opbox

Onboard a new client

From first contact to an open matter - add the client, verify them, open the work, and share a portal.

A new client has just made contact. This guide walks you, step by step, from that first hello to a live piece of work with the client able to see it, sign things, and send you documents. You do not need to know anything technical. Each step names the everyday thing you are doing, points you at the screen that does it, and tells you where the agent can do the legwork for you.

You can do every step yourself, or you can ask the agent in chat to do it and just check its work. Either way the result is identical, because both go through the same governed actions.

Before you start

You will need the client’s name and an email address you can reach them on. Everything else (their identity documents, their answers, their signatures) you can collect along the way.

Step 1 - Add the client as a party

Everyone Opbox holds a record for - a person or a company - is a party. Your first job is to make sure this client exists as a party, exactly once.

  1. Open the Parties list and search for the client by name or email.
  2. If they are already there, use the existing record. Do not create a second one.
  3. If they are new, add a party with their name and contact details.

Opbox deduplicates for you: if the person already exists, you fold the new contact into the record you have rather than creating a near-duplicate. One real-world person should be one party, always. See Party / Identity Registry for the full picture.

  • The action: add or find the party, then save their details.
  • Key verbs: party.create to add a new party, party.list to search for an existing one, and party.merge to fold a duplicate into the real record.
  • Ask the agent: “Find or add a party for Jane Okoro, [email protected].” The agent searches first and only creates a new record if there genuinely isn’t one, so you don’t end up with duplicates.

Step 2 - Verify who they are (KYC)

Knowing your client is a standing regulated duty, not a one-off tick-box. Before you take on the work you need to establish who you are dealing with, capture the evidence, and record where they stand. Opbox keeps that standing on the party, and the sensitive identity details are encrypted.

  1. Open the client’s party record and run KYC on them. This attaches an identity check.
  2. When the result comes back, record the verdict: their status (verified, pending, escalated), their risk level, and whether the politically-exposed-person or sanctions flags apply.
  3. On a verified verdict, Opbox stamps the verified date and works out the expiry date automatically, so the review schedule looks after itself from here on.

See KYC & periodic review for how the standing, encryption, and the firm-wide expiry register fit together.

  • The action: run KYC, then set the verdict.
  • Key verbs: verification.create to run the check, party.facet.set to store the encrypted identity facts, and later party.kyc.review to re-verify when the expiry comes due.
  • Ask the agent: “Run KYC on this party.” The agent can kick off the check and tee up the result for you. Note that setting the verdict and re-verifying are Admin-only: writing someone’s identity standing is a privileged act, so it waits for an authorised person, by design.

Step 3 - Open the matter from the right template

A matter is the actual piece of work, run from start to finish: a company incorporation, a visa application, a property purchase, a case. You don’t build a matter from scratch - you pick a template and Opbox lays out all the phases and steps for you.

  1. Create a matter and choose the template that fits the job (for example a Tier-2 visa or an incorporation).
  2. Opbox builds a fresh matter with its phases and ordered steps already in place, and pins the exact template version, so a later change to the template never reshapes this job.
  3. Attach the client to the matter as a party so the work knows who it is for.

See Matter management for how steps, gates, and the activity trail work once the matter is running.

  • The action: create from a template, then attach the client.
  • Key verbs: matter.create to start the matter from a template version, and matter.attach to link the client party (and later, files and documents) to it.
  • Ask the agent: “Open a Tier-2 visa matter for Jane and attach her as the client.” The agent picks the template, creates the matter, and attaches the party in one go.

Step 4 - Collect intake with a form

Most onboarding needs information only the client has: their details, their answers, their documents. A form collects all of that as clean, typed data - and the clever part is that a completed form can open the matter for you and hand it the data, so the work starts already filled in.

  1. Open the form builder and build an intake form from typed fields (text, dates, choices, file uploads), or pick a form you already published.
  2. Publish it so it has a fixed version, then assign it to the client as a task on their portal (Step 5).
  3. When the client submits it, you turn the submission into a matter - or feed it into the matter you opened in Step 3 - so names, dates, and uploaded documents flow straight in with no re-keying.

If you’d rather skip Step 3 and let the form do it, you can: an incoming or approved submission can open the matter itself. See Forms & submissions for the full lifecycle.

  • The action: build and publish the form, then turn the submission into the matter.
  • Key verbs: form.generate to AI-draft a form from a plain description, form.ingest to turn a completed submission into a matter (extracting any uploads to encrypted storage), and submission.list / submission.get to see what’s come in.
  • Ask the agent: “Draft an onboarding intake form for a visa client.” Describe the intake in plain language and the agent drafts the form for you. It lands as a draft you review and publish - never auto-published, always yours to approve.

Step 5 - Share a client portal

The client portal is the secure, branded space the client lands in when you send them a link. They see only what you choose to share, and everything they do - filling the form, signing, uploading - flows straight back into the matter. They never get an account and never see anything else in your workspace.

  1. Build the portal from a template, which sets your branding and a known-good layout.
  2. Share the objects you want them to act on: attach the matter, the intake form from Step 4, and any files or requests. Anything you don’t attach simply isn’t there for them.
  3. Choose how much of each object they see (full, read-only, or with write-back), and preview it exactly as the client will.
  4. Send the link by adding the client as a named recipient by email. The link starts inactive and binds to the first person who claims it, so a forwarded link can’t be picked up by the wrong person.
  5. The client opens it, completes the form, signs, and uploads. It all writes back into the matter with a full audit trail - no separate inbox to reconcile.

See Client portal for how the boundary and the per-client token keep one client from ever seeing another’s portal.

  • The action: build the portal, attach the form and matter, then send the link.
  • Key verbs: portal.create to build it, portal.object.attach to put the matter and form on the allow-list, portal.task.assign to assign the intake form as a to-do, and portal.link.add to mint the client’s personal access link.
  • Ask the agent: “Build a portal for Jane, attach her matter and the intake form, and send her the link.” The agent assembles the portal and mints the link; you preview before it goes out.

What you end up with

Once you’ve worked through these five steps you have:

  • One clean party record for the client, deduplicated, with their contact details.
  • A verified identity on a schedule - the encrypted KYC evidence captured, the standing recorded, and the re-review date set automatically.
  • A live matter built from the right template, with the client attached and the work laid out step by step.
  • Intake data already in the matter - names, dates, and documents flowed in from the form with no re-keying.
  • A branded portal the client can use to see their work, sign what needs signing, and upload what you asked for, all flowing back to you with a full audit trail.

From here the matter walks itself forward step by step, and you (or the agent) work it to completion. To keep going, read: