Applications are the foundation of merchant funding workflows, capturing essential business and financial details used to determine eligibility and deal structure.
When these applications arrive via shared inboxes, they often contain missing information, inconsistent formatting, or mismatched values. Manually reviewing and cleaning these documents is one of the slowest and most error-prone tasks for underwriting teams.
Heron automates the scrubbing of applications by checking, validating, and structuring every field to ensure that submissions are complete and decision-ready.
The system detects issues such as missing signatures, invalid ownership details, and blank fields, then standardizes all data for CRM write-back. This process reduces manual review time and improves underwriting accuracy across every deal.
By automating scrubbing, MCA brokers and funders can shift their focus from chasing missing data to approving deals faster with higher confidence.
Use Cases
- Check for missing fields: Heron identifies incomplete sections such as unsigned declarations, missing business addresses, or unfilled funding amounts.
- Validate ownership data: Detects inconsistencies in owner percentages or missing ID attachments.
- Confirm field accuracy: Cross-checks extracted values against expected formats, like numeric entries for requested amounts or valid dates for signatures.
- Detect duplicates: Flags multiple submissions of the same application to prevent redundant work.
- Standardize data: Cleans field labels and values to fit CRM schema for consistent recordkeeping.
- Trigger missing-info requests: Automatically emails brokers when incomplete data or attachments are detected.
These use cases turn manual quality assurance into a seamless, automated pre-underwriting process.
Operational Impact
Application scrubbing drives measurable efficiency and accuracy across teams.
- Speed: Reviews that once took minutes now happen instantly.
- Accuracy: Data checks catch small errors before underwriting begins.
- Consistency: Every broker submission is held to the same validation standards.
- Throughput: More applications can be processed daily without adding headcount.
- Visibility: Clear exception reporting highlights where follow-up is needed.
Teams using Heron for scrubbing typically cut pre-underwriting prep time by over 70% while improving decision reliability.
How Application Scrubbing Works in Heron
Heron’s scrubbing workflow combines validation logic, completeness checks, and enrichment in one automated flow.
- Receive and identify applications: Files arrive via email, portal, or API and are automatically detected as application forms.
- Run completeness checks: Heron examines every field for missing data or invalid values.
- Apply validation logic: Built-in rules confirm that required fields like ownership percentage, business address, and requested amount meet format and data requirements.
- Compare to policy rules: Heron screens fields against funder eligibility criteria for early rejection or prioritization.
- Flag exceptions: Low-confidence or noncompliant fields are flagged and routed to an exception queue.
- Write structured data back: Clean, verified data is synced to the CRM, ready for underwriting.
This automated cycle allows teams to maintain a high standard of data integrity without human bottlenecks.
Data Integrity and Quality Assurance
Automated scrubbing strengthens both data quality and operational confidence.
- Field validation: Detects numerical, text, and format errors in extracted data.
- Document checks: Verifies that applications include all required pages and attachments.
- Cross-field consistency: Compares related values (e.g., requested amount vs. total revenue) to catch logical mismatches.
- Traceability: Every flagged issue is logged for audit and training review.
- Continuous improvement: Feedback from exception handling refines Heron’s accuracy over time.
These safeguards make every processed application more reliable and underwriting-ready.
Collaboration and Workflow Efficiency
Application scrubbing benefits both ISOs and funders through cleaner submissions and faster turnaround.
- Broker transparency: ISOs receive automated notifications when documents need updates.
- Reduced back-and-forth: Brokers fix issues proactively instead of waiting for manual feedback.
- Underwriter readiness: By the time the deal reaches underwriting, it’s already validated and standardized.
- Queue prioritization: Complete, scrubbed applications move ahead in the funding pipeline automatically.
- Error tracking: Managers can view which brokers consistently submit incomplete or error-prone packets.
This transparent, feedback-driven workflow keeps both sides aligned while accelerating deal flow.
Risk and Compliance Advantages
Application scrubbing also supports compliance and risk mitigation across operations.
- Reduced human error: Eliminates manual data rekeying that can cause discrepancies.
- Audit-ready documentation: Every scrub event and validation result is logged automatically.
- Fraud signal detection: Early validation helps flag suspicious entries or mismatched identity data.
- Policy enforcement: Ensures every submission complies with funder-specific requirements before underwriting.
- Secure data handling: All validations run in Heron’s SOC 2 Type II environment, maintaining data confidentiality.
These benefits provide peace of mind for compliance teams and improve the reliability of every funding decision.
Benefits of Using Heron for Scrubbing Applications
- Speed: Submissions move from the inbox to underwriting-ready in minutes.
- Accuracy: Errors and missing information are caught automatically.
- Scalability: Handles growing ISO volumes without additional staff.
- Clarity: Structured data provides immediate underwriting visibility.
- Consistency: Every deal follows the same automated checks and rules.
Heron turns messy, inconsistent submissions into clean, actionable data, freeing teams to focus on decision-making instead of document cleanup.
FAQs About Scrub for Applications
How does Heron identify missing information in applications?
Heron runs field-level completeness checks to identify missing data such as signatures, ownership details, and funding amounts. It automatically flags those entries for review or triggers missing-info emails.
Can Heron apply funder-specific scrubbing rules?
Yes. Each funder can configure policy and eligibility rules so that Heron validates applications based on custom criteria, ensuring accuracy across programs.
What happens when an application fails a check?
Incomplete or invalid applications are routed to an exception queue for review, while complete ones continue to underwriting automatically.
How does scrubbing improve underwriting speed?
By providing clean, verified data upfront, underwriters spend less time on manual verification, cutting decision turnaround times dramatically.
Does Heron log all scrubbing activity for compliance?
Yes. Every validation, flag, and correction is timestamped and recorded, creating an audit trail that supports transparency and regulatory standards.
