Bulma vs AutoCalc for Mortgage Brokers 2026

Bulma is the better choice for linked policy research and scenario planning across 52+ lenders. Choose AutoCalc when payslip-led serviceability and prefilled lender spreadsheets are your main requirements.

Bulma answers a quick policy question or works through a whole client scenario. It quotes the lender’s wording and shows suitable lenders with borrowing power. AutoCalc combines calculations with cited policy search, so both products help with policy and serviceability.

Choose by the Work You Need Done

Choose Bulma when you want to understand where a client’s loan fits and retain the policy evidence behind that choice. Choose AutoCalc for a calculation-led file with lender spreadsheet exports.

Serviceability means how much a lender’s assessment model allows your client to borrow. Policy fit answers a different question: whether that lender accepts the client’s circumstances and on what conditions.

Bulma’s Policy Advisor answers questions across 52+ lenders and about 50 policy areas. Scenario Planner groups lenders by standard policy fit, conditional fit or need for an exception. Each lender has borrowing power and a list of conditions and documents, so you can resolve eligibility alongside the calculation.

AutoCalc is BrokerFit’s serviceability platform. Its published workflow starts with uploaded payslips or manual entry and ends with lender results and prefilled spreadsheets.

Work required	Bulma	AutoCalc
Find a suitable lender	Policy fit and borrowing power across 52+ residential lenders	Serviceability across 27+ lenders on paid plans
Retain policy evidence	Quoted lender wording with each answer	Policy search cites passages in lender documents
Prepare the next step	Lender conditions, documents and confidence-labelled exception pathways	Prefilled lender calculator exports

The counts describe each product’s coverage, without establishing that their lender lists are identical. For broader uses beyond these two products, see AI tools for mortgage brokers.

Policy Answers and Source Detail

Both products return source-linked policy answers. Bulma combines those answers with a conversation that retains the client’s circumstances.

Ask Policy Advisor about one lender, a shortlist or all covered lenders. Each answer quotes the wording it relied on and identifies the policy area. A comparison names lenders whose policy doesn’t address the point, so an unanswered rule doesn’t become an assumed acceptance.

Follow-up questions can change one fact or ask about another lender without restating the client scenario. For example, after asking about overtime, ask what evidence the same lender needs. Bulma keeps the earlier context and asks a short clarifying question when the request is ambiguous.

AutoCalc’s product page describes plain-English policy questions beside calculator results. It says each claim links to the relevant lender-document passage. That gives you a route from the answer to the underlying rule.

Bulma’s quoted wording can be copied with its sources into file notes. It also refreshes policies as lenders publish changes and alerts you when a policy you’ve asked about changes. Those alerts help you revisit a live file when its earlier policy answer changes.

For a difficult file, Bulma shows known exception pathways rated Documented, Precedented or Reported. An exception pathway needs lender confirmation before you rely on it. Similar historical scenarios show previous lender outcomes, which remain separate from written policy.

Serviceability and Scenario Planning

Bulma connects borrowing power to policy fit, while AutoCalc’s serviceability results support a spreadsheet-based preparation workflow. Keep the borrower facts and proposed loan structure consistent when interpreting either result.

A Fictional Borrower Scenario

Alex and Lee want a $640,000 loan against an $800,000 property, giving an 80% loan-to-value ratio (LVR). Alex earns a $95,000 base salary plus variable overtime. Lee earns a $75,000 salary.

They have one dependant, a $450 monthly car repayment and credit cards with combined limits of $15,000. Their proposed loan has a 30-year term with principal-and-interest repayments. These facts illustrate the workflow, without predicting either product’s lender results.

For this file, the overtime history matters as well as the amount. The assessment also needs verified living expenses and the existing loan balances and terms. A larger borrowing-power figure won’t resolve a lender’s condition about acceptable overtime evidence.

In Bulma, describe the scenario or load details from your customer relationship management (CRM) system, uploaded payslips or a fact find. Scenario Planner applies lender-specific income shading, assessment buffers and living-expense rules, including the Household Expenditure Measure (HEM). It returns lender fit alongside borrowing power and the documents to gather.

If Alex’s overtime history changes, Bulma updates the lender list and borrowing power. This shows whether the new fact affects eligibility, the calculated amount or both. It helps you identify suitable lenders before preparing a submission.

AutoCalc’s FAQ explains that lender-specific code performs its serviceability calculations. You review extracted payslip fields before calculation, and supported lender exports carry inputs into the lender’s spreadsheet.

AutoCalc’s accuracy page publishes workbook comparisons for an illustrative case, with differences shown. Those published results don’t establish how either tool performs on Alex and Lee’s file.

The lender’s own assessment sets the final borrowing figure. AutoCalc’s accuracy guidance requires confirmation with the lender, including its own calculator, before a result is relied on or passed to a client. In either workflow, missing overtime evidence or an unresolved exception can still change which lender accepts the application.

Access, Cost and the Better Fit

Bulma includes policy research and scenario planning on every plan. AutoCalc has a free tier and paid subscriptions, with broader lender access and team capacity on paid plans.

Access or operating term	Bulma	AutoCalc
Billing basis	Solo for one broker, Team for up to five members with extra seats available, Enterprise for larger organisations	Free, Standard and Pro, with monthly or annual billing
Included use	Generous policy and scenario usage on every plan	Free has unlimited calculations, three lenders, five monthly payslip parses and five saved cases
Paid access	Team adds shared history and priority support	Standard has 27+ lenders, 50 monthly parses and unlimited cases. Pro includes five logins and 300 pooled monthly parses
Trial	14 days without a credit card	Standard advertises a 30-day trial
Support	Founder answers support questions personally. Enterprise has a dedicated account manager	Contact form, email and telephone
Workflow boundary	Research and scenario planning, with no application lodgement or lender-portal connection	Spreadsheet export requires licensed or authorised broker access and compliance with lender terms

AutoCalc Pro’s FAQ says the account holder can view and edit team members’ cases. Member-to-member case sharing is a separate setting. That distinction affects who can work on a colleague’s file.

Choose Bulma If

You need quick policy answers as well as help finding lenders for a full scenario. Bulma’s policy quotations and conditions keep the reasoning beside the borrowing figure. Its confidence-labelled exception pathways help when standard policy doesn’t fit.

Bulma’s 52+ residential lenders give you a wider starting panel by published count. Its every-plan policy and scenario access also suits a small brokerage that wants shared research through Team. Bulma doesn’t quote interest rates, fees or product pricing, so product selection still needs those details separately.

Choose AutoCalc If

Your priority is moving reviewed payslip figures into serviceability results and lender spreadsheets. Its free tier suits limited-panel calculation work, while Pro supports a five-person team.

For a brokerage whose main task is explaining lender fit alongside borrowing power, choose Bulma. When the file preparation depends on prefilled lender workbooks, AutoCalc’s export workflow is the deciding benefit.