Lender criteria and programs

The match matrix is only as good as the criteria behind it. A lender with no rules matches every deal, which teaches reps to ignore the matrix. A lender with rules that are too strict hides real options. The goal is the lender's box as they actually apply it, kept current when their guidelines change.

1. 1Open Lenders and click New lender (or Import CSV to bring in a list).
2. 2Fill in the Lender section: Name, Status, Paper grade and Products (tick Advances, Loans or both).
3. 3Under Submission configuration, set the Submission method, To email and any CC contacts.
4. 4Under ISO agreement & commission, set Default commission, Renewal threshold, Clawback window (days), Payout speed (days) and Business days per month. The offer calculator and commission estimates use these.
5. 5Click Add lender. You land on the lender's Programs & criteria tab.

Quick criteria covers the limits most lenders publish. Each field you fill becomes one lender-wide rule; clearing a field deletes the rule.

Click Save criteria. If you later tune one of these rules in the full rule builder, saving quick criteria keeps your severity, weight and lookback.

Many lenders run more than one box: an A-paper program with bigger amounts and lower factors, a C-paper program for weaker files, a renewal program. Each active program is matched separately, so one lender can be eligible on one program and ineligible on another.

1. 1On Programs & criteria, switch to All rules & programs.
2. 2Under Advance criteria (or Loan criteria), click Add program.
3. 3Pick the program's Product (MCA, SBA 7(a), line of credit, term loan, equipment finance and so on). A deal is only matched against programs of its own product, so an SBA program never shows up on an advance.
4. 4Set Name, Paper grade, Min amount, Max amount, Max × monthly revenue, Factor from and Factor to, Term from and Term to (days), and Commission from and Commission to.
5. 5Use Effective from and Effective to for a promotion with an end date, and the Active switch to pause a program.

A program's amount range becomes a hard rule and its revenue multiple a soft rule automatically. Lender-wide rules apply to every program. A lender with no programs is matched once, on its lender-wide rules, when its Main product is the deal's product or left as mixed.

Criteria decide whether a lender will fund the file; requirements decide whether the file is complete for that lender. On the lender's Requirements & connector tab, each product or program lists the application fields and documents the lender needs, in the order its portal asks for them. Click Start from the product baseline and trim or add, then save: every save is a new version, History lists them and Reset goes back to the baseline. A lender with requirements that the deal does not meet yet shows as Needs data in matching, with exactly what is missing.

Use Add rule for anything quick criteria does not cover. In the Add criterion dialog you pick Applies to (lender-wide or one program), the Criterion, Must be and Value, then:

• `Severity`: Hard rules decide eligibility (a fail makes the lender Ineligible). Soft rules only lower the score and flag a warning. Info is shown but never decides anything.
• `Weight`: how much a soft rule counts toward the score.
• `Lookback`: for monthly figures, Last 3 months or All months on file.
• `Combine`: put rules in an OR group when the lender accepts alternatives, for example revenue of $30,000 or an average daily balance of $5,000. The group passes when any one passes.
• `Only apply when…`: a conditional rule, for example a 650 FICO only when the amount is over $100,000. When the condition is not met, the rule is skipped.
• `Message`: what reps see in the matrix tooltip. Write it in the lender's words.

• Make a rule hard only if the lender truly never bends on it. Preferences belong in soft rules.
• Compare the lender's Performance tab (decline reasons) with its criteria every month. Repeated declines for the same reason mean a rule is missing.
• Editing any rule makes existing matches stale, and each deal re-runs the next time its matches are opened.