Automated applicant intake with structured document storage
The challenge they faced
The team managed loan applications for franchisees across dozens of franchise brands. Their process ran on Dropbox and Word templates. Applicants found it confusing and made data entry errors. Staff spent hours creating client folders by hand, sorting uploaded files and re-entering the same information in multiple places.
They came to Bluleadz for a modern intake process. Applicants needed one place to submit their information and documents. Those documents had to land in the team's existing folder structure without manual sorting, and qualified applicants had to move into the pipeline without extra setup.
The strategy we mapped
We built the applicant portal on HubSpot CMS with a marketplace theme styled to FLS’s branding. Applicants complete a multi-step questionnaire covering loan purpose, borrowing entity, franchise interest, experience and income. Known fields are pre-filled to reduce friction. The questionnaire also collects the required documents, including driver’s license, bank statements, paystubs and the SBA Personal Financial Statement.
On submission, Make takes over. Two scenarios, one for franchise loans and one for non-franchise loans, clone FLS’s Dropbox folder template for the applicant. Each uploaded file goes into the correct folder. The folder path and company details are written back to the HubSpot contact record. For loans with multiple owners, the primary applicant is tagged separately from partners, and partners automatically receive an invitation to complete their own questionnaire. A structured franchise dropdown replaced free-text entry, which keeps reporting clean.
Applicants who haven’t completed the questionnaire get reminder emails at day three and day eight. If it’s still incomplete three days after that, their status updates to “Didn’t Complete.” Completed applications are qualified automatically and a deal is created in the pipeline, with a separate path for applicants who don’t qualify.
Alongside the build, we ran a training series so the team can manage HubSpot themselves. Topics included object properties and layouts, email and social media, custom reporting and Content Hub tools.
The solutions we executed
We started by mapping the team's existing process: their pre-qualification checklist, the Dropbox folder hierarchy they use for every client, and the path from first contact to qualified deal.
The original plan used CloudFiles for document storage. During discovery it became clear CloudFiles couldn't reproduce the team's nested folder structure, and it couldn't reliably signal when an applicant had finished uploading. We pivoted to HubSpot native forms connected to Dropbox through Make. That gave us full control over folder creation and file routing, and it kept the folder structure the team already relied on.
What changed after the engagement.
The team now has a single applicant questionnaire that replaces their manual intake process. Every applicant's documents land in the correct Dropbox folder automatically, matching the structure the team already used, with no manual sorting. Contact records are updated with folder paths and company details, and multi-owner loans bring partners in without staff follow-up. Reminder emails handle incomplete applications, and qualified applicants move straight into the deal pipeline.
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