As accountants and bookkeepers, we all want to give our clients a smooth, high-value experience. But let’s be honest…compliance tasks like AML checks can slow things down when they’re treated as another admin box to tick after the proposal is signed.
At Socket, we’re all about exploring game-changing steps forward, and right now we’re working on an AML integration that will help you to keep your client onboarding seamless, compliant, and an enjoyable process for everyone involved.
Supporting Integrated AML Processes
As a practice owner myself, I’ve seen how much smoother things run when your tools actually talk to each other. It’s a game-changer for both you, your team, and your clients.
That’s exactly why we’ve partnered with Xama. They’re trusted for their smart, accountant-first approach to AML, and, like us, they believe AML should be part of the conversation much earlier in the onboarding journey. By bringing client engagement and AML into one joined-up flow, we can help practices make faster, more informed decisions, cut down on back-and-forth admin, and give clients a slicker experience from the get-go.
Why Start AML Earlier?
With the right setup, AML can become useful before proposals go out: flagging risks early, helping you tailor services, and setting the tone for a trusted, professional relationship.
As Jacques Malan, Managing Director of Xama AML, puts it:
"We believe there’s huge potential to minimise client touchpoints by integrating AML directly into the proposal process. Just as firms ask clients to set up payment details before signing, identity verification could become part of a single, seamless interaction, rather than multiple disjointed interactions typically seen as part of the client onboarding process”
Jacques Malan, Xama AML
Earlier AML helps you:
- Build trust by showing due diligence upfront.
- Reduce admin by eliminating disjointed compliance steps.
- Unlock insights that shape pricing, services, and client strategy right from the start.
And when it’s all running in the background through integrations? It stops feeling like a compliance chore and starts delivering real value.
The Role of Integrated Platforms for AML
Shifting AML earlier in the process requires both a mindset change, and the technical capabilities to make this possible.
Without integrations between key platforms, practices find they are often forced to (and often forget to) manually duplicate data, switch between tools, or delay onboarding activities until compliance checks are complete.
What’s great about software integration is that it allows us to surface AML data at the proposal stage, and kick off client engagements with the right information to hand.
These insights can shape everything from proposal strategy to pricing decisions. Are there connected companies that you could work with? Have the directors got their personal taxes covered? What is the credit history of the company?
These could play an important part in what or how your services are offered, or even act as drivers to determine pricing. For example, data like company ownership, director links, or political exposure can influence how you approach pricing or proposals, removing the need to circle back or amend your proposal later.
What Your Practice Can Do to Stay Ahead
Staying ahead means rethinking where AML fits in your journey, and whether your current systems support it.
Ask yourself:
- Are my AML checks reactive or proactive?
- Could earlier risk visibility shape my pricing or onboarding process?
- Are my tools integrated enough to surface insights before the engagement begins?
The practices leading the way on AML are treating it as a strategic layer, not just a legal requirement, and are using integrated tools to unlock its full potential.
The Future of the Xama and Socket Integration
Already, our integration with Xama is delivering real-time AML insights directly into your everyday workflow in Socket, and we’re only just getting started.
Together, we’re working toward a future where:
- Real-time AML data guides proposals, pricing, and early conversations.
- Discovery-phase insights feed back into compliance processes, enriching the risk picture from day one.
- Compliance becomes an embedded, value-generating part of the journey, not a bolt-on task.
This is what smarter client onboarding and AML looks like…Seamless, strategic, and designed to work for both your team and your clients.
Speak soon,
Jon and the Socket Team
If you want to hear more from product experts about AML in the accounting and bookkeeping space, we're celebrating our partnership with Xama by hosting a fireside chat this month.
Join Socket’s Jonathan Gaunt, for the live webinar with Jacques Malan, Managing Director at Xama, as we discuss: “It’s never too early to start customer due diligence.”
📅 Thursday, 22nd May 2025 at 10am
🔗 Register here!
