Client onboarding sets the tone for your entire relationship. Getting it wrong can leave you with an overload of admin and frustrated clients before the real work has even begun.
As your firm grows, weak onboarding processes can put you at risk of damaging client relationships from the outset and creating the conditions for confusion and error in your own teams.
Over the last few years, as we have developed our platform and worked with a number of the UK’s leading accountancy firms, we have noticed a trend where onboarding falls down for many practices.
Below are the top five client onboarding mistakes that accountancy firms make and how we can help you get it right.
- Failing to gather complete information
Many firms begin working with clients before having all the financial information they need.
Missing details around income source, liabilities, beneficial owner records and previous checks can quickly lead to delays.
This often results in multiple follow-up emails and pressure on the teams who are trying to onboard the client quickly without complete data.
These inefficiencies could eventually become a hidden cost for your firm and don’t create a great first impression.
Even where the information is gathered, it often isn’t stored neatly in one place, which brings us on to the next common error.
- Manual document chasing and disorganised records
Relying on emails, shared folders and ad-hoc reminders can create tension for both clients and your staff.
How many of you have been frustrated by a missing document or an incomplete task which delays the onboarding process?
Documents may arrive in different formats or be scattered around different solutions such as outlook teams and separate document storage such as SharePoint and teams will waste valuable time checking what is still missing.
This disorganisation can be frustrating for clients and increase the risk of errors and lost documentation for firms.
Many practice leaders we speak with flag this as one of the key reasons that they are looking for an automated client onboarding system for their accountancy firm.
- Poor AML and compliance processes
Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC) and risk assessments are often handled across multiple systems or spreadsheets.
While these checks may be complete, your records of them may not always be stored consistently or in a way that creates a clear audit trail.
This will become a serious issue during reviews by professional bodies, like the ICAEW, where firms must demonstrate exactly when checks were completed and using which data sources.
The regulatory landscape around AML compliance is due to change in the next few years, as professional bodies hand over their responsibilities to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Checks by the FCA we understand will be far more thorough and the results of having poor onboarding processes and ensuring checks are in place will be far greater, including the potential for substantial fines.
- Poor management of cleanup work
Many onboarding processes fail to clearly separate previous initial take on work from their ongoing services and regular reviews.
Clients are often unaware of how much time it takes to collate this and it can lead to frustration when the work of onboarding takes longer or costs more than expected.
If you do not clearly communicate this early with clients, it can affect your relationship with them.
Our ongoing due diligence functionality makes this system of ongoing checks far simpler, by automating much of the process for you and your team.
- Inconsistent onboarding across the firm
If your onboarding relies on individual team members rather than a standard process, the quality may vary.
Some clients may have a straightforward experience and others may encounter delays or confusion.
We know that every partner or client manager may have their own approach, which is fine until someone else has to take on the management of their clients.
Creating a consistent approach and agreed set of questions means that procedure is followed correctly, reducing the risk of error or missing information and in addition can reduce the reliance in the MLRO and compliance teams.
Without an agreed process in place, such as our platform provides, it makes it difficult to provide a consistent service and can put unnecessary pressure on staff.
How can our bespoke client onboarding tool help?
Our bespoke client onboarding tool can help solve the most common challenges accounting firms face and make sure every new client starts their relationship with you efficiently and enjoy a great first impression.
We can help your firm save time by automating repetitive tasks, such as document requests, reminders and data collection, by building a platform that is customised entirely around the needs of your team.
This can allow your team to focus on higher-value work instead of chasing missing information or sending endless follow-up emails that can frustrate your clients.
We can also help keep all your client data stored in one system, making it easier to access accurate information when you need it.
Our client onboarding tool also helps maintain compliance by integrating AML checks, KYC questionnaires, risk assessments and beneficial owner verification into a single workflow.
All these steps are clearly recorded with audit trails and your team can be confident that your regulatory obligations are being met.
Meanwhile, senior management can sit back and enjoy a higher-level appraisal of the work being done, so you don’t have to get as involved in the day-to-day work required to onboard a client and can focus on building strong relationships.
We don’t want your onboarding process to affect your client relationships or for clients to feel like they have not had the same experience as others at other firms.
When you implement our onboarding tool, clients can see that your firm is organised and it will help build long-lasting relationships and benefit your firm’s reputation.
If you want help streamlining your onboarding process and reducing administrative stress, we are here to help build a unique solution designed to meet the demands of your practice.
To learn more about our client onboarding tool, book a demo.