How transaction coordinators process pendings faster

A pending intake workflow for transaction coordinators: what to collect, how to name files and how to stop retyping the contract.

This guide is for transaction coordinators and operations managers. It takes about 3 minutes to read and was updated on October 3, 2026.

Every pending starts the same way. An agent forwards an accepted offer, often one long PDF with counters and addenda stacked inside, and the transaction coordinator spends the next hour pulling names, dates, prices and deadlines out by hand.

Retyping is the slowest part of the job and the least valuable. The faster intake happens, the sooner a TC can focus on the deadlines that protect the deal.

A typical scene

A pending lands at 4:45 on a Friday.

A buyer’s agent forwards an accepted offer at 4:45 on a Friday. It’s a 38-page PDF named Scan_0412, with two counter offers, a seller response and an addendum about the pool heater on page 31. The TC opens a blank spreadsheet and starts typing names, dates, the price and the commission split, checking each one twice because the second counter moved the closing date.

By the time the file is renamed, filed and announced, it’s after six, and the 17-day inspection period has been running since acceptance. A skilled TC earns their keep around day 14, when that period is about to close and someone has to make sure the buyer acts in time. This guide is about getting the TC to that part of the work sooner.

Pending intake eats the day for three reasons

Agents submit inconsistent information, contract packages arrive as unlabeled files, and the same data gets typed into several places, such as a spreadsheet, a transaction platform, a CRM and an email to the office. Fix those three and intake gets fast.

Step 1: Use one intake form with required fields

Replace email and text submissions with one form. Required fields stop incomplete files at the door, and conditional questions keep the form short for simple deals.

Property address
Buyer and seller names
Purchase price and earnest money
Acceptance date and close of escrow
Inspection and loan contingency periods
Lender, escrow and title contacts
Commission split and any referral fee
The full contract package

Step 2: Let the contract fill in the form

The contract already holds most of the answers. Tools that read the package and pre-fill the parties, dates, price, commission splits, lender and inspection terms turn retyping into reviewing. The TC still checks every field before anything is filed, but checking is far faster than typing.

Step 3: Name files by type, the same way every time

A folder full of files named scan001.pdf costs time on every file for the life of the deal. Rename documents by type on the way in, such as Purchase Agreement, Counter Offer 1, Agency Disclosure and Earnest Money Receipt, and keep them in a folder named by the property address.

Step 4: Announce the pending once, everywhere

When a pending is logged, the office, the team channel and the TC’s calendar all need to know. Send one notification that includes only the fields that have values, so nobody scrolls past empty rows to find the closing date.

Step 5: Build the deadline calendar right away

As soon as the dates are confirmed, calculate every contingency deadline and put each one on a calendar with a reminder a few days ahead. Missed contingency dates are among the most expensive mistakes in a transaction, and they’re almost always a timing problem rather than a knowledge problem.

Train a new transaction coordinator with the system, not the exceptions

New TCs learn fastest from a written workflow. Give them the intake form, a sample contract package, the file naming rules and a deadline calendar template, then have them run three past files from start to finish before they touch a live one. Contract knowledge comes quickly. A consistent system keeps a new TC from missing something in month one.

Keep this TC intake checklist

Confirm the form is complete and every required document is attached.
Review each pre-filled field against the contract.
Rename the files by type and file them under the property address.
Send the pending notice to the office and the team channel.
Put every contingency deadline on the calendar with reminders.
Introduce yourself to the lender, escrow and the other agent.

How Rig handles pendings

Rig Operations replaces the pending form your team uses today. Coach reads the contract package and fills in the parties, dates, price, commission splits, lender and inspection, and every field, custom question and required document is a setting you control.

On submit, Rig builds a Google Drive folder named by address with every file renamed by type, posts to Slack and emails operations only the rows that have values.

Start with Rig Operations See Rig Operations