The business loan application process
Your business borrower applies online from a link on your website or within online banking, and gets a credit decision in minutes. Knowing each screen in that process helps your team answer questions and spot where a borrower might be stuck.
What your borrower sees, step by step
- Your borrower opens your business loan site and clicks Get Started Now.
- Your borrower registers by creating a login. They'll need to provide:
- An email address
- A password
- Their date of birth
- An answer to How did you hear about us?
- An email is sent to your borrower to confirm their registration and to check that they can open PDF attachments. The email asks them to open the attached PDF and follow its instructions.
- The PDF has a link that opens the email verification screen. Your borrower re-enters their email address, and the page verifies it. The application stays blocked until this is done.
- Your borrower searches for their business account so the application can fill in automatically. They enter:
- The business type
- The guarantor's name and date of birth
- The business checking account number
- The system matches your borrower to the data files you upload every business day and displays the business name, business address and home address.
- Your borrower may update the home address if it changed. A changed address is flagged for your team to review in the Action Center.
- Your borrower must agree to the e-sign disclosure and authorize a hard credit pull on the guarantor, then click Accept to continue.
- Your credit rules return a decision in seconds. If your borrower is denied, a general list of denial reasons is shown.
- If approved, your borrower sees the loan options they qualify for, and chooses a repayment term. They can choose to apply for less than the maximum approved dollar amount shown.
- If your institution turned it on, your borrower enters gross annual business revenue.
- Your borrower selects the option to accept automatic payments from their primary business checking account, then opens and accepts the automatic transfer authorization.
- A summary screen shows the final loan amount, interest rate, funding timeline, monthly payment, loan term and late fee (if any).
- The borrower will click on the first disclosure to agree to it. Each disclosure document opens in turn, such as the e-sign disclosure and loan agreement. Your borrower must accept each one that appears. They then agree to the loan terms and click Submit.
- Your borrower sees a success message with the email address where loan communications will be sent, and a message that they can cancel the loan before funding.
- Your borrower receives an email confirming their approval, with a link to log in and view their loan documents.
Note: A borrower on a mobile device that cannot open PDFs can attempt to verify and sign disclosures from a tablet or computer that has access to their email.
Note: On mobile devices, the Accept button on each disclosure may be hard to see. Advise the borrower to scroll to the bottom of the screen to see the Accept button.
About e-sign consent
Your borrower must consent to e-sign before they can receive and sign loan documents online. After consent, each click your borrower makes counts as a signature and is stamped with the IP address, date, time and user. The completed e-sign disclosure is delivered again with the final documents. You can open every disclosure your borrower accepted in the Activity Archive or in the Action Center (if loan application has not yet been completed).
Note: If your borrower does not consent, or their device cannot open PDFs, the application cannot continue.
About autopay
On business loans, automatic payment of the monthly loan payment from the primary business checking account is required. Your borrower must select the option to accept autopay to continue. The automatic transfer authorization is a short PDF your institution provides during implementation. After booking, you connect autopay in the Action Center. The signed authorization is in the loan record.
Limits and eligibility
Your borrower can lower the offered amount but cannot raise it. The applicant must be a signer on a business checking account at your institution unless your financial institution has established otherwise during implementation. The data reflects your prior business day's close, so a signer added today may not be found yet.
Your loan maximum and minimum are set by your institution during implementation.
To see what happens next, see The business loan status page and canceling a loan. If the business is not a sole proprietorship, see Beneficial Ownership for business borrowers. To book the loan and set up autopay, see Book a loan in the Action Center.