SBA Streamlines WIP Submission Process
The U.S. Small Business Administration announced changes to work-in-progress submissions for small businesses to simplify and streamline the surety bonding support process.
The changes apply to bonding through the Surety Bond Guarantee Prior Approval Program, which is required for businesses to bid on most major construction projects.
The new work-in-progress submission will now provide an optional process that will allow bond agents, surety partners, and small businesses to use a spreadsheet application to prepare the necessary information.
Agency officials said the spreadsheet uses a machine-readable format so users will not have to manually enter the data.
The change is intended to help small businesses compete in the evolving global economy.
Implementation
SBA will provide interested small businesses and their agents with a free, Microsoft-Excel based template and application to prepare the work-in-progress.
The automated process for the spreadsheet application relies on an open, nonproprietary data standard referred to as XBRL, or eXtensible Business Reporting Language.
Once the user submits the template, it goes directly into the SBA’s Capital Access Financial System.
Officials said users can update a small businesses’ work-in-progress in seconds, regardless of the number of projects the work-in-progress contains.
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