How long should a lender take to fund a deal?

What is a normal funding time?

There is no industry-wide number you can rely on. Funding times are measured from the day you send the deal to the day the lender pays, and they range from a couple of business days to a couple of weeks depending on the lender, the paperwork and the time of month. The figures on this page are examples, not statistics.

What counts as normal for your store is the pace you actually see. If Lender A usually pays in 3 business days and Lender C in 8, then 8 days is a long wait for one and a typical one for the other.

Why does it vary by lender and by dealership?

• Each lender runs its own process. Some review contracts as they arrive. Others batch them, check them by hand or wait for the full paperwork package first.
• How you send the deal matters. A complete, correct package funds sooner than one that needs a call back about a signature, a stipulation or the title.
• Timing changes the wait. Month-end, holidays and the days around them can slow a lender’s queue.
• Two stores see different paces from the same lender. Deal mix, paperwork habits and the lender’s relationship with the dealership all play a part, so another store’s numbers won’t match yours.

How do you learn each lender’s usual pace?

Record two dates on every deal: the day you sent it and the day the lender paid. Count the business days between them. Business days skip weekends and bank holidays. After a few funded deals with the same lender, you will see the range, and the middle of it is that lender’s usual pace with you. Docket Auto uses that pace once it has five funded deals with the lender; until then it shows an estimate.

Count business days, not calendar days. A deal sent on Friday, Oct 9, and funded on Tuesday, Oct 13, took 4 calendar days, but only 1 business day: the weekend and the Monday bank holiday don’t count. Calendar days would make that lender look slower than it was.

A spreadsheet works for this. Docket Auto does the same thing automatically, learning each lender’s pace from the deals you mark funded, so there is nothing to set up. The guide to tracking contracts in transit shows what to record.

What does the late rule look like in practice?

Docket Auto flags a deal as late when it has waited more than two business days past that lender’s own usual pace with you. Here are five made-up open deals at the close of business on Friday, October 30, 2026. Say Lender A usually funds in 3 business days, Lender B in 5, Lender C in 8 and Lender D in 11.

The limit is the lender’s usual pace plus 2 business days: 5 for Lender A, 7 for Lender B, 10 for Lender C and 13 for Lender D. Deal 24-2304 has waited longer than Lender A usually takes, but is still inside the limit, so it is not late yet. Deal 24-2301 is past it, so it is.

When is a deal really late?

A deal is late when it has waited more than two business days past its own lender’s usual pace. One fixed cutoff for every lender gets this wrong in both directions. Ten business days is late for a lender that usually pays in 3 and ordinary for one that usually pays in 11, so the table above shows different limits for different lenders.

The two business days of room is deliberate. Normal ups and downs in a lender’s queue shouldn’t set off an alarm on every deal, and a flag that fires too often stops being read.

What should you do about a late deal?

1. Check your own file first for a missing signature, an open stipulation or title paperwork the lender is waiting on.
2. Contact the lender’s funding desk with the deal number, the date you sent it and the question: what is it waiting on?
3. Fix what they name and send it again the same day if you can.
4. Write down the date and who you spoke with, so the next call picks up where this one left off.
5. If it stays stuck, look at whether the deal needs another lender, and ask your own attorney or compliance adviser about the contract.

Whatever the lender says, the deal stays a contract in transit until it pays. The contract in transit explainer covers what that means for your books, and the free contracts in transit calculator estimates how much cash is waiting on lenders at any time.