A clearer route from borrower documents to a credit decision

A clearer route from business records to a lending decision

When a business applies for finance, the information needed by the lender may arrive as PDFs, spreadsheets, tax returns and bank statements. Before an analyst can assess the request, someone may have to find the right figures, enter them into a consistent format and check that the documents agree.

We built a connected workflow to help lending teams move from those incoming records to a structured review and a written credit memo. It keeps the evidence, analysis, questions and recommendation in one place while leaving the final decision with the responsible analyst.

Organising the documents

The workflow starts when the business sends its records. Financial statements, tax returns, bank statements and other documents can be added together, including PDFs, spreadsheets and scanned files. The system reads the material and organises the figures so the analyst can review them consistently.

One part of this work is often called “financial spreading”. In plain language, it means taking figures from a company's accounts and placing them into a standard layout. That makes it easier to compare the business across different years or compare it with another business.

Bank statements provide a different view: what money actually moved through the company's accounts. Transactions can be grouped into categories such as customer income, wages, tax, loan payments and other operating costs. The workflow can then compare this activity with the figures in the accounts.

If the records do not match, the difference becomes a question for the analyst to investigate. It is not treated as proof that something is wrong with the business.

Turning the records into a review

Once the information is organised, the workflow can help the analyst review sales, cash flow, profit margins, debt payments and the overall financial position. It can also bring together initial checks on the request, the borrower's eligibility, the lender's policies and other background research.

The result is a structured view of possible strengths, risks and follow-up questions. Its purpose is to make the material easier to compare and discuss, not to hide uncertainty behind a single score.

The same information can be used to prepare a credit memo: a written explanation of what the business is asking for, its financial position, the main strengths and concerns, and the reasoning behind a recommendation. The format can follow the lender's own review process.

Keeping the evidence visible

We connected document reading, financial analysis, bank-statement review, risk checks and memo writing as parts of the same task. Figures remain linked to the documents they came from, comparisons remain visible and the written memo reflects the evidence already reviewed.

The workflow can highlight information that may need attention. It can show where a figure was found, surface differences between records and let a reviewer trace a result back to its source document. This helps the analyst focus on the exceptions without losing the wider context of the borrower and the request.

People remain responsible for the decision

The system can organise information, but it cannot prove that every document is complete, resolve every conflicting figure or decide whether a loan should be approved.

The analyst still checks the source material, investigates questions, applies the lender's policy and decides what the evidence means. The system supports that work; the final lending judgement remains with the responsible people.

What changed

• Financial documents can move through collection, extraction and review in one workflow.
• Figures from accounts can be placed into a consistent format for comparison.
• Bank transactions can be grouped and compared with the submitted accounts.
• Potential differences and their source documents remain available for review.
• Risk analysis and memo preparation use the same business and lending context.
• Analysts retain responsibility for checking the information and making the decision.

The result is a clearer path from a pile of business records to a reviewable lending assessment.