Add, review, and approve company associates

The associates verification list provides a place to verify, approve, and monitor a company’s officers, shareholders, trustees, or authorised persons. Learn more about how associates are onboarded.

This article covers how to add associates to a verification list, review and approve associates on a verification list, and pass a task with a verification list.

You may also find these articles useful:

• Edit company associates on a verification list.
• Remove company associates from a verification list.

Add company associates to a verification list

Associates can be added to a verification list manually or from an imported list. They can be individuals or companies.

Adding associates manually

Whether you are using automated checks or not, you can always add an associate manually.

To add an associate to a verification list manually:

1. Click the add button above the verification list. On the Officers verification list, the button is New officer. On the Shareholders verification list, it’s New shareholder. On the Trustees verification list, it’s New trustee. On the Authorised persons verification list, it’s New authorised person.

   

2. If the associate is a person, select Individual. If the associate is a company, select Company.

1. Complete the fields provided. Any required fields are marked required.

   

2. Click the create button. On the Officers verification list, the button is Create new officer. On the Shareholders verification list, it’s Create new shareholder. On the Trustees verification list, it’s Create new trustee. On the Authorised persons verification list, the button is Create new authorised person.
   
   The associate is added to the verification list.
   
   A profile is created for the individual or company so they can be verified and approved as an associate. To learn more, see Approve/reject company associates.

   

Adding associates from an imported list

You can run a check that returns a list of officers, shareholders, or trustees from your data provider, along with any available information about them.

Once associates are imported into PassFort, they can be added to a verification list automatically or manually.

Import a list of associates

The type of check you can use to import associates depends on the task:

• Company registry check (Identify officers task): Imports a list of key decision makers at board level (e.g. directors and company secretaries) and any available information about their roles, the dates they were appointed, the dates they resigned, and their dates of birth. Learn more about the Company registry check.
• Company ownership check (Identify shareholders task): Imports a list of key shareholders (individuals or companies) with significant voting rights and control and any available information about the percentage of shares each one holds. Learn more about the Company ownership check.
• Charities registry check (Identify trustees task): Imports a list of key decision makers at board level (e.g. chairs and secretaries) and any available information about their roles, the dates they were appointed, and the dates they resigned. Learn more about the Charities registry check.

Add associates from an imported list automatically

You can configure tasks to add associates from an imported list to a verification list automatically.

When you configure the task, you choose which associates from the imported list are added:

• All company associates: Every associate returned by the data provider is added to the verification list.
• A specified number of associates: When configuring the task, you specify a number (e.g. 3). This number of associates is added to the verification list. For the Identify officers task and the Identify trustees task, the officers and trustees who have been elected/appointed the longest are added. For the Identify shareholders task, the shareholders with the highest percentage of shares are added.
• All shareholders with a specified percentage of shares and above: When configuring the task, you specify a percentage of shares (15%). All shareholders who own this percentage and above are added. This configuration is for the Identify shareholders task only.

Add associates from an imported list manually

To add an associate from the imported list manually, click the Add to list button next to the associate’s name.

The associate is added to the verification list.

A profile is created for the individual or company so they can be verified and approved as an associate. See Approve/reject company associates.

Resolving possible duplicates

If an individual or company has two profiles, they may need to go through the same due diligence tasks more than once.

Associates may already have a profile when they are on multiple verification lists for the same application. For example, if an associate is a Director and a Beneficial Owner of the company, they will appear on the Officers verification list and the Shareholders verification list.

If an associate you’re adding to the verification list is closely matched to one or more individuals/companies with similar details, when you add the associate to a verification list manually, the Resolve possible duplicates dialog is displayed so you can ensure only one profile is created for the associate.

In the dialog, a checkmark is displayed next to any profile data that’s the same and an X is displayed next to any profile data that’s different.

If the associate is a duplicate of one of the associates listed, click Use this profile next to the duplicate, then click Finish resolving duplicates. The verification list links to the profile you selected and no second profile is created.

If the associate is not listed here, click Create new profile, then click Finish resolving duplicates. A new profile is created for the associate. The verification list links to the new profile.

To learn how to use a profile to verify and approve associates, see Approve/reject company associates.

To learn how to edit company associates on the verification list, see Edit company associates on the verification list.

To learn how to remove company associates from the verification list, see Remove company associates from the verification list.

Approve/reject company associates

Every associate on the verification list has a Verification status.

The verification status shows what stage the associate’s verification is at.

Associate verifications go through the following process:

1. The verification begins when the associate’s profile is created.
2. If you have Risk configured, the associate inherits the application’s risk level.
   
   If your risk model uses an Associates risk factor, at this point the associate's details are checked against the rules of the risk factor and the application’s total risk score is re-calculated. The risk level is reassigned to the application based on the application’s total risk score. All company associates inherit the new risk level.
   
   If you have Risk configured to automatically reject profiles based on risk level and the re-calculated risk level matches your specifications, the application is rejected and the subsequent steps do not take place. Learn more about rejected applications.
3. The product’s associate smart policy is applied to the associate. If the product’s associate smart policies are specific to associate roles, the associate smart policy is selected according to the associate’s role.
4. The associate smart policy rules are applied to create a list of onboarding tasks for the associate’s profile.
   
   If any onboarding tasks have verification lists, the associate smart policies for those tasks are applied now. The process for this associate verification is paused and remains with the Automating status until any automated processes for the other associate smart policies are complete (i.e. their risk is evaluated, their tasks are created, and their checks configured to run automatically are performed).
5. Any checks that have been configured to run automatically are performed and the results are displayed in the associate profile’s tasks.
6. The associate’s verification status is displayed based on the status of any remaining tasks (e.g. users may be required to manually pass tasks or customers may be required to complete forms). You can pass/fail tasks manually on the associate’s profile.
7. Once all tasks are passed, the associate’s approval status is determined by the smart policy. If automatic approvals are configured, the associate is approved automatically. If not, the associate’s approval status is displayed as Ready for decision, indicating a user will need to manually approve/reject the associate.

Seeing an associate’s profile

Click the associate’s name to open their profile.

Associate profiles always have the associate’s relation to the company displayed at the top.

The full relationship with the company is displayed at the bottom of the profile.

The profile’s tasks are displayed under Due diligence tasks. Click any task to see it and see what checks have been run for it.

To see the associate’s approval status for the application, go to their Applications section. Every role that the associate has is displayed as a separate application.

Running checks on an associate’s profile

When you select a task, the buttons to run the check are displayed. To run a check, click its button.

The results of the check are displayed.

Successful checks are marked Passed and unsuccessful checks are marked Failed. Learn what causes each check to pass.

Checks that could not be run because of an error with PassFort or a data provider are marked Error. Learn what to do if the check results in an error.

Passing/failing an associate’s tasks

The indicator for tasks that are not yet passed or failed is an empty circle.

The actions you take to pass the task depends on the nature of the task as well as your company’s compliance policy. You might:

• Review information obtained from checks.
• Complete a task form.
• Upload files (e.g. a PEP declaration form) to the Task notes.
• Record conversations or actions that took place outside of PassFort by adding a note to the Task notes.

To pass a task, click Mark task as complete and select Passed. The task is displayed as Task passed and its indicator displays a checkmark.

To fail a task, click Mark task as complete and select Failed. Optionally, explain why you're failing the task in the Task notes.

Approving/rejecting an associate

1. Click the Applications section.
2. Click the Review application dropdown and indicate your decision.

   

3. Optionally, add a comment to explain your decision.
4. Click Save decision.

Pass/fail the task

You can configure the Identify officers, Identify shareholders, Identify trustees, or Identify authorised persons task to pass automatically when all associates are approved or when a specified number of associates are approved (e.g. 3).

To pass the task manually, click Mark task as complete and select Passed. The task is displayed as Task passed and its indicator displays a checkmark.

To fail the task manually, click Mark task as complete and select Failed. Optionally, explain why you're failing the task in the Task notes.