What is Lumen?
Lumen is a customizable recommendation tool designed to minimize the need for manually reviewing applications for leasing requirements. Lumen analyzes all of the information provided by applicants and calculates a recommendation based on whether the applicant(s) meet all of your property's unique approval requirements, giving leasing teams confidence in the decisions they make.
Lumen can calculate a recommendation using the following applicant data:
Income
Identity Verification
Credit Record
Collections records
Criminal records
Housing court records
What are Lumen Recommendations?
Lumen recommendations are generated using a calculation set by your company's rental criteria and are a quick visual way to see if an applicant meets those requirements.
Lumen does not make a decision on an application for you or your leasing team. Lumen is a recommendation that simplifies the review of an application based on what information is available in the system to review.
Before we jump into the details, you'll find some frequently asked questions about what Lumen is and how it's used below.
FAQs about Lumen:
Does VERO or Lumen make a decision on an application? | No, VERO or Lumen does not make decisions on applications. This is because there may be information provided that the system cannot use to generate a recommendation, or that is handled out of the VERO system, that requires manual review.
Lumen is a recommended action based on what can be reviewed by the system according to your company's rental criteria. |
Can a Lumen recommendation be changed? | Lumen will recalculate if new information that is able to be used by the system is added by either an applicant or, on behalf of an applicant, by the leasing team. You also have the ability to manually recalculate Lumen as you see fit.
For example, if an additional source of income is added, Lumen will regenerate a new calculation based on the updated income information. The output may not change if the new information doesn't meet your company's requirements. |
Can I still approve a deal if Lumen recommended Decline? | Yes, a deal can still be approved even if the Lumen recommendation is Decline, as long as your VERO profile has the appropriate permissions. If you are not able to do so, contact your manager or system administrator for assistance. |
Can I still decline a deal if Lumen recommended Approve? | Yes, a deal can still be declined even if the Lumen recommendation is Approve. However, the adverse action letter automatically generated by VERO will not have any insight to provide to the applicant about the decline reason, and additional details should be provided by the leasing team. If you are not able to do so, contact your manager or system administrator for assistance. |
Why is Lumen generating an inaccurate recommendation? | Lumen could generate an incorrect or inaccurate recommendation for several reasons. Some, but not all, are listed below:
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If you have questions about your Company's rental criteria and the Lumen requirements associated with those in VERO, please reach out to your Manager to review your specific company's policies and utilization of the VERO Lumen recommendation.
Reviewing Lumen Recommendations
When you are on the Applications tab in the VERO Manager Portal, you can view the Lumen Result column on the far right side of the screen for all applications that are awaiting a decision. If the applications have not yet been submitted, the Lumen Result will show 'IN PROGRESS' in this column.
Once you click into the deal, VERO will display the Recommendation Bar at the top of the deal overview, along with the key data point "highlights" or "lowlights" related to this result to provide insight at a quick glance.
On the left side of the recommendation bar is the Lumen Recommendation. This will usually be an output like Approve, Conditional, or Decline recommended actions, though the specific outputs are customizable to your company's VERO configuration.
On the right-hand side of the recommendation bar are the deal's Action Buttons. These buttons will allow the reviewer to take an action, like Approve or Decline, or request additional information. The More Actions button has additional actions beyond the recommended action generated by Lumen.
Here are a few examples of what these results might look like:
In the top example, you can see the "Lumen Recommends CONDITIONAL CREDIT" on the left-hand side where the recommendation is, and then the Action Button set to 'REQUEST MORE INFO' to the right, with the 'More Actions' button on the far right of the Recommendation bar.
Why is Lumen making this recommendation?
We know that understanding exactly why a deal or application is receiving a given Lumen result is critical to being able to properly use this tool to optimize your decision. making process.
Lumen runs calculations at the Applicant level first, and then the Deal level. The Lumen Recommendation shown on the Recommendation Bar is the Deal level Lumen result.
All applicants must each meet the rental criteria set by your company's Lumen formula for applicants, in order for a Deal's Lumen result to result in a positive recommendation, even if the deal level requirements are met.
This is why you can review why a recommendation is being made, both by reviewing the Lumen Results on the Deal Summary and the Lumen Results on a Specific Application.
Lumen Results on the Deal Summary
While you can see a snapshot of the contributing factors that led to the Lumen result on the Recommendation Bar, you may want further insight to better understand what is causing this result.
Clicking into the DECLINE or CONDITIONAL details below the Recommendation Bar on the Deal Summary page will display any reason why Lumen may recommend DECLINE or CONDITIONAL for the overall deal based on the applicants attached.
To see the detailed Lumen Result Reasons on a deal, select the 'Lumen' tab on the Deal Summary as shown below:
This will display all of the different checks that Lumen ran on the deal. The green check marks indicate that the check has passed, while the red X's indicate that they failed the check.
In the example below, we can see that several checks related to income verification failed to pass based on the approval requirements set up by the company, resulting in the deal receiving a Negative Lumen Recommendation.
For even more granular detail, you can toggle the 'Show Details' button on the right-hand side to expand the details related to each check.
Here you will be able to see exactly which formula is being applied, as well as why the check is passing or failing.
In the example below, we can see that the acceptable income-to-rent ratio threshold has been set to 2 to 3 or greater, but the total verified income on this deal is 0.356x the monthly rent, causing the failure.
In order to help our clients maintain Fair Housing practices, Lumen runs on mathematical calculations using data pulled from the information submitted by the applicant to the VERO system.
The Show Details page shows the exact equation being used to meet the criteria of recommendations generated, being repeatable and explainable by Fair Housing laws.
Lumen Results on an Application
When on the Deal Summary, you can see if an applicant has passed or failed the Lumen checks by reviewing the Summary Cards under each applicant's name.
Example of an applicant who has passed Lumen from the Deal Summary screen:
Example of an applicant who has failed Lumen from the Deal Overview screen:
To review additional details as to why a specific applicant failed the Lumen checks, click into the application and then select the 'Lumen' tab on the far right side of the screen.
Similar to the Lumen details on the Deal Overview, it shows all the checks the applicant is passing or failing.
Once you confirm which area of the application the failure is related to, you can select the corresponding tab on the navigation bar at the top of the application to look into this section.
Example of the Application Lumen tab showing a failed check:
If you are unable to see the Lumen Result Reasons, this may be due to your VERO permissions settings. If you believe you should be able to access this, please reach out to your manager or system admin.
How do Lumen calculations work?
Before Lumen can run the formula representing your company's rental criteria, several requirements must be met:
All applications within the deal must be submitted.
Ex: a deal has 3 applications and only one is submitted, Lumen will not calculate until the other 2 have been submitted.
A unit with an active listing must be assigned to the deal.
In order to calculate the income-to-rent, the rent amount must be known. A unit assigned to the deal with an active listing with a rent amount is required.
The Lumen calculation must have been configured prior to the deal being created.
For companies using County Criminal searches, these records must be received before Lumen will calculate, even if the applications are submitted. Learn more about County Criminal checks here.
Once all of the above conditions are met, Lumen will use the criteria set in your company's Lumen Formulas to classify applicants into the appropriate recommendation categories.
Lumen formulas then use what are called Filters to determine how to use certain information based on nuanced criteria, based on the check.
Unique Lumen Filters
Crucial Filter
When enabled, Lumen will ALWAYS return a Negative recommendation when a result is found that matches the Crucial Filter settings.
Ignore Filter
When enabled, ignored filters will not impact the recommendation either way.
Safety Net Filter:
If Safety Net is toggled ON - and there IS NO IGNORED filter - any returned result will lead to a "Review Safety Net" recommendation.
If Safety Net is toggled ON - and there IS an IGNORED filter - any returned result will STILL lead to a Safety Net recommendation as long as it does not match the IGNORED filter.
If Safety Net is toggled ON - and there IS an IGNORED filter - and the returned result matches the IGNORED filter - then Lumen will result in a positive recommendation.
HOWEVER, if there are any other Safety Net results that are not IGNORED, this will lead to a "Review Safety Net" recommendation.
Frequently Asked Questions about Lumen Calculations and Formulas
Where is the Lumen formula configured? | Lumen can be configured on the company level, the portfolio level, and on the property level. This means each property or portfolio could have its own unique Lumen configuration.
Your company's implementation manager is needed to create, update, or modify your Lumen formulas and results. |
Can VERO manually change a Lumen recommendation? | No, neither users at your Company nor VERO staff can manually override or change a Lumen result. The only way to change a Lumen result is for the information pulled into the calculation to be updated or changed, or new information added. |
How does Lumen use Income information? | Only income that is both verified, an active stream and noted as "included" income on the Income and Balances tab will be used by Lumen formulas.
For more information on Income Streams, click here. |
How is Guarantor or Co-Applicant information used in Lumen calculations? | Lumen calculations are highly customizable based on your company's rental criteria and policies around application groups and guarantor requirements. Lumen can be configured to assess Guarantors and joint Applicants according to your company's requirements.
For example, some companies have a higher income-to-rent ratio requirement in their Lumen configuration when a Guarantor is used that checks only the Guarantor's income. Others may use the combined income of the Guarantor and Applicant(s). |
NOTE: Lumen can be configured to use any recommendation labels to keep consistent with the terminology your team is familiar with. The default labels are "EXCELLENT" and "NEGATIVE".
Troubleshooting Lumen Issues
Use the steps below to troubleshoot issues that you may be seeing with Lumen.
Incorrect or No Lumen Result
To troubleshoot a situation where an incorrect Lumen Result is appearing on a deal, check the following:
1. Confirm that all applications have been fully submitted.
Lumen will not calculate a Recommendation Result until all applications have been submitted.
Tip: You can check the Deal Activity Notes to see if an applicant has recently withdrawn their application, added an additional applicant, or performed other activities that may be preventing submission.
2. Confirm that the Background and Credit Check has not expired.
Once a background and credit report have been generated, it is only valid for 30 days.
If the deal was not decided prior to the 30-day expiration, the results will be nullified, and Lumen will not be able to calculate any of the report details. A new application will need to be created for the applicant to submit.
3. Confirm that a Unit is assigned to the Deal and has an Active Listing.
Lumen generally cannot calculate if there is no Unit assigned or the Unit assigned does not have an active and available listing with a rent amount specified.
Tip: Click on the Unit Number on the top left of the deal to be automatically routed to the Property's page in VERO, where you can review the Units. You'll be able to see the Listing status on this page under the Unit Status column, shown below:
4. Confirm if they are receiving this result accurately based on the Lumen Formula.
Review the Deal to confirm if it is a Deal-level Lumen Result or an Applicant-level Lumen result that is causing the unexpected Lumen recommendation.
Tip: Use the steps to review the Lumen Results on the Deal Summary and Lumen Results on a Specific Application linked above. You may need to review details on an applicant's specific income background and Credit Check.
Tip: Check in with your manager or compliance and VERO administrator to ensure that your Lumen formulas match up with your company's rental criteria. If your Lumen formula needs updating, have your admin reach out to their Customer Success Manager at VERO.
5. (Optional) Confirm the Deal is not awaiting County Criminal Results.
If your company uses County Criminal in addition to the standard Background and Credit Checks offered by either TransUnion or Experian, Lumen will not calculate until the results have been received. When county criminal results are pending, this can be seen on the applicant's Background and Credit Check page and in the recommendation bar.
Tip: For more information about county criminal checks, click here.
6. Recalculate Lumen.
If everything seems to be in order and the Lumen Recommendation is still not what you'd expect, you can recalculate Lumen manually.
Follow these steps to recalculate Lumen:
On the Recommendation Bar, select the 'MORE ACTIONS' button
Select 'RECALCULATE LUMEN' from the drop-down menu. Lumen will recalculate, and the screen will refresh:
Note: If you do not have the Recalculate Lumen option, it means your role is not configured for this action. The VERO Support team can assist with recalculating Lumen for you. If you believe you should have access to this action, please reach out to your manager or VERO Admin.
If you have tried all of these steps and have confirmed that the data on the deal should be returning a different Lumen result based on the formulas that are applied, please reach out to the VERO Support team.
I Can't Make a Decision on a Deal
The ability to make a decision on a deal is controlled by user permissions set by your company's configuration.
You may have the ability to approve deals only if the Lumen result is Approve or Excellent, and your manager or regional may be the only person who can perform an "override", which is when a deal is approved when Lumen recommends a decline action. If you cannot make a decision on a deal, check the following:
Confirm that you have access to be able to make a decision on deals with your manager or VERO Admin.
Hover over the grayed-out decision button to see the reason why the button is not active. A message will often appear with a reason.
Check for application submissions and withdrawals
Make sure all applicants have submitted their applications
Check the Activity tab on the deal overview to see if an applicant has recently withdrawn their application and has not yet resubmitted it.
Confirm that there is an available unit assigned to the deal.
If the unit assigned does not have an active listing, or the lease start date is set for before the unit is available, the Approve button may not be available.
If you are still not able to decide on the deal after you have confirmed that all applications have been submitted, the unit is assigned and available, and you have the correct permissions, please reach out to the VERO Support team for assistance.
VERO Staff will not approve deals for individuals who do not have the permissions to approve a given deal.
If you need a deal approved but lack the permissions to approve yourself, please reach out to your manager for assistance.
VERO Staff will also refrain from taking a decision action on a deal regardless of the permission level of the requester, unless a system issue is preventing the action from being taken by the user.
There's a 404 Error where the Lumen Recommendation should be
This can occur when an applicant on a deal was removed, merged, or updated in a way that results in a duplicated application on the deal. To confirm if this is the case, review the following:
Check the activity notes on the deal to confirm if any merges, deletions, or movements of applicants occurred on the deal.
If the Primary applicant appears twice, with the Lumen card under their profile showing No Result, this has likely occurred.
If you see a second copy of the applicant with the Primary Applicant tag, but no icons for Delete, Move, Info, or Unblock.
If your deal is showing a 404, you can take the following actions:
Decision the deal after a manual review, as you would according to your company's policies.
Cancel the deal and create a new one with the correct applicants and information. They will need to redo their application.
Otherwise, please reach out to VERO Support for assistance with the 404 error.