated automatically from your funded loan, so you can’t truly edit it at this time. If you do click there and find any information that requires an update, you’ll need to reach out to the help center.
In this example, you will see I have only one business shown, so I will click continue with this business.
Here, you will detail your relationship to the business. Throughout the application, these blue letter icons will provide you additional guidance on how to complete each field. For example, in the first box it explains that you will choose from 2 options; you are either an Owner, or Authorized Representative of the business, as well as your official title, such as CEO or Principal, then CLICK next.
The next step reviews information about the covered period and payroll frequency. Payroll frequency is the easier of those two questions, where you simply specify how often you pay your employees. The trickier question relates to the covered period.
If your loan number was assigned prior to June 5th of 2020, you have the option to decide between an 8-week or a 24-week covered period when you apply for forgiveness. The covered period represents the date range for costs that you will include in your calculation to be forgiven, so choosing a longer period should result in higher costs to support your forgiveness application, but you will need to provide more supporting documentation for the full length of that period, so please plan accordingly with regards to paperwork you’ll have on hand while completing this application. If your number was assigned on or after June 5th, 2020, you will use a 24-week period, but that date range cannot go beyond December 31st of 2020, even if that means you can’t include all 24-weeks; so if your PPP loan originated after roughly mid-July, your covered period may not be a full 24 weeks.
Under the Flexibility Act, payments are deferred until the SBA has made a final decision on your forgiveness application and sent that amount to Truist. If you don’t apply for forgiveness within 10 months of the last day of the covered period, however, you will have to begin making payments of principal, interest, and fees. The terms of your promissory note will be updated to reflect the deferred payment terms under the Flexibility Act and Truist will be providing further information on this process in the near future.
The next option I’m going to explain only applies if you have a payroll schedule that is biweekly or more frequent. If you pay your team every week, or every other week, or even daily, you may elect to calculate your eligible payroll costs using the period that begins on the first day of your first pay period following your PPP Loan Disbursement Date. This would make sense if you just want to keep the math simple by adding up regular pay dates instead of figuring out actual days if your disbursement fell somewhere random in the month. This more convenient approach of using your regularly scheduled payroll dates is referred to as an “Alternative Payroll Covered Period”.
For demonstration, in this example, you received your loan proceeds on Friday, May 1st, but let’s say your first pay period following that disbursement starts on Sunday, May 3rd. Instead of having to do mathematical gymnastics to figure out those 2 days in between, the Alternative Payroll Covered Period lets you just start your math using payroll figures you’d already be reporting for the May 3rd period and go out 24 weeks from then. If you choose to go that route, please note that throughout the rest of this forgiveness process, when there is an option to use “Alternative Payroll Covered Period”, you need to consistently use that approach. This primarily applies to the payroll screens, but there will be non-payroll fields that ask for payments made in simply the Covered Period. In those areas where the Alternative approach doesn’t apply, you’ll need to use the time between the real date of disbursement and the number of weeks covered, and in no event may the Alternative Payroll Covered Period extend beyond December 31, 2020.
If any of what I’ve said is unclear or you still have questions, you can find additional guidance in the FAQ section of the portal.
On this screen are 3 questions that will decide which direction you go from here, as there is a fork in the road between two potential application forms. The standard application to be completed is referred to as the 3508. However, the SBA has determined that if you are able to answer Yes to at least one of these qualification questions, then you can use a streamlined version of the application, referred to as the 3508EZ, so our portal has detailed those questions for you, along with Yes and No responses that will inform the remaining pages of the application. Each Qualification item on this page contains a statement, followed by the question – do you meet the criteria for that statement, Yes or No.
It is imperative that you take your time to thoroughly review this page, to ensure you are answering these 3 qualifying questions accurately. In short, you can potentially take the easy path to application if you can attest that you didn’t have employees included during your initial application or that you didn’t reduce the salary or wages of your employees by more than 25% from what you were paying them before COVID-19 impacted your business. Now that’s an oversimplification but should give you an idea of what this page is aiming to do.
The following screen is where you will record your payroll costs. Here, it’s important to use actual figures. Don’t estimate or round your dollar amounts. These figures should match the supporting documents you will add to the placeholders on your dashboard after submission. This is one place where using the Alternative Payroll Covered Period we discussed earlier really comes in handy. Keeping the math simple. It’s important to note that the total amount of cash compensation eligible for forgiveness may not exceed an annual salary of $100,000 for any individual employee, as pro-rated for the covered period, so the first box asks you to report the total cash compensation for employees who made a hundred thousand dollars or less last year. The second question is about the total cash compensation for employees who earned an annual salary of more than one hundred thousand dollars last year. You’ll also enter information about your contributions to employee health insurance, retirement plans, and related taxes. Lastly, you will detail owners’ compensation by dollar amount and number of owners paid. Remember to use actual figures here, rather than rounded numbers. There is an attestation box to finish this page, acknowledging that you are aware of the respective caps for forgiveness of payment made to owner-employees and self-employed individuals. Once you have checked that box, you can proceed to the next page.
For my application in this demonstration, the next page is headcount and salary information, but it’s possible any time now for your application to take a different path from mine as you are working on your actual application. At some point, your application may reach the forgiveness check stage. When you land on that page, it indicates that you have provided enough costs that your forgivable total is greater than your loan amount, so you don’t really need to enter any more detailed costs. So if your screen doesn’t look like mine right now and instead says “Forgiveness Check”, you can stop inputting additional costs at this point, and will be moved forward to the confirmation pages. You may choose to continue submitting non-payroll information, but you don’t have to. You can skip ahead in the video and save yourself a few minutes, but for most of you, you will have landed on the page you see here, which is for headcount and salary information, and we’ll continue on that comprehensive path together.
The first field is going to populate with the number of employees you reported at the time of your original PPP loan application. That was entered back then, so you can’t change the past. What you can update is the second field, which is asking for the
number of employees you have right now, at the time of filling out the forgiveness application. You’ll address if there was a reduction in the number of employees or average paid hours between the chosen reference period and the end of the covered period. Next, you will enter the average weekly number of full-time employees you had during the reference period you chose for your loan application. Then, you need to further breakdown that average total headcount into employees who made under a hundred thousand dollars in annualized salary, and those who made over a hundred thousand in annualized salary. So those two figures should equal the total average weekly FTEs you entered above.
The next question is about reducing salaries or wages during the covered period or alternative covered period. If you answer yes to questions about reduced FTEs, wages, or salaries, there is a potential for a reduction in your forgiveness amount. For this demonstration, we’ll answer no. But if you answer yes, additional questions will appear to determine if you meet any of the safe harbor requirements. You should review the Schedule A Worksheet and read the section on the right carefully to identify if those protections apply to you, if – for example – your business was closed due to compliance with COVID-related requirements or guidance from the CDC, Health and human services, or OSHA; or - if salaries, wages or FTEs were restored by time of application or the end of the year.
There are two primary buckets of eligible costs associated with the forgiveness of a PPP loan. One is payroll, and the other is everything not payroll. To qualify for full forgiveness, per SBA guidance, at least 60% of the loan amount must have been used on payroll costs. If the payroll you just reported was more than your total loan, for example, you may end up at the forgiveness check right now and be nearly done with the application. But if payroll accounted for only a portion of your loan proceeds, then you’ll continue to this screen where we’ll determine any mortgage, rent or utility payments you made during the covered period.
If you say yes to either question here, additional questions will appear for that topic. This includes the number of payments you made, the accounts you made them on, and the total amount eligible.
Only mortgage interest is eligible for forgiveness, not the principal portion of your payments, and only mortgage or rent payments on property that you already were incurring prior to February 15. You’ll find that February 15th is the standard date used to determine if something was in place before COVID-19 impacted your operations. To put it simply, you cannot receive forgiveness on properties you occupied and services you started after that February timeline, so if you are using a 24-week covered period, then you would include just the interest portion of mortgage payments made during those 24 weeks on any property that you already had a mortgage on in February. If you were making payments on a phone line back in January, but you didn’t add internet service until April, then you can apply for forgiveness of your phone bills during your 24 weeks, but not your internet since it wasn’t started until after February.
You may find yourself routed to the “Forgiveness Check” screen I mentioned, at this time. If so, you can stop submitting costs at this point and proceed to the confirmation steps, or you may choose to continue submitting information, but you don’t have to.
Assuming you do not get the forgiveness check, you’ll enter information for all utilities on the same screen. What were the total amounts incurred and paid for each eligible utility during the covered period? And it will ask for the account numbers, in case Truist or the SBA need to verify these figures against supporting documentation now or later. You’ll need to upload those bills to the document section of your dashboard after submitting this application in a few steps, so keep them on hand after you look up the figures; because not every business has gas, water, transportation, telephone and internet, you only need to complete the fields for which you have eligible costs. If you don’t have one of those utilities or didn’t incur and pay eligible costs for them, you can leave the field blank and still be able to proceed to the next screen.
The next tab asks you two key questions that we need you to confirm to be sure we are capturing critical information for regulators. Did you, together with any affiliates, receive PPP loans in excess of $2MM? And the last two fields are for the application number and dollar amount of any Economic Injury Disaster Loans. If you didn’t get one of those at all, you can enter zero for the amount.
And now the big reveal. Assuming you haven’t already hit that forgiveness check we mentioned earlier in the process, this is the first time you will see all of the figures you’ve entered collected on one screen. There are small notes for some of the lines which indicate where on the output form those numbers will ultimately go. The information you’re entering here will populate Form 3508 or 3508EZ for you, so this is a treasure map to make sure you know where these figures will end up on the populated form.
For some of you, you will have incurred and reported sufficient costs to qualify for forgiveness on the full loan amount. This would be great news! If that’s the case, you will see zero dollars for your remaining loan amount at the bottom of this page and there will be no other information for you to enter on this screen; but if you do have a remaining portion that was not eligible for forgiveness, then just that portion will be reflected as the remaining loan amount, such as the one you see here. If you do have a remaining amount that is not being forgiven, you need to select a method by which you prefer to repay that portion of your loan. You’ll choose an approach such as I wish to repay based upon the original terms of the promissory note, or I wish to extend the maturity date to 60 months from the original date of funding (and this option is present because loans made prior to June 5th had a 2 year maturity, but the Flexibility Act enacted thereafter push that maturity out to 5 years). So you can proceed with your original terms, change to the 5-year option, if it was not already in place, or the third choice in this dropdown list is to have further discussions about your repayment with a Truist representative
Finally, you’ll have a view of what the Schedule A output will look like, so you’ll want to use this time to review the figures for accuracy.
Demographic information requested after that is optional. No Truist teammates can see what you enter here. It is for government records and you can choose to provide or select not disclosed for any or all questions. It has no bearing on your approval decision.
Does everything look right? This screen is your final chance to review what you have entered. It doesn’t let you change information carried forward from your original application. But it will allow you to correct anything you have entered during this application process. It’s like reviewing the items in your cart before you check out. This is your last chance to verify the toppings you have ordered on your forgiveness pizza. You don’t want to submit anchovies when you meant ham and pineapple, so be vigilant in your review for mistakes.
And finally, you are at the point of executing your electronic signature. As mentioned earlier in the training, this feature relies on multi-factor authentication using the mobile number you provided on the very first screen. If you don’t have a mobile number and wish to execute by email, we can send you the documents to e-sign via email. Contact us using the call center noted here or the messaging center on the dashboard for assistance with this or any other e-sign questions.
Once you’ve submitted your signed application, you can click the BB&T and SunTrust now Truist logo in the upper left-hand corner to return to your client portal dashboard. There you will find new document placeholders where you can upload supporting documentation associated with your forgiveness application, and the status of your application on the right has advanced to forgiveness application submitted. Thank you for your time, and don’t hesitate to reach out to us at the call center or messaging center with any questions.
