Friday, eleven completions and one cashier
It is the last Friday of the month. The firm has eleven completions booked, several in chains with each other. The cashier is watching the bank account for mortgage advances and client balances. Case handlers are ringing accounts every twenty minutes: 'Has the Patel money arrived yet?' 'Can we send on the Green sale? We need their proceeds for the Adams purchase.'
Nobody has a single view. The cashier has the bank screen, the case handlers have their files, and the information passes between them by shouting across the office or by Teams message.
Why completion day is chaotic
Each completing file depends on several incoming payments, and linked files depend on each other: a sale's proceeds fund the related purchase. The information about what each file needs sits in the completion statement, and the information about what has arrived sits in the bank account. Joining them happens in people's heads.
Payments also arrive with poor references, and a mortgage advance might land under the lender's name with a reference the case handler has never seen, so accounts spend time working out which file it belongs to.
| Completion day question | Where the answer lives |
|---|---|
| What does this file need to complete? | Completion statement |
| Has the mortgage advance arrived? | Bank account, lender's reference |
| Has the client's balance arrived? | Bank account, client's own reference |
| Can this file go before the linked one? | Case handler's knowledge of the chain |
| Has the other side confirmed receipt? | Phone call or email |
What the scramble costs
Completions are delayed while funds are identified, and delays can push completions late into the day, with knock-on effects down the chain and unhappy clients waiting for keys. Accounts and case handlers spend the day interrupting each other. Under that pressure, mistakes are more likely, which is the last thing anyone wants when money is moving.
It also makes completion day exhausting, every week, for the same people.
How we build a completion day board
- Files completing: the board lists every file with completion booked for the day, from your case management system, grouped where files are linked in a chain.
- Money needed: for each file, it lists the funds expected (mortgage advance, client balance, proceeds from a linked sale) and the amount to be sent, from the completion statement.
- Money arrived: the bank feed is read throughout the day, and incoming payments are matched to files by reference, amount and payer, with uncertain matches shown for the cashier to confirm.
- Ready status: each file shows as waiting, ready to send, sent, or completed, with linked files shown in the order they can be released.
- Confirmations: when funds are sent, and when the other side confirms completion, the status updates and the case handler records key release.
- Post-completion hand-off: completed files move to the SDLT and registration lists automatically.
The board shows status. Authorising and sending payments stays with your accounts team and case handlers under your firm's procedures.
What Friday feels like afterwards
Everyone looks at the same board. The cashier confirms matches rather than answering questions. Case handlers can see when their file is ready without ringing accounts. Linked files are released in the right order. Clients get their keys sooner because the time spent finding money is shorter.
At the end of the day, the board is also a record of what happened and when.
Is completion day like this for you?
- Case handlers ring accounts repeatedly to ask whether funds have arrived.
- Mortgage advances are hard to match to files.
- Linked sales and purchases are coordinated by conversation.
- Completions slip late into the day while funds are identified.
- There is no single view of every file completing today.