Rural Financial Counselling Service (RFCS) – Small Business Support Program

This program seeks to support eligible small businesses with targeted assistance to manage adjustment pressures and remain viable in the long term. It will also ensure that small, regional businesses remain resilient through the COVID-19 downturn and maintain the capacity to rebound when normal trading conditions resume.

To provide support to small rural and regional businesses to improve their financial capability, the program will:
- Employ 22 full-time equivalent (FTE) small business financial counsellors in rural communities over 18 months, with an additional 22 FTE financial counsellors and 10.2 (FTE) support staff in the final 12 months of the program, from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021.
- Establish a Professional Services Fund to provide clients with access to specialist third-party advice, such as financial planning, legal, specialist taxation and accounting advice.

A total funding pool of $12.785 million is available.

Eligible applicants include small businesses that:
- Employ 19 or fewer people.
- Be, in the opinion of the financial counsellor, experiencing, or at imminent risk of, financial hardship as a result of drought, COVID-19 and/or bushfires.
- Be located in a regional area(defined as ‘MMM2’ to ‘MMM7’ on the Department of Health’s Modified Monash Model rurality classification).
- Be ineligible to access services under the existing RFCS program.

Eligible costs include:
- Small business financial counsellor salaries, including total remuneration and other administrative and operating costs such as vehicle allowance, work-related travel expenses, professional training expenses (such as the diploma) and office costs to accommodate the small business financial counsellor.
- Promotion of the program and services.
- Provision of a Professional Services Fund, which must be managed separately to general funds.

Eligible professional services include advices, services and activities directly related to business recovery and the long-term viability of the small business, such as:
- Financial advice
- Specialist taxation, accounting, legal and business planning advice
- Strategic marketing and communication advice
- Workforce planning and work health and safety advice
- Specialist training and study directly related to the core functions of the business

Please refer to the Guidelines for the complete list of eligible costs and professional services.

The following are ineligible for funding:
- Advice, services and activities that form part of routine business management and operations, or advice, services and activities that sit outside of a commercial business operating environment (i.e. personal financial matters), including:
a) Servicing creditors or personal debts
b) Annual business tax or accounting services.
c) Purchase, hire or lease of physical goods and equipment.
d) Travel costs and incidentals incurred by the client in the process of obtaining professional services.
e) The cost of marketing activities, advertising placements and marketing and communication production costs (i.e. graphic design, printing etc.).
- To cover the cost of:
a) Hospitality.
b) Wages of other staff costs not directly associated with the grant activities.
c) ‘Business as usual’ communication activities.
d) Case management of regularRFCS clients.