Small businesses receive PPP funding, but are baffled by conditions.

Almost 90% of the members of the small business advocacy group National Federation of Independent Business received funding from the Paycheck Protection Program, according to a recent survey (.pdf).

About 300,000 small business owners from NFIB's cross-country data base were polled for the survey with 685 usable responses.

A little over half of the respondents who applied for the program adding up to 80% of small businesses polled expected expenses to be forgiven, with 27% hoping that more than 75% of their paycheck protection costs would be granted without interest, according to a news release from the federation's Columbia office. Still, one-in-five business owners find PPP's matching headcount requirement difficult to meet due to slower sales or closed doors during the pandemic, while 28% of those polled found it somewhat challenging to meet pre-crisis workforce levels.

Questions about the specifications of the program abound with about three-fourths of the respondents reporting that they had wrestled with understanding the terms and conditions of the loan; 22% found the terms to be very difficult to understand, according to the...