Deal-flow
Applications from Brokers (Deal-flow Plus)
This is the lender side of Deal-flow. Brokers email their applications to one address. Each email becomes an application in ClearStaq, with its fields filled in and its statements analyzed. When you've decided, you send the broker your answer, approval with offers, a decline or a request for documents, from the application itself.
It's included in Deal-flow Plus. See the plans
Who can do what
- Turning on the address: the Owner, Admins, and members with the Integrations permission.
- Answering a broker: anyone who can open the application.
Step 1 — Turn on your applications address
- Go to Settings → Email Submission.
- In Applications from brokers, click Turn on.
- An Applications address card appears, on
docs.clearstaq.com. Click Copy and give it to your brokers.
Receiving at your own address (optional): brokers can email an address of yours, like [email protected], instead of the ClearStaq one. Under Your own address (optional), enter it and click Add, then set up a forward from it, unchanged, to your ClearStaq applications address. ClearStaq emails your address a check; when the check arrives through the forward, the address shows Verified. How the check works
Step 2 — What brokers send
Brokers email the application with its documents attached.
The email's text: ClearStaq reads lines written as "Label: value", like Business name: Bright Star Bakery LLC or Amount requested: 50,000. It recognizes the usual labels for the business (legal name, DBA, EIN, industry, address, phone, start date), the deal (amount requested, monthly or annual revenue, use of funds) and the owners. SSNs and bank account or routing numbers are never kept. The rest of the text is saved as the broker's message.
The attachments: bank statements are analyzed with your credits, the same as any upload. Tax returns and application forms are analyzed too when your account analyzes them. Voided checks and driver's licenses, recognized by their file names, are kept on the application as files.
Rules for the email:
- It must be DKIM-signed by the domain it's sent from.
- Up to 30 emails a day per sender.
- A broker's new email for a business joins the application that broker already has open for it.
What the broker gets: a confirmation that their application was received, never your analysis. An email with no document attached gets a reply that the application wasn't received.
Step 3 — Review the application
Broker applications appear in Applications with the source Email and the broker's name. On the application's Overview:
- Broker's email shows each email the broker sent, with its attachments and message.
- Decision is where you answer the broker.
Everything else works like any other application: analysis, documents, notes and statuses. More on applications
Step 4 — Send your decision
In the Decision card, choose one:
| Choice | What you fill in |
|---|---|
| Approve | One or more offers, up to 5: Funded amount, Payback, Origination fee, Factor rate, Buy rate, Term (months), Frequency and Product. Click Add another offer for more. |
| Decline | A Reason: Insufficient revenue, Too many positions, Industry we don't fund, Time in business, Credit, Not a fit, or Other. Add a Detail (sent to the broker) if you like. |
| Ask for documents | Tick the documents you need, from your document list in Settings → Documents, or type another one and click Add. |
Then:
- Write a Message to the broker if you like, and click Preview the email to check it.
- Click Send to the broker. Save draft keeps it for later.
- Confirm. A sent answer can't be unsent.
The Sent list under the card shows each answer and whether it was delivered.
The broker's reply comes back to the same application, tagged Reply to your answer, with any documents they attached.
Step 5 — Customize the email to brokers (optional)
In Settings → Email Submission → Email to brokers, edit the Subject and Text of your decision emails. Click a variable, like {{business_name}} or {{decision}}, to insert it. Preview shows the result, Save keeps it, and Use the default brings back the standard text.
Decision emails go out under your company's name. If you send from your own domain (Settings → Client Portal → Emails, the Sender card), they come from that domain. More on Client Portal emails
When an email doesn't arrive
Settings → Email Submission → Recent inbound emails lists the last emails received, with their status and the reason. For example:
- Open elsewhere: the business already has an open application from another source or another broker.
- Daily limit: the sender or your account reached a daily limit.
- No attachments: there was nothing to analyze.
- Not sent to this address: the email wasn't addressed to your applications address or a verified address of yours.
FAQ
Do brokers need a ClearStaq account? No. They email your address and get your answer by email.
Do broker applications use credits? Yes. Their statements use your analysis plan's credits, the same as any upload.
Can brokers see my analysis? No. They get a confirmation and your decision, never the analysis.
What if a broker emails from a new address? The application shows who sent each email. A reply from a different address than the one you answered is labelled with both addresses.