The 1003 form configuration inside BNTouch is more powerful than most teams use it for. From the options tab, you can hide entire sections of the URLA from the borrower, toggle individual fields, add helpful comments next to fields where borrowers tend to get confused, customize consent prompt language, and (the move most teams miss) automatically move a borrower to a new step in their marketing sequence when they complete the form. Three sub-tabs hold the controls: field configuration, consent settings, and other settings.
The configuration sits inside the options tab under the 1003 form section. From the walkthrough: “In the options tab of your [BNTouch] CRM, you can [use the 1003 form section to configure the URLA experience]” [8ZvbxDxRlJo m0]. The screen splits into three sub-tabs that handle different parts of the configuration.
Sub-tab one: field configuration (hide sections, toggle fields, add comments)
The first sub-tab lets you customize what fields the borrower sees and how. Three controls matter:
Show or hide entire sections
“You can also elect to show or hide an entire section by clicking the eyeball icon for the selected section” [8ZvbxDxRlJo m1]. The URLA has a lot of sections (employment, assets, declarations, etc.). If your loan product does not require a section (or you collect that data through a different intake), hide the section entirely so the borrower experience is shorter and cleaner.
Show or hide individual fields
The same eyeball control applies field-by-field within a section. So you can show a section but hide one specific field inside it (e.g., show the employment section but hide a non-essential supplementary field). The point is fine-grained control over the borrower’s form experience.
Add helpful comments next to fields
This is the underused configuration. “When clicked, a new text box will appear where you can enter a comment that will appear for the field. This comment will appear next to the field when a borrower is filling out the form, so it can be used to provide help or [instruction]” [8ZvbxDxRlJo m2]. Translation: you can put inline help text next to any field. If borrowers consistently get confused on “gross monthly income” because they don’t know whether to include bonuses, add a comment that says “include base salary plus regular bonuses; do not include one-time payments.” Forty seconds of typing prevents a hundred clarification phone calls per year.
Sub-tab two: consent settings
The second sub-tab is “consent settings, [which] allows you to customize the prompts for consent that borrowers will see [while completing the form]” [8ZvbxDxRlJo m3]. URLA consent prompts are legally required, but the exact wording can be customized within compliance boundaries. The first option enables or disables consent prompts entirely (relevant for accounts that collect consent through a different path); subsequent options control the specific wording of the prompts borrowers see.
Worth noting: consent settings are where a compliance officer should be involved. The wording you ship here is what the borrower agrees to. If your firm has standardized language, configure it once at the account level and every 1003 form fires with that wording.
Sub-tab three: other settings (the automation hook)
The third sub-tab is where the operational gold lives. “The third sub-tab, other settings, contains miscellaneous settings for your 1003 form. The first option, if enabled, will automatically move a borrower’s record to a new step in the marketing sequence pipeline when they complete their loan [application]” [8ZvbxDxRlJo m4].
This is the setting that connects form completion to your marketing automation. Configure it once: when a borrower completes the 1003, they automatically move forward in your in-process campaign. The new campaign step might send a “thank you, here’s what happens next” email, trigger a task to the assigned LO to call within 24 hours, and update the borrower’s status from prospect to application in process.
Without this setting on, completed 1003s sit silently and an LO has to manually move the file forward. With this setting on, the file moves itself.
The partial-completion warning to plan around
One important detail from the demo: “These partially completed forms will be lost and not transferred to the new form” [8ZvbxDxRlJo m3]. This appears in the context of switching to a new 1003 version. If you have borrowers mid-way through a form when you change the underlying URLA version, their partial progress does not migrate. Plan transitions around quiet periods or notify borrowers in advance.
A specific scenario: setting up a refinance-only 1003
You serve mostly refinance borrowers. A few sections of the standard URLA (e.g., first-time homebuyer counseling questions, purchase-specific declarations) are irrelevant for your typical borrower. Configuration plan:
Open options, navigate to 1003 form, click the field configuration sub-tab.
Hide the purchase-specific sections by clicking the eyeball icon on each.
Add inline comments to the employment section explaining what you mean by “two years of stable income” for self-employed borrowers.
Open the other settings sub-tab and enable the “move borrower to next step on completion” toggle pointing to your refi-in-process campaign.
Click update to save.
From the demo on the save step: “When finished, click update to save any changed settings” [8ZvbxDxRlJo m5]. Now every refi borrower who completes a 1003 gets a shorter, clearer form and moves automatically into your refi-in-process automation.
The enable chat box detail
One small additional option mentioned in the walkthrough: “Check the enable chat box [for the form]” [8ZvbxDxRlJo m5]. If you have BNTouch Connect (the live chat module) configured, you can enable a chat box directly inside the 1003 form so borrowers who get stuck mid-form can chat with you in real time. The completion rate impact of that on long forms is usually significant; borrowers who would otherwise abandon get help on the spot.
Honest limits
The 1003 is a regulated form. You can hide sections and customize comments, but the URLA structure itself is governed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Hiding a section that is required for your loan product can create compliance issues. Coordinate with your compliance team before hiding non-trivial sections.
Consent wording requires compliance review. Default wording is provided; custom wording requires sign-off from whoever owns compliance at your firm.
Partial completion does not transfer across version changes. Plan version migrations around low-volume periods or notify borrowers to complete their forms before the change.
Auto-advance only fires on completion. If a borrower fills out 90% of the form and stops, no campaign step fires. For drop-off recovery, you need a separate trigger (e.g., a “started but did not finish 1003” campaign step that sends a reminder).
Configure the 1003 form on your account
To walk through field configuration, consent settings, and the auto-advance setting on your live account, request a demo and ask the BNTouch team to demo the three sub-tabs. The 1003 application page covers the borrower-facing experience.
