When it comes to managing loans efficiently, having the right tools is essential. A Loan Management System user guide serves as your roadmap to getting the most out of your software, offering step-by-step instructions on setting up, securing, and operating the system. Whether you’re configuring security settings, entering loans, or automating communication, the user guide will walk you through each feature, ensuring you can leverage the system’s full potential.
Nortridge Loan System: Meeting Lender’s Needs
Nortridge Loan System (NLS) is a trusted name in the lending industry, known for providing robust, flexible loan management software that helps lenders streamline their operations. Established to meet the needs of lending institutions of all sizes, Nortridge has grown into an industry authority in loan servicing and automation. With a focus on flexibility and scalability, Nortridge empowers lenders to customize their system to meet the unique needs of their operations, whether managing personal, commercial, or mortgage loans.
What’s Inside the NLS User Guide?
The Nortridge Loan System offers an extensive set of features aimed at automating loan servicing tasks, reducing manual processes, and ensuring data accuracy. The NLS User Guide is the go-to resource for understanding how to fully utilize the software and optimize operations, offering clear instructions on key features, security protocols, and automation tools. Below, we’ll explore the core sections of the Nortridge Loan Management System User Guide.
1. Getting Started Guide
The Getting Started Guide is the perfect place for new users of the Nortridge Loan System. This section walks you through the initial steps needed to configure the software for your lending institution. By following this guide, you can tailor NLS to meet your specific operational needs.
Configuration Process
Learn how to fully customize the Nortridge Loan System to meet your lending institution’s unique needs, from setting up loan types to defining workflows, ensuring that the system aligns perfectly with your operations and enhances efficiency from day one.
Installation Assistance
Detailed instructions on how to successfully install and launch NLS, including step-by-step guidance for configuring necessary platforms, with the option to contact Nortridge technical support for personalized assistance during the installation and setup process.
2. Security Setup
In any loan management system, security is crucial. The Security Setup section of the user guide ensures that you know how to protect sensitive data and control user access to different system functions.
Privilege Tree
The core of NLS security, this feature allows you to assign access rights to users or groups. Privileges can be set at a broad or granular level, ensuring that each user can only access the functions necessary for their role.
Trustee Access
This feature provides a way to configure specific access permissions for loans, contacts, or campaigns. Trustee access allows you to maintain detailed control over who can view or modify certain records, enhancing data security and privacy.
Monitoring Logs
NLS tracks all changes to user privileges and records system access through logs, allowing administrators to monitor any adjustments and ensure that security protocols are being followed, maintaining a safe and compliant environment.
3. Working with Contacts
The Working with Contacts section is essential for managing borrower information within the Nortridge Loan System. Contact data forms the backbone of loan servicing, as every borrower’s loan details are tied directly to their contact record. This section of the user guide ensures that you can efficiently manage, organize, and update borrower information, making the entire loan servicing process more streamlined and accurate.
Contact Information
NLS enables you to store vital borrower details such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and demographics. This comprehensive storage ensures that all the critical information related to each borrower is easily accessible, allowing for quick reference and seamless updates when needed. Accurate contact records form the foundation for a smooth loan servicing process, ensuring timely communication and well-organized borrower profiles.
Relationship Management
In cases where a borrower has multiple loans, NLS allows you to link all their loans to a single contact record. This centralized approach to relationship management helps lenders track loan history and maintain detailed borrower profiles, making it easier to manage multiple accounts and view a complete snapshot of each borrower’s financial relationship with your institution.
4. Entering Loans
Entering loans is one of the most critical tasks in any loan management system, and the Nortridge User Guide provides comprehensive guidance to ensure that the process is both flexible and efficient. This section offers detailed examples of how to enter various loan types, allowing you to configure NLS to fit the specific requirements of your institution. Whether you handle mortgage loans, single payment loans, consumer installment loans, or revolving and non-revolving credit lines, the guide walks you through each step to ensure accurate data entry and proper loan setup.
Mortgage Loans
The guide explains how to enter mortgage loans, covering all key parameters like interest rates, payment schedules, and loan terms. This ensures that every detail is captured accurately, reducing errors and improving loan servicing efficiency.
Single Payment Loans
For institutions offering single payment loans, the guide provides clear instructions on how to configure NLS for loans that require a lump-sum repayment, ensuring proper tracking and management of this loan type.
Consumer Installment Loans
Entering consumer installment loans is simplified with examples that show how to set up recurring payments, calculate interest, and manage loan terms. This ensures that you can provide borrowers with a seamless experience while maintaining accurate records.
Revolving and Non-Revolving Credit Lines
The guide also includes detailed instructions for managing both revolving and non-revolving credit lines. Whether the credit line allows multiple drawdowns or a one-time loan with fixed terms, the system is flexible enough to handle it.
5. Printing Reports and Statements
The Reports and Statements feature in the Nortridge Loan System (NLS) is designed to give lenders easy access to crucial data insights, streamlining both daily operations and long-term decision-making. This section of the user guide explains how to generate detailed, custom reports and automate the process to ensure you always have the most up-to-date information at your fingertips.
Statement Queues
The NLS allows you to manage borrower statements with precision. You can configure statement queues to generate borrower statements automatically on a set schedule, ensuring timely and consistent communication. Whether you need to print, email, or send statements via SMS, the system allows you to control the delivery format, keeping borrowers informed of their account status in real-time. This feature also helps reduce manual intervention, freeing up staff time for higher-level tasks.
Custom Reports
The custom reporting feature in NLS gives you the flexibility to set your own parameters and generate tailored reports that offer deeper insights into your loan portfolio performance. Whether you’re tracking loan originations, analyzing delinquency rates, or monitoring overall financial health, these customizable reports allow you to extract actionable data specific to your institution’s needs. You can generate these reports on-demand or schedule them to run automatically at regular intervals.
6. Email and SMS
Communication is the backbone of effective loan servicing, and the Email and SMS section in the Nortridge Loan System (NLS) user guide explains how to automate messaging for key borrower events. This feature enables you to streamline borrower communication while reducing the manual effort involved in keeping borrowers informed.
Automated Alerts
The NLS allows you to set up automated alerts for a variety of borrower events. These notifications
an be triggered when payments are due, when loans are approved, when accounts become delinquent, or even when ACH transactions are added or returned. Automated alerts ensure that borrowers receive timely reminders about their obligations, helping to reduce late payments and improve overall cash flow. The system also allows you to configure multiple communication channels, such as email, SMS, or both, so borrowers receive these alerts in the format they prefer.
Two-Way SMS Integration
One of the standout features of NLS is the two-way SMS integration, which makes borrower interaction more seamless and responsive. Borrowers can reply directly to text messages, allowing them to confirm payment reminders, respond to loan status updates, or ask questions in real time. This back-and-forth communication reduces the likelihood of miscommunication, improves borrower satisfaction, and helps maintain a strong lender-borrower relationship without adding strain on your team.
Watch the Video on Email and SMS
7. Dashboards
The Dashboard in Nortridge Loan System (NLS) offers a powerful, real-time, graphical overview of your loan portfolio, providing you with a clear and visual snapshot of your lending operations at any given moment. This feature is designed to help you monitor critical metrics, track performance, and make informed, data-driven decisions to enhance efficiency and profitability.
Predefined Dashboards
NLS comes with several predefined dashboards that allow you to quickly access essential insights related to your loan portfolio. These include dashboards for loan portfolio performance, which track new loan counts and balances, delinquency dashboards to monitor overdue accounts and average days delinquent, and collections dashboards that help track collector actions, customer contacts, and payment promises. These predefined dashboards are designed to give you immediate access to key performance indicators (KPIs) that help you maintain control over your portfolio’s health.
Custom Dashboards
One of the great advantages of the NLS dashboard is the ability to customize it based on the specific needs of your organization. You can create custom dashboards by adding charts, graphs, and other metrics that matter most to your institution. This allows you to focus on the areas that require the most attention, whether it’s tracking loan originations, monitoring cash flow, or keeping an eye on collections efforts. You can select from various chart types, such as line graphs, bar charts, and pie charts, and tailor the data displayed to meet your strategic objectives.
8. Transaction Entry
Handling daily transactions is made simple with the Transaction Entry section of the Nortridge Loan System (NLS). Whether you are processing payments, applying loan payoffs, or adjusting balances, this part of the user guide provides step-by-step guidance on how to accurately record all financial activities within the system. By simplifying the entry and management of transactions, this feature ensures efficiency and precision, helping to reduce the risk of errors in your day-to-day operations.
Bulk Payments
For institutions managing large loan portfolios, entering payments one by one can be time-consuming. With the Bulk Payments feature, you can enter a single payment and distribute it across multiple loans. This is particularly useful for borrowers with multiple accounts or for institutions handling payments from a single source that need to be allocated to multiple loans. This feature helps streamline the payment process, saving time and reducing administrative workload.
Payment Distribution
Once a payment is entered, NLS automatically distributes the amount across various categories such as principal, interest, late fees, and other miscellaneous fees. This ensures that payments are allocated correctly based on the borrower’s loan agreement and outstanding balances. You can override the default distribution if necessary, allowing flexibility for special cases where manual adjustments are needed.
Reversals
Mistakes can happen, and NLS makes it easy to correct errors with the Reversals feature. If a payment is applied incorrectly or needs to be adjusted, reversing a transaction is quick and simple. This feature allows you to backtrack on any erroneous entries, ensuring that your financial records remain accurate and up-to-date.
9. NLS Service
The NLS Service is a powerful tool designed to automate and schedule routine tasks in your loan servicing process. By taking over repetitive, time-consuming activities such as accruals, ACH processing, and report generation, NLS Service allows your team to focus on more strategic and complex areas of loan management. This automation improves efficiency and reduces the risk of human error, helping to streamline your entire loan servicing workflow.
Automated Accruals and Statements
One of the key benefits of the NLS Service is its ability to schedule automated accruals and statement generation. Instead of manually triggering these processes during peak business hours, you can set them to run during off-hours or overnight. This not only reduces manual intervention but also ensures that critical tasks are completed without disruption to daily operations. By automating accruals and statements, your team can save time while keeping financial records accurate and up-to-date.
Error Notifications
Even the most automated systems can encounter issues, which is why NLS Service includes a feature for Error Notifications. If a scheduled task fails or encounters an error, the system automatically sends an email or SMS notification to the appropriate team members. This real-time alert allows you to take immediate corrective action, minimizing downtime and ensuring that issues are addressed before they impact operations.
Unlock the Full Potential of Your Loan Management System
As we’ve just explored in the Nortridge Loan Management System User Guide, having a comprehensive manual at your fingertips is essential for getting the most out of any loan management system. Whether you’re configuring security settings, entering loans, or automating borrower communications, a well-structured user guide helps streamline every aspect of your operations. By walking users through both basic functions and advanced features, user guides allow you to fully leverage the system’s capabilities, ensuring smoother workflows and greater efficiency.
Want to See More of Nortridge?
Experience the difference Nortridge can make for your lending operations. Schedule a demo today to see how our system can help streamline your processes and improve efficiency.
