The mortgage broker tools a UK firm actually uses, in the order a case needs them, with the free official services every adviser should know.
Written by
Charlotte BrownRole
Mortgage Industry Writer
Ask a room of UK mortgage advisers which mortgage broker tools they use and you'll get a dozen different answers, because no single product does the whole job. A typical case touches lender calculators, a criteria search, a sourcing system, several lender portals, an e-signature service and a case system that is supposed to hold it all together.
This guide walks through those tools in the order a case needs them, what each category is for, and the free official services worth bookmarking. It doesn't name or rank vendors. If you're choosing a case system specifically, the software comparison guide goes deeper on that one decision.
| Category | What it does | When in the case | Free official option |
|---|---|---|---|
| Affordability calculators | Estimate how much each lender will lend | First conversation | MoneyHelper, for clients |
| Criteria search | Check which lenders accept the client's circumstances | Before sourcing | None |
| Product sourcing | Compare products, rates and fees | Research | None |
| Lender portals | Submit applications and track them with the lender | Application to offer | None |
| Case management | Hold the client record, documents, tasks and history | Throughout | None |
| Fact-find | Capture the client's circumstances | Onboarding | None |
| ID and AML checks | Verify identity and address | Onboarding | None |
| E-signature | Get documents signed without paper | Fact-find, recommendation | None |
| Property and company checks | Confirm ownership, EPC and company details | Research | Land Registry, EPC register, Companies House |
| Tax and rate references | Stamp duty, income evidence, Bank Rate | Research | HMRC, WRA, Revenue Scotland, Bank of England |
| Protection tools | Quote and place protection | Alongside the mortgage | None |
| Client communication | Keep clients updated | Throughout | None |
| Compliance and record-keeping | Evidence the advice and handle complaints | Throughout | FCA Register, ICO, Financial Ombudsman |
| Fees and commission | Track proc fees and client fees | Offer to completion | None |
| Lead generation | Bring in new enquiries | Before the case | None |
Affordability comes first because it decides whether the rest of the case is worth doing. There are two kinds.
Lender calculators. Most lenders publish an intermediary affordability calculator that applies their own model to the client's income and outgoings. The answer is specific to that lender and as close to a real decision as you'll get before an application.
Multi-lender affordability platforms. These run the same client details through many lenders' models at once, so you can see the spread of maximum loans in one search instead of re-keying the figures a dozen times. For most firms this is the bigger time saver.
For clients who want a rough figure before they speak to you, MoneyHelper's mortgage affordability calculator is free and impartial. It notes that borrowing is "usually capped at four-and-a-half times your annual income", which is useful context for a first conversation.
Affordability tells you how much. Criteria tells you whether. A client can pass every affordability model and still be declined for a second-charge history, a new contract, an unusual property or a self-employed income under two years old. Criteria search tools index lenders' published criteria so you can filter out the lenders who won't accept the case before you spend time on them. They matter most for self-employed and complex income cases and adverse credit.
Sourcing systems compare the products available to intermediaries on rate, fees, incentives and early repayment charges, and produce the research evidence you'll rely on for the recommendation. Most firms treat their sourcing system as fixed and build the rest of their setup around it.
Keep the sourcing output with the case. The research behind a recommendation is part of the suitability record, and it's easier to evidence if it's saved to the case file rather than left in the sourcing system's history.
Applications are submitted, and usually tracked to offer, through each lender's own intermediary portal. There's no way around having several of these. What helps is recording the key dates and status from each portal against the case, so you're not logging into five lender sites to answer one client's "any news?" call.
Everything above produces information that has to live somewhere. Case management software (often called a mortgage CRM) is the record that holds the client, the fact-find, the documents, the recommendation, the tasks and the history of what happened and when. It's also the tool most firms still run on a spreadsheet and an inbox. What to use instead of spreadsheets and Outlook covers that switch in detail.
Cleera is a case management system built for UK mortgage and protection advisers. It isn't a sourcing engine and doesn't replace lender portals. It sits alongside them and holds the case together. See how the mortgage CRM works.
A fact-find is where most re-keying starts. A digital fact-find the client completes themselves, with answers saved straight to the client record, removes the step of typing up a paper or PDF form. In Cleera, the digital fact-find feeds the case record, and when the client submits their income and expenditure form, household income, living costs and disposable income are totalled onto the record.
Mortgage broking on its own doesn't make a firm a "relevant person" under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017. The FCA's own guidance describes mortgage brokers as having "more limited anti-money laundering (AML) responsibilities". That isn't the same as having none. Brokers remain subject to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the FCA's financial crime systems and controls rules, and lenders expect identity and address to be verified before an application. Firms that also arrange life or protection policies should check whether that brings them into scope.
In practice, that means collecting ID and proof of address and keeping a record of the check. In Cleera, clients upload ID and proof of address through their portal for the adviser to review, and on Solo Pro and above firms can run electronic identity verification, where the client completes a document and selfie check and the verified result is filed against the request. Collecting documents from clients covers the wider process.
E-signatures are well established for fact-finds, client agreements and suitability letters. The Law Commission's 2019 report on the electronic execution of documents confirmed that an electronic signature can be used to execute a document in England and Wales, including a deed. The catch is witnessing: a deed still has to be signed in the physical presence of a witness, so check each lender's requirements for the mortgage deed itself.
On Solo Pro and above, Cleera sends the fact-find, the suitability letter and other case documents for e-signature from the case. Joint applicants sign through the portal, and the signed PDF is filed on the case. Document collection and e-signatures has more.
Three free or low-cost official services cover most property and company questions:
Cleera builds a property report automatically from the case's property address, with the EPC rating, recent HM Land Registry sold prices nearby, and flood, broadband and crime data. A Companies House lookup fills in limited company borrowers when you create the case.
Protection quoting and underwriting run through insurers' adviser portals and quoting systems, much as mortgage sourcing does. The tools that help most sit around the quote: a protection fact-find, a record of the needs you identified, and a clear note when a client declines cover.
In Cleera, protection is its own case type. It can be opened from the mortgage case it relates to, and placed policies are recorded with cover type, sum assured, premium, term and commission. Before a mortgage case completes, Cleera prompts for the protection conversation and logs the outcome.
Most "any update?" calls happen because the client can't see anything. A client portal showing the case stage, with secure messaging and document requests, removes most of them. Keeping clients updated without status calls goes through why.
Cleera's client portal covers that, with automatic reminders for outstanding forms and documents and emails at offer and completion. On Solo Pro and above, renewal reminders come from the product end date, and mailshots can go to past clients grouped by when their product ends, with anyone who has opted out of marketing skipped automatically.
The compliance toolkit is part software, part official services:
Cleera keeps a timestamped audit trail of case actions, with a read-only compliance role for anyone who reviews files. On Solo Pro and above, AI drafts a suitability letter from the case data, which the adviser edits, finalises and sends for signature. The AI drafts, flags and organises; the adviser decides.
Proc fees, client broker fees and introducer payments are easy to lose track of between offer and completion. Cleera tracks proc fees on each case from written to banked. On Solo Pro and above, you can send broker fee requests with VAT treatment and bank details and record when the client pays, and reporting shows proc fees written against banked alongside protection commission. Introducer fees are accrued on completion on the Firm plan. Cleera doesn't export to accounting software, so bookkeeping stays in your accounting package.
For new business, the tools are a way to capture enquiries and a way to track where they came from. Every Cleera case records its referral source. On the Firm plan, a lead capture form for your website creates the case directly, and introducers get their own logins to submit and track referrals. The referral partner guide covers building those relationships.
Sole trader. Keep it small: lender calculators or one affordability platform, a criteria search, your sourcing system, and one case system that also handles the fact-find, documents and client updates. Every extra tool is another login and another place for information to drift.
2–10 adviser firm. The same core, plus shared visibility. The case system needs a firm-wide pipeline, case reassignment and consistent processes, so work doesn't depend on which adviser's inbox it landed in.
Appointed representative alongside a network. The network sets part of your stack, often including the compliance system. Add tools around it rather than duplicating it: a case system for the client journey is useful if your network allows it, but check first.
Whichever group you're in, the question worth asking of each tool is the same: does it hold information the rest of the case needs? If yes, that information should end up in the case record. For how Cleera compares with other case systems, see the best mortgage CRM software roundup.
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Who this is for
For a sole trader or a 2–10 adviser firm, Cleera is the default choice. Appointed representatives use it alongside a network system, not instead of one.
Running cases on your own, still want an FCA-ready audit trail without the overhead of enterprise software.
A growing team that needs one shared pipeline, not five advisers working from different spreadsheets.
Cleera is a mortgage and protection CRM and platform for intermediaries that sits alongside your sourcing tool and network CRM. It is not a sourcing engine, and it does not replace them.
Most firms use a lender affordability calculator or multi-lender affordability platform, a criteria search, a sourcing system, lender intermediary portals for submission, and a case management system that holds the client record, documents and compliance file. Around those sit e-signature, ID checks, protection quoting and a handful of free official services such as HM Land Registry, the EPC register and Companies House.
Affordability tools estimate how much a lender would lend on a client's income and outgoings. Criteria tools check whether a lender will accept the client's circumstances at all, such as the income type or property. Sourcing compares the products and rates available. Most advisers use all three on the same case, usually in the order affordability, criteria, sourcing.
Not necessarily. If your network requires the advice file to live in its system, that stays. Many appointed representatives still run the client journey (document requests, client updates, tasks and renewals) in their own case system alongside it. The trade-off is some double entry, so check what your network allows first.
It depends on what the all-in-one replaces. Sourcing, lender portals and protection quoting are specialist tools that most firms keep regardless. The part worth consolidating is everything that holds the case together: the client record, fact-find, documents, communication and audit trail. That's where separate tools create re-keying and gaps.
Try Cleera
Manage mortgage and protection cases together. Pipeline, branded client portal, document gathering, e-signatures, and an FCA audit trail in one place.