customer stories
Beacon Funding blocks $375K in monthly fraud with Ocrolus
Customer Stories
Beacon Funding blocks $375K in monthly fraud with Ocrolus
Small business lending | Cash flow analysis, Detect
Based in Northbrook, IL, Beacon Funding Corporation is a premier equipment financing company serving businesses across the United States. As document fraud grew more sophisticated across the industry, the manual review processes the team relied on were no longer equipped to keep up.
Beacon Funding Corporation partnered with Ocrolus, a vertical AI workflow and analytics platform for lenders, to automate fraud detection and deepen its cash flow underwriting capabilities.
Challenge
As document tampering became more sophisticated, Beacon Funding Corporation needed a scalable way to verify document authenticity and identify potential fraud without slowing its credit team or compromising its same-day decisioning.
Solution
Ocrolus automated document authenticity checks and flagged signs of tampering at the point of review, while cash flow analytics and custom transaction tagging gave Beacon Funding the depth of insight needed to make better decisions faster.
Result
• An average of $375K in fraudulent deals blocked per month
• Full monthly volumes stayed unchanged even with a leaner credit team
• Fraud concerns identified instantly, eliminating 30 minutes of manual investigation per flagged document
• 5+ hours of manual bank statement review eliminated each week
• Cash flow data automatically categorized and surfaced for faster, more informed decisions
Challenge: A ruler was no longer enough
Fraudulent documents were getting trickier to spot. PDFs began arriving with subtle signs of tampering: font changes mid-document along with spacing inconsistencies. What had once been a quick spot-check became a full manual inspection and the inspection itself had become unsustainable at scale.
"We were literally going up with a ruler to try and measure the spacing and font changes to spot inaccuracies in suspected fraudulent documents," said Michael Arida, Credit and Syndications Manager at Beacon Funding Corporation.
The team was spending over 5 hours a week on manual bank statement review. On top of that, every document that raised suspicion triggered a 30-minute back-and-forth between the credit and sales teams to investigate before any decision could move forward. That time compounded into a meaningful drag on the team's ability to deliver the same-day decisioning Beacon Funding's clients expect.
Solution: Detect flags fraud instantly, cash flow analytics does the rest
Beacon Funding turned to Ocrolus, driven by an urgent need to identify and stop fraud at scale. The Ocrolus platform runs fraud checks for every application submitted, helping funders quickly identify documents showing signs of manipulation and giving credit teams an instant read on whether a file needs investigation.
"When the authenticity score is high on a set of bank statements, we don't have to dig into it nearly as much. We take a quick view and we trust the Ocrolus score," said Arida. When something does flag, it's immediately clear. "It lights up like a Christmas tree, showing if there are [fraud] issues." The 30 minutes of back-and-forth that fraud investigation once required is gone, with every application and loan file going through Ocrolus as standard protocol.
Beyond fraud detection, the cash flow analytics layer plays a central role in how Beacon Funding evaluates every application. The team uses custom transaction tagging to break transactions into categories that map directly to their underwriting criteria: flagging stacking behavior, identifying gambling activity and creating deal-specific tags that surface the signals their credit model relies on. Those tags update in real time and flow directly into the cash flow analytics behind every decision.
"The addition of cash flow analytics with Ocrolus was a great cherry on top for us. It gives us a much deeper dive into what's really happening in the business," said Arida.
Result: $375K in monthly fraud blocked, an efficient team, the same time to decision
The impact on Beacon Funding's operation is measurable across fraud prevention, operational efficiency and client experience.
Ocrolus Detect now catches an average of 5 fraudulent deals per month. With an average deal size of $75K, that represents an average of $375K in fraudulent deals blocked every month.
"Ocrolus Detect is worth every dollar. We get our return on investment when it flags just one potential fraudulent application," said Arida.
The deeper cash flow insights Ocrolus surfaces have also changed how confidently and quickly the team can decision on deals. With transaction data automatically categorized and analyzed for every application, the credit team spends less time digging for answers and more time acting on them.
"Not having to take time to manually review documents saves time and allows us to focus on keeping our shorter time to approval, providing clients with a decision in 3-4 hours," said Arida.
With the 30-minute per-document fraud investigation and 5 hours of weekly manual bank statement review now eliminated, that time has been returned to the business. When a team member retired, Beacon Funding maintained its full deal volume with a team that was one-third smaller.
Key outcomes:
- An average of $375K in fraudulent deals blocked per month
- Full monthly volumes stayed unchanged even with a leaner credit team
- Fraud concerns identified instantly, eliminating 30 minutes of manual investigation per flagged document
- 5+ hours of manual bank statement review eliminated each week
- Cash flow data automatically categorized and surfaced for faster, more informed decisions
Why Beacon Funding recommends Ocrolus
For Toby McDonough, President of Beacon Funding Corporation, the case for tools like Ocrolus Detect is straightforward.
"Fraud sophistication in equipment finance has outpaced what any manual process can handle. Ocrolus Detect gave us the ability to catch fraud at scale without slowing down the speed our clients expect — and that combination is what keeps us competitive. At this point, tools like this aren't optional; they're foundational to running a modern lending operation," said McDonough.
The partnership itself has reinforced that view. The Ocrolus team has been consistently collaborative and proactive, bringing forward ideas for how Beacon Funding can get more from the platform.
"Ocrolus is always proactively bringing forth ideas and solutions to help our organization. The support we receive is something we really value," said Arida.
"Fraud sophistication in equipment finance has outpaced what any manual process can handle. Ocrolus Detect gave us the ability to catch fraud at scale without slowing down the speed our clients expect — and that combination is what keeps us competitive. “
Toby McDonough, President at Beacon Funding Corporation
