What Is an Eligibility Checklist?
An eligibility checklist refers to a predefined set of criteria that determines whether an applicant qualifies for funding review.
In MCA and small business lending, this often includes items like recent bank statements, valid identification, minimum balance requirements, and a completed application form.
This checklist is usually applied during intake and scrubbing. Operators use it to filter out incomplete or non-compliant submissions early, so underwriters spend time only on applicants who meet baseline requirements.
How Does an Eligibility Checklist Work?
Eligibility checklists function by validating submissions against required standards.
- Requirement definition: Funder rules are mapped into a checklist, such as “last 3 months of statements, government-issued ID, minimum daily balance.”
- Document parsing: Submitted files are ingested and categorized by type.
- Criteria validation: Each required item is cross-checked for presence, recency, and completeness.
- Outcome: Submissions that pass are marked as eligible, while failures trigger missing-info requests or rejections.
In Heron, eligibility checklists are automated inside scrubbing workflows.
- Automated intake: Submissions are received via email, portal, or API.
- Scrub validation: Heron confirms that documents match the funder’s eligibility checklist.
- Structured outputs: Pass/fail results and missing items are logged in CRM fields.
- Next action: Complete submissions move to underwriting, while incomplete ones trigger missing-info emails automatically.
This eliminates manual checklist work and makes eligibility screening consistent across every deal.
Why Is an Eligibility Checklist Important?
For brokers and funders, eligibility checklists are important because they standardize intake and reduce wasted effort. Without them, underwriters risk reviewing incomplete packets or advancing deals that never should have entered underwriting.
Heron makes eligibility checklists more valuable by automating both the validation and follow-up steps. This reduces turnaround time, prevents errors, and ensures every applicant is measured against the same requirements.
Common Use Cases
Eligibility checklists are applied in every submission pipeline.
- Validating that required bank statements, IDs, and forms are included.
- Screening out applicants who do not meet minimum balance or policy requirements.
- Triggering missing-info requests when items are absent.
- Writing eligibility status into CRM fields for underwriter visibility.
- Providing an audit trail of requirements met or missed.
FAQs About an Eligibility Checklist
How does Heron automate eligibility checklists?
Heron parses submissions, categorizes documents, and validates them against predefined funder rules. Results are logged in the CRM automatically.
Why are eligibility checklists valuable in MCA underwriting?
They save time by screening out incomplete or non-compliant submissions early. This keeps underwriters focused on deals that are truly ready to be funded.
What outputs should teams expect from eligibility checklists?
Teams receive structured CRM fields showing whether each requirement was met, along with flags for missing or non-compliant items. These outputs provide clarity and drive next steps like underwriting or missing-info requests.