Aloan for C&I lending
AI C&I loan underwriting software
Aloan spreads the operating company and its affiliates, runs global cash flow across the group, reads the A/R aging behind the line and applies your advance rates, and tests the covenant package against the spread. Every number cites back to its source page, and the credit decision stays with your team.
A C&I file is one borrower until you open the K-1s
One operating company, a real-estate LLC that holds the building, a second entity for a related line, and two guarantors with outside income from each. C&I lending creates drag in the same spots over and over: three years of operating-company returns plus an interim that has to reconcile to the bank statements, a revolving line whose borrowing base depends on receivables aging nobody refreshed since the last review, affiliate entities that show up in a K-1 but were never requested up front, and guarantor income buried in a Schedule E.
That is a day of assembly before anyone weighs the actual credit.
Aloan pulls the operating group back into one reviewable file before the spread and the borrowing base drift apart. It draws on AI financial spreading software for the spread and global cash flow analysis for the consolidation across entities. For the broader operating model, see the AI-assisted underwriting playbook.
Where a C&I file gets hard
The six places C&I underwriting slows down
These are the repetitive, easy-to-validate steps Aloan takes off the analyst, and the multi-entity operating group is where most of the time goes.
Operating-company returns
Three years of 1120, 1120-S, or 1065 with K-1s, plus an interim that has to reconcile to the bank statements. Gathering and tying them is where the morning goes.
Multi-entity operating group
An operating company, a real-estate LLC that holds the building, a second entity for a related line, and intercompany flows that have to be eliminated before coverage means anything.
Bank-statement cash flow
Average balance, NSF activity, and operating cash flow that has to agree with the tax-return view, not sit in a separate folder.
Borrowing base on the line
A working-capital line is only as good as the collateral that qualifies. A/R and A/P aging that nobody refreshed since the last review sizes the line wrong.
Covenant testing
Minimum DSCR or fixed-charge coverage, maximum leverage, minimum working capital, and minimum tangible net worth, retested every review against current financials.
Guarantor outside income
Personal returns, personal financial statements, and outside income buried in a Schedule E that has to roll into global cash flow.
Core C&I workflow
How Aloan runs a C&I file
Aloan does the spreading, consolidation, borrowing-base, and covenant work and cites it. Eligibility, structure, and the approval stay with the lender.
Document intake and package control
Aloan reads the upload, identifies each document, assigns it to the right entity, guarantor, and tax year, and flags what is missing. C&I teams burn hours sorting partial uploads, stale personal financial statements, and returns that reference entities nobody asked for. Aloan does the inventory before underwriting starts and feeds it straight into spreading.
For the upstream pieces, see AI document collection and bank statement analysis.
Spreading and global cash flow across the operating group
Aloan spreads each operating entity consistently, applies your add-back rules the same way on every file, reconciles intercompany transactions, and consolidates with eliminations. Guarantor outside income comes in through Schedule E and K-1 tracing, and every consolidated figure links to its entity-level source.
Get the consolidation wrong and the global cash flow overstates coverage, which is a credit-quality problem rather than a formatting one. For the mechanics, see global cash flow analysis and the global cash flow calculator.
Borrowing-base and A/R discipline on revolving lines
Aloan reads the A/R and A/P aging and the inventory report, applies your advance rates, and strips out the ineligibles: receivables over 90 days, affiliate and intercompany balances, foreign accounts, contra accounts, and anything over the concentration cap. The eligible base can be recomputed from the current aging each period, so the line stays sized to collateral that actually qualifies instead of last quarter's number.
Covenant testing tied to the spread
Covenants fail quietly when the test lives in a spreadsheet nobody reopened. Aloan tests your package against the spread output: minimum DSCR or fixed-charge coverage, maximum leverage, minimum working capital or current ratio, and minimum tangible net worth. Each returns a pass, fail, or exception flag with the calculation shown, and the same tests rerun at every annual review.
For the metric itself, the DSCR calculator shows the mechanics, and ongoing tracking belongs in covenant monitoring.
Credit memo assembly with traceability
The memo falls apart when the write-up gets ahead of the spreads. Aloan assembles the factual layer (spreads, cash flow, borrowing base, covenant tests, exceptions) with source citations and leaves the credit narrative to the underwriter.
That is the logic behind the AI credit memo generator for C&I loans: pull the numbers together with citations, and let the lender write the judgment.
Manual C&I underwriting vs. Aloan
| Step | Manual workflow | With Aloan |
|---|---|---|
| Document intake | Partial uploads and stale documents sorted by hand | Classified by entity, guarantor, and tax year, with missing items flagged |
| Operating-group spreading | Each entity spread separately, add-backs vary by analyst | Every entity spread consistently, intercompany reconciled |
| Global cash flow | Consolidation stitched together, eliminations easy to miss | Consolidated with eliminations; every figure links to its source |
| Borrowing base | A/R aging refreshed late, ineligibles applied by hand | Eligible base computed from current aging with ineligibles stripped |
| Covenant testing | Lives in a spreadsheet nobody reopened | Tested against the spread: pass, fail, or exception with the calculation shown |
| Credit memo | Narrative drifts from the spread and exhibits | Factual layer assembled with citations; lender writes the judgment |
Examiner view
Keeping AI-assisted C&I underwriting examiner-ready
Examiners care about traceability, human decision authority, and a record of how the tool was used. AI-assisted C&I underwriting holds up when every figure, ratio, and finding cites back to the source document and page. An examiner should be able to click any number in the memo and land on the tax return, financial statement, or bank statement it came from. That click-to-source trail is usually cleaner than an inconsistent manual process where each analyst spreads a little differently.
The guidance to write to is OCC Bulletin 2026-13 and SR 26-2, which set the model-risk and traceability bar for AI in community-bank underwriting and carry forward the disciplines popularized by SR 11-7. The practical takeaway for a C&I shop is the same either way: keep the analysis tied to source, preserve overrides and add-back decisions, and keep the credit call with a person.
Can an examiner click any number in the memo and land on the tax return, financial statement, or bank statement it came from?
Is the consolidated global cash flow confirmable without re-spreading the operating group by hand?
Are add-back decisions and human overrides preserved with attribution and timestamps?
Does the credit decision stay with a person, with the tool used for the factual layer rather than the judgment?
Load-bearing detail: the value of citations is that a reviewer can confirm the consolidated global cash flow without re-spreading the file. On a multi-entity C&I relationship, that is the difference between a thirty-minute committee read and a re-underwrite.
Reference
What a C&I file contains, and how it differs from CRE and SBA
Before any analysis happens, the package has to be sorted, matched to the right entity, and checked for gaps. A standard C&I file pulls from seven sources.
- Operating-company returns. Form 1120-S, 1065, or 1120 across three years, with the K-1s that tie each owner and affiliate together.
- Financial statements. Audited, reviewed, compiled, or interim, with the footnotes that change how a number reads.
- Business bank statements. Multi-month, for average balance, NSF activity, and operating cash flow that has to agree with the tax-return view.
- A/R and A/P aging. The basis for the borrowing base on a revolving line, and an early read on collection and concentration risk.
- Inventory or borrowing-base report. Eligible inventory and the advance rate behind the working-capital line.
- Current debt schedule. Existing obligations across the operating group, needed before any coverage ratio means anything.
- Guarantor returns and PFS. Personal returns, personal financial statements, and outside income traced through Schedule E.
How C&I differs from CRE and SBA
The credit logic overlaps, but the file pressure lands in different places. A workflow built for one program leaves gaps on another, which is why C&I deserves its own treatment instead of a CRE template with the labels changed.
| Loan type | What drives the analysis | Where the file time goes |
|---|---|---|
| C&I | Operating cash flow of the business and its affiliates, the borrowing base behind any revolving line, and the covenant package. | Spreading the operating group, surfacing bank-statement cash flow next to the tax-return view, and keeping the borrowing base and covenants tied to current financials. |
| CRE | Property income (rent roll, NOI, DSCR) and the appraisal assumptions behind value and repayment. | Normalizing rent rolls, running DSCR stress cases, and reconciling appraisal assumptions. See CRE loan analysis. |
| SBA | Program eligibility under SOP 50 10 8, repayment from business cash flow, and guarantor and affiliate support. | Assembling eligibility support, guarantor and affiliate mapping, and franchise or environmental exhibits. See SBA loan underwriting. |
The C&I distinction that trips up generic tools is the operating group. A single-borrower spread is the easy case. The real C&I relationship is several entities, intercompany flows that have to be eliminated, and guarantor income that sits outside all of them.
Go deeper
C&I memo workflow: AI credit memo generator for C&I loans
How-to: automating C&I loan analysis
Multi-entity support: global cash flow analysis
The spread engine: AI financial spreading software
General operating model: AI-assisted underwriting playbook
FAQ: C&I loan underwriting software
What is C&I loan underwriting software?
Aloan is C&I loan underwriting software that organizes a commercial and industrial credit file before the lender makes the decision. It classifies borrower and guarantor documents, spreads the operating company and its affiliates with K-1 tracing, runs global cash flow across the operating group, sizes the borrowing base behind any revolving line, tests the covenant package against the spreads, and cites every number back to its source page. The lender keeps eligibility and the credit decision; Aloan takes the file-assembly work off the analyst.
What documents does a C&I underwriting package include?
A typical C&I file has operating-company tax returns (Form 1120, 1120-S, or 1065 with K-1s) across three years, full financial statements (audited, reviewed, compiled, or interim), business bank statements, accounts-receivable and accounts-payable aging, an inventory or borrowing-base report on revolving lines, a current debt schedule, and guarantor personal returns and personal financial statements. Aloan matches each document to the right entity or guarantor and flags what is missing against a standard C&I checklist.
How does it handle multi-entity C&I borrowers?
Aloan builds an entity graph from the returns, spreads each operating entity across the years provided, reconciles intercompany transactions, and produces a consolidated view with eliminations applied. Guarantor outside income is traced through Schedule E and K-1s. Every consolidated figure links back to the entity-level source, so the global cash flow holds up when committee or an examiner asks where a number came from.
Can it size and monitor a borrowing base on a revolving line?
Yes. Aloan reads the A/R and A/P aging and inventory reports, applies the bank's advance rates, and removes ineligibles: receivables over 90 days, affiliate and intercompany balances, foreign accounts, contra accounts, and amounts over the concentration cap. The eligible base can be recalculated each period from the source files, so the line stays sized to collateral that actually qualifies.
Does it test loan covenants?
Aloan tests the bank's covenant package against the spread output: minimum DSCR or fixed-charge coverage, maximum leverage, minimum working capital or current ratio, and minimum tangible net worth. Each covenant returns a pass, fail, or exception flag with the calculation shown. Covenants are retested at every annual review and renewal against the current-period financials.
How is C&I underwriting different from CRE or SBA underwriting?
C&I credit rests on the operating cash flow of the business and its affiliates, the borrowing base behind any revolving line, and the covenant package. CRE rests on property income (rent roll, NOI, DSCR) and the appraisal. SBA rests on program eligibility under SOP 50 10 8 plus guarantor and affiliate support. The credit logic overlaps, but the file pressure lands in different places, which is why a workflow built for one program leaves gaps on another.
Does the AI make the credit decision?
No. Eligibility, structure, and the approval decision stay with the lender. Aloan assembles the factual layer (spreads, cash flow, borrowing base, covenant tests, exceptions) with source citations so the underwriter reviews a coherent file instead of rebuilding it. The judgment is still the underwriter's.
Related
Explore related AI underwriting capabilities
Rent rolls, NOI, DSCR stress cases, and appraisal review for CRE files.
AI for SBA 7(a), 504, and Express multi-guarantor files.
EBITDAR normalization, collateral matching, and debt reconciliation.
Source-cited C&I memos assembled from spreads, cash flow, and covenant tests.
Ongoing covenant testing and early-warning tracking each period.
Governance expectations under SR 11-7 and OCC Bulletin 2026-13.
See a C&I file move without losing the audit trail
Bring a real C&I relationship: operating-company returns, bank statements, an A/R aging, a debt schedule, and guarantor documents. We will show how Aloan spreads the operating group, runs global cash flow, sizes the borrowing base, and tests the covenants, with every number cited to source.
Works alongside your existing LOS · Lender keeps the credit decision · Examiner-ready audit trails
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