Mortgage broker tools cover different jobs: analysing trail income, managing loan files, assessing borrowing capacity and collecting documents. Australian brokers also need compliance records and office apps that handle client information safely.
Choose a tool for the gap in your process. Track My Trail answers the trail-book question, a broker CRM manages active files and serviceability tools assess a borrower’s numbers. The groups below separate those jobs so you can compare the right outputs.
Trail Book Tracking and Analysis
Trail and commission analytics explain recurring income from settled loans. Pipeline and workflow reporting track files in progress, from enquiry to settlement. A busy pipeline does not explain why this month’s trail fell.
Track My Trail is our recommendation for tracking trail and valuing your trail book. Upload two monthly aggregator reports and Quick Analysis shows gains and losses, clients who arrived or left and large principal reductions. You also see discharged and refinanced clients, arrears and where income is concentrated.
Missing Trail Analysis separates a loan whose trail stopped and later returned from a client who discharged. That gives you the missing months and amounts to raise with the aggregator. Clawback Risk lists every loan inside its clawback period, with days remaining and the upfront at stake under the applicable rules.
On Elite Suite, Trail Book Valuation grades active loans A to E and produces a three-page report with an anonymised loan schedule. It gives you a basis for a book-sale or finance discussion. The valuation and clawback figures are estimates from your reports and the rules applied.
Reports include AFG, LMG (Loan Market Group), SFG, Finsure, Connective and YBR Aggregation (formerly Vow Financial). See the full supported aggregator list. Other aggregator or lender statements use the Generic CSV template or PDF to CSV.
The Track My Trail demo shows the reports. This chart illustrates gains and losses across a trail book.
For this group, check whether the output identifies the loans behind a change in income. A total or settlement count alone cannot tell you which missing payment to chase.
Workflow, CRM and Team Management
A broker CRM holds client records and moves each loan file through the brokerage’s process. Choose workflow reporting when you need to find stalled files or assign the next action.
BrokerEngine manages broker file stages and workflow automation. Salestrekker combines client records, broker workflow and lender connections. Brokers using SFG or YBR Aggregation can assess how Salestrekker fits their group’s setup.
Iress describes Xplan as financial-planning software for advisers, so it fits a brokerage with an advice arm. Read the Iress Xplan guide for that role.
Basecamp organises project work. HubSpot CRM holds customer records, Jira tracks work items and Asana manages team tasks. Test a general-purpose platform against your broker file stages before adoption.
Use a sample file to check who owns each stage, how overdue work appears and whether the team can find the current documents. The broker CRM comparison covers the fuller choice.
Serviceability, Policy and Lender Tools
Serviceability calculators assess the borrower’s numbers. Policy tools help you find a lender’s requirements, while lender portals handle that lender’s applications and resources.
Bulma helps with lender-policy research and scenario planning using cited policy documents. Read the cited requirement before presenting a lender to a client. The AI tools guide for brokers compares that category.
Quickli runs serviceability calculations across lenders. Use its results to compare borrowing capacity before selecting a product. Recalculate before submission because lender calculators change.
The free trail commission calculator models upfront and trail income from annual settlements and average loan size. Its yearly breakdown is a planning estimate, separate from your aggregator’s paid figures.
Firstmac Broker Tools gives accredited Firstmac brokers application tools and lender resources. The Firstmac broker portal guide covers access, calculators, tracking and documents.
For this group, check that the scenario inputs match the client file and that the lender’s accepted calculator and policy support the submission.
Client Retention and Lender-Side Platforms
Retention tools prompt reviews of settled loans. Lender-side platforms manage a lender’s origination or servicing process, which brokers encounter through that lender.
Stryd is a broker retention engine. With client consent, it uses Open Banking loan data to monitor balances and rates and generate refinance alerts. AFG makes Stryd available to its brokers through Suite360. The Stryd alternative guide compares retention alerts with trail analysis.
Hound Group says Hound and Sherlok have joined forces. Sherlok includes RateTraker for rate-review alerts and InstantAPPLY for fact-find and application preparation. Sherlok has paused new onboarding while it rolls InstantAPPLY out to existing customers. The Sherlok alternative guide explains its role beside Track My Trail.
Track My Trail also schedules reviews through Refinance Finder. With the client’s Open Banking consent, it adds their current rate, balance and offset beside trail figures. Choose the retention process by whether you need client outreach alerts, commission analysis or both.
Onyx IQ manages loans for alternative and merchant cash advance lenders. LendFoundry provides origination and servicing software for lenders. A broker uses these through a lender’s process.
Before adding retention tools, check the client consent process and who acts on each alert. For a lender platform, follow the lender’s required submission channel.
Documents, Identity and Bank Statements
Document collection tools gather the evidence for a loan file. Identity checks and bank statement retrieval have separate lender-acceptance and client-consent requirements.
FinanceVault is BrokerEngine’s document-upload portal. You send a request, the client uploads documents and identity evidence and you review the files or ask for clarification.
PropVA reads property documents to calculate portfolio returns, yields and equity. It helps when a refinance or investment-lending review needs actual property figures. Check extracted figures against the source documents before quoting them.
Ezidox, now described by DoxAI as Data Exchange, collects documents with reminders and progress tracking. Confirm that its exchange process works with your lender or aggregator. BrokerPad brings fact-find and document collection together. FileInvite sends document requests with reminders and templates.
CashDeck retrieves bank statements and categorises expenses for the living-expense review. BankStatements, formerly known as illion BankStatements, is now branded as Experian’s service. The BankStatements guide explains its place in a file. Use the lender’s accepted retrieval method and client consent wording.
IDYou, ZipID and MaxID are identity-check options. Before a client completes Verification of Identity (VOI), confirm the lender’s accepted method.
Check the whole handover with sample documents. Confirm who can see them, how missing items are chased and where the final evidence is saved. Expense categories still need a broker’s review against the client’s circumstances.
Compliance and Licensee Oversight
Regulatory compliance software helps an Australian credit licence (ACL) holder record oversight of its brokers. Compliance management systems support the programme, but software alone does not make a brokerage compliant.
ComplyEd by Humbletech is best for licensees who need broker self-assessments, continuing professional development (CPD) tracking and exportable compliance records. Its compliance platform has breach registers, a document library and PDF or Excel exports.
CompliFast is best for ACL holders who want structured assessments with compliance support. It combines quarterly questionnaires, feedback reports and corrective action plans, with file-audit services available.
BrokerFront’s compliance module is best for brokerages that want supervision queues and complaint records tied to loan-file activity. Its compliance pack collects the evidence and disclosures behind a recommendation into a printable set.
AFG Comply365 is best for ACL holders who want AFG’s compliance support service. It includes tailored compliance plans, training and help with breach reporting. AFG lists its file-audit system separately from the service subscription.
Compare these compliance tools against the records your licensee needs.
- Complaint, breach and CPD records must show the responsible person, status and follow-up.
- Policy version control must show which policy applied when a broker completed the work.
- An audit-ready export must contain the supporting evidence, approvals and action history.
- User roles must separate a broker’s own access from the licensee’s administration and supervision.
Ask the vendor to demonstrate those records using sample data. The mortgage broker compliance guide explains the duties the tools support.
Email, Calendar and Phone
Email apps, booking pages and phone services handle client communication. Keep the client file and compliance record in the brokerage’s approved system.
Spark has email templates for repeated broker messages. Outlook fits a Microsoft 365 setup. Email Signature Rescue helps a brokerage control staff signatures, while MailButler adds notes and follow-up tasks to email.
Cal.com, Acuity Scheduling and YouCanBook.me let clients book available appointments. Keep booking questions limited to the information needed to arrange the meeting. Avoid collecting financial documents through an ordinary booking form.
RingCentral and Nextiva provide business phone services. Compare Australian number support and call handling before moving the brokerage’s number. VoiceSage handles automated messaging. Approve the contact process and consent wording before sending bulk client messages.
Check calendar time zones, booking confirmations and who receives an enquiry. Obtain client consent for recording and keep communication records where the team can retrieve them.
File Storage, PDFs and E-Signatures
File storage holds the brokerage’s records. PDF editors prepare documents, while e-signature tools collect signatures through a process the lender accepts.
OneDrive fits Microsoft 365 teams and Google Drive fits Google Workspace teams. iCloud syncs files across Apple devices. Box provides business cloud storage. Set access by role and check how sharing, retention and staff departures are handled.
Adobe Acrobat and Foxit PDF Editor handle PDF editing. PDFelement edits and converts PDFs on Windows, while Preview on Mac covers basic markup. Use a redaction function when removing sensitive data, then check the saved PDF.
Acrobat Sign, Docusign and SignNow collect electronic signatures. Confirm the lender’s accepted signing method before sending the pack. Keep the completed document and signing evidence with the file.
WinSCP, FileZilla and Cyberduck support SFTP for secure bulk transfers when a lender, aggregator or processor requires them. Plain FTP is unencrypted. Confirm the recipient’s protocol and access details before transferring client files.
Video Calls and Client Meetings
Video meeting tools let you explain a loan and share documents with a client remotely. Use the brokerage’s approved service and controls for the conversation.
Loom records video messages. Webex, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet support live calls. Skype is no longer available.
- Use lobby and participant controls so only the intended client joins.
- Record or transcribe only with the client’s consent.
- Save meeting notes and files in an approved place.
- Run a test call with an external guest and have a phone fallback.
Share only the window the client needs to see. Close unrelated client files before screen sharing.
Computer Utilities and Focus
Computer utilities reduce repeated actions and organise your working day. Keep client information out of shared snippets, screenshots and browser lists.
1Password stores passwords and lets staff share approved vault items. PhraseExpress and TextExpander insert saved text. Use generic wording in shared snippets and add the client’s details inside the approved file.
AutoHotkey automates keyboard actions on Windows, while Keyboard Maestro does that on Mac. Test saved commands with non-sensitive sample text before using them in a client file.
RescueTime tracks device activity. Timeular, now branded EARLY, records time. Use the results to review time spent on files and meetings. Review what activity the tool captures before enabling it on staff devices.
Lightshot captures and annotates screenshots. Use it for non-sensitive instructions and keep identity documents and financial data out of its sharing service.
HabitLab is a Stanford research browser extension for reducing time on selected sites. Test its compatibility with your browser before relying on it. StayFocusd caps time on chosen websites. Brain.fm plays audio for concentration, which is a personal preference rather than a promised productivity result. OneTab turns open tabs into a list. Keep client-file evidence in your records system.
Choose a tool for a named workflow gap, test it with non-sensitive sample data and confirm the lender or aggregator accepts the resulting process.
