Cut the time from loan inquiry to underwriting file from three days to one hour for a commercial loan broker
Client snapshot
A commercial loan brokerage with seven people arranging working-capital and equipment loans for small businesses. Leads come in through web forms and referral partners into HubSpot. Deals are assessed in a separate underwriting platform that scores applications and matches them to lenders.
The problem
The two systems didn't talk. A broker copied each new lead's details from HubSpot into the underwriting platform by hand, around 40 fields per deal, and usually got to it a day or two later. When underwriting moved a deal forward or asked for documents, nobody in HubSpot knew until someone checked. Brokers lost deals to competitors who came back faster, and borrowers called to ask for updates the brokers didn't have.
What we built
A sync between the CRM and the underwriting platform, with the rest of the deal flow hung off it.
When a lead comes in through a form or a partner, it lands in HubSpot as usual. n8n sends it straight to the underwriting platform through its API and creates the application with every field mapped, so nobody retypes anything. Claude reads any free-text notes on the inquiry, such as the loan purpose and the history the borrower described, and turns them into the platform's structured fields where it can.
Status flows back the other way through the platform's webhooks. When underwriting scores a deal, matches it to lenders or asks for documents, the HubSpot deal moves to the matching stage and the broker gets a task. A document request triggers a short email to the borrower with a secure upload link. When a lender issues terms, the term sheet goes out for signature, and the signed copy is filed on the deal.
Borrowers get a plain-language update by email each time their deal changes stage.
Results, 90 days in
- New inquiry to underwriting file: about three days → under an hour.
- Fields retyped by hand per deal: around 40 → none.
- Borrower calls asking for an update: down by about 60%.
- Brokers see the underwriting status in HubSpot without logging in to a second system.
Quote
"We used to be the slow broker. Now the file is with underwriting before I've called the borrower back." Managing director
Build snapshot
- Timeline: 14 business days
- Stack: HubSpot, n8n, Claude, underwriting platform API, DocuSign
- Investment: $4,500
- Who owned it: the operations manager owns the field mapping and the deal stages.
The pattern
This is the pattern we ship in the Lead-to-Cash Starter engagement: each step of the deal triggers the next, across the tools you already use. If a deal regularly waits between two of your systems, the build is the same, with your stages swapped in.
This is an illustrative composite drawn from operator engagements. Names, identifying details, and exact metrics are anonymised. The workflow, stack, and approach are real.
Looks like your situation?
A 30-minute call tells us whether the same pattern fits your operation, and what it would cost to ship it.