How to Submit a Credit Application in SalesChain

Updated 1/25/2023. Originally Published 5/26/2022.

You’ve done all the hard work. You’ve educated your prospective customer on the benefits of new technology, provided examples of your service levels, and flawlessly explained how financing helps protect their cash flow. They like the idea of financing their technology and are excited to move forward. At this point, it’s crucial your financing partner can move quickly through the credit and funding process so your customer receives their new solutions without delay, ensuring your relationship with them starts out on a positive note. 

WATCH: Submitting a Credit App With Sales Chain and GreatAmerica

Getting through the credit process is the last major step before sealing the deal, so it’s important that it goes smoothly. You can increase your odds for success by choosing a financing source that can fully integrate with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform so the necessary information can be processed quickly and efficiently—and equally as important—accurately.

Solution providers using the SalesChain and GreatAmerica integration for submitting credit applications realize a significant time turn advantage over emailing or calling in applications. Today we’ll show you just how easy the credit application process can be with the GreatAmerica and SalesChain integration. 

Step 1: Your Customer Is Ready to Finance the Solution 

The SalesChain order breakdown feature has a built-in function that allows sales reps to alert GreatAmerica quickly and easily when the need to finance arises. Many factors contribute to whether a customer receives credit approval. By accurately entering a proposal or order into SalesChain, the credit department at GreatAmerica will receive the necessary information like company name, address, phone number, equipment value, and terms they are looking to finance. This information helps develop an understanding about a borrower's credit history and their ability to consistently make their payments. 

RELATED: What Can You Expect in the Credit Application & Funding Process? 

Step 2: Ensure Accuracy of Equipment Configuration 

Before a sales rep submits a credit request, there are a few things the sales rep can do to ensure the process moves quickly and smoothly. First, make sure equipment configurations are accurate. The credit application is a request for financing based on the sell price and retail value of capital equipment. If you do not have equipment properly configured in SalesChain, this may impact the dollar amount for which your customer is approved or declined. Inaccurate information can cause delays or even prevent approvals. 

RELATED: 5 Challenges That May Prevent Your Customer From Reaching A Credit Approval 

Be sure you have also double checked the information in the Financing Summary. This includes: 

• Credit Level 
• Leasing Company
• Product
• Term 

The credit level and factor will be automatically calculated for you by the system; however you do have override capabilities on the factor if necessary. 

Step 3: Enter Lease Upgrade or Buyout Information 

In SalesChain, there are two places to enter buyout and/or upgrade information for a given transaction. It is important that the numbers are placed in the correct location so the credit application can be properly filled out and submitted. 

If a customer is upgrading a lease where your company was the selling dealer, you need to enter the dollar amount into the upgrade box marked with your company name. If you are upgrading a customer from a competitive lease or one where your company is not the selling dealer, use the Competitor Lease upgrade adjustment. If your company charges a lease return fee, there is a field where you can enter this value as well. By separating these fields, our credit department is better able to control how credit applications are completed and submitted.  

Step 4: Use the Finance Tab to Include Lease Upgrade Details 

If pricing a new transaction for an existing customer, you can associate it with an existing lease as an upgrade. Simply enter a dollar amount in the Lease Buyout adjustment field and this number will populate on the Finance tab as well.  

You can select one or many existing leases to upgrade using the Lookup button and Lease Lookup dialogue. The Upgrade Types dropdown allows you to designate this as an upgrade to return, upgrade to keep, etc.  

Adding as much upgrade detail as possible will help our credit department best process your request for credit approval. 

Step 5: Submit the Credit Application 

After a sales rep has taken all the above considerations into account and saved an order or proposal, it is time to submit the credit request. 

In the Finance tab, click the ‘Submit Application(s)’ button. Note: If you are prompted to save, please do so and then click ‘Submit Application(s)’ again.  

When a credit request has been submitted, the line item in the dialogue box will be assigned a credit app ID, the date and time will be recorded, and a message will appear at the top confirming that the request has been submitted.  

What Are the Benefits of this Integration? 

Faster Turnaround: The magic of this integration is it enables SalesChain users to submit application information directly into our system, without leaving theirs. Essentially, it eliminates the need for a “middleman” system to enter this information manually, which can be a time-consuming process. At the end of the day, this leads to a faster turnaround. 

Transparency into Where You’re At in the Credit Review Process: There are a variety of application statuses as GreatAmerica begins to process an application submitted through SalesChain. You'll be able to tell exactly where the application is within the process. Examples of statuses you may see in SalesChain can include:  

• Submitted – A ‘Submitted’ status means your application has been entered into our system.  
• Needs more information – This status means, while your application has been submitted, we will require more information from your customer to better understand their credit history before we can proceed.  
• Approved - This means the application has been approved for your customer and we can begin the booking process. 
• Booked - We now have a booked agreement and funding is on its way!  

This integration also feeds back the status of each application submitted right into SalesChain so you get real-time transparency as your application is reviewed and processed.  

Leasing Admins enjoy a dedicated screen to help organize credit applications and track statuses across different leasing companies. There are also automated communication tools and workflow notifications built in to notify the sales team of important actions like conditional approvals or declines. 

The Same Personalized Experience You Know and Love: While this integration does automate key steps in the process, this doesn't mean we take an autopilot approach. The GreatAmerica approach to processing or notifying you of the status of the deal doesn't change, rather, this integration simply provides another level of visibility. 

If you have any additional questions about submitting credit applications through the SalesChain platform, feel free to reach out to them at (203) 262-1611 or email support@saleschain.com.  

You can also email the GreatAmerica Integrations team at integrations@greatamerica.com.