Long-form analysis of the software Australian brokers run — what to buy, what to replace and what to stop paying for. Sourced, dated and signed.
LatestData & Security
Remove TFNs and any other identifier the recipient does not need before submitting documents. Use an approved redaction tool that permanently removes underlying text, images and hidden data; a drawn black box is not enough. Save a separate redacted copy, verify it by searching and copying, submit securely, and retain only what your approved process requires.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Document Collection
Start every document request with a core pack covering identity, income, assets, liabilities, expenses and the transaction. Then add only the checklist that matches the applicant’s employment, entity and loan scenario. Confirm currency and lender policy before sending, provide secure upload instructions, and review every document for completeness and unnecessary identifiers.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Automation
Reduce double entry by controlling how data enters the brokerage. Capture structured answers through approved digital forms, separate person data from deal data, preserve source and time, verify against supporting evidence, then map approved values into the CRM and aggregator. Automate the transfer; keep consequential verification and exceptions with a person.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Aggregators
Export a sample header list from the aggregator, catalogue the CRM’s standard and custom fields, then map each source field to one canonical destination. Record object, type, allowed values, direction, owner and transformation. Test the map with synthetic edge cases before importing client records or connecting an API.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
CRM
A brokerage should have one named system of record for each type of information, not force every record into one application. Use the CRM for relationships and pipeline, the aggregator or lodgement system for application truth, accounting for financial records and a governed knowledge base for SOPs. Link them through clear ownership and conflict rules.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Compliance
Referral partners should receive only the milestone the client has agreed can be shared, not financial details, documents, conditions or decline reasons. Give each partner a controlled referral identifier, capture the client’s communication preference, trigger updates from selected pipeline stages and keep every sensitive or ambiguous status internal for broker review.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Getting Started
Use a form for short structured intake, a survey for longer multi-step questions and a quiz for scored educational outcomes. Define the destination CRM fields first, build the questions and logic, add a clear confirmation, connect the submission workflow and test every branch with synthetic data before sharing the link.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Getting Started
A shorter pre-qualification form should collect only enough information to understand the enquiry, identify obvious complexity and prepare the first broker conversation. Ask about purpose, timing, applicants, income shape, deposit or equity and major liabilities. Keep detailed verification, documents and recommendations for the broker’s approved fact-find and assessment process.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Lead Generation
A human follow-up sequence starts by separating acquisition from loan delivery. Give paid, social, warm and cold leads their own stages, messages and stop rules; move only qualified, engaged people into the broker pipeline. Automate acknowledgement and administration. Put a person into any conversation that needs context or judgement.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Automation
A broker’s missed-call text should identify the broker and business, acknowledge the call, offer two simple next steps and avoid asking for financial details. Send it promptly from the business number, suppress duplicate messages and move any nuanced, sensitive or advice-related reply to a human broker.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Pipelines
Screen scraping asks a client to hand over internet banking credentials so a third party can log in and pull statements. Open Banking under the Consumer Data Right does the same job through a consented data feed, with no password shared. Both still operate. Government has signalled a ban on scraping but has not set a date.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Marketing
Brokers lose clients at refinance because the client's rate drifts above what new borrowers pay and nobody tells them first. Retention software watches the back book for that drift, flags who is exposed, and prompts a repricing request or a refinance conversation before the client goes looking on their own.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
AI Tools
Recording a client meeting is governed by state and territory surveillance laws, and those laws differ. Before switching on an AI notetaker, confirm what your licensee permits, tell the client what is being recorded and why, get their agreement on the record, and check where the vendor stores the audio.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Stack
A solo Australian broker's stack has two halves: the aggregator bundle you cannot avoid, and the four or five tools you choose on top. Published prices for the chosen half sit at a little over two hundred dollars a month. Aggregator and licensing costs usually dwarf them, often several times over.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Calculators
Multi-lender serviceability tools replace the manual work of opening a dozen lender spreadsheets for one scenario. Published pricing sits in the low hundreds of dollars per user per year for the main Australian options. The real saving is fewer wasted submissions. The real cost is over-trusting a number you did not calculate yourself.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Budget
There is no published Australian benchmark for broker software spend. The honest answer is to work backwards from settled volume: price your stack against the revenue it protects, not against a percentage rule someone invented. Most solo brokers can run a compliant, competitive stack for a few hundred dollars a month beyond aggregator fees.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Document Collection
Clients rarely ghost on purpose. They stall when the request is vague, batched into one overwhelming list, or sent by email with no deadline. The fix is a sequenced workflow: one channel, smallest first ask, named documents with examples, open banking for transactions, automatic reminders, and a visible checklist the client can see.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
Compliance
A compliant file shows your reasoning, not just your paperwork. ASIC expects the responsible lending assessment, the credit guide, what you sent the lender, the outcome, relevant conversations, evidence you acted in the client's interests, the options and recommendation with reasons, and any conflict you identified. Contemporaneous notes beat reconstructed ones.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
CRM
Run the aggregator CRM if you lodge through one aggregator and expect to stay. Run an independent CRM if you plan to move, operate across multiple aggregators, or need workflow the aggregator will not build. Either way, check your agreement for data export rights before you commit, because migration is the real cost.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
CRM
Choose broker software by scoring it against your actual workflow: aggregator integration first, compliance fit second, automation depth third. Ignore feature counts — most brokers use a fraction of any platform. This guide explains the seven criteria we score in every review and how to weight them for your brokerage.
Tumai Meroiti · 26 August 2026
