Here are the key ways the new rules give business owners greater flexibility:

More time to spend the money: Instead of eight weeks, borrowers now will have 24 weeks from the day they get their PPP funds to use them.

The new rules certainly can benefit small business owners who have not yet closed on a PPP loan.

But the new rules likely will not benefit small business owners who received their PPP loans early and have spent most — if not all –of their funding in accordance with the old rules.

For all small business owners with PPP loans, the issue of forgiveness has been the most vexing.

While the new rules ensure more peopleare likely to see their loans forgiven in full, lenders and small business advocates say even the streamlined loan applications still require too much work for already burdened small business owners to show they’ve met all the criteria.