Bulma vs AFG Products & Scenarios 2026

Choose Bulma over Australian Finance Group (AFG) Products & Scenarios when you need policy answers and borrowing-power comparisons with quoted policy. Keep AFG Products & Scenarios as your main product-comparison workflow when you already use BrokerEngine Plus and need loan options alongside your deal management.

Bulma’s Policy Advisor and Scenario Planner handle policy research and scenario planning across 52+ lenders. AFG describes Products & Scenarios as its loan-scenario and product-comparison tool within BrokerEngine Plus. The choice turns on the work you need beyond comparing loan products.

The Choice for an AFG Broker

An AFG broker can use Bulma for lender research while retaining the network’s deal-management tools. Choosing a research assistant doesn’t require changing aggregator.

Bulma lets you ask a single policy question or describe a whole client scenario. It groups lenders by policy fit, calculates borrowing power and lists the documents each lender needs. Quoted policy wording gives you evidence to keep with your recommendation.

AFG Products & Scenarios is a feature within BrokerEngine Plus, the customer relationship management (CRM) and deal platform. Suite360 is the wider technology package. AFG’s aggregation business and its home-loan offerings are separate from the comparison feature.

Loanworks is also a different software provider, with loan-origination and commission-processing systems. A reference to Loanworks isn’t a description of AFG Products & Scenarios.

For an existing BrokerEngine Plus user, the useful reason to add Bulma is its combined research workflow. Product selection can stay in the existing system while Bulma supplies policy explanations and lender-by-lender scenario assessment.

Compare Policy Research and Lender Selection

Bulma connects the lender’s rules to the client’s borrowing power, while AFG describes Products & Scenarios through building loan scenarios and comparing products. Those tasks meet at lender selection, but they answer different questions about the file.

Consider this fictional borrower. Alex wants an owner-occupied purchase loan, has been self-employed for 18 months and has one completed tax return. Alex also has a car loan and a credit card with an unused limit.

The first policy question is which lenders accept that income history and what evidence they require. Bulma’s Policy Advisor answers from lender policy documents and quotes the wording behind the answer. It names lenders whose policy doesn’t address the question instead of filling the gap with a guess.

Scenario Planner then uses Alex’s whole circumstances to group lenders into standard-policy fits, conditional fits and cases needing an exception. It calculates borrowing power using each lender’s servicing rules. These include income shading, assessment buffers and the Household Expenditure Measure (HEM), a household spending benchmark.

The car repayment and card limit belong in the borrowing-power inputs. A lender’s acceptance of one tax return answers an income-policy question. It doesn’t establish how much Alex can borrow after existing commitments and living costs.

Within AFG Products & Scenarios, the documented task for Alex is building the loan scenario and comparing loan products. Keep the evidence for Alex’s income eligibility alongside that comparison. A product result alone doesn’t establish that a lender accepts 18 months of self-employment.

For supporting research, Suite360’s separate Lenders module has lender and business partner information, which AFG says its team continually updates. Help adds a broking and AFG knowledge base. These are resources in the wider package, distinct from the Products & Scenarios comparison feature.

Follow the Evidence Through the File

Bulma shows the lender and policy area beside the quoted wording, plus when Bulma last updated that policy. You can copy the answer with its sources into your file notes. This connects your interpretation of Alex’s income history to the rule you relied on.

If Alex falls outside standard policy, Bulma shows known exception pathways with Documented, Precedented or Reported confidence levels. An exception pathway needs confirmation with the lender before you rely on it. Historical approvals for similar scenarios give context, but they don’t change the written rule.

Any borrowing-power calculation depends on its inputs and assumptions. Retain the accepted income figure and how it was treated, together with commitments and the lender calculator result. The lender’s own assessment sets the final borrowing figure, and a shortlist doesn’t guarantee credit approval.

Bulma also has no lender or aggregator owner. Its policy answers aren’t shaped by an owner’s product shelf, so its research sits outside the network’s lending business.

Working Within the AFG Network

AFG packages BrokerEngine Plus within Suite360, so Products & Scenarios belongs to a broader technology workflow. AFG’s published bundle combines broker tools under one technology fee, with broker and support user billing categories.

For an existing AFG brokerage, product comparison can remain within that package. The broader BrokerEngine Plus platform also has direct lodgement to ApplyOnline. Lodgement is a platform function alongside the Products & Scenarios comparison feature.

Access also extends beyond the network. AFG’s guide to choosing an aggregator says brokers outside AFG can access BrokerEngine Plus. Network membership and technology access are therefore separate decisions.

Bulma has its own subscription. Solo is for one broker, while Team includes up to five members with shared history and extra seats available. Policy research and scenario planning come with every plan, with generous usage limits.

Bulma can load client details from a CRM or uploaded documents. For a file held in BrokerEngine Plus, copy Bulma’s quoted answer and relevant scenario assumptions into the client record.

Bulma doesn’t lodge applications or connect to lender portals. It also doesn’t quote interest rates, fees or product pricing. An AFG broker who needs those product details and the existing lodgement workflow has a reason to retain the network platform alongside research software.

Capabilities at a Glance

Compare the research subscription with the technology package you already use, because their billing covers different work.

Decision factor	Bulma	AFG Products & Scenarios
Access	Separate broker subscription, with Solo, Team and Enterprise plans	Feature within BrokerEngine Plus, included in AFG’s Suite360 technology package; BrokerEngine Plus is also accessible outside AFG
Policy evidence	Policy Advisor quotes lender policy wording and identifies the lender and policy area	Suite360’s separate Lenders module supplies lender information; retain the supporting policy with Products & Scenarios results
Scenario work	Scenario Planner groups policy fit and calculates borrowing power across 52+ residential lenders	Builds loan scenarios and compares loan products within BrokerEngine Plus
Billing basis	Solo for one broker; Team includes up to five members, with extra seats available	Suite360 bundled technology fee with broker and support user categories; AFG’s technology page also directs businesses to a tailored quote
Support	Founder answers every support question; Team adds priority support	Suite360 support team, Help knowledge base and Learn training
Deciding strength	Policy explanations and borrowing-power assessment together, with quoted evidence	Product comparison within an existing client and deal platform
Material boundary	Separate subscription; product rates and fees require another source	Using the comparison feature requires access to its host platform; a product shortlist still needs policy and servicing evidence

AFG’s Suite360 overview explains the wider package and support. Bulma’s plan details explain its separate subscription structure.

When Each Option Fits

Choose Bulma when repeated policy questions or complex client scenarios are the work you need to improve. Its quoted answers help you explain lender fit, and Scenario Planner carries those rules into borrowing-power comparisons.

Bulma is especially useful when changing one borrower fact changes the lender choice. If Alex gains another completed tax return, Scenario Planner updates the lender list and borrowing power. You can follow the effect without treating an earlier shortlist as permanent.

Keep AFG Products & Scenarios as your main product-comparison workflow when BrokerEngine Plus already holds your deals and product comparison is the task at hand. Retain the associated policy evidence and servicing calculations before progressing the selected option.

Avoid paying twice for the same research task. If you add Bulma, give it the policy and scenario work it already covers. Keep another tool for a distinct required output, such as product pricing or the existing deal-to-lodgement process.

For the wider choice of research assistants, see AI tools for mortgage brokers. Keep the policy wording and the assumptions behind the chosen lender with the client file, whichever system holds the comparison.