Once you have agreed to join Hive as a client and we have received your signed proposal, the onboarding process begins. In the first instance, I will be in touch to introduce myself and provide our New Client Checklist for your completion.
The aim of the New Client Checklist is to ensure that we have all the compliance elements of the onboarding process completed as soon as possible so we can start helping you without delay.
There are a few elements that people can, understandably, be unsure about. I have addressed these below in the hope that new clients can feel confident completing the checklist and understand the reasons behind some of the questions that we ask.
Why we use a checklist
We use the checklist to gather as much of the information we require in one go to complete the process as efficiently as possible for you. Our aim is to make the transfer simple and to avoid unnecessary delays.
Personal details
The checklist starts with your personal details including: name, address, date, and place of birth and nationality, along with contact information.
These details are required for us to complete our regulatory anti-money laundering (AML) checks and so we can update our internal databases.
Unique Tax Reference
We’ll ask you to share your Unique Tax Reference (UTR) number. This 10-digit number is issued to each individual when they register for self-assessment. If you have a company or partnership, then we will also be asking for the UTR for that entity too.
If you are unsure of yours, you will find it on any previous tax returns or correspondence from HMRC. Do not worry if you are yet to register for self-assessment and receive your UTR, as we are more than happy to assist with completing this on your behalf.
If you’re unable to find the UTR numbers we need, HMRC can resend these to your registered address or we can obtain them from your former accountant. However, it helps minimise any potential delays if we have all the information and can get you set up on our systems straight away.
Professional Clearance
We ask about your current, soon to be former, accountant as we have an obligation to request professional clearance. Without this formal ‘permission to act’ for you from them, as well as completed anti money laundering checks, we will be unable to commence work.
We ask for:
- Their contact information – so we know we are contacting the right person/ office.
- If you have an outstanding balance with your former accountant – this can cause delays in them providing clearance and the documentation we require to begin acting for you.
- Whether you have made them aware you are leaving – we ask this for two main reasons:
- We will not contact them without your express permission, it is sometimes the case that new clients are waiting on a final piece of work from their current accountant and are not comfortable making them aware that they will be transferring until they have received it.
- They will not be able to relay any information to us about you until you have advised them you are transferring to us. We provide you with a template letter for this to make it as easy as possible for new clients.
Registered and Service address
If you have a company, then we ask if you are happy for us to change your registered and service address. The registered address is as it sounds, the registered address for the company. The service addresses are the correspondence addresses for the directors.
Both are a matter of public record and are visible on Companies house. If your former accountant hosted these for you then we will need to change them. We will not do this without confirming the address you would prefer to use.
You can read more about the transfer process here. The quicker we can have you onboarded the sooner we can be helping you and if you have any questions throughout the process, I am more than happy to help. Get in touch today if you wish to start your onboarding journey with us.
