SystemAsset-Based, Equipment & Specialty Finance

ABL Collateral Monitoring

ABL collateral monitoring that watches every borrower's collateral daily, between field exams

Collateral changes flagged within days, not at the next exam.

See one case, screen by screen ↓
demo21daysbefore the borrowing base certificate showed it — dilution drift flagged from the daily journal
demo115daysbefore the next scheduled field exam would have looked
demo184measuresplotted every morning against each borrower's own control limits — 46 borrowers × 4
demo1.67$Mof availability effect approved at one borrower — ineligibles and a dilution reserve the certificate left out
In short

What is ABL Collateral Monitoring?

Software that watches the receivables and inventory behind an asset-based loan between field exams: it reads the borrower's certificates, agings, credit memos and lockbox files, recomputes the borrowing base under the credit agreement and flags changes. ABL Collateral Monitoring does this every day for every borrower, with six agents and a collateral manager who decides.

How to choose AI solutions for lending →

Updated

The problem

Why collateral trouble builds unseen between field exams

An asset-based lender is only as safe as its view of the receivables and inventory it advances against. Today that view comes from the borrower's own borrowing base certificate, weekly or monthly, and a field exam that tests a sample once or twice a year. The certificate is the borrower's number; the exam is a snapshot.

Between the two, a customer can grow past its concentration limit, credit memos can climb, lockbox receipts can slow and the aging can roll past 90 days. Each signal lives in a different file — concentration in the aging, dilution in the credit-memo register, collections in the lockbox file, the comparison with the exam in the examiner's workpapers — and the collateral manager reviews each borrower once a month in a spreadsheet. By the time the next exam adds it up, the line is over-advanced.

demo91daysuntil Ashford's next scheduled field exam, on the day its recomputed availability fell under the trigger
demo3.28$Mof availability the portfolio's certificates overstate, once recomputed under each agreement
typical50%of lenders have strengthened collateral monitoring since the 2025–26 double-pledging cases
Where a month of monitoring one borrower goes, in hoursestimated
By hand12 days
With the solution2.3 days
  • Reading the certificate and tying it to the aging3 → 0.3 d
  • Lockbox receipts, DSO and the roll-forward2 → 0.3 d
  • Concentration and cross-aging under the agreement2 → 0.3 d
  • Credit memos and dilution2 → 0.5 d
  • Comparing with the last exam and writing it up2 → 0.5 d
  • Deciding and getting approval1 → 0.5 d

Estimated split for one borrower's monthly review, by hand and with the solution.

How it works

How a day's reports move

Six specialist agents chart every borrower's daily collateral against its own control limits; the collateral manager decides.

What comes in
Borrower files in258 files a week · certificates, daily journals, credit memos, lockbox
Agents at work
Borrower report readerties to the aging
Then
Lockbox and cash watcher
Eligibility and concentration checker
Dilution analyst
Then
Trend and risk scorercontrol limits, run rules
Then
Action recommenderreserve · exam · letter
A person decides
Collateral managerdecides; CCO co-approves
What comes out
Daily control charts
Alerts with evidence
Reserve or targeted exam
One case, step by step

One borrower, from a drifting chart to an approved decision

Monday 12 October 2026 at Bramwell Business Credit: 46 borrowers, $1.12B outstanding. Ashford Fastener & Supply's certificate says it has $5,187,000 of excess availability. Here is what the working solution finds, screen by screen.

  1. 0106:00

    Every borrower charted before the team starts

    Lockbox and cash watcher · Trend and risk scorer

    The agents read 46 lockbox files ($41.8M received across the portfolio) and 45 daily sales and credit journals — Bellwether has sent none since 25 Sep. By 06:07, 184 measures are plotted against their limits: dilution, DSO, collections and inventory turns for every borrower, each with its last 30 days coloured.

    “4 beyond a limit · 5 drifting · 170 in control · 5 without data.”

  2. 02Morning

    A control chart, with limits from the borrower's own history

    Elena Marchetti · Collateral manager

    Elena opens on Ashford's trailing 30-day dilution: 6.62% today, against a centre of 3.40% and limits of 0.55%–6.25% set from the 12 months before its 14 Apr 2026 field exam. Day 17 of September is ringed — 6.41%, +3.2σ, beyond the limit. Behind it: credit memos to Tremont, the top customer, of $512,600 in 30 days against $168,400 a month in the year before the exam, with the largest memos listed.

    “Flagged 21 days before certificate 41 and 115 days before the next field exam.”

  3. 03Ranked

    The watchlist: recomputed, not as certified

    Trend and risk scorer

    Every borrower's collateral is recomputed under its own credit agreement and ranked against its last exam. Ashford tops the list at a risk of 86 with four alerts: $3,778,550 of excess availability recomputed, against $5,187,000 certified. Across the portfolio, the certificates overstate availability by $3.28M.

  4. 04Opened

    The borrower, against its last exam

    Elena Marchetti · Collateral manager

    Ashford's cockpit puts the certificate and the recomputed base side by side, under a red banner: on the recomputed base, it is under the $4,500,000 trigger. Tremont is 23.6% of receivables against a 20% limit and 14.2% at the exam; DSO is 58 days against 47; aging past 90 is 9.8% against 4.1%. The September credit-memo register arrived at 08:51 and is not in the number yet.

  5. 05One click

    Re-checked with this morning's files

    The six agents

    Elena presses Re-check. The register is read — 214 memos, $1,482,120, tied to the general ledger to the dollar. This morning's lockbox shows $612,400 received and nothing from Tremont since 3 Sep. The eligibility checker applies §1.1; the dilution analyst works the reserve; the scorer recomputes.

    “Excess availability $3,519,646 — $980,354 under the trigger · risk 86 → 91.”

  6. 06Why

    Concentration, cross-aging and dilution, by the agreement's definitions

    Eligibility and concentration checker · Dilution analyst

    Tremont Equipment Works is $9,067,000 of receivables against a limit of $7,684,000, so $1,383,000 is ineligible; Delmar Hydraulics is 55% past 90 days, over the 50% cross-aging line, so its remaining $274,000 comes out too. Neither was taken off certificate 41. Trailing three-month dilution is 5.8% against 3.1% at the exam; 61% of September's credits were pricing adjustments, and the agreement's rule gives a 0.8-point reserve of $258,904.

  7. 07Cash

    Collections slowing while sales hold

    Lockbox and cash watcher

    Lockbox receipts over the last six weeks are $4.33M a week against $5.28M before — down 18% — while weekly sales are up 1%. Tremont's receipts fell 88% and it is marked “Stopped paying”. The September roll-forward still explains the aging within $64,120 (0.17%, inside the 0.5% tolerance): the receivables are real, they are just not being paid.

  8. 08Recomputed

    The borrowing base, as filed and as recomputed

    Eligibility and concentration checker

    Line by line: borrowing base $38,367,000 as filed, $36,699,646 recomputed; excess availability $5,187,000 against $3,519,646. Six checks passed, from the certificate tying to the 9 Oct aging to insurance naming the bank as lender loss payee. Under §7.4, below the trigger, cash dominion springs and the 1.10x fixed-charge test applies.

    “That is a covenant decision for Derek Oyelaran and Margaret Lindqvist — the agents only refer it.”

  9. 09Proposed

    Six actions, a targeted exam and a letter

    Action recommender

    The proposal: take Tremont's excess and Delmar out of the base, take the dilution reserve, bring the field exam forward from 11 Jan 2027 to Mon 26 Oct 2026 with Sam Whitlock for three days, ask Ashford for a corrected certificate by Wed 14 Oct, and refer the trigger. The exam scope is four tests drawn from the alerts, starting with 25 Tremont invoices dated after 1 Sep, confirmed with Tremont's accounts payable.

    “Letter to Ashford — drafted · sent only when approved.”

  10. 10Approved

    She approves; the chief credit officer co-approves

    Elena Marchetti · Margaret Lindqvist

    Elena approves a $1,667,354 reduction in availability. It is above her $500,000 limit, so it goes to Margaret Lindqvist, chief credit officer, who co-approves minutes later. The letter goes to Ray Kowalczyk, Sam Whitlock is booked for 26 Oct, and the trigger referral goes to Derek Oyelaran — the cash dominion notice stays with the people who own it.

Who it’s for

Built for everyone who watches the borrowing base.

The same borrower, seen by the four people who carry it — what their month looked like, and what it looks like now.

EM
Elena MarchettiCollateral manager, Bramwell Business Credit
Collateral manager
Before
Sees each of 46 borrowers once a month in a spreadsheet; the trouble starts in the weeks between.
Now
Starts every morning on control charts for every borrower, with the transactions behind any point past a limit.
DO
Derek OyelaranPortfolio manager, 12 relationships
Portfolio manager
Before
Hears about a collateral problem from the borrower, or from the next exam.
Now
Hears first, with what it costs in availability and the covenant referral already written up.
SW
Sam WhitlockLead field examiner
Field examiner
Before
Arrives on site to test a sample of the whole ledger, on a date set months ago.
Now
Gets the date brought forward and a scope of four tests drawn from the open alerts.
ML
Margaret LindqvistChief credit officer · second approval
Chief credit officer
Before
Is asked to approve a reserve without the trend since the exam behind it.
Now
Co-approves above $500,000 with the trend, the recomputed base and the proposal on one screen.
Built on the engine

6 agents. Each with one job, and hard limits.

Six specialist agents chart every borrower's daily collateral against its own control limits; the collateral manager decides.

Borrower report reader

Reads certificates, agings, inventory reports, ledgers and credit-memo registers as they arrive, extracts each figure with its page and line, and ties the certificate to the aging.

  • Never corrects the borrower's numbers
  • Every figure keeps its page and line
Lockbox and cash watcher

Reads each day's lockbox and bank files at 06:00: receipts by customer, collections against sales, DSO and the monthly roll-forward; flags a customer that stops paying.

  • Never moves or applies cash
Eligibility and concentration checker

Applies each credit agreement's own definitions — concentration, cross-aging, past due, contras, foreign, affiliates — and recomputes the borrowing base and excess availability.

  • Never changes an agreement's definitions
  • Recomputes; never files a certificate
Dilution analyst

Measures dilution from the credit-memo register by month, reason and customer, compares it with the last field exam and works out the reserve the agreement calls for.

  • Proposes a reserve; never sets it
Trend and risk scorer

Plots every borrower's daily measures against control limits from its own history, applies the run rules, compares with the last exam, ranks the portfolio and raises alerts with their evidence.

  • Never closes an alert
  • Every alert cites its source
Action recommender

Turns open alerts into a proposal: ineligibles and reserves, a targeted exam scope and date, the borrower letter and a referral, routed above the collateral manager's limit to the chief credit officer.

  • Never triggers a covenant or cash dominion
  • Never sends a letter before approval
Collateral manager

Decides; chief credit officer co-approves above $500,000. The agents propose; a named person decides.

Ask in plain words

Ask about any borrower, in plain words

Ask about any borrower, measure or alert — or tell it what to change. Every answer points to the certificate, aging, register or agreement clause it rests on.

Why is Ashford's availability lower than its certificate?

Three things the certificate leaves out, each from the credit agreement: Tremont at 23.6%, over the 20% limit (−$1,175,550); Delmar Hydraulics cross-aged, 55% past 90 (−$232,900); and a dilution reserve, 5.8% against the 5% line (−$258,904). Certified excess availability is $5,187,000; recomputed it is $3,519,646, under the $4,500,000 trigger.

Show Tremont's share of receivables since the exam

Tremont Equipment Works was 14.2% of Ashford's receivables at the 14 Apr exam. It rose every month with the Q3 price programme, sat just under the limit at 19.9% on 2 Oct, and reached 23.6% ($9,067,000) on Friday's aging. It has paid nothing since 3 Sep.

What drove Ashford's dilution in September?

September credit memos were $1,482,120, 6.9% of sales. 61% were pricing adjustments — $862,000 of them to Tremont under its Q3 price protection. Over three months dilution is 5.8%, against 3.1% at the exam; the agreement takes 1 point of advance rate per point above 5%, so the proposed reserve is $258,904.

Bring Ashford's field exam forward to 26 October

Done. Sam Whitlock is free the week of 26 October — 3 days on site, instead of 11 January. The targeted scope now covers Tremont invoices after 1 Sep, September credit memos over $50,000, why Delmar Hydraulics is not paying, and six weeks of lockbox to ledger. The letter to Ray Kowalczyk now gives the date. It goes when you approve.

Every screen

The working solution, as it ships.

13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.

Collateral control chartsOne borrower and one measure, daily, against limits from its own history — the drift point open with the credit memos behind it.
Every borrower, every measureDilution, DSO, collections and inventory turns as small control charts, with excess availability and the next exam.
The watchlistEvery borrower recomputed under its own credit agreement, ranked by risk, with availability as certified and as recomputed.
Alerts and the decision logEvery alert with its measure, its trend since the exam and its severity; only a person decides or dismisses, with a reason.
The borrower cockpitCertified against recomputed availability, the four signals since the exam, open alerts and what is new since the last check.
Re-check with the new filesThe six agents run step by step on this morning's register and lockbox file, and the base is recomputed.
ReceivablesConcentration trend against the limit, aging at the exam and now, and each customer's eligibility.
DilutionMonthly dilution against the 5% line, September credits by reason, the largest memos and the reserve working.
CollectionsWeekly lockbox receipts against sales, DSO, the September roll-forward tie-out and receipts from the largest customers.
Borrowing base, filed and recomputedEvery line as filed and as recomputed, excess availability against the trigger, and the checks that passed.
Targeted exam and borrower letterFour exam tests drawn from the alerts, the letter to the borrower held until approval, and every step on the activity trail.
The decisionSix actions kept, the availability effect, both approvals and the letter sent.
Your limitsConcentration, cross-aging, past due, dilution, collections, trigger warnings and approval limits — versioned settings.
Governance

Built for credit discipline: cited, approved, on the record.

Every alert cites its sourceEach alert and each adjustment opens the certificate, aging page, credit-memo register, lockbox file or agreement clause it came from, with the page and line.
Agents recommend; a person decidesAn agent raises an alert; only a person decides or dismisses it. Keeping watch with no action needs a reason on the decision log, and the agreement's ineligibles still apply to the base.
Approval limits, enforcedThe collateral manager approves reserves and ineligibles up to $500,000 of availability effect. Above that, the chief credit officer gives a second approval, recorded with name and time.
Covenants stay with peopleCash dominion, default notices and amendments are never proposed for automatic action. The agents refer a trigger to the portfolio manager and the chief credit officer; the notice is drafted and held.
The borrower's numbers, never changedThe agents read the borrower's reports and recompute under the agreement's own definitions. They never correct a certificate, file one, move cash or set a reserve, and no letter goes before approval.
A decision log examiners can readEvery alert keeps its measure, its trend since the exam, the decision and who made it. Thresholds are versioned, and a change applies from the next run.
Configuration

Your credit policy, not ours

The limits every borrower is watched against are settings. Each credit agreement can override them, and changes are versioned and on the audit trail.

SettingDefaultChoose from
Concentration limit20%Any share, per borrower
Cross-aging50%50 · 25 · 10%
Past due90 days90 days · 3× terms · 60 days
Dilution line5%5 · 4 · 6%
Dilution reserve rule1 point of advance rate1 point · 0.5 point · Off
Collections drop alert, over 6 weeks15%15 · 10 · 20%
Warn before the trigger125% of the trigger125 · 150 · 110% of the trigger
Collateral manager approves up to$500,000$500,000 · $250,000 · $1,000,000; above it the chief credit officer or the head of asset-based lending
Connections

Works with the files your borrowers already send

Borrowing base certificatesweekly and monthly, as filed
Receivable and inventory detailagings by customer and bucket, perpetual inventory
Daily sales and credit journalsand the monthly credit-memo register
Lockbox and bank filesread every morning at 06:00
Credit agreements and amendmentseligibility definitions, reserves, triggers
Field exam reports and schedulethe baseline every measure is compared with
What it changes

The difference, in numbers.

Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.

target
3days
at most from a change in the collateral to an alert
Next examup to 6–12 months
With agents≤ 3 days
target
100%
of borrowers recomputed daily under their own agreement
46 of 46 borrowers
every morning at 06:00
typical
5%
dilution line watched on every borrower, every month
OCC: dilution usually 5% or less

“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample portfolio · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (SFNet via Cobalt Intelligence: 50% of lenders strengthened monitoring; OCC Comptroller's Handbook, Asset-Based Lending, on field audits, concentration and dilution). People, lenders and borrowers named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.

Questions

What asset-based lenders ask us.

What is ABL collateral monitoring software?

Software that watches the receivables and inventory behind an asset-based loan between field exams: it reads the borrower's certificates, agings, credit memos and lockbox files, recomputes the borrowing base under the credit agreement and flags changes. ABL Collateral Monitoring does this every day for every borrower, with six agents and a collateral manager who decides.

How does it spot drift before the next certificate?

It plots each borrower's daily dilution, DSO, collections and inventory turns on control charts, with a centre line and limits set from that borrower's 12 months before its last field exam. Run rules — beyond a limit, two of three past 2σ, four of five past 1σ, eight in a row — mark drift, and a point past a limit opens the transactions that caused it.

Does it recompute the borrowing base under our credit agreement?

Yes. The eligibility and concentration checker reads the Eligible Accounts and Eligible Inventory definitions from each agreement and applies them to the latest aging and inventory — concentration, cross-aging, past due, contras, foreign and affiliates — then compares excess availability with the certificate and the covenant trigger.

Can the AI set a reserve or trigger cash dominion?

No. The agents propose reserves, ineligibles, a targeted exam and a letter; the collateral manager decides, and above $500,000 of availability effect the chief credit officer co-approves. Cash dominion, default notices and amendments stay with the portfolio manager and the chief credit officer.

How does it help the field exam team?

When two or more alerts are open on one borrower, it proposes a targeted exam with tests drawn from the alerts and a date from the examiners' schedule. In the working solution, Ashford's exam moved from 11 Jan 2027 to 26 Oct 2026 with four tests.

Which files does it read?

Borrowing base certificates, receivable and inventory detail, daily sales and credit journals, credit-memo registers, lockbox and bank files, credit agreements and amendments, and prior field exam reports. Lockbox files are read every morning at 06:00.

Can we set our own limits and approval levels?

Yes. Concentration limit, cross-aging, past due, dilution line and reserve rule, collections drop, DSO change, roll-forward tolerance, trigger warning, late certificate and approval limits are all settings, and each credit agreement can override them.

How long does it take to go live?

The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements — your credit agreements, credit policy and a sample of borrower reports and lockbox files — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own borrowers first.

See it on
your borrowers.

We'll run ABL Collateral Monitoring on a sample of your own borrower reports and lockbox files.