Revisions to new questions for 2020 ACES for Employer Businesses (Forms ACE-1(S) ACE-1(M) and ACE-1(L))

2020 Annual Capital Expenditures Survey

Forms ACE-1(S), ACE-1(M) and ACE-1(L)

Robotic Equipment - Original and Revised Questions

Robotic Equipment Expenditures by Industry

Businesses will be asked to provide their investment in robotic equipment for each industry in which they operate and reported equipment expenditures in 2020. Businesses are asked to provide an estimate if they are unable to provide an exact amount of their investment in robotic equipment and to report a zero value if an investment was not made in 2020.

Item 6B. (Unchanged from Original)

Complete Item 6B for each industry in which the company reported capital expenditures for equipment in 2020 in Item 6A above.

(Estimates are acceptable).

If “None”, enter ‘0’

.

Item 6C. Presence and Use of Robotic Equipment by Industry

Businesses will be asked to provide a list of the industries in which they operate and use robotic equipment but did not report an investment in robotic equipment in 2020 in Item 6B. Businesses would mark the “None” checkbox if the question is not applicable to their business.

Original

Does this business use robotic equipment in industries other than those listed above in Item 6B?

Note: these are industries in which the company operates but did not report capital expenditures for

robotic equipment for 2020 but robotic equipment is used.

 Yes – Complete the next section

 No – Skip to Reporting Period Covered

Does this company use robotic equipment in industries other than those listed above in Item 6b? Note: these are industries in which you did not report robotic expenditures for 2020 but industries in which robotic equipment is used.

 Yes

 No

Listed below are the industries in which we believe this business operates.

Select only the industry(ies) not listed in Item 6b above for 2020 in which the company uses robotic equipment.

Reason for Change:

Concern: Companies would not include industries in which they operate and use robotic equipment but did not make a capitalized investment in the equipment in 020.

Revision

Does this company use robotic equipment in industries that it did not report capital expenditures for robotic equipment in 2020 in Item 6B above?

Note: Include industries in which the company operates and uses robotic equipment but did not report a capitalized investment for robotic equipment for 2020 in Item 6b above.

 Yes – Complete the next section

 No – Skip to Reporting Period Covered

List below the industries in which this business operates and uses robotic equipment.

Note: Exclude the industries in which the company reported capital expenditures for robotic equipment in 2020 in Item 6B above.

Industry Category Code

Original and Revised Questions related to the Coronavirus Pandemic

Findings and recommendations from cognitive testing

Item 1a.

Original

In 2020, did this company receive financial assistance through a Federal, state, or local government assistance program related to the Coronavirus pandemic?

Select only one.

₁ Yes

₂ No, did not apply for financial assistance

₃ No, applied for but did not receive financial assistance

₄ Don’t know

Findings

Participants were unclear about our definition of financial assistance. Some participants struggled to answer the question because the company had applied for two grants that were in different states of receipt.

Rather than provide examples of various sources of federal, state, and local government financial assistance, the U.S. Census Bureau decided to follow the two questions from the Small Business Pulse Survey addressing both a business’s request of and receipt of financial assistance.

Revision

In 2020, did this company request and/or receive financial assistance related to the Coronavirus pandemic from any of the following sources?

Select all that apply for each column.

Requested Received

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ⃝ ⃝

Main Street Lending Program ⃝ ⃝

Corporate Credit Facilities (CCFs) ⃝ ⃝

Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF) ⃝ ⃝

Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) ⃝ ⃝

Small Business Administration (SBA) Loan Forgiveness ⃝ ⃝

Deferral of Federal Employment Tax Deposits and Payments ⃝ ⃝

Federal Sick and Family Leave Tax Credits ⃝ ⃝

Federal Employee Retention Tax Credit ⃝ ⃝

Other Federal programs ⃝ ⃝

State or local government programs ⃝ ⃝

All other sources (banks, owners, family and friends, etc.) ⃝ ⃝

 No, this company did not request or receive any financial assistance in 2020 related to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Item 1B.

Original – Asked only if the response to Item 1a = ‘Yes’

Approximately what share of the financial assistance was spent on the following:

Estimates are acceptable. If “None”, enter “0”.

Dollar Amount

Payroll: [_$_______________________]

Rent/mortgage: [_$_______________________]

Utilities: [_$_______________________]

Capital expenditures [_$_______________________]

Other – describe [_$_______________________]

Total: [_$_______________________]

Findings:

Participants experienced a comprehension issue resulting from the question design. There was a mismatch between the use of “share” in the question stem and the dollar sign used in the answers.

Decision was made to change “shares” to “amount” in the question wording and then retain “dollars” as the unit of measurement.

Revision – Question skipped if response to Revised Item 1a is ‘No, this company did not request or receive any financial assistance in 2020 related to the Coronavirus pandemic.’

Approximately what amount of the financial assistance related to the Coronavirus pandemic this company received in 2020 was spent on the following?

• Estimates are acceptable when needed.

• If “None”, enter ‘0’ as appropriate.

		Bil		Mil		Thou
A. Payroll B. Rent/mortgage Utilities Capital expenditures All other, describe: Total (add rows A E)

Item 2.

Original

What would have happened to this company’s payroll in the absence of the financial assistance related to the Coronavirus pandemic?

Select all that apply.

 Reduced hours

 Reduced pay

 Reduced staff

 Closed business (eliminated entire payroll)

 Other – describe

 No change

 Don’t know

 Not applicable

Findings:

Participants struggled with the hypothetical nature of the question and would answer based on what did happen, rather than what would have happened without financial assistance.

Recommendation was to replace the hypothetical question with a factual “What did happen” question based on the findings around respondent confusion and difficulty answering the question. For the answer options, recommendation made to include option for “reduced” and “increased” hours/pay//benefits” and to remove the “Closed business” answer option.

Revision - Skipped if response to Revised Item 1a is ‘No, this company did not request or receive any financial assistance in 2020 related to the Coronavirus pandemic company did not request or receive financial assistance.

What happened to this company’s payroll in 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic?

Select only one:

 Reduced hours/benefits/pay

 Increased hours/benefits/pay

 No change to hours/benefits/pay

 Other, describe:

Item 3.

Original

In 2020, did this company change its planned capital expenditures due to the Coronavirus pandemic?

 Yes

 No

Item 3.1 What changes did this company make to its planned capital expenditures due to

the Coronavirus pandemic?

 Cancelled planned expenditure(s)

 Decreased planned expenditure(s)

 Postponed planned expenditure(s)

 Increased planned expenditure(s)

 Introduced new unplanned expenditure(s)

 Other – describe ___________________________

Findings

Participants found it easier to directly assess the pandemic’s impacts on the normal operations of companies if the term “budgeted” was used rather than “planned” capital expenditures. Recommendation: Replace term “planned” and to include “no changes,” and “no budgeted capital expenditures for 2020” to the response options.

Revision

What changes did this company make to its budgeted capital expenditures for 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic?

Select all that apply.

 Canceled budgeted capital expenditures

 Postponed budgeted capital expenditures

 Decreased budgeted capital expenditures

 Increased budgeted capital expenditures

 introduced new unbudgeted capital expenditures

 No changes to budgeted capital expenditures for 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic

 No capital expenditures for 2020 – Skip to Certification

Item 4.

Original

In 2020, did this company’s capital expenditures fund any investment related to social distancing or safety in response to the Coronavirus pandemic?

Select only one.

 Yes – investment was in addition to planned capital expenditures

 Yes – investment replaced planned capital expenditures

 No

Findings

Participants were unsure what types of purchases are considered as a capital expenditure related to social distancing and safety. Recommendation: include examples that cover infrastructure, equipment, software, hardware, and purchases above a company’s capital expenditure threshold.

Revision

In 2020, did this company use capital expenditures to fund investment related to social distancing or safety in response to the Coronavirus pandemic?

Examples include:

• Building renovations to provide for customer/employee safety

• Changes to software to allow for customer pick up outdoors, to reduce indoor occupancy

• Purchases of equipment to facilitate remote work

Select only one:

 Yes, investment was in addition to budgeted capital expenditures

 Yes, investment replaced budgeted capital expenditures

 No