I recently read that many small banks are struggling to support the CARES Act, which helps small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

As a small way to help out, we have used Microsoft Forms Pro (part of Office 365) to create an electronic PPP application. The form contains everything you are likely to need to know as a lender to support your small business customers with these loans at this critical time.

Importing the PPP Application Template

To import the form into your Office 365 environment:

1. Login to Office 365 in your browser
2. Click this link

You will see the PPP Application in template format. Click the “Duplicate it” button to create a duplicate copy in your environment.

Using the PPP Application Template

A number of things will need to be done in order to get the template ready for production:

• Proofread all the various disclaimers and language to be sure it is ready.
• Wherever you see “Bank XYZ” be sure to replace that with your bank information.
• We have not finalized the list of NAICS codes. You can turn this into a text field and require the user to enter it, or you can enter the codes. Please contact us if you decide you want a full list of codes entered – we would like to partner with you to enhance the template so more banks can save more time with it.
• In section 8 of the form, we have not finalized all the rules to show/hide the list of applicants. If you decide to use the form, let us know so we can modify the template with the rules for you and make it available to anyone else who would like it (no charge to you – we just want to get this template out there and useful to help out during this time of crisis).

• Check out your security compliance standards. C5 Insight can’t make security guarantees about this form, but according to Microsoft, Forms has strong security measures.

What Else Should a Bank Do?

Each bank has its own processes and loan origination systems. To further automate and secure processes, we recommend the following:

• Create a SharePoint site for managing the process. Properly secure the site.
• On the SharePoint site, create a list to track each application. Include the fields from the form template. Create additional fields to track the loan approval and distribution process. Also create fields for attaching documentation that the small business customer must also include in order to be approved.
• Write a Power Automate script to copy each loan application into the SharePoint list. Delete the record that is stored in Forms Pro after the script runs to ensure that customer information is consolidated and secure.
• Write a Power Automate script to create a separate document sharing location for each applicant and/or to automatically send an email to applicants asking them to send/upload the appropriate additional documentation.
• Some of this information will need to be captured and entered into SBA systems. Using Power Automate Flow UI scripts for robotic process automation (RPA) you may be able to automate this re-keying process. If Power Automate is not yet up to the task, then consider trying out UI Path (www.uipath.com). 
• Every bank already has loan origination systems. Using new Power Automate Flow UI scripts, it may be possible to automatically re-key information from the loan application form into the loan origination system.

For small banks, there may be some manual processes. But, at a minimum, we hope this form helps you to serve your small business clients during this important time.

What if Our Bank Doesn’t Have Microsoft Office 365?

C5 Insight can support you in acquiring nominal Microsoft Office 365 licenses for the purpose of deploying this application process. Alternatively, you can consider other online forms or survey solutions, or online portals that most modern CRM solutions can rapidly deploy.

Getting Help

If you need support getting this integrated into your processes, C5 Insight is here to help. Contact us and let’s setup a time to talk about your goals and processes.

If you do decide to use this resource, please let us know! We’ve put time into this as a public service and would like to know if it serves others.

Disclaimer

This Microsoft Forms Pro template is provided by C5 Insight at no cost as a service to banks and the small businesses that they serve in order to aid with our response to the COVID-19 crisis. This should be treated as a template and should be thoroughly reviewed by each banks security teams, IT departments, legal groups, loan originations and other teams to ensure full alignment with all security needs, bank standards and legal/compliance standards. C5 Insight, Inc is not responsible for how this form is used and is not liable for any potential misuse of the form.