Deal-flow

Partners & Offers

Partners are the lenders and funders you send applications to. Each partner has its own channel, package and criteria. You send a signed application to several partners at once, and their answers and offers come back to the application's Partners tab.

Partners are part of the Deal-flow add-on. Without it, the Partners page offers Add Deal-flow. See the plans

Who can do what

The Owner and Admins add, edit and deactivate partners.
Everyone who can open a business can send its applications to the active partners.

Step 1 — Add a partner

Go to Partners in the sidebar and click Add partner. Pick the Channel first: the email and API fields appear once you've chosen it. Fill in what applies and click Save partner.

Name and contacts

Partner name (required).
Application email: where the applications go. It appears for the Email and Email + API channels.
CC and BCC: up to 10 addresses each.

Channel

Pick one:

Channel	What the partner gets
Email	The package by email.
API	Data and files through their API.
Email + API	Both, every time.

API connection (API partners)

Fill this in from the partner's API documentation:

How their API takes an application: a Single JSON request, JSON, then one request per file, or a Single multipart request.
Production address and Test address (https only), and the Environment in use. A partner set to Test isn't offered when your team sends.
Sign-in method and Credentials (API key, token, username and password, or OAuth client). Credentials are stored encrypted and never shown again; after saving you only see the last four characters, with Replace.
Their status comes from: Nowhere — record their answers by hand, Their answer to the request, or Their webhook to ClearStaq. For a webhook, the address to give the partner appears after you save, and you enter Their signing secret.

Once the partner is saved, click Test connection to check it.

Fields sent (API partners): choose which details go in the request and under which of their keys: business, request, owners, analysis or fixed values. Click Add a field.

Documents

Choose which documents each partner receives, which are Required, and the Max files. Email partners always get the signed application PDF.

Files in the email: Attached when they fit, else by link, Attached, or By link. Emails carry up to about 7 MB of files; bigger packages go by link.
Link downloads work for (days): 14 by default, from 1 to 90.
The owners' SSN: Don't include the SSN, or Include the full SSN in the application form.

Eligibility (optional)

Set what the partner accepts: Minimum amount requested ($), Maximum amount requested ($), Minimum months in business, Minimum avg. daily balance ($), Maximum NSF items, Maximum negative days per month, Minimum deposits per month, States not accepted, Industries not accepted and Minimum credit score.

Minimum credit score needs a number question in your client portal form: pick it in Credit score from.

These only suggest. When you send, each partner shows Recommended, Not recommended, Partly checked or No criteria set, and "Not recommended" never stops a send. Check against an application tests the criteria on one of your applications.

Email

The Subject and Text of the email the partner receives. Insert field adds details like the business name, and Preview shows the result with example values.

Step 2 — Send an application

An application can go to partners once every owner has signed it.

Open the application and click Send to partners.
Tick the partners. Select all recommended picks every partner whose criteria match. Each row shows what that partner will get and whether it's Ready.
Optionally, add Notes for the partners.
Click Review and send, check the packages, then Send to N partners.

The application moves to Submitted to partners, and the Partners tab opens with one row per partner.

What each partner receives

By email: your email text, the files (attached when they fit), and a private link to the application. The email goes out under your company's name; with Deal-flow Plus and a verified sending domain, it comes from your own domain. Replies go to the team member who sent it and are also saved on the send.

The private link needs no account. The partner can:

Download each document, or Download all (ZIP). Downloads work for the number of days you set, and each one is logged with its time and IP address for you to see.
Click Respond to your company and Approve with offers, Decline, or Ask for documents. Answers stay open for 90 days after the send, unless the deal is funded or withdrawn.

By API: one request with the fields you mapped, and the files the way their API takes them. The partner answers through the webhook, or through the ClearStaq API with a response key (below).

Step 3 — Follow the answers and offers

The application's Partners tab shows every send with its status, its offers and the next step.

Send statuses: Sent, Delivered, Opened, Documents downloaded, Application received, Update requested, Offer(s) received, Declined, Funded, Withdrawn, Failed.

Actions on a send:

Record offer or Record answer: enter what a partner told you by phone or outside ClearStaq.
Request from client: asks your client for the documents the partner wants. The client isn't told which partner asked.
Send documents, Resend, Withdraw, Mark declined.
Mark funded: enter the Funded on date and Amount funded; this marks the application Funded.

Offers show the Funded amount, Factor rate, Payback, Buy rate, Term (months), Payments, Method, Payment amount, Holdback %, Product, Origination fee, Position, your commission, and Notes. Each offer shows where it came from: Response page, Their API, Read from email or Your team.

Click Select on the offer you go with. One offer per application can be selected, and the application moves to Offer selected.

Offers by email

Many partners answer by email. Their replies to a send are saved on that send.

To turn those emails into offers on their own, teach ClearStaq how each partner writes them: open the partner and, under Offer emails, click Add template.

Paste An example email from that partner.
In What each line is, say which line is which offer field (or Not part of the offer).
Describe how the partner declines and asks for documents, if they do it by email.
Test on recent emails shows what the template would read; nothing is recorded.
Tick Read new emails with it and click Save template.

Emails are read automatically only when they come, DKIM-verified, from that send's partner. Anything else shows Not read: check who sent it; click Read with templates once you've checked the sender.

Your offers address

Partners can also email offers to one address for your whole organization, and your team can forward partners' emails to it. Turn it on in Settings → Email Submission → Offers from partners, and give partners the Offers address. It uses no credits and sends nothing back. You can receive at your own address too: here's how

A forwarded email, or one we can't tie to one send, waits in Partners → Emails to match. Open it and click Match to choose the send, Dismiss to drop it, or Use as template to build an offer template from it.

Does a partner need a ClearStaq account? No. Email partners use the private link in the email; API partners use their own API.

Can I record an offer I got by phone? Yes. Use Record offer on that partner's send.