Tracking a loan application milestone by milestone
How a bond originator tracks a loan application in the Financial services pack, from gathering documents to approval and payout or registration.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Financial services businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
A home loan application has more moving parts than the client ever sees. Payslips and bank statements have to be collected, several lenders approached, offers compared as they arrive on different days with different conditions, and then comes payout or registration, often weeks after the client believes the deal is done. An originator or mortgage adviser with many of these running at once needs to know, for each one, what is waiting and on whom.
Achekam's Financial services pack, built for financial advisers and bond originators, keeps a Loan application record and tracks it milestone by milestone.
The loan application stages
An application moves through four milestones:
| Milestone | What it means |
|---|---|
| Gathering documents | Collecting what lenders will need from the client |
| Submitted to lenders | The application has gone to one or more lenders |
| Approved | A lender has approved it |
| Paid out or registered | The loan has paid out, or the bond is registered |
Everyone in the office looking at the list of applications sees the same milestone for the same deal. The question "where are we with that one?" is answered by the record, not by whoever happens to remember.
Gathering documents
This is the milestone where most applications spend longest, and where the originator has least control. The client has to find documents, and lenders' lists rarely match what the client thinks they need.
Ask for everything at once, with a clear list, rather than piecemeal. A pack workflow step can send the client a request for documents, and the client's answer moves the task on. A typical list covers identity documents, recent payslips, bank statements for the period lenders ask for, proof of address, and anything the property or the lender requires. Part of that list comes from the lender's duty to know its client; Investopedia's guide to know-your-client checks explains what they involve, from identity and due diligence to ongoing monitoring, and how they fit with anti-money-laundering rules. Explain in a line why each item is needed; clients are quicker to find a document when they understand what it is for.
Watch the age of what you collect. Lenders usually want recent payslips and statements, so an application that sits at this milestone for weeks can find its first documents too old by the time it is ready to submit. Note on the application the date of each document you receive, and before submitting, check whether any needs replacing. Asking the client for one fresh statement is much easier than having a lender send the whole application back.
Submitting to lenders and following the offers
At Submitted to lenders, the work changes from collecting to chasing. Lenders come back with questions, requests for another document, valuations and, eventually, offers.
The pack reads nothing from lenders. Questions, offers and approvals reach you from each lender in the usual way, and you record what matters on the application. Keep each offer document on the client's file with the date it expires, because an offer that lapses while the client is deciding can mean starting again.
Use tasks to keep each lender separate. One task per lender, with subtasks for that lender's questions, keeps the picture clear. Tasks can have subtasks up to three levels deep, so a lender's request for an extra document can sit under that lender's task instead of floating loose on the application.
Conditions on moving forward
Some stages carry conditions, and the pack will not move a record into them until those conditions are met. The kinds of condition include fields being filled in, a customer being named, an amount being set, a workflow stage or a whole workflow being done, a particular kind of task being complete, and rows being entered on a sub-form.
Conditions like these are what stop an application being moved ahead on the board before the work behind it is done. The board then means something: an application at Approved really has the steps behind it.
Approved, paid out or registered
Approval is not the finish. Between approval and payout or registration there are conditions to meet, documents to sign, and other parties such as conveyancers or the lender's own processes to wait on.
Keep the application at Approved until it actually pays out or registers, instead of moving it on early so the board looks tidy. The last milestone should mean the deal is truly finished, so that any count of completed applications is a count of real ones.
| Milestone | Who to tell |
|---|---|
| Gathering documents complete | The client: the application is ready to go out |
| Submitted to lenders | The client: which lenders, and roughly when to expect news |
| Approved | The client, and anyone else the deal depends on |
| Paid out or registered | The client, with a note of anything still to do on their side |
Tasks that keep each milestone moving
A workflow creates its tasks stage by stage, so each milestone brings its own work into view as the application reaches it. Some habits that help:
- Give every task an owner and a due date.
- Split lender follow-ups into one task per lender, with subtasks for each request.
- During busy months, look at overdue tasks every morning.
- When a client walks away, note it on the application at once, so nobody keeps chasing lenders for a deal that is gone.
- Keep the client informed at each milestone; a short update when the application moves avoids many anxious calls.
Applications usually start with a client you already know from advice work; see running the annual household review. The pack's limits, including what it does not read from lenders or check about clients, are set out in what the adviser pack leaves to your own checks.
Enter your live applications at the milestone each has really reached, and let the board, rather than memory, decide what gets chased first each day.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
