A VAT number to check before signing, a director to identify before opening a file, a chain of beneficial owners that never quite adds up to a hundred per cent: the lawyer, the property manager, the estate agent or the accountant has to prove their vigilance before even accepting a client, and prove it again years later. This application checks free public registries for each file, traces the due diligence the law requires, and never passes its own verdict on a person.
Who the application is for
For French-regulated professionals required to carry out counterparty due diligence before entering a business relationship — lawyers, co-ownership managers, estate agents, accountants — subject to their profession's rules on conflicts of interest and to the French monetary and financial code on anti-money-laundering.
What the application does
- Checks against free public registries the validity of an EU VAT number, a company's identity and status — active or ceased — its declared directors, the normalisation of a French address and published insolvency notices, each with a dated finding citing its source.
- Turns a finding back into "unverified" once it passes its own validity date, specific to each type of check, rather than letting it look permanently up to date.
- Automatically detects whether an opposing party has already been a client of the firm, and blocks entering the relationship until that conflict of interest is lifted and justified.
- Calculates the vigilance level (simplified, standard or enhanced) from the risk criteria you tick yourself, and blocks entering the relationship until the required enhanced measures are completed.
- Tracks a legal entity's chain of beneficial owners with their ownership shares, and blocks entering the relationship while some ownership shares remain unaccounted for.
- Calculates the date on which the file must be purged, five years after the business relationship ends.
- Records the existence, date and author of a suspicious activity report, never its content, visible only to the compliance officer.
Day to day
- Open a file for the counterparty, specifying whether it is a private individual or a legal entity.
- Enter the VAT number, the SIREN or SIRET and the address to check, then query the public registries.
- If an opposing party is involved, enter it: a conflict of interest already known to the firm appears on its own.
- Tick the risk criteria based on your professional judgement; the vigilance level is calculated, and enhanced measures appear if needed.
- For a legal entity, complete the chain of beneficial owners until all known shares are accounted for, then enter the relationship.
What the application does not do
- It does not check any sanctions list, any official beneficial-ownership register or any politically exposed persons database: none is free and public, and these criteria remain for you to assess.
- It never draws a conclusion: no finding from the public registries becomes a score or a recommendation, and none of them blocks entering the relationship on its own.
- It does not submit any report to the anti-money-laundering authority: filing remains external, it only records that a report exists.
- It does not manage the engagement letter, invoicing or the client file itself: it is a preliminary check and its record, not a client file.
- It does not replace the advice of your professional body, your supervisory authority or a lawyer on the scope of your obligations: the rules on vigilance and conflicts of interest can change.
Getting started
For each file, gather the EU VAT number, the SIREN or SIRET and the counterparty's address to check. Decide who in the firm holds the compliance officer role before opening your first files.
Going further
To find out whether this application suits your business and how to activate it, compare the plans or write to us.