Henderson Loggie streamlines onboarding and AML with Summa Tech

Henderson Loggie is a firm of Chartered Accountants based in Scotland and one of the largest independent practices in the country, with almost 200 staff and partners across four offices in Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

Like many firms, Henderson Loggie wanted to simplify client onboarding and anti-money laundering (AML) checks without forcing staff to wrestle with fragmented processes that reduce efficiency and increase the risk of errors.

That is why it turned to Summa Tech to bring consistency, control and confidence to a critical compliance journey.

Henderson Loggie learned about Summa Tech through existing sector relationships and gained confidence in the fact that it was not only developed within an accountancy practice, but also in regular use within firms.

Client onboarding challenges addressed

“It was all about simplification for our users,” explains Stephen Bain, Partner and MLRO at Henderson Loggie.

“Our previous approach was paper-based and just a series of Word documents. It was a manual trawl to try and find the right form, fill it in, before going to a different Word document. It was all very disjointed.”

The firm wanted “a cleaner information flow” that would “make it easier for staff to fill in the correct information” and “get the documents we need from clients as well.”

Adaptability and improvement

From the start, Stephen could see the potential that Summa Tech offered: “It looked really intuitive, easy to use.”

However, Henderson Loggie wanted to tailor the platform to its own needs and existing technology.

Stephen said: “We engaged with the team to take their existing platform and customise it to work for us, our compliance questions and our existing AML tool, Smart Search.

“We had to submit our paper-based forms, which Dave and the team then built into the system. We did some testing and spent quite a bit of time getting it right, but it was time well invested to make sure it worked well.”

This collaborative style suited Henderson Loggie. “You never felt that you were asking too many questions,” Stephen says. “The turnaround time was good and it was really an open dialogue and the team were easy to get along with.”

Implementation and adoption

The firm went live in December 2024 and started to train its team to make best use of the system.

“We had a pilot group trialling the system, using it in real cases, with an opportunity to feed back to Summa Tech initially,” explained Stephen.

“From there, I did an online training session with all our users and recorded it. Then I built some process notes and published the video.”

“By nature, everyone isn’t going to start using it on day one, but nine months on, feedback is good.”

Compliance improvement and control

For Stephen, the biggest win in implementing Summa Tech has been oversight of the client onboarding process.

He said: “Compliance has improved very, very much… it is now allowing us to have all our AML onboarding information in one place.

“When the regulator comes in to review our clients, all the information is there, rather than things being saved in lots of different places.”

To reinforce the correct compliance rules, Henderson Loggie has built in mandatory questions that can’t be skipped or avoided.

“With our old paper processes, there was the ability to skip information, but not with Summa Tech.

“It really helps to build a stronger procedure that allows partners to have better visibility of compliance.

“Anything that needs to come to a partner for approval goes straight to them and nobody can bypass that until the earlier stage of the process is approved.”

A better client experience

Clients have also benefitted by enjoying a smoother onboarding experience, as Stephen explains: “There’s a more secure and streamlined way of getting copies of passports and utility bills… we can gather some of the information from clients more easily.”

Stephen says this has created a more robust onboarding system, which many clients are familiar with if they have already worked with banks or solicitors, who also have to meet AML compliance.

How Summa Tech helps Henderson Loggie

Many people invest in new technologies to achieve greater efficiency and Stephen says that while Summa Tech has helped, it isn’t the primary goal of the practice.

He said: “It helps to save time because it’s a more efficient system, but at the same time we run quite a lot of training, so initially it’s important to invest time in it.”

However, for him, the key is quality and he believes this is where Summa Tech stands out, as it “allows time to be better invested in putting proper answers down rather than just ticking boxes.”

With Summa Tech’s client onboarding, Henderson Loggie benefits from:

• A single source of truth: “One place for onboarding – all the information is there.”
• Mandatory workflows and approvals: “Nobody can bypass approval until it is signed off.”
• Stronger client data collection: “More secure and streamlined” document gathering.
• Better processes for staff: “A system that tells you what to do, rather than having to scratch your head and find forms.”

Summa Tech continues to evolve with Henderson Loggie. “There’s been a number of things over the months… wording a question better, asking for more information… we’ve made a few tweaks as we’ve gone,” Stephen says.

Why Summa Tech

Stephen said there was a range of benefits with the platform, developed within an accountancy environment.

“Our assurance came from the fact you’re linked to an accountancy practice. If this works for your own firm to be compliant, we were confident it would work for another firm as well, because we’re all playing by the same rules,” he added.

“We would be more than happy to recommend it, as it works well for our firm.”