What Is Queue Time?
Queue time refers to the delay between when a packet arrives and when it is picked up for review. In MCA and small business lending, this often occurs when submissions pile up in shared inboxes or when underwriters face a backlog.
Queue time typically appears as an operational metric that teams monitor to understand efficiency. Operators use it to track bottlenecks, improve turnaround time, and allocate staff more effectively.
How Does Queue Time Work?
Queue time is measured by tracking timestamps from submission arrival to the first action.
- Submission received: A packet or decision email arrives in the inbox.
- Waiting period: The item sits in the queue, waiting for staff or a system to act.
- First touch: The submission is opened, parsed, or moved into a CRM record.
- Measurement: The difference between arrival and first touch is logged as queue time.
In Heron, queue time is reduced because items move from the inbox to “ready to underwrite” automatically.
- Automated intake: Submissions are captured directly from email, portal, or API.
- Scrubbing step: Heron checks for completeness, risk signals, and duplicates without staff intervention.
- CRM write-back: Structured data is written to the CRM in real time, cutting delays.
- Ready state: Deals become “ready to underwrite” within minutes, bypassing manual queues.
This turns what could be hours of idle time into near-instant readiness.
Why Is Queue Time Important?
For brokers and funders, queue time is a direct measure of efficiency. Long queue times mean slower turnaround, frustrated brokers, and lost deals to faster competitors.
Reducing queue time makes sure deals move quickly, underwriters spend less time waiting, and throughput scales with volume. Heron helps cut queue time by removing the inbox bottleneck and pushing submissions directly into underwriting workflows.
Common Use Cases
Queue time shows up in daily operations whenever submissions arrive in bulk.
- Moving ISO submissions out of shared inboxes and into the CRM without delay.
- Reducing waiting periods by auto-scrubbing packets as soon as they are received.
- Routing complete submissions directly to underwriting instead of leaving them in holding queues.
- Flagging incomplete packets quickly so brokers can respond while the deal is still fresh.
- Shortening decision cycles by updating statuses the moment funder emails arrive.
FAQs About Queue Time
How does Heron reduce queue time for brokers and funders?
Heron eliminates manual triage by moving submissions directly from inboxes into CRM records. This reduces idle time and makes packets available to underwriters almost immediately.
What inputs are used to measure queue time?
Queue time is calculated using timestamps from when a submission is received and when it is first acted on. In Heron, these timestamps are tracked automatically for each packet.
How does reducing queue time impact deal flow?
Shorter queue times mean deals move to underwriting faster, which improves turnaround time, increases funding speed, and reduces the risk of losing opportunities to competitors.