Setting up your Policies

Policies are how your Proofdesk organisation is configured. They define your firm’s key compliance rules and determine how the software behaves. Before you can start using Proofdesk, your policies must be reviewed and approved so this is the first step once your account is set up.

Understanding Policies and Configuration

Each organisation in Proofdesk has three main policies:

1. Risk Classification Policy

2. Identity Policy

3. Customer Risk Assessment Policy

Together, these shape your risk framework, your CDD requirements, and how Proofdesk calculates and applies risk across your customer base.

Reviewing and Approving Your Policies

Go to the Policies tab in the main navigation. You’ll see a list of pre-created policies waiting for you to review.

In most cases, these will already have been set up during your onboarding and should accurately reflect your existing internal processes. Simply review each one carefully and, when you’re satisfied, approve it.

As well as the main body of the policy, each one includes:

• A Next Review Date - to remind you when it’s due for review.

• An Owner - the team member responsible for maintaining and updating that policy.

Use the toolbar buttons at the top to Save Draft as you go, or Complete when you’re ready to approve. When a policy is marked as Complete, your name and the approval date will be stamped at the bottom, and Version 1 will be locked as a permanent record. You can make updates later by clicking New Version, which creates Version 2.

Risk Classification Policy

The Risk Classification Policy defines the different risk levels your firm uses and how each one is treated.

It’s presented as a table, with each row representing a risk level and the following columns:

• Name - Give the risk level a descriptive name.

• Reporting Equivalent - Map it to Low, Standard, or High for the FSA’s Statistical Return.

• Colour - Choose a colour to visually represent this risk level.

• Review Frequency - Set how often (in months) relationships of this risk level should be reviewed.

• Approvers (Onboarding) - The number of additional people who must approve new relationships at this risk level.

• Approvers (Subsequent) - The number of additional people required to approve periodic or trigger event reviews.

Proofdesk uses this information to automatically schedule reviews and enforce approval rules for each relationship.

Identity Policy

The Identity Policy defines your organisation’s minimum standards for collecting and verifying Customer Due Diligence (CDD).

It’s presented as four tables - one for each entity type:

• Natural Person (individuals)

• Legal Person (companies)

• Legal Arrangement (trusts and partnerships)

• Foundation (Foundation Act 2011)

Each row represents a CDD field (for example, Date of Birth).

Toggle switches allow you to specify whether it’s your firm’s approach to:

• Identify (record the information only)

• Identify and Verify (record and upload evidence)

• Not Required

Proofdesk continuously monitors your entities against these rules. If an entity doesn’t meet your stated requirements, you’ll see a warning indicating that additional CDD is needed.

You can also define these rules separately depending on the entity’s context:

• Customer - The entity directly linked to a relationship.

• Linked Entity - An entity connected indirectly, such as a director, shareholder, or beneficiary.

• Introducer - An entity marked as an introducer on the relationship.

• Beneficial Owner - An entity identified as a beneficial owner of a customer.

Customer Risk Assessment Policy

The Customer Risk Assessment (CRA) Policy defines the template for your organisation’s CRAs.

Proofdesk supports two CRA styles:

• Risk Level - Each answer maps directly to one of your defined risk levels (Low, Standard, High, etc.).

• Risk Score - Each answer maps to a numerical score. When completing a CRA, Proofdesk sums the scores for each selected answer, then applies the risk level based on your defined ranges (e.g. Low: 0–50, Standard: 51–100, High: 101+).

The policy is presented as a table where you can add multiple questions, each with as many answer options as you need. Each option can be assigned a risk level or score, depending on your chosen CRA type.

With your policies approved, your organisation’s configuration is complete and Proofdesk will unlock the rest of the platform for use. You’re now ready to begin managing relationships and completing reviews.