Government Rescue Package for Businesses

1. Number 1 rule in these times: Cash is King. Focus over the next few weeks on creating a solid cash position for your team members and your business
2. Check if your bank offers facilities under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme;
3. If it does, get in touch with your main contact at your current bank as they will likely prioritise existing clients;
4. Find your full annual accounts for the last three years if you have them;
5. Prepare management accounts for the current financial year (YTD 28 Feb 2020 P&L and 28 Feb 2020 Balance Sheet);
6. Retrieve bank statements for the past 6 months;
7. Make a list of Aged Debtor & Creditors;
8. If you don’t have already, get an “accountant who is fast to execute”. There will be lot of applications. You need your application in front of them as soon as possible

In addition to the above, your bank might also ask for the following:

• Current monthly fixed costs (wages, rent, pensions etc), future monthly fixed costs if these are being reduced and measures taken to reduce costs;
• Number of employees including directors, both currently and in the short-medium term;
• Statement Summary on how COVID-19 is affecting the businesses (sector specific would help);
• Up to date ALIE (Asset, Liability, Income, Expenditure) – This is needed should the lender need to take any personal guarantees ;
• Current business insurance schedule – Secondary mitigation should the Business Interruption section of the policy be activated and cover loss or earnings due to COVID-19;

In order to make the application process the quickest possible, you should check what kind of facilities your bank offers and how much will you need to borrow through it.

Of course, in order to plan repayment, you’ll need to work out how long the facility will support your business for and what are you going to spend the funding on.