A construction loan is not one decision. It's a collection of many.
Each of those decisions can release money for work that has not been done. Most lenders manage them in spreadsheets and email, where the controls live in someone’s habits rather than in the system.
- A line over-advanced. A budget line quietly funded past what it was ever allocated.
- An unwaived contractor paid. Money out of the door before lien rights are released.
- Unverified work funded. A percentage taken on trust rather than on evidence.
- A loan drifting out of balance. Nobody notices until the last ten percent, when there is nothing left to cure it with.
With Sweet
Request, verify, fund
Every draw moves through a controlled sequence. Each step checks its own conditions, records who acted, and hands off to whoever is next.
- Request — the borrower enters amounts against the budget. A line over its allocation is flagged as it is typed and routed to you — approve it against contingency, reallocate, or send it back — rather than discovered a week later. Waivers are generated from the project’s state, and the certification is signed before anything is submitted.
- Verify — rules decide whether an inspection is needed. A scoped link sends an inspector to site, and photos come back attached to the lines they justify.
- Fund — approval routes by amount and authority. Funding clears the gate stack, holds retainage, posts to your core, and closes the draw.
Nothing funds until the file is actually clean
Funding runs an ordered stack of hard checks. Each failure returns a plain-language reason and the fix, and none of them can be waved through from the screen.
- The loan is in balance. Sources still cover the cost to complete every remaining line.
- This draw’s waivers are signed. A conditional waiver from every contractor being paid, on the statutory form the project’s state requires.
- The last draw is released. Everyone paid on the last draw has returned an unconditional waiver confirming they received the money, before any new funds go out.
- Title and insurance are current. A clean date-down for this draw, and every coverage the program requires still unexpired.
Inspections that prove the work
- Scoped access. Send any third-party inspector a secure, expiring link. No account, no license seat, and it reaches nothing but the one inspection.
- Evidence from site. Inspectors estimate completion percentage, and the camera stamps the location onto the photo.
- Variance in the open. Every line is compared with the budget, and movement beyond the program’s tolerance is stamped on the draw for the reviewer to see.
No corners cut
- The system does not offer an override button at the funding gate. A cost overrun is a decision someone can take, on the record, against contingency; a failed funding check is not. It returns the reason and the fix, and there is no way to wave it through from the screen.
- The system does not accept a photograph taken somewhere else. A photo taken away from the project is flagged rather than quietly accepted.
- The system does not hand an inspector the rest of your book. A scoped link reaches the one inspection it was issued for and nothing else.
Live data changes. The record shows it.
An append-only system that cannot be corrected is not usable; one that can be corrected silently is not trustworthy. So corrections are graded by what they touch.
- Self-serve — the typo class. Applies immediately, and still writes a change record and an audit event with a stated reason.
- Administrator approval — held pending until an administrator decides, in the same task queue as everything else.
- Enforced workflow — commitment, rate, equity, and program covenants need a second administrator.
Rules decide. People don't guess.
Each lending program carries its own thresholds, and every draw is stamped with the reason codes that produced its result. Multi-branch lenders configure it per branch.
- When an inspection is required — always, never, above an amount, or at a percent-complete milestone.
- Who can approve what — authority limits by category, with a second signature above the threshold you set.
- How much is held back — retainage by program, released later as its own governed step.
- What a line may overrun by — the contingency a line can draw on, and who signs it off.
- What good looks like — required coverages, title date-downs, photo rules and review deadlines.
Four roles, every branch, one record
Roles are enforced in the database, not hidden in the interface. Dashboards scope to the whole organization, to a branch, or to the loans that are yours.
- Borrower — requests draws, signs waivers and certifications, and uploads what is asked for, or asks your staff to do it on their behalf.
- Draw desk — reviews, runs the rules, orders inspections, and returns a draw with actionable reasoning for the borrower.
- Approver — decides within their authority limit, using the limit in force at the moment of the decision.
- Funder — confirms every check has passed, releases the funds with retainage held back and shown on the disbursement, and records that the payment posted.
Learn more about the platform end to end.
