My PPP Saga Took 80 Hours, and Was Filled with Forms, Misinformation, Cryptic Bank Messages, and Multiple Levels of Confusion. Here’s What I Did
By Steven W. Giovinco, Recover Reputation
Like most of you, I scrambled when I first heard about the Payroll Protection Program (PPP). What was it? Did I qualify? Would I get it? Feeling overwhelmed, I put it aside initially but quickly recognized its importance and dove in. After a mini-saga of forms, misinformation, cryptic bank messages, and multiple levels of confusion, I got the loan/grant after about eighty hours from one of the big banks, Citibank. Here’s my PPP journey.
Who I Am
I am a small LLC in New York. My bank is Citibank, who I’ve been with for about fifteen years, but I’ve never had any loans or credit cards: I prefer debit cards and used bootstrapping to start my online reputation management business. The two times I met with bankers over the years was to open a business account, so I’ve no substantial relationship with anyone there.
Get Information
After my initial sheepish response, I quickly decided I did need to look into PPP, and set about researching everything I could, starting with SBA website. From there and through other searching, I saw several Zoom video presentations; headed to Reddit, which I find extremely helpful, where I posted questions and found some real-world answers; and sought out Quora, where I posted additional queries.
Gather Documentation
Next, I tried to ascertain what documents I needed. This was not completely clear because the SBA website says one thing, yet the bank sites mention others. I hadn’t filed taxes for 2019 given the stay-at-home guideline so I had little real financial information to start with.
Find a Bank
Putting that aside for a moment, I focused on getting a bank. Normally, Citibank would be first on the list but their ambiguous website message said they’re not ready for applications but would be “soon”.
Getting scared, I came across some possible banks provided by the SBA. I entered my Zip Code and got a PDF list. Although there were about thirty identified, few if any provided any loans.
Frunstrantingly, many banks had an email contact only; others just listed a phone number (yeah, right). Still others just seemed too disreputable to deal with; almost all required you to be a customer; most were completely unknown to me, which disturbingly seemed odd. The bottom line: one bank out of about twenty got back to me, but with the news that they were already out of funds.
One bank did get back to me (one from the list that I’ve never heard of), and I tried applying. On their website were a whole new set of documentation requirements. Why was I being asked for a Payroll Register since this was not listed as a financial requirement on the SBA website?
I struggled to figure this out. Since the tax deadline was extended for months, I lacked most financial information. Alternatively I scoured each bank account transaction looking for funds transferred into my personal account. This became my cobbled together payroll register.
Since this didn’t seem adequate — but who really knows — I then gathered all my invoices from 2019, added them up and did the same for 2020 to date. This gave me more information, which seemed to be necessary.
I applied for PPP with this imperfect set of documents and submitted. No response was ever received from this application.
Citibank
I just then received an email that Citibank was in fact ready for applications. I scrambled once more to apply, this time as quickly as I could, and knowing that time was of the essence, I dropped everything else. I paused for a moment wondering if applying for a second PPP would complicate the process, but that seemed a luxury problem — besides, I would only sign one acceptance loan letter.
I decided to trek to my branch and talk to someone in person. They were glad to help but had no other information except to hand me a business card for someone else. Still, I was grateful, and went home.
Relief…Then More
The Citi form was indeed more professional, but it also asked for even more documentation. Luckily, I seemed to have it, and uploaded as swiftly as possible, and finally finished the application (!).
This was short lived, however, since I got an email saying more forms were required.
I went to the Citibank PPP Customer Portal and saw a request to unlock my credit scores. What was this? This was odd, since I don’t remember ever signing up to Equifax or the others. I proceeded to investigate this by logging into all three credit bureaus, but needed to create new accounts for each. Since they had different procedures and security requirements, this took more precious time.
After all this, I saw that my credit scores were indeed already unlocked. Not knowing what to do next, I reached out to the email listed on the bottom of the Citi PPP website, and posted my query there. I got an automated answer, which is fine. I then reached out to my branch contact who put me in contact with someone else, Anh. She said this seemed to be a technical problem (was it really?) and forwarded my question to another group. This sidelined my application for another twenty four hours while I waited for an answer.
Meanwhile, the other document requested was a Payroll Register, which I was now familiar with. I had created one earlier but it seemed like I needed a more formal document. I searched Google, found a bunch of templates and picked one. I then added the account information I compiled earlier one by one into the form. Once seemingly complete, I uploaded it.
Another Form
A tech person said not to worry about the locked credit bureau accounts, so that was one minor victory. Next though was a request for IRS Form 941. What was that? I needed four — one per quarter. I frantically searched and found one which I began to fill out. However, in my haste I realized I selected the wrong version: I needed the one for 2019. I found that form and started over. I hoped I was doing it right and felt I couldn’t risk waiting any longer for fear that the application window would close.
Once that was complete, I needed a digital signature for the form. Doing this many times before for other documents, I felt I was nearing completion and could finally relax. However, a snag happened and ran into a problem with Adobe Sign. I tried opening the file on another computer — still no luck. I then set up an approval chain and sent it to myself via another email account. Finally, I found a way to sign them by printing them as PDFs, and that worked.
I sent this to Anh, who said she posted it for me. Done (for the third time)!
Turned Down
After about a week, I saw an email from Citibank. It said that I was turned down for the PPP loan/grant. For some reason, I didn’t accept this and reached out to Anh, who said she would get back to me.
In fact, I was approved! Sure enough, I saw an email in another folder from Citibank that I assumed was a confirmation message, but was actually my approval paperwork. By the time I discovered this, it was four days later.
Would there be any money left? Was it void because of the delay?
In fact, that morning was the official announcement that PPP funds were depleted. I felt crushed. How could I miss this, potentially the most important email of 2020? I signed it electronically as soon as I could, and crossed my fingers.
Funds Arrived
I checked again on Reddit to see if others received payouts and how long it took. I did more research, and saw that it could take 48 hours. I checked my bank account several more times throughout the day. At 11:49 pm, the money was finally deposited.
After what seemed like a long journey, I relaxed. I was ecstatic actually, and felt like I won a strange lottery. I fell asleep at 3am, this time, not due to worry and anxiety.
What Did I Learn?
I didn’t think the “system” was against me; if I did, I would be doomed. I also didn’t spend much time criticizing the numerous pitfalls that came from the Federal Government, SBA and the banking system.
Again, if I did, I would have spent my time curdled up in a ball in the corner. When they said I was initially denied, I instinctively knew to never take the first answer at face value and to try again.
Total Time Spent
Although I lacked some documentation that I probably should have had on hand, I estimate that research, visiting and waiting at a bank branch, filling out paperwork, resubmission, etc. took about eighty hours. This equalled about two weeks of full time work.
Was It Worth It
Out of curiosity, I did some calculations, just trying to get some perspective. I looked at my standard hourly rate during this process and multiplied it by the eighty hours spent. From a pure ROI perspective, I would have lost money. Don’t get me wrong — I am so grateful to have the funds, but in theory, I actually LOST money after factoring my time.
In the end, I gained a better understanding of my business, and although the process had many difficulties, I moved onward.
The bottom line: the PPP was far from easy for me, but it was still worth it.
