The LendMaster pre-approval Qualifier Calculator.

The LendMaster pre-qualifier calculator and applicant administration features have now been added to the program. This gives you incredible flexibility and power to define as many different calculators as you want, link them to products or have them as a stand alone.

Up to now the standard method of using a qualifier calculator was to define one using a spreadsheet. This has always been prone to errors as the end user can change it and unless you know a lot about programming you cannot stop that. The calculators tend to go wrong and give unreliable results.

The LendMaster calculator on the other hand lets you define a series of lines that either gets a user input or calculates a value or evaluates a result. Now the user can only enter what you allow him to and you can then evaluate the result. The evaluate can be absolute (the application fails) or they can be counted and only when a certain number of successful criteria is reached is the application successful.

Watch this space for the Agent/Qualifier module. With this module you will give a copy of the qualifier program and your current set of calculators and product information to a agent. He can then process any applications using your calculator. When you make changes to the calculator just send him a copy of the files while he still keeps track of all applications he has submitted on your behalf. You issue your own installation codes the agents and they can only use your calculators. In the pipeline is also the automated sending of qualifying applications that will be automatically imported into LendMaster.

More details on the qualifier calculator:

While we are finalising the documentation of the qualifier calculator here is a list of the properties for the calculator and the calculator lines to give you an idea of what it is capable of:

Calculator Properties:

• Description - The name of this calculator. Use a name that everybody who works with it will understand, perhaps referring to the product group.
• Test product - The test product is one you select from your products and are used to help you define the calculator. When the user processes an application it is done for a specific product. You can test the calculator against several products. This determines the built in variables.
• Product group - Each product group can be assigned a specific calculator. When the user picks a product for an application the calculator associated with the product group is used. You can assign the calculator to a group from the Update Calculator screen from a button.
• Validity - A calculator must be assigned a start and end date that will determine when it is usable.
• Pass criteria - This is the number of successful tests that are needed before an application can be successful. It follows that you must have at least as many criteria of the count type in your calculator - probably more.
• Fail criteria - This is number of failed tests that are allowed before an application will be considered as unsuccessful. 
• Default format - Each line in the calculator can have its own format. You needn't specify a format for each line. Enter a default format here and only enter a format for those lines which will be different. LendMaster defaults to @N12.2b - see the paragraph on format definitions.
• Built in variables - You can use some of the information associated with the product in your calculator. For example, you can use this to determine if the product's instalment is within certain salary limits. The built-in variables all start with the letter X. See later in the document for a list of built-in variables.
• Numbering - This is the number that is used as the first line number and also for the line increments when adding new lines at the end of the calculator.
• Signature - Each time you change and save a calculator a unique digital signature is calculated. This is used in the application side to determine if the calculator has changed so that you can re-synchronise with it.
  

Calculator Line Properties

• Line number - This is a very important number. You use this number in calculations, similar to cell references in a spreadsheet. See the paragraph below on line numbers.
• Type - The types of calculator has been explained above. LendMaster will automatically make each new line a value line. Each time it checks the calculator it will determine if the line is used somewhere or gets a result from somewhere. If not it will change it to a display type. This happens automatically so generally you do not have to change the type. However, you must tell LendMaster when your line is a criteria line by changing the type to criteria.
• Description - This is self explanatory. You do not have to put additional information or instructions to users/agents in the description - see the user info property.
• User can change description - Check this box if you want to allow the user/agent to change the description when a loan is processed. This is most commonly used to add extra lines to a calculation (e.g. salary deductions). The agent can change the line description when he processes a loan.
• Totals - This allows a line to be added to a total. Enter a name of the total here. The name can be as long as you want but short names are easier to work with (less typing errors). You can enter more than one total by separating them with a space (eg: TotExp Xtra1 PmtExcl). The number of characters of the total field is limited to 100. The totals are not case sensitive so be careful with the naming. You can see a list of the totals and their current values by pressing the totals button.
• Formula - This is the heart of the calculator and allows extreme flexibility. You enter a formula in a similar fashion to a spreadsheet, except that all references to line numbers must start with a #. You can use built in variable names and total names as if they were numbers. You also have access to some special functions that gives you even more power an flexibility. See the paragraphs below on formulas and special functions.
• Format - This is the overriding format for this line. If entered, the calculator will use this format otherwise the default format for the calculator will be used or else a format of @12.2
• Criteria type - If the line is a criteria you must specify whether it is absolute or counted. Absolute means that if the criteria fails the application is unsuccessful. Counted means that the successful and unsuccessful criteria are counted separate and compared to the overall property of the calculator as detailed above.
• Measurement - Whether a lender can get a specific product depends on his/her income. You can either measure the maximum instalment that a lender qualifies for or his/her net salary. This information is entered into the loan application. You can specify whether a specific line is the net salary or maximum instalment for the applicant. You can have only one of each per calculator definition. 
• Range limits - You can specify the inclusive upper and lower limits for an entered value. This will force the user/agent to enter a number within the range. Use the lower range for a minimum and the upper range for the maximum.
• Characters - This property determines if the value of the line can be characters (non numeric) also called a string. You can choose between no characters (meaning it will be a value), Y N only (meaning the user agent must enter either the Y or  N character - they are evaluated as 1 and 0 ) or any character (this means the user can enter any string of characters  - any typeable characters). See the section on string manipulation.
• Must have value - You can use this to force the user/agent to enter value. Until all the fields marked with this is completed the loan is not considered successful.
• Styles, printing options & layouts - This determines what lines are printed and what they look like. You can set the style for the description and the value part of the calculator line. Please note that the settings for the value part only, affect the physical printing of the calculator/application. See the paragraph Printing options & layouts for more details.
• Use info - Enter any detailed description of this calculator line here. When you look at the application screen you will see a large block on the right where this information will be shown. It can be used to list required documentation, prompts for sales people, required questions, explanations of calculations etc. It is a good idea to write a short paragraph for each criteria so that you can construct a neat printout detailing the results of the application.