LASER DECIDE
The automated underwriting software solution for lenders who can’t afford inconsistency.
Rules-based. Transparent. FCRA and ECOA-aware. LASER DECIDE handles the straightforward applications consistently, so your underwriting team can focus on the loans that actually need their judgment.
4.8760 reviews on Salesforce AppExchangeWhat it is
Automated underwriting software, explained simply.
Automated underwriting software—also called an automated underwriting system, or AUS—is a rules-based engine that evaluates loan applications against your institution’s defined underwriting policy and returns a consistent approve, decline, or refer decision. Your underwriters still own policy and exceptions. The software handles the consistent application of that policy at scale—every applicant, every time, the same way.
Unlike a black-box score or an opaque machine-learning model, a rules-based engine like LASER DECIDE shows its work: every approve, decline, or refer traces back to a specific policy rule you wrote. That transparency is what makes the decision defensible when an examiner—or a declined applicant—asks why.
The LASER principle:Consistency of process. Identical loans scored identically. Two applicants with the same profile should always get the same answer—regardless of which underwriter sees the file first.
Rules you control
Build, test, version, and deploy underwriting rules without code. Your policy, expressed as software.
Refer, don't replace
Applications that don't cleanly meet every rule route to your underwriters—with the rule path and missing data already attached.
Transparent reason codes
Every decline or counter-offer is tied to specific reason codes that drive automatic ECOA-compliant adverse action notices.
Audit trail per decision
Every adjudication shows the rule version, the data inputs, the score, and the timestamp. Examination-ready.
Test before you deploy
Run new rule sets against your historical applications. See how the new policy would have decided last quarter before it touches a real applicant.
Native to your stack
Runs inside Salesforce, against your existing loan and account records. No middleware. No data exports. No spreadsheets.
Automated underwriting is the heart of the DECIDE engine
DECIDE pairs with ACCESS (data) and COMPLY (compliance) to handle the full lending lifecycle inside Salesforce — the three engines of LASER’s credit decisioning software. See the complete picture.
How it differs
Automated underwriting vs. an LOS vs. a credit pull.
These terms get used interchangeably, but they describe different parts of the lending stack. Here’s how they relate.
| Component | What it does | Where LASER fits |
|---|---|---|
| Loan origination system (LOS) | Manages the full lending lifecycle—intake, documents, decisioning, funding, servicing | Salesforce is your LOS layer; LASER plugs in |
| Credit data access | Pulls credit reports, bank data, income, employment | LASER ACCESS |
| Automated underwriting | Evaluates the application against rules and returns a decision | LASER DECIDE (this page) |
| Compliance automation | Adverse action notices, FCRA/ECOA/GLBA documentation | LASER COMPLY |
How it works, in depth
What an automated underwriting solution actually does inside Salesforce.
Underneath the term “automated underwriting” are six capabilities that determine whether the software actually earns its place in your lending stack: the rules you can express, the data those rules run on, where the work happens, how it holds up to a regulator, how fast it returns an answer, and whether you can reconstruct any decision later.
Decision rules you configure, not code you commission
Your underwriting policy is a set of decisions—minimum scores, debt-to-income thresholds, loan-to-value limits, income and employment checks, and the exceptions that override them. LASER DECIDE lets you express that policy as configurable rules and scorecards inside Salesforce: build a rule set, adjust a threshold, add a segment-specific matrix, and version every change—without writing code or opening a developer ticket.
Rules resolve to one of three outcomes—approve, decline, or refer—so applications that don’t cleanly meet every condition route to a human with the rule path and missing data already attached, rather than being force-fit into a yes or no. Because policy lives in configuration rather than in a spreadsheet or an individual underwriter’s head, it is applied the same way on every file and can be changed deliberately, with a record of who changed what and when.
Bureau and bank data, integrated at the point of decision
A decision is only as sound as the data behind it. DECIDE evaluates against credit data pulled directly into Salesforce through LASER ACCESS—from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—plus bank-verified cash-flow data through Plaid for thin-file and alternative-data lending.
Because the report lands on the same record the rules run against, there is no re-keying, no exporting to a separate portal, and no window in which the data on the application and the data in the decision can drift apart. The bureau pull, the score, and the rule evaluation happen against one consistent, normalized copy of the applicant’s file.
A Salesforce-native workflow, not a bolt-on
LASER runs as a native Salesforce application, against your existing loan and account records—no middleware, no data exports, no spreadsheets. Application intake, the credit pull, the decision, the adverse action notice, and downstream servicing all operate on the same record, so a loan officer sees the full picture of an applicant in one place and the workflow advances the file automatically. Keeping the whole process on one platform removes the reconciliation and re-entry steps that create most processing delays—and it is the foundation for the compliance, speed, and auditability described below. See how it fits with ACCESS and COMPLY on the LASER platform.
Compliance built into the decision: ECOA / Regulation B and GLBA
Every decline or counter-offer is tied to specific reason codes rather than an opaque model output, which is what makes an adverse action notice defensible. Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B (12 CFR 1002.9), a creditor acting on a completed application must notify the applicant within 30 days and either state the specific reasons for the action or disclose the applicant’s right to request them within 60 days. Paired with LASER COMPLY, DECIDE’s reason codes drive those notices directly from the rule path that produced the decision. And because identical applications are scored against the same versioned rule set, they receive identical outcomes—the kind of consistent, documented treatment that supports fair-lending compliance under ECOA’s prohibition on disparate treatment. The audit trail also preserves the application and adverse-action records Regulation B requires lenders to retain for 25 months.
Keeping credit data inside Salesforce—rather than exporting it to spreadsheets or third-party portals—also shrinks the footprint of systems that hold customer information, which supports the access controls, encryption, and activity logging the GLBA Safeguards Rule (16 CFR Part 314) expects of financial institutions. For a fuller walkthrough, see credit reports, decisioning & compliance inside Salesforce. LASER supports these obligations; it does not replace your compliance program or legal counsel.
Decision speed measured in seconds, not days
In most lending operations the credit decision itself is not the bottleneck—the delays live in the handoffs around it: data re-keyed between systems, reports ordered by hand, files waiting in a queue for review even when they plainly qualify. Automating the pull and the evaluation clears the straightforward applications instantly and routes only the genuine judgment calls to a person, so an applicant who clearly meets policy doesn’t wait behind one who needs a closer look. More on where the time actually goes in how to improve the loan approval process.
Audit-ready consistency on every decision
Every adjudication records the rule version that ran, the data inputs it saw, the resulting score, the reason codes, and a timestamp—so any decision can be reconstructed months later exactly as it was made. When an examiner or auditor asks how a particular file was decided, the answer is a record rather than a reconstruction from memory. That same consistency is what lets you prove identical applications were treated identically, and it is why testing a new rule set against historical applications—before it touches a live applicant—produces a reliable preview of how the policy would actually decide.
Who uses it
Built for institutions that need decisions to be both fast and defensible.
Credit unions
Member-first lending policy applied identically across every branch, every loan officer, every application channel.
CDFIs
Mission-driven underwriting with the documentation funders and examiners expect—without spreadsheet sprawl.
Specialty lenders
Solar, auto, equipment, working capital—any lender with a defined credit policy can express it in DECIDE rules.
Banks expanding consumer lending
Standardize new product launches with versioned, auditable rule sets your compliance team can sign off on before go-live.
Frequently asked questions
Common automated underwriting questions.
What is automated underwriting software?
Automated underwriting software is a rules-based system that evaluates loan applications against an institution's defined underwriting policy and returns a consistent approve, decline, or refer decision. It does not replace human underwriters—it handles the straightforward applications consistently so underwriters can focus on the cases that genuinely require judgment.
Is an automated underwriting system the same as automated underwriting software?
In practice, yes—the terms are used interchangeably. An automated underwriting system (AUS) and automated underwriting software both describe technology that evaluates a loan application against a defined credit policy and returns a consistent approve, decline, or refer decision. In mortgage lending, "automated underwriting system" often refers to agency engines like Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter. LASER DECIDE is a configurable automated underwriting system for lenders who need to encode their own credit policy rather than conform to agency guidelines.
Can underwriting be automated?
Yes. The straightforward applications that cleanly meet every rule in your credit policy can be underwritten automatically in seconds—the credit pull, scoring, and rule evaluation run against a single record in real time. Applications that don't cleanly qualify route to a human underwriter with the rule path and missing data already attached, so automation handles volume and consistency while your team keeps judgment over the genuine edge cases.
What automated underwriting system does Fannie Mae use?
Fannie Mae uses Desktop Underwriter (DU), and Freddie Mac uses Loan Product Advisor (LPA); both are automated underwriting systems built for conforming mortgage guidelines. Those agency engines decide against agency rules, not yours. LASER DECIDE is a configurable automated underwriting system for portfolio, consumer, auto, and CDFI lending—where the institution defines its own underwriting policy and needs every decision tied to transparent, examiner-ready reason codes.
How is this different from a loan origination system (LOS)?
An LOS manages the full lending lifecycle: intake, document collection, decisioning, funding, and servicing. Automated underwriting software is the decisioning component specifically. LASER DECIDE is the decisioning engine; it complements your LOS rather than replacing it, and runs inside Salesforce alongside the rest of your lending workflow.
What should lenders look for in an automated underwriting software provider?
Evaluate automated underwriting software providers on four things: whether your credit team can configure decision rules without commissioning code; whether bureau and bank data—Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, and Plaid—are integrated at the point of decision rather than bolted on afterward; whether FCRA, ECOA/Regulation B, and GLBA compliance—including examiner-ready adverse action reasons—is built into every decision; and whether it runs natively in your system of record instead of as a separate silo. LASER DECIDE is a Salesforce-native provider built around all four.
Will automated underwriting replace our underwriters?
No. Automated underwriting handles the straightforward applications that cleanly meet every rule, and routes everything else to underwriters with the rule path and missing information already attached. The point is to free your underwriting team to focus on the applications that need their judgment, not to remove them from the process.
How does this work with adverse action notices?
LASER DECIDE records the rule path and reason codes for every declined or counter-offered decision. Paired with LASER COMPLY, those reason codes drive automated ECOA-compliant adverse action notices, including content and timing requirements under Regulation B.
Can we change rules without involving IT?
Yes. Rule changes are configured through the LASER admin interface inside Salesforce. Most underwriting policy adjustments do not require developer involvement.
Is it suitable for a small CDFI or credit union?
Yes. LASER DECIDE is sold in tiered packages that scale from smaller community lenders to larger multi-product institutions. The rule engine and audit trail are the same in every tier.
How fast is an automated underwriting decision?
For applications that cleanly meet policy, the decision returns in seconds—the credit pull, scoring, and rule evaluation happen against one record in real time. The point isn't only raw speed: because the straightforward applications clear automatically, your underwriters aren't stuck reviewing files that plainly qualify, and applicants who need a closer look aren't waiting behind them.
How does automated underwriting support ECOA and GLBA compliance?
DECIDE ties every decline or counter-offer to specific reason codes rather than an opaque model output. Under ECOA and Regulation B (12 CFR 1002.9), a creditor acting on a completed application must notify the applicant within 30 days and either give specific reasons or disclose the right to request them within 60 days; paired with LASER COMPLY, those reason codes drive the notices, and the audit trail preserves the records Regulation B requires for 25 months. Scoring every application against the same versioned rule set supports consistent, fair-lending-defensible treatment. Keeping credit data inside Salesforce also supports the access controls, encryption, and logging expected under the GLBA Safeguards Rule (16 CFR Part 314). LASER supports these obligations but does not replace your compliance program or legal counsel.
Keep exploring
Related products & reading.
Automated underwriting works best paired with real-time bureau data and a consistent, compliant decisioning process. Here’s how the pieces connect.
Bureau & data integrations
Equifax integration
Pull Equifax credit reports straight into your Salesforce underwriting workflow.
Experian integration
Feed Experian bureau data into DECIDE rules at the point of decision.
TransUnion integration
Bring TransUnion credit data natively into your decisioning workflow.
Plaid integration
Add bank-verified cash-flow data for alternative and thin-file underwriting.
From the blog
How to improve the loan approval process
Where approval delays actually come from—and which steps to automate.
Read moreCredit reports & compliance inside Salesforce
Unify credit pulls, decisioning, and compliance in one environment.
Read moreAlternative credit data: beyond the score
Use cash-flow and alternative data to serve thin-file borrowers compliantly.
Read moreIdentical loans, scored identically. Every time.
See LASER DECIDE running automated underwriting against your loan workflow.