A business account that has been pending for weeks
A small company signs up for your business account or payments product. The founder fills in the form. Then the emails start: can you send your articles of association, can you confirm who owns more than a certain share, can the other director complete an identity check, can you explain the ownership structure diagram, can you send proof of the business address.
Each reply answers some of it. Attachments arrive in different formats. The second director is travelling. The ops analyst keeps notes in a spreadsheet of what is still outstanding. The founder, who expected to be set up in a day, gives up and opens an account elsewhere.
Why business onboarding drags
Onboarding a business involves more people and more documents than onboarding an individual, and the process was often modelled on the consumer flow with extra emails bolted on.
- The applicant is not told up front what will be needed for their company type.
- Information that is available from public company registers is asked for anyway.
- Directors and owners other than the applicant are contacted by the applicant, not by you.
- Requests and replies are managed in a shared inbox.
- Ops cannot see at a glance what is missing for each application.
What you need for each type of business is set by your own policy and advisers. The build makes collecting it less painful.
Lost businesses and busy analysts
Business customers are often worth more than individual ones, and the ones who drop out during onboarding are the ones you paid most to acquire. Analysts spend much of their time on chasing rather than reviewing. Applications that finally complete arrive with documents scattered across email threads, which is not a good record for later.
A guided application and a clear case
What we build replaces the email chase with a guided application.
- The applicant enters a company number, and company details, officers and filed ownership information are pulled from the public register through its API, such as the Companies House API in the UK.
- The application shows exactly what else is needed for this company type, based on the rules your policy sets.
- Each director or owner who needs to complete a check gets their own invite link, and their identity check runs through your existing provider.
- Documents are uploaded against named requirements, so ops see a checklist ticking off rather than a pile of attachments.
- The applicant sees their own progress and gets reminders about what is outstanding.
- Ops see one case per business: register data, every person's check result, every document, and anything that does not match between the register and the application.
- Decisions and requests for more information are made from the case and recorded.
| Requirement | Source | Who completes it |
|---|---|---|
| Company details and officers | Public register API | Automatic, applicant confirms |
| Ownership details | Register plus applicant's declaration | Applicant |
| Director and owner identity checks | Your verification provider | Each person, by invite |
| Company documents your policy needs | Upload against requirement | Applicant |
| Mismatches between register and application | Flagged on the case | Ops analyst reviews |
An onboarding queue that moves
Applicants know what to provide from the start. Other directors complete their part without the applicant forwarding emails. Ops open cases that are complete or nearly so, and spend their time reviewing rather than chasing. The case keeps every document and result together, which is useful when the customer's details change later.
Is business onboarding stalling for you?
- Business applications stay pending for weeks.
- Documents are requested and received by email.
- Applicants forward requests to their co-directors.
- Register data is retyped by applicants or ops.
- Ops track what is outstanding in a spreadsheet.