Accounting and corporate services: new client onboarding
Build each new client’s customer due diligence file from one request: identity, declarations, source of funds and proof of address.
Who it is for: Accountants, tax advisers, corporate service providers and company secretarial firms.
Scenario: Taking on a new individual client and building their customer due diligence (CDD) file.
The problem
Client files are assembled from emailed passports, forwarded utility bills and a source-of-funds explanation typed into a message. The same questions are retyped for every client, and a file is complete only when someone remembers to check.
What can happen
- Missing or out-of-date items are found at review rather than at onboarding.
- Clients are asked for the same thing twice, by different people.
- Sensitive documents sit in personal inboxes.
Legal and regulatory context
Accountants and corporate service providers may have customer due diligence obligations under anti-money-laundering law. What applies to your firm, and to a given client, is for your firm and its compliance adviser to decide.
This is context, not legal advice about your obligations.
A better process
Send the client one link. They verify their identity, answer the declarations and upload proof of address, and the completed file is kept against the request with a downloadable evidence pack.
How UMNIII Verify helps
UMNIII Verify turns the client file into a request your team sends the same way every time, and keeps the identity result, the declarations and the documents together.
UMNIII templates for this
- New Client CDD. Identity verification, individual details, source of funds, a PEP and sanctions declaration, the client’s declaration and consent, and proof of address. Offered in every market.
- UAE Visa Application. Identity verification, personal and visa or employment details, an employment contract and proof of address. Offered to Workspaces working in the UAE, and to personal Workspaces.
Which Verify features help?
- Identity verification
- Confirms the client is who they say they are.
Establishes: That a government-issued photo ID was checked for authenticity and matched to a live selfie of the person presenting it.
Does not establish: It does not establish an address, a right to work or rent, creditworthiness, a driving entitlement, or anything about a company. - Custom information forms
- Individual details, source of funds, a PEP and sanctions declaration, and the client’s declaration and consent.
Establishes: A structured record of what the recipient told you, filed against the request.
Does not establish: An answer is not independently verified because it was collected through Verify. It is what the recipient said. - Document requests and uploads
- Proof of address, with instructions on what you accept.
Establishes: That the recipient uploaded these files against this request, and when.
Does not establish: An upload does not establish that a document is genuine, valid, current or the recipient’s own. - Standard AML screening
- Screens the client against sanctions and PEP lists, rather than relying only on what they declare.
Establishes: Whether the person appears on sanctions lists or politically exposed person (PEP) databases at the time of screening.
Does not establish: It does not include adverse media, and a result is information for your own decision rather than a decision. - Ongoing AML monitoring
- Keeps that screening running for 12 months for a client you will act for over time.
Establishes: Daily re-screening of the same person for 12 months, with any new alert or status change recorded against the request for review.
Does not establish: It is an add-on to one AML screening, not a replacement for it, and the compliance decision remains yours.
Optional, added separately
- Standard AML screening: When your policy requires sanctions and PEP screening.
- Enhanced AML screening: When your policy also requires an adverse-media search.
- Ongoing AML monitoring: With an AML screening, for a client you will act for over time.
- Residential records check: Where the client lives in a country Verify offers for residential records.
Information that may be collected
- Name, contact details, date of birth and nationality
- Source of funds
- A PEP and sanctions declaration
- The client’s declaration and consent
Documents that may be requested
- Proof of address
Countries and coverage
- Which additional checks are offered depends on what your Workspace can use; Verify shows only the checks that are available, with their current prices.
What Verify does not do here
- A declaration is what the client said. Screening, where you add it, is information for your own decision; Verify does not decide whether to take a client on.
How to create or adapt the workflow
- In UMNIII Verify, open the Dashboard. In “Send verification invite”, choose “New Client CDD” in “Start from a template”. Review what it fills in: any part can be changed for one request, and the quote follows what is selected.
- Add any optional check only where it genuinely fits your process. None is added by default.
- Enter the recipient in “Invitee Email”, choose how long the link lasts in “Link expires after” and, where offered, whether to “Send reminders”. Then press “Send verification invite”.
Save and reuse it as a template
- Once the composition is right, an owner, admin or member of the Workspace presses “Save as template”, gives it a name and, optionally, a description.
- From then on it appears in “Start from a template” beside the UMNIII templates. Choosing it fills in the request, every part stays editable for that one request, and choosing a template sends nothing on its own.
- To adapt a UMNIII template, choose it and press “Copy to this Workspace”. The copy is yours to change; the original is unchanged.
- A saved template is not edited in place. To change one, apply it, adjust the composition and save it again under a new name.
- Your Workspace’s own and copied templates are listed under Other / General in the credit calculator inside UMNIII Verify.
Templates, forms and guides
- UMNIII system template
- A ready-made workflow that UMNIII provides. It is labelled UMNIII in the product, and your Workspace cannot change it.
- Workspace template
- A workflow someone in your Workspace has saved for reuse. It belongs to your Workspace.
- Copied template
- A UMNIII template copied into your Workspace so it can be adapted. The copy is yours and the original is unchanged.
- Reusable information form
- A set of questions your Workspace writes once and attaches to any request or template.
- Workflow guide
- An explanation like these pages. A guide is not a template: unless it says a UMNIII template is available, it describes a setup you build yourself.
Next step
Use the UMNIII template in UMNIII Verify, or copy it into your Workspace and adapt it. Current prices are shown in the product before you send anything.