Vendor finance credit decisioning that answers the dealer while the customer is still at the counter
Small-ticket decisions in minutes, not days, each with its reasons.
See one case, screen by screen ↓It is how a funder decides the applications its equipment dealers send from the point of sale — usually small-ticket, often application-only. Vendor Finance Credit Decisioning has six agents check each application as it arrives and approve it inside the policy box, counter it from a signed ladder, or refer it to a credit analyst with a recommended decision, its reasons and its conditions.
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A small-ticket deal is meant to be application-only: the credit application, the bureaus and the program’s credit policy, and an answer. In practice anything slightly off the box — a second contract with the same customer, a business a few months too young, a new email address, a cash advance on the bank statement — drops into an underwriter’s queue and waits a day or more. The dealer has sent the same application to two other funders, and the first one to answer books it.
The policy is rarely the hard part. The time goes on proving who you are lending to — the state registry, OFAC, the contact details against the file — and on reading bank statements in every layout for the merchant cash advance nobody listed. Business impersonation uses real company records with a new email and phone, so faster has to mean better verified, and Regulation B still applies to business credit when the answer is not the one asked for.
Estimated working time on one application outside the policy box, by hand and with the solution. Queue time before anyone picks it up is not counted.
Six specialist agents decide each application on the line — approve, counter from the signed ladder, or refer; the credit analyst decides referrals.
At 10:42:08 a dealer in Phoenix sends a $138,400 application for a compact track loader. Here is what happens next, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Every application from four vendor programs arrives on one stream, newest on top: 214 today, 158 approved in the box, 13 countered from the ladder, 42 referred. Saguaro Hardscape & Grading’s application — an Ardent CTL-75 track loader and three more items, $138,400 — lands and starts deciding at once, with each check lighting up in turn.
“6 agents · application, quote, 3 statements, registry, 3 credit reports, Tidewell’s file”
Ocotillo Yard Works asks for $52,600 over 60 months, nothing down, for an ME-35 mini excavator. Guarantor 712, registry active, owner matching, all program equipment — but the business is 1 year 9 months old and 60 months needs 2 years. Rung 2 of the signed counter ladder covers exactly that, so the line offers 24 months with 10% down: $5,260 down, $47,340 at 8.25%, $2,146.46 a month. Tess Navarro at Rio Salado Machinery accepts 39 seconds later.
“Accepted — the customer is signing now. Send the documents.” An accepted counter-offer needs no adverse-action notice.
Open the line and the run is there, agent by agent, with timings. Exposure is $184,600 with the 2024 skid steer contract, over the $150,000 application-only limit. The email domain is 11 days old. A cash advance is debiting the account and is not on the application. The line stops for a person — with a recommendation.
“Recommended: approve $138,400 at 9.49% with 4 conditions, once the owner confirms by callback.”
Priya opens the application. Requested $138,400 over 60 months at 8.99%; total exposure $184,600; recommended Approve at 9.49%; fixed payments 9.4% of deposits against a Tier B maximum of 12%. Three findings need a person, each with its evidence linked — Contract SH-2024-1187, the domain record, the August statement, the UCC search.
Seventeen rules from credit policy v14, each with Saguaro’s value, the threshold and the result: registry active, 3 yrs 2 mo in business, guarantor 718 against a Tier B minimum of 700, business bureau 64 with none past 30 days, 0 NSF in 90 days, Ardent 85.7% of cost. 14 of 17 pass; exposure sets Tier B; two need a person.
“14 of 17 rules pass · exposure sets Tier B · 2 need a person”
Legal name, formation, address, owner and tax ID match the Arizona registry, Tidewell’s 2024 file, or both. The email and mobile do not: saguaro-hardscape.co was registered on 2 Oct 2026, where the file has saguarohardscape.com, and (602) 555-0139 is not the (480) 555-0174 on the contract. That is the impersonation pattern, so the verifier asks for a callback.
The verifier never clears a fraud flag itself and never calls the number on the application.
Priya calls Rafael Ortega on the number from the 2024 contract and asks the screen’s questions: did you apply today, which machine and how much, the last four of the tax ID. He confirms — the CTL-75 with the auger and a trailer, and a new website in September. She records “Confirmed by the owner”, which clears the contact-details finding.
Three months read: average monthly deposits $81,400, average daily balance $38,900, no NSF. Quickline Funding deposited $35,000 on 15 Aug and has taken $97 every business day since 17 Aug — about $2,037 a month — and filed a UCC-1 on all assets on 18 Aug. With it and this deal, fixed payments are $7,637.98 a month, 9.4% of deposits.
The statement analyst never counts transfers between the borrower’s own accounts as revenue; every figure cites its statement line.
The structure calculator holds the deal: down payment, term (36 · 48 · 60 · 72 months), payments in advance. Every policy test reruns live — total exposure, fixed payments to deposits, balance covering 3 payments, term within the equipment’s life, soft costs, purchase-money filing. At $0 down and 60 months the payment is $2,905.98, and the deal stays inside Priya’s authority.
“Every structure is tested against the policy as you change it. A counter-offer goes to the dealer only when you sign.”
Approve with conditions: $138,400 at 9.49%, 60 months, $2,905.98 a month. The conditions are listed — callback met; delivery and acceptance at the business address; a purchase-money UCC-1 on the loader within 20 days of delivery; bureau and UCC re-checked at funding. She signs “Approved — conditions as listed”, and the decision goes to Cody by dealer portal and text, 11 minutes after he pressed send.
“Why 9.49% and not 8.99%: with the skid steer contract, Saguaro’s total with us is $184,600, above our application-only limit.”
The same morning, seen by the five people who carry it — what their day looked like, and what it looks like now.
Six specialist agents decide each application on the line — approve, counter from the signed ladder, or refer; the credit analyst decides referrals.
Reads the dealer’s application, quote and invoice — the business, the guarantor, every item with its make and cost, the term and the rate asked — and splits cost into program equipment, other makes and soft costs.
Finds the business in the state registry, screens the entity and owners against the OFAC lists, compares email, phone and delivery address with Tidewell’s file, and checks the age of the email domain.
Reads the guarantor’s personal report, the business report and the equipment payment history, and adds the customer’s existing contracts to the request for total exposure.
Reads every page of every statement in any layout: deposits by month, average daily balance, NSF and overdrafts, recurring debits by name, cash advances and their UCC filings, and fixed payments against deposits.
Applies the program’s credit policy in force, sets the tier and the rate, approves when every Tier A rule passes, and offers a counter when exactly one rule misses and a rung of the signed ladder covers it.
Writes the reasons in plain words, the conditions and when each must be met, the dealer’s message and, when needed, the Regulation B notice with specific reasons.
Decides exceptions; credit manager above $250,000. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Analysts and program managers can ask about any application, finding, structure or dealer — and the answer takes them to the screen behind it.
Why did Ocotillo Yard Works get a counter-offer?
It asked for $52,600 over 60 months with nothing down. The business was formed 1 year 9 months ago; the Ardent policy wants 2 years for 60 months. Everything else passed. Rung 2 of the counter ladder Marcus Feld signed covers exactly this: 24 months with 10% down — $47,340 at 8.25%, $2,146.46 a month. Rio Salado Machinery accepted 39 seconds after the offer, so no adverse-action notice is needed.
Why isn’t Saguaro Hardscape approved automatically?
Three things took it outside the policy box: exposure of $184,600 with the 2024 skid steer, above the $150,000 application-only limit; a new email and mobile, with a domain 11 days old; and a Quickline Funding cash advance with a UCC-1 on all assets. Everything else passes — 14 of 17 rules. Payments stay at 9.4% of deposits, so the recommendation is to approve at 9.49% with 4 conditions.
What is the Quickline Funding debit on the statements?
A merchant cash advance. Quickline deposited $35,000 on 15 Aug and has debited $97 every business day since 17 Aug — about $2,037 a month. It is not on the application, and Quickline filed a UCC-1 on all of Saguaro’s assets on 18 Aug, so the decision carries a purchase-money filing on the loader within 20 days of delivery.
How is Mesa Grande Equipment doing as a dealer?
Well: 22 applications this month, 83% approved, and 71% of approvals became contracts. No first-payment default in 12 months. Compare Canyon Point Equipment Sales in Tucson — 3 first-payment defaults in 60 days, 2 to the same storage yard — whose auto-decisions are paused.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
The box the agents may approve inside, and what sends a file to a person, are settings the credit manager signs.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Application-only limit (Tier A) | $150,000 total exposure | Set with − and + |
| Application plus statements (Tier B) | $250,000 | $200,000 · $250,000 · $300,000 |
| Time in business, Tier A · Tier B | 2 years · 3 years | 1 & 2 years · 2 & 3 years · 3 & 5 years |
| Guarantor personal score, Tier A · Tier B | 680 · 700 | 660 & 680 · 680 & 700 · 700 & 720 |
| Fixed payments against deposits (Tier B maximum) | 12% | 10% · 12% · 15% |
| Tier B adjustment to the program rate | +50 bp | +25 bp · +50 bp · +75 bp |
| Blanket lien found | Purchase-money filing required | Purchase-money filing required · subordination letter required · decline |
| Dealer promise | 30 minutes | 15 · 30 · 60 minutes |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample program data · “typical” = published figures (Kaaj, equipment loan approvals take 3–5 days and about 40% of underwriting time is administrative — a vendor source citing industry figures) · “estimated” = our estimate. Regulation B (12 CFR §1002.9) and UCC §9-324 are named as context. People, companies, dealers and programs named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
It is how a funder decides the applications its equipment dealers send from the point of sale — usually small-ticket, often application-only. Vendor Finance Credit Decisioning has six agents check each application as it arrives and approve it inside the policy box, counter it from a signed ladder, or refer it to a credit analyst with a recommended decision, its reasons and its conditions.
In the working solution’s sample day, 80% of applications are decided on the line with a median of 1 min 48 s. Referrals go to an analyst with a 30-minute dealer promise on the clock; the Saguaro referral was signed 11 minutes after the dealer pressed send.
No. They approve only inside the box the credit manager sets and counter only from the four rungs of the ladder he signs. Declines, and any counter that is not on the ladder, are drafted for an analyst to sign.
The identity and business verifier compares the application with the state registry and with your own earlier contracts, field by field, and checks the age of the email domain. A changed email or phone, or a domain under 90 days old, needs a person to call the number of record — never the number on the application.
Yes. The bank statement analyst reads statements in any layout, names every recurring debit, flags any merchant cash advance not on the application and checks for its UCC filing. Any cash advance in the last 6 months sends the file to an analyst, and a blanket lien triggers a purchase-money filing condition.
Yes. The application-only limit, Tier B limit and requirements, the program rate and tier adjustment, cash-advance and verification rules, non-program equipment share, the dealer promise and the approvers are all settings, versioned and signed by the credit manager.
Yes. A credit analyst decides every application the box does not approve, up to $250,000 of exposure; the credit manager decides above that and every policy exception. Each signature records its meaning, and every agent step and decision is on the activity trail.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements — your credit policy, rate cards, notice templates and a sample of past dealer applications — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own applications first.
We’ll run Vendor Finance Credit Decisioning on a sample of your own dealer applications and your credit policy.