What Is Agent Throughput?
Agent throughput refers to the volume of tasks or submissions an agent can complete in a given time. In MCA and small business lending, this typically means how many ISO submissions, bank statements, or decision emails a staff member processes within an hour or a day.
This metric is often used to benchmark operational performance. Operators rely on it to track improvements after introducing automation and to measure whether headcount is keeping pace with submission volume.
How Does Agent Throughput Work?
Agent throughput is measured by comparing completed tasks to time worked.
- Work capture: Each submission or document processed is counted as a completed unit.
- Time tracking: The number of hours an agent spends on intake, scrubbing, or underwriting prep is logged.
- Rate calculation: Completed units are divided by hours worked to produce an items-per-hour measure.
- Benchmarking: Results are compared over time to monitor improvements or identify bottlenecks.
In Heron, agent throughput rises as automation reduces repetitive tasks.
- Automated intake: Submissions enter the workflow without manual email sorting.
- Scrubbing automation: Key checks like completeness, NSFs, and risk flags are performed instantly.
- CRM write-back: Clean fields are synced without rekeying.
- Next action: Agents spend less time on prep and more time on underwriting decisions, increasing items per hour.
This makes throughput an effective indicator of ROI from automation.
Why Is Agent Throughput Important?
For brokers and funders, agent throughput is important because headcount typically scales with submission volume. Without automation, more volume means hiring more staff or outsourcing.
Improving throughput allows teams to handle more deals with the same resources, which lowers cost per submission and accelerates deal flow.
Heron directly impacts throughput by automating repetitive steps, so agents focus on value-added tasks like underwriting judgment instead of data entry.
Common Use Cases
Agent throughput is tracked in operational reporting and workforce planning.
- Measuring how many submissions an underwriter processes per hour.
- Tracking throughput changes before and after automation.
- Identifying teams or queues with lower-than-average throughput.
- Using throughput as a metric in SLA performance dashboards.
- Forecasting staffing needs based on expected volume growth.
FAQs About Agent Throughput
How does Heron improve agent throughput?
Heron automates repetitive intake and scrubbing steps, so agents spend more time underwriting and less time on manual packet prep.
Why is agent throughput valuable for MCA brokers and funders?
It shows how efficiently teams operate and whether they can scale deal flow without increasing headcount. Improved throughput translates into faster decisions and lower costs.
What outputs should teams expect from tracking agent throughput?
Teams gain a clear items-per-hour metric, which improves as automation takes on repetitive tasks. These results can be monitored in dashboards to prove operational gains.