Lending & Credit Risk Equipment Finance

How equipment finance firms win with workflow automation

Mary Ellen Biery

November 5, 2025

Read Time: 0 min

Get ready to scale equipment financing operations by streamlining efforts

With momentum picking up in equipment finance, workflow automation helps financial institutions be ready to grow this book of business.

Key topics covered in this post:

Why automation matters now in equipment financing
What efficient equipment finance looks like
Automating equipment financing compounds ROI
How to identify the need for more efficiency

Why automation matters now in equipment financing

The gears are turning again in the equipment finance sector.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported 3.2% annualized growth in nonresidential equipment investment for Q2 2025, and Wells Fargo economists say business investment spending looks to have increased again in the third quarter. New business volumes at banks providing equipment financing grew in August at their fastest pace since March, and added $5.3 billion in September, according to the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA).

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Yet across much of the industry, staffing levels remain flat. Many credit and lending leaders at equipment finance firms may soon face a widening gap between market opportunity and operational bandwidth.

Scatter plot of industry-specific momentum in equipment financing

Source: U.S. Equipment & Software Investment Momentum Monitor, Sept. 2025, ELFA

This familiar challenge of growing volume without growing overhead will require more than simply capital to fund new deals. It demands a shift toward efficient equipment finance: operationally lean, technologically enabled, and built to scale. Workflow automation helps firms scale with demand while protecting profitability.

Efficient financing operations matter to growth

Equipment finance, where both leases and loans are products, isn’t like traditional lending. The operational complexity, which includes residual value analysis, multi-party vendor programs, property and sales tax compliance, and asset-level tracking, adds complexity at every stage of the contract lifecycle from origination to asset disposition.

Firms with manual or siloed processes can face delays, compliance risks, and missed opportunities.

Meanwhile, borrower and equipment vendor expectations are evolving. They want faster decisions, seamless documentation, and real-time updates. Equipment financing companies that can’t deliver on these needs risk losing repeat business or falling behind more agile competitors, including fintechs and alternative lenders.

Efficient equipment finance firms can more easily scale, serve clients faster, and respond to market shifts without overextending their teams.

What efficient equipment finance looks like

What does it mean to be an efficient equipment finance operation?

At its core, an efficient equipment finance firm minimizes friction across the lease and loan lifecycle while maintaining full visibility and control.

That means an equipment financing firm that is firing on all cylinders will utilize:

Integrated systems that connect pricing, origination, credit, servicing, and accounting to manage the entire life cycle of a lease or loan from a single system, whether the products are small ticket, middle market, or large ticket.
Standardized workflows that reduce handoffs and eliminate duplication during pricing, transaction structuring, credit analysis, booking and funding and vendor/broker management
Automation of routine decisions and data entry
Real-time reporting and audit trails that simplify compliance and oversight, especially for lease and loan accounting
Flexible billing and asset management capabilities that support complex contracts and end-of-term scenarios

In short, an efficient equipment finance operation does more with the team it has without compromising credit quality, service levels, or regulatory compliance.

Embedded across operations, efficiency allows teams to shift their focus from processing paperwork to building relationships, growing vendor programs, and analyzing portfolio performance. The shift can drive long-term profitability and resilience.

According to industry reports, very few equipment finance firms fully automate underwriting capabilities, although the digital transformation of equipment lease financing companies and service providers is on a four-year upward trend. Those that still rely on manual processes for quoting, documentation, and even funding are at a competitive disadvantage because manual processes create vulnerabilities not just in productivity but also in the lessee/borrower experience.

Banks and independent financing firms that provide fast decisioning, seamless documentation, and rapid funding are the ones that win repeat business and market share.

How does workflow automation work within financing processes?

At firms using end-to-end lease and loan lifecycle systems like IFSLeaseWorks, workflow automation is how they’ve kept lean teams productive during periods of rapid growth.

One equipment finance firm using IFSLeaseWorks summed it up:

“Over the past few years, we've experienced significant growth, yet we've maintained a lean workforce thanks to the system's incredible efficiency,” said the firm’s VP of IT.

Efficient financing of equipment is possible because every stage of the process is automated and connected. From pricing and credit scoring to documentation and funding, the processes promote scalable growth. Here’s how:

Credit: Automated scorecards, external bureau data pulls, and credit algorithms allow credit teams to approve deals faster—without compromising underwriting standards.
Documentation: Rules-based engines produce contract packages ready for eSignature, cutting turnaround time and error rates.
Funding: Automated workflows ensure contracts are booked correctly the first time, reducing rework and improving compliance.

Together, these capabilities support an efficient equipment finance strategy that increases throughput without sacrificing control or compliance.

Automating equipment financing compounds ROI

The urgency behind workflow automation isn’t about limiting expenses. With traditional and alternative lenders expanding their digital presence and embedded finance gaining traction at the point of sale in other types of transactions, equipment finance firms face real competitive pressure.

Even if processes like manual credit checks, emailed PDFs, and siloed contract management feel “good enough” today, they will likely become friction points tomorrow. Workflow automation helps remove that friction, particularly in high-volume or vendor-driven originations where timing and consistency matter most. By reducing data entry, handoffs, and lengthy decision timeframes, lean teams can process more deals faster, while delivering a modern experience for lessees, borrowers, and vendors. Equipment -finance automation is a strategic move that future-proofs the business.

In addition to saving time and creating happier customers and partners, an automated equipment finance operation also helps the organization with:

Risk reduction: Automated audit trails and compliance checks reduce manual errors and documentation gaps.
Improved analytics: Integrated platforms centralize data across contracts, assets, and vendors—giving executives better insight into profitability, risk exposure, and performance trends.
Stronger relationships: When account managers aren’t chasing paperwork, they’re building vendor and lessee/borrower relationships that lead to new opportunities.

The profitable growth without proportionate overhead allowed by automation is a strategic advantage in today’s margin-conscious environment.

How to identify the need for more efficiency

For credit and lending leaders evaluating whether to build a more efficient equipment finance operation, consider the following questions:

Where in our equipment loan/lease lifecycle are manual processes slowing us down or introducing risk?
How are we preparing for increased deal flow without expanding our team?
Are our systems and workflows scalable, or how will they limit our growth?
How fast can our vendors get a decision today? How fast do they need one?

When efficiency creates competitive equipment financing

With workflow automation, an equipment finance company’s operations can be a competitive advantage. And given the industry’s outlook, now is the time for firms ready to scale smarter to create that advantage. They’re unlikely to have the bandwidth to do so once demand increases. And industry leaders say that could be soon.

“Our latest CFI data indicates that equipment demand was strong at the end of the third quarter,” said Leigh Lytle, President and CEO at ELFA recently. “The current pace of new business volumes has put the industry on track for one of its best years ever.” Financial conditions also are healthy, with lower delinquency and loss rates in the latest data, she said.

“With the Fed resuming its easing cycle, I expect demand to remain strong and financial conditions to improve further. That will give the equipment finance industry a lot of momentum heading into 2026.”

Equipment finance industry experts have also said they expect some provisions of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” such as 100% expensing and EBIDTA-based interest deductibility, to encourage equipment spending.

For equipment finance firms considering workflow automation, a delay could prove costly.

This article was was written with the assistance of ChatGPT, an AI large language model, and was reviewed and revised by Abrigo's subject-matter expert.

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