Stay on top of your AML and KYC obligations without leaving Ignition. Compliance helps your practice verify client identity and conduct due diligence before delivering services, keeping your workflow in one place and giving you a clear audit trail.

Compliance is an opt-in feature. Before enabling it, make sure:

Ignition Compliance is designed to support your due diligence workflow, it is not legal advice. For guidance specific to your practice's obligations, speak with your compliance advisor.

Once set up, Ignition will run in the background to recommend which services in your library may require client verification.
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Ignition analyses your services, including service name, description, and category, and recommends which ones may require client verification.

You'll see verification badges appear on services in your Services library. From there you can:

Ignition's recommendations are a starting point based on service wording and category. They are not a definitive determination of your compliance obligations. Always review classifications against your own compliance policy and advice.

There are three verification types. You choose which one applies to a service or client.

Your classification choices are saved, they won't be overwritten if the recommender runs again in future.

Compliance has no separate feature fee. You pay per check only:

Compliance is included on the Core, Pro, and Pro+ plans.

Once Compliance is enabled, proposals that include classified services will show a Verification required badge on those services in the proposal editor.

At the Send step, you can choose which verification type to request. In the instance where a send is blocked, Ignition explains the compliance blockers and the actions needed before you can send. A client-facing verification request is only created when you explicitly choose to send one.

Compliance does not block you from sending, signing, or accepting a proposal, or from collecting payment. The verification step happens after your client accepts.

After your client accepts a proposal, they'll see a Client Verification checklist directly on their acceptance confirmation screen.

The checklist walks your client through the verification steps entirely within Ignition. They won't be redirected to a third-party site or see any provider-specific language. From your client's perspective, it's a seamless part of the Ignition experience.
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Your client will also receive an email with a link back to the checklist if they need to return to it later.
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If a client doesn't complete verification straight away, you can resend or regenerate their verification link from their client record.

Identity verification is a new step for many clients, so a short heads-up can go a long way in setting expectations and avoiding back-and-forth. Below are two templates you can adapt (one for a standalone email, and one for a short note inside your proposals).

The Enhanced check with entity & ownership collection (Pro plan and above) lets you collect a company's entity, ownership, and control details, and run an Enhanced AML/CTF check on the recipient.

If you need to verify specific people, you can send follow‑up checks to additional directors or beneficial owners. These company verification checks use official business registries and support director identification.

When you send an Enhanced check with entity & ownership collection, it helps to know which party is responsible for which step.

1. Your client lists the owners (not you)

As part of completing their verification, your client fills in the company's directors and beneficial owners themselves. You generally don't need to add these people manually beforehand.

Pre-adding them usually creates duplicate requests (and duplicate charges) once your client enters the same people through their form.

2. Ignition creates the follow-up checks automatically, but doesn't send them.

Once the entity verification is complete, the directors and beneficial owners your client listed appear as associated parties on that client's Compliance tab, and are counted in your Home action-required summary.

Ignition creates a follow-up check for each of them, but does not send these automatically. This is intentional: because owner details are entered by your client, you get a chance to review them before any check (and its cost) is sent.

3. You review and send each follow-up check

Open your client's Compliance tab, review the associated parties, and:

Until you send these follow-up checks, the owners won't receive anything, and their verifications will stay outstanding.

An entity check can show as complete once the primary individual has been verified, even when the directors or beneficial owners your client listed have not been checked yet. We recommend reviewing the associated parties on the Compliance tab before you treat an entity as fully verified.

You can send verification requests to multiple clients at once. To do this, navigate to your Clients tab and select all the clients you wish to bulk verify.

Then, click More actions → Request verification to start the process.

Note: The bulk verification feature is only available on the Pro plan and above.

Once your client completes their verification, the result will appear in the Compliance section of your Ignition navigation (between Clients and Services in the main menu).

The Compliance workbench shows separate queues for:

Your Ignition Home dashboard also shows a summary count of any compliance actions that need attention.

Some results will require you to make a judgment call before the agreed service can proceed. In these cases you can:

Risk levels (Low / Medium / High) are provided as evidence to inform your decision, not as a final recommendation.
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After a proposal is accepted, any agreed services that require verification are blocked for delivery until verification is complete and satisfactory.
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You'll see these in the Delivery blocked queue in your Compliance workbench. The block clears automatically when:

Delivery blocking is applied to the agreed service, it does not affect billing, invoicing, or payment collection.

Your Clients tab can also show Delivery blocked separately from verification status, so you can spot clients who are verified but still blocked because an enhanced check is needed.

For clients you're onboarding outside of a new proposal, such as existing clients you've worked with before, you can send a verification request directly from their client record.
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Navigate to the client record → Compliance tab → Request verification, then choose the appropriate verification package.

The client will receive an email with a link to complete their verification in the Ignition portal.

Ignition stores the outcome and status of each verification. Raw identity documents, biometrics, and detailed provider reports are not stored within Ignition. Verification records are retained for your audit trail, and each verification is recorded as a separate entry on the client's Compliance tab.

You can export and access records in several ways:

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Does enabling Compliance affect my existing proposals?
No. Compliance applies to proposals created after you enable the feature. Existing accepted proposals are not affected.
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​What if my client can't complete verification online?
You can record a manual override with a written rationale directly in the Compliance workbench. This is intended for situations where a client has already provided verification by other means (e.g. in person).
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​Can I turn Compliance off after enabling it?
You can pause Compliance from Settings → Labs. Existing verification records are retained and any in-progress provider checks will still be reconciled for audit purposes. Note that MFA will remain active on your practice after pausing.
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​Will my clients see any third-party provider branding during verification?
No. The verification experience is fully embedded within Ignition. Your clients will only see Ignition branding and plain-language instructions. There is no third-party provider names or technical terminology.
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​What's the difference between Identity verification and Enhanced verification?

The Standard identity check verifies a government-issued ID document only. It does not include AML/CTF screening. It can satisfy professional body, HMRC, or FCA identity requirements, but not, on its own, your full customer due diligence obligations.

The Enhanced identity & AML/CTF check adds a biometric selfie, proof of address, and enhanced AML/CTF screening (PEP and sanctions) with continuous monitoring.

The Enhanced check with entity & ownership collection adds entity, ownership, and control collection with follow-up checks for additional directors or beneficial owners. If you're unsure which to use, speak with your compliance advisor.
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​What does Ignition store from the verification process?
Ignition stores the outcome and status of each verification for your records. Raw identity documents, biometrics, and detailed provider reports are not stored within Ignition.
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​Can I export my verified clients register?
Yes. You can run a Compliance CSV export (via Compliance tab → Export) for a practice-wide view of requests, review candidates, evidence context, delivery state, and latest activity. Your Services CSV export also now includes Compliance classification columns, and individual verification PDFs are available to users with the Compliance Manager permission.

How much does Ignition Compliance cost, and how does billing work?

There's no extra fee just to access Compliance: it's included on Core, Pro and Pro+ plans. You only pay when you run a check: £4 for a Standard identity check, and £7 for an Enhanced AML/CTF check (which covers biometric verification, proof of address, PEP and sanctions screening, and ongoing monitoring). If you're verifying a company or trust, the entity check and each individual follow-up check (for directors, trustees or beneficial owners) are billed separately, so a company with one director works out to £14 in total.

These appear as line items on your regular Ignition invoice. There's no way yet to pass this cost on to your client directly through Ignition, so most firms either absorb it, build it into their pricing, or add it as a disbursement.

Which plans include this, and do I need to upgrade?

It's available on Core, Pro and Pro+ and nothing extra to set up beyond what's already in your account.

If a company has more than one director or beneficial owner, do I need to send separate checks to each of them?

You don't need to chase each person individually. When you run an Enhanced check on a company or trust, you add the directors, trustees and beneficial owners as part of that one check, and each of them automatically gets their own verification email to complete. You can also go back afterwards to add someone, resend a request, or mark a follow-up as not needed.

One thing worth knowing: if the same person is both your main point of contact and one of the directors/beneficial owners, they might occasionally be asked to verify twice; if that happens, only one needs to be completed, and support can help tidy up the other.

We often deal with a whole group of related entities (company, trust, individuals) under one engagement. Can we verify the whole group in one go?

Not quite yet. Right now, each entity in a group needs its own verification, started from that entity's own client record. The Enhanced check bundles one entity together with its own directors and beneficial owners, but it doesn't yet let you manage a whole related-entity group (say, a company plus its shareholding trust plus the individuals behind both) as a single check.

We know this is a common scenario for group engagements, and a smoother group-level workflow is something we're actively working towards.

The same person is a director or beneficial owner of several of our client entities. Do they really need to verify separately and pay for each one?

At the moment, yes: each entity's check runs independently, so the same individual may need to complete (and be billed for) verification more than once if they sit across multiple related entities. We know this adds cost and friction for exactly the kind of family and corporate groups accountants deal with every day, and it's high on our list to improve.

Do I have to send a check as part of a proposal, or can I send one separately?

You can send a verification request directly from a client's record at any time, no proposal needed. You can also have it trigger automatically when you send a proposal. If you're using Classic Proposals, the automatic trigger isn't supported, but you can still send a check separately. And if you're on Pro or above, you can send checks to multiple clients at once instead of one by one.

Can this be part of our new client onboarding, so we don't have to remember to trigger it?

Yes, on Pro and Pro+ plans: you can set it up so a new client automatically receives a verification request as soon as they accept their first proposal, with nothing extra for you to do.

Are our clients' ID and biometric data safe with Ignition?

Yes. Everything is encrypted both in transit and at rest (bank-grade AES-256), and access to verification records is limited to people in your practice with the Compliance permission. Full details are at ignitionapp.com/security.

What does it mean when a service shows as 'delivery blocked'*?

It means Ignition is holding off marking that service as delivered, and therefore holding off invoicing, until the client's verification comes back as passed. You'll see the reason directly on the proposal or service record, and on the client's Compliance tab. If you've already verified someone another way and want to proceed anyway, you can manually clear the block yourself by entering a short note explaining why, which is saved for your records.

Please note: It is the responsibility of the practice to decide if a service should still be delivered after encountering a 'delivery blocked' status.

I sent a verification request to the wrong email address. How do I fix it?

Update the contact's email on the client record, then resend the verification link, and it'll go straight to the corrected address.

We use a lot of custom services we've built ourselves. Will Ignition still know which ones need a compliance check?

Yes: Ignition looks at the name, description and category of all your services, custom ones included, to recommend which need verification*. If one of yours isn't picked up automatically, you can classify it manually and that choice will stick. It's worth a quick review of your service library though, since very generically-named custom services can sometimes be missed.

Please note: Ignition is able to make recommendations for services that may require a compliance check but ultimately the responsibility is on the practice to ensure their services are classified correctly.

How do we manage who reviews flagged or higher-risk results?

You can assign someone in your practice the Compliance Officer role in Ignition. They'll get visibility of flagged and higher-risk verifications so they can review the detail and decide how to proceed.

Who actually runs these checks behind the scenes?

Checks run through our verification partner, ComplyCube, combining government document verification, biometric matching, and screening against PEP and sanctions lists. It all happens inside Ignition, so your client never has to visit a separate website or app.

Does Ignition Compliance provide Companies House company reports for our due diligence records?

No. Company checks draw on official business registries to confirm entity details, but Ignition doesn't provide Companies House reports listing officers and persons with significant control. If your practice relies on those reports as evidence, you'll need to obtain them separately.

Will this sync with our practice management software?

Not yet: Compliance currently lives only inside Ignition, and verification status doesn't push through to your practice management software. (If you already use our separate Karbon workflow integration, that's unrelated and doesn't carry compliance data either.) This is an area we're exploring for the future.

We're setting up a brand-new company that doesn't have a company registration number (CRN) yet. How do we verify it?

Verify the people first (the directors or beneficial owners, as individuals), then run the entity-level check once the CRN has been issued. If you're dealing with an entity that will never have a CRN, get in touch with support, since that scenario needs a manual workaround for now while we build a proper fix.

Our client is an overseas company with an overseas company registration number but no UK CRN. How do they complete the entity form?

The company registration number field is required, so enter a placeholder such as "TBA" to continue. Verification itself is carried out at an individual level, and the entity details are captured to record the company and identify additional directors for follow-up checks. Alternatively, cancel the request and send an Enhanced identity and AML/CTF check instead.

Can I add a compliance check to a proposal I've already sent?

Yes: move it back to Draft, add the check on the Send tab, and resend. Just be aware that if your client already signed the original version, they'll need to re-sign the updated one.

Can I get a version of the report without personal ID details in it, to keep in the client file?

Not yet. In the meantime, the safest approach is to leave the full report where it already lives (in Ignition, restricted to your Compliance Manager permission) rather than copying it into your client file. If you want a practice-wide view without any document images, the Compliance register CSV export is built for exactly that.