SPARK 7.8.5 Release Notes

On Saturday, September 17th, we are targeting the release of SPARK 7.8.5. This release includes updates to SPARK API tokens and notifications for bulk document uploads.

We are also excited to share that we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes to upgrade the infrastructure of SPARK. This release does not include any major new features, but we have made significant improvements to the overall performance of SPARK.

If you are a customer using any SPARK APIs, this upgrade does impact API tokens. We have already reached out to customers we believe to be affected.

What's Changed

API Refresh Tokens

If you are using the SPARK API with client authentication (client ID/secret) and rely on refresh tokens in your API code, you will be required to send the original client ID along with the refresh token to retrieve a new access token.

External Authorized Users & All Personal and Sensitive Information

External Authorized Users with access to all personal information can now see sensitive documents that are not associated with specific businesses or individuals.

Seller Financing with No Payment

If Seller Financing is added as a source of funds with a standby agreement that has a payment type of No Payment, the default terms for the Seller Financing will include a payment frequency of None, which excludes the Seller Financing from DSC calculations in Financial Analysis.

Email Notifications for Bulk Document Uploads

A member of the SPARK package team will now receive a notification when an external user uploads multiple documents to a package. The recipient depends on what master stage the package is in when the documents are uploaded. For example, SPARK will notify the Package Owner during Intake, the Credit Analyst during Underwriting, the Packager during Packaging, the Closer during Closing, and the Disbursement Reviewer after Closing.

Uses of Funds on SBA Form 1920

In Section E of SBA Form 1920, SPARK will now populate this chart in thousands of dollars, as instructed on the Form.

Custom Uses of Funds on SBA Loans

All custom uses of funds on SBA loan packages will now automatically appear as Other on SBA Forms 1919 and 1920 as well as the submitted E-Tran application. Prior to this change, SPARK would display an error message and require that a SPARK administrator map the custom use of funds to a valid SBA use of funds.

Legal Structure Mapping within LaserPro Extract

SPARK's LaserPro extract was updated to support the following additional legal structures:

• Self Employed (maps to Sole Proprietorship),

• Joint Venture, Cooperative, ESOP, ROBS, and Qualified Joint Venture (map to Partnership)

• Single Member LLC (maps to Limited Liability Company)

• Non-Profit, Non-Profit Child Care Center, Non-Profit 501 (c)(3), Non-Profit 501 (c)(19), Non-Profit 501 (c)(6), Native American Tribe, Housing Cooperative, and Political Subdivision (map to Association)

• Government (maps to Government)

• Independent Contractor and Tenant in Common (map to Individual)

Guarantors & Key Employees

Guarantors can now also be designated as key employees, in case a non-owner guarantor is required to complete a personal history statement (1919) as a key employee.

SBA Form 413 and Empty Sections

The SBA has provided us with feedback that sections 1 - 8 should display "N/A" if the personal financial statement does not include any line items for the respective section.

E-Tran Submissions of Community Advantage Loans

The SBA has made a new requirement for Community Advantage loans that requires lenders to provide text in the Lender Comments section within E-Tran (see image below). When we inquired about this change, SBA informed the SPARK team that the requirement was meant 'to indicate if (lenders) used the SBSS score, their own OCRM approved score or their own underwriting policy based on similarly sized non-SBA guaranteed loans.'

This area in E-Tran was not previously required in order to submit, and SPARK does not currently have an equivalent area to map directly to this field. To accommodate this change, SPARK will be populating the following language into the 'Lender Comments' section for Community Advantage loans:

• If an SBSS/SLA score is documented: "Loan application was scored with SBSS and was approved using [lender name]’s underwriting policy based on similarly sized non-SBA guaranteed loans."

• If no SBSS/SLA score is documented - "Loan application was approved using [Lender Name]’s underwriting policy based on similarly sized non-SBA guaranteed loans."

If necessary, Lenders can update the language after submission to E-Tran.

What's Been Fixed

• A bug was introduced in SPARK 7.8.4 that prevented copying/pasting of images in Guarantor Analysis commentary. This was addressed in a hotfix prior to the SPARK 7.8.5 release.

• The Dram Shop/Liquor Liability Insurance requirement has been updated to include 445320 (Beer, Wine, and Liquor Retailers). This NAICS code was updated in the 2022 dataset. This was addressed in a hotfix.

• Fees that were previously deleted were still displayed on our "Fee Listing" credit memo section. This was addressed in a hotfix.

• We resolved an issue that allowed multiple "In Progress" decision requests. This was addressed in a hotfix.

• We've improved our validation for creating/updating individuals through the API so that first and last names are required.

• We fixed an issue impacting the ability to look up an address on a use of funds that supports addresses (e.g., building construction).

• We fixed an issue with our DocuSign integration that presented a false error message stating that you did not have access to the DocuSign account (even when logged in to DocuSign).

• We resolved an issue where Documents associated with Tasks were missing the name of the business, individual, or collateral on the "Edit Task" form.

• We fixed an issue that impacted the display of SPARK's credit memo when content containing hidden characters was copied/pasted into a commentary section (e.g., project summary, sources and uses commentary, etc.)

• Tasks that are configured to be automatically assigned to the package owner will now be automatically assigned as expected.

Find Out More

Stay tuned for the latest features and subscribe to your favorite categories. If you have any feedback or questions about this release, please reach out to your favorite CSM, or email us at support@lendwithspark.com. Your feedback will help us make SPARK the best loan origination software in the market!