Loan Origination System (LOS)
The software that runs the front of the deal: application intake, underwriting, approval, and funding. See the best LOS for MCA lenders.
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Resource · Glossary
The SaaS lending glossary, by platform module
Every term you will run into running a modern funding operation, for MCA funders and commercial lenders alike, organized the way the platform is. Use the index on the left to jump to any term, or search.
114 terms
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Origination & intake
AI Submission Intake
Automated reading of broker and ISO submissions and bank statements to pull applicant and financial data straight into the deal, so files are not re-keyed. The modern approach at origination.
Application
The borrower's request for funding, with the business and financial information a funder needs to underwrite the deal.
Submission Inbox
The central place where ISO and broker deal submissions land for a funder to review, triage, and move into underwriting.
ISO and Broker Management
Managing brokers inside the platform, associating them with specific deals, and paying out commissions.
Stacking
A merchant taking multiple advances from different funders at the same time, which raises default risk and is a key signal to screen for at intake.
KYC and KYB
Know Your Customer and Know Your Business: identity and legitimacy checks on applicants and their beneficial owners.
Document Checklist
The set of documents required to complete and underwrite a deal, enforced so files do not move forward incomplete.
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Two-Way Email Intake
Working ISO and broker submissions from inside the platform instead of a separate inbox: the submission email lives in the system, a deal is created from it in one click, and the team replies to the ISO without leaving the deal.
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Deal Record
A single record created at intake that every stage works from. The scorecard runs against it, the analyst reviews it, funding executes on it, and servicing tracks it, so factor rate, RTR balance, and syndication are already set when the deal funds instead of re-entered in another system.
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Position Detection
Reading a merchant's bank statements to identify recurring advance payments, so existing positions and stacking are flagged at intake.
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Stips (Stipulations)
The documents a deal must provide to clear an approval, such as a driver's license, a voided check, or the signed merchant agreement. Default stips can attach automatically to every deal.
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ISO Portal
A branded login where ISOs submit deals, see approval options, select an offer, upload stips, and downsell, without calling the funder's team.
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Lockable Fields
Deal fields a funder can lock so an ISO cannot change them, such as bank fees or commissions, while still working the deal in the portal.
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Downsell
Offering a smaller or restructured deal when a merchant does not qualify for the amount requested, so the deal is kept instead of lost.
Underwriting & credit decisioning
Underwriting
Evaluating a borrower's creditworthiness and risk using credit, financials, bank data, and alternative data to set the terms of the deal.
Decision Engine (Scorecard)
A configurable, rules-driven engine that scores applications and auto-approves, declines, or refers them on rules the funder sets, logging each decision against the rule set behind it. See the no-code scorecard.
Bank Statement Analysis
Reading a merchant's bank statements for revenue, deposits, negative days, NSFs, and existing advances to underwrite the deal.
Alternative Data
Non-traditional data, such as bank-transaction and cash-flow data, used to assess creditworthiness beyond a standard credit score.
Credit Policy
The rules that define who a lender will fund and on what terms, applied consistently across every deal.
Adverse Action
A decline or unfavorable change on an application. Where ECOA applies, the funder must give the reasons; see staying compliant while scaling.
FICO Score
A widely used credit score. In small-business and MCA lending, the owner's personal score is often one underwriting factor.
Risk-Based Pricing
Setting a deal's rate or factor rate based on its assessed risk, so higher-risk deals carry higher cost.
DSCR (Debt Service Coverage Ratio)
A property's or business's net operating income divided by its debt payments. Above 1.0 means cash flow covers the loan; a core commercial underwriting metric.
LTV (Loan-to-Value)
The loan amount as a percentage of the collateral's appraised value. Lower LTV means more borrower equity and less lender risk.
LTC (Loan-to-Cost)
The loan amount as a percentage of the total project cost, used heavily in construction lending.
The 5 C's of Credit
The five factors lenders weigh in commercial credit: character, capacity, capital, collateral, and conditions.
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Underwriting Queue
A shared queue where incoming deals line up for review and an analyst claims a deal to work it, so multiple underwriters run at volume without doubling up on the same file.
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Offer Tiers
Multiple approval options sent on one deal, each with its own amount and terms and its own default stipulations, so the ISO or merchant can choose. Onyx IQ supports up to six tiers on a deal.
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Internal Funding History
A view of whether a merchant has been funded before and how they repaid, pulled from the funder's own book during underwriting.
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Cross-Collateralization
Securing more than one advance or entity against the same collateral or receivables. Onyx IQ supports linking up to 16 entities on a deal.
Funding & money movement
Funding
Releasing the approved money to the borrower, with the approval chain and documentation behind it.
ACH (Automated Clearing House)
The bank network used to pull scheduled repayments and send funds. Processor redundancy matters, because a failed pull is a missed collection.
Wire Transfer
An electronic bank-to-bank funds transfer, often used for larger or same-day funding.
Disbursement
The release of the funded amount to the borrower's account.
Factor Rate
The multiplier that sets total payback on an advance, for example 1.4. Advance amount times factor rate equals the total owed, and it does not change over the deal.
Holdback
The fixed percentage of a merchant's daily or weekly sales, or a set daily or weekly amount, collected to repay the advance.
Right to Receive (RTR)
The total dollar amount the funder is owed on an advance: the advance amount multiplied by the factor rate.
Specified Percentage
The agreed share of future receivables the funder is purchasing in an advance.
Split Funding
Collecting repayment by splitting the merchant's card or bank receipts at the source, before the money reaches their account.
Interest Reserve
A portion of loan proceeds set aside to cover interest payments during construction or before a project produces income.
Origination Fee
A fee charged for processing and funding a loan or advance, often a percentage of the amount.
Servicing & collections
Loan Servicing
The administrative work on a funded deal, from disbursement to payoff: billing, payment processing, statements, and borrower communication. See loan servicing software.
Collections Management
Recovering funds on missed payments, through soft (internal) collections or first-party and third-party agency collections, across SMS, email, phone, and chat.
Payment Schedule
The agreed timing and amounts of a deal's repayments, whether daily, weekly, or monthly.
Amortization
Paying a loan down to zero over its term through scheduled principal and interest payments.
Amortization Schedule
The table showing how each payment splits between principal and interest over the life of the loan.
NSF (Non-Sufficient Funds)
A failed debit when the merchant's account lacks funds. NSF frequency is a core risk signal in both underwriting and servicing.
Delinquency
A payment that is past its due date but not yet in default.
Default
A borrower's failure to meet the loan terms, such as missed payments past a defined point.
Loan Modification
A change to the terms of an existing deal, such as a revised payment amount or schedule.
Payoff
The full repayment that closes out a deal, along with the payoff letter stating the exact amount due.
Renewal
Refinancing an existing advance into a new one, often before the first is fully repaid.
Reverse Consolidation
A new advance that pays off and consolidates a merchant's existing advances into a single, longer repayment.
Construction Draw Management
Releasing loan funds in stages (draws) as construction milestones are completed and inspected, tracked against a budget.
Escrow
Funds a lender holds on the borrower's behalf, for example for taxes, insurance, or holdbacks.
Balloon Payment
A large final payment due at the end of a loan whose regular payments did not fully amortize it.
Maturity Date
The date a loan's full remaining balance comes due.
Syndication & investors
Syndication
Outside investors funding a portion of a deal and sharing its returns, letting a funder spread risk and fund more volume. See MCA syndication platforms.
Syndicator
An investor who funds part of a deal and receives a proportional share of its collections.
Waterfall
The rules and order for distributing collected funds among the funder and syndicators on a deal.
Allocation
Dividing a deal's funding and returns among the funder and its syndicators by set percentages.
Virtual Wallet
A syndicator's running ledger inside the platform, where their share accrues as remittances clear and can be redeployed into new deals.
Investor Portal
A login where syndicators or investors see their positions, distributions, and reports without calling the funder's team.
Loan Participation
Multiple lenders sharing in funding a single loan, each holding a portion, the commercial analog to syndication.
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Syndicator Portal
A login where each syndicator sees their own deal performance, wallet balance, and reports, so the ops team is not the middleman for balance and payout questions.
Portfolio management & reporting
Portfolio Management
Managing a book of fundings to track performance, surface trends, maximize returns, and limit risk.
Real-Time Reporting
Delivering data continuously as it is collected, so leadership sees the current state instead of a month-end snapshot.
Static Pool Report
A report that tracks the performance of a fixed group of deals, a vintage, over time. Capital partners ask for it before extending a facility.
Collection Curve
How collections on a pool of deals accumulate over the months after funding, used to judge performance and forecast recovery.
Vintage Analysis
Comparing performance of deals grouped by when they were originated, to see whether newer cohorts are doing better or worse.
GAAP Reporting
Financial outputs prepared to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, which capital partners and auditors expect.
Covenant
A condition in a loan agreement the borrower must meet, such as a minimum DSCR, monitored over the life of the loan.
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Business Intelligence Dashboard
A real-time view of the book on one screen: active RTR, syndication RTR, and total RTR, daily payments collected and failed, and top industries by funding.
Compliance & contracting
Disclosure Workflow
The process that generates and sends the state-specific disclosure a funder must provide before the merchant agreement. See the MCA regulation guide.
State Disclosure Law
A state law requiring funders to give borrowers a standardized financing disclosure. Eleven states now have one; see the state-by-state guide.
APR and Estimated APR
The annualized cost of financing. For deals with no fixed term, an estimated APR is calculated to the state's method.
Sales-Based Financing
The legal category many state laws use for MCAs: financing repaid as a percentage of sales or revenue.
Revenue-Based Financing
Financing repaid as a share of revenue. It overlaps with the MCA model and is named directly in laws like Louisiana's.
UCC-1 Filing
A public filing that perfects a funder's security interest in a borrower's collateral, establishing priority against other creditors.
Confession of Judgment (COJ)
A clause where the merchant agrees in advance to a judgment on default. Its enforceability varies by state and needs legal review.
Personal Guaranty
A promise by an individual, usually the business owner, to repay a business's debt if the business defaults.
Lien
A legal claim on an asset as security for a debt, giving the lender rights to it if the borrower defaults.
SBA Loan
A small-business loan partially guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, with specific eligibility and documentation rules.
E-Signature
Legally binding electronic signing of agreements and disclosures, captured and tied to the deal record.
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SignIQ
Onyx IQ's electronic signing for disclosures and agreements. Documents are sent, signed, and uploaded back to the deal record automatically, in sequence with the state disclosure that must come first.
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Contract Mapping
Mapping a funder's own merchant agreement and disclosures into the platform so documents generate pre-filled from the deal record instead of being drafted by hand.
Audit Trail
A complete, timestamped record of every action and change on a deal, which is what an examiner or capital partner reviews.
Compliance Management
Ensuring a company's activities follow the laws, regulations, standards, and ethical practices that apply to its business.
Integrations & data
API (Application Programming Interface)
Software with no user interface that lets two or more programs talk to each other, acting as the intermediary that connects them.
Data Integration
Pulling data from third-party providers directly into the platform, such as bank-verification data, to improve the workflow and decisioning.
Third-Party Integrations
External vendor tools connected through APIs to extend the platform. Onyx IQ connects to providers like DecisionLogic, DocuSign, and Thomson Reuters CLEAR; see integrations.
Webhook
An automated message one system sends to another the moment an event happens, so data updates in real time instead of on a schedule.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
A system for managing interactions with current and prospective customers, such as Salesforce. Onyx IQ integrates with Salesforce rather than replacing it.
Platform, security & delivery
SaaS (Software as a Service)
Software accessed online by subscription rather than installed on individual computers, usually cloud-based.
Cloud Infrastructure
The remote servers that host a SaaS platform, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud, providing uptime, scale, and redundancy.
Platform Customization
Modifying a platform to fit a specific business, which usually requires the vendor to write code.
Configuration
Changes a user makes themselves with point-and-click tools, with no code and no vendor involvement.
No-Code
Building or changing workflows and rules through a visual interface, without engineering, so ops teams can adjust the platform directly.
White-Label Platform
A platform rebranded to match a customer's company, so merchants, ISOs, and syndicators see a seamless, branded experience.
Templates
Pre-built documents the system populates and sends, such as disclosures, merchant agreements, funding summaries, and payoff letters.
Data Migration
Moving historical data from a prior system or from spreadsheets into a new platform during onboarding.
Change Management
A structured approach to moving people, processes, and policies from one platform to another with minimal disruption.
User and RBAC
A user is anyone who operates the software; Role-Based Access Control sets permissions by job role so each user sees only what their work requires.
User Interface (UI)
The point of interaction between a person and the software: the screens, pages, buttons, and other visual elements.
Portal
A branded, permissioned login for an outside party, a merchant, ISO, or syndicator, to view their own deals, balances, and reports.
Data Security
The measures that protect digital data from unauthorized access, misuse, and loss.
Data Encryption
Encoding data into ciphertext so only authorized parties can read it, protecting it in transit and at rest.
Firewall
A network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing traffic based on predefined rules.
TLS (Transport Layer Security)
The protocol that secures data between the platform and a user's web browser, keeping it private in transit.
MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication)
Requiring more than one proof of identity, such as a code plus a password, to log in or approve a transaction.
Penetration Test
A controlled, simulated cyberattack on a system to find vulnerabilities before a real attacker does.
Vulnerability Scan
An automated check of a system for known security weaknesses, like outdated software or misconfigurations.
SOC 2 Type II
An auditing standard that reports how well a company protects and manages customer data over time, performed by an independent party.
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