Total processing and overhead cost per booked small-ticket equipment finance transaction rose to $2,729 in 2025, up $322 from $2,407 a year earlier, according to a QuickFi analysis of data compiled and recently released by the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) in its 2026 Survey of Equipment Finance Activity.
Among lenders in this year’s ELFA annual benchmarking survey, small-ticket sales, general and administrative expenses rose about 7%. The number of small-ticket transactions booked fell about 7%. On that like-for-like basis, total processing cost per booked transaction in 2025 rose about 14%.
The ELFA figures include total lender processing and overhead costs and exclude credit losses. The $2,729-per-transaction cost metric measures operating overhead — sales, staff, technology, and general administration — divided by the number of transactions lenders booked, so the cost of applications that never close is carried by the deals that do.
“The industry isn’t experiencing a staffing problem or a technology-budget problem,” said Bill Verhelle, CEO of QuickFi. “It’s an operating model problem. When employees must touch every application, significant cost reduction isn’t possible.” Embedded lending technology costs a fraction of the expense required to operate the traditional business model.
Methodology
The per-transaction figures are QuickFi’s calculations from recently published ELFA annual survey data, not figures reported directly by ELFA: 2025 small-ticket segment sales, general and administrative expense of $1.796 billion (2026 Survey of Equipment Finance Activity, Figure 17f) divided by 658,070 small-ticket applications booked and funded or sold (2026 Small-Ticket Survey of Equipment Finance Activity, Figure 13a) equals $2,729. The 2024 figure of $2,407 applies the same calculation to the 2025 editions; the 2026 edition restates 2024 for its respondent group at $2,387. ELFA defines small-ticket transactions to include leases and loans with an equipment cost between $25,000 and $250,000 each. Provision for credit losses is excluded. ELFA data is used for industry benchmarking only; ELFA has not reviewed or endorsed this analysis or QuickFi.
