Expert Agent has extended the integration with Property File, so that you can now identify high-risk customers quickly and easily with our electronic identity solution, within your existing Expert Agent software.

Performed in minutes and seamlessly integrated in Expert Agent, you can manage your applicants and vendors appropriately. Our checks help you adhere to the UK’s stringent Anti-Money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) guideline recommended risk-based approach to money laundering prevention.

Do your due diligence and make sure your client is who they say they are by checking they are not engaged in any suspicious activity. Our AML checks compare over 1 billion records held by Experian and give you the highest protection against things like PEP1 sanctions and Cifas.

 

 Article Contents 

Configuring your PropertyFile account (single branch)

Configuring your PropertyFile account (multi branch)

Enable AML checks in PropertyFile

Give staff members the permission to perform an AML check

Performing an AML check

Completing the check

Viewing the check in Expert Agent

Resending a check

Voiding a check

Sending a reminder

Viewing an audit trail of events

Expiring a check

Notification that a check is complete

Check results

Money laundering check date and method

 

Configuring your PropertyFile Account (single branch)

In order to perform AML checks in Expert Agent, you need to have a PropertyFile account. If you have enabled eSigning, you will already have gone through these steps. Otherwise:

As a Super User, go to PropertyFile under Business Configuration

Check that you are happy with the pre-populated subdomain (1). You can change it if you would prefer it to be something else. Enter the contact details (2) you would like to be used for your PropertyFile account.

 When all the information is complete (2), click Activate PropertyFile (3).

 

Configuring your PropertyFile Account (multi-branch)

In order to perform AML checks in Expert Agent, you need to have a PropertyFile account. If you have enabled eSigning, you will already have gone through these steps. Otherwise:

As a Super User, go to PropertyFile under Business Configuration

 

Check that you are happy with the pre-populated subdomain. You can change it if you would prefer it to be something else. Enter the contact details (2) you would like to be used for your PropertyFile account. Click to activate PropertyFile (3)

 

Choose which branch should be the main branch for your PropertyFile account. Super users of this branch will be able to make configuration changes for your PropertyFile account. Choose which of the available branches should be grouped into your PropertyFile account by clicking and dragging them into the Selected Branches box on the right. It is often better to include all the branches that fall under one brand, and have a separate account for branches of a different brand. Once a branch has been added to the group it cannot be removed, but new ones can always be added.

 

 

When all the information is complete, click Activate PropertyFile.

 

Enable AML Checks in PropertyFile

From the PropertyFile modal, click the button to Launch General Configuration

PropertyFile will load in another tab on your browser,  go to Bundles (1) in the left hand menu bar and select Activate now (2) on the Anti-Money Laundering bundle

 

Complete your details in the Full Name, Work email address, and Contact Number fields (1). Familiarise yourself with the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions (2), and tick to accept both terms (3).

You will then be given instructions on how to enable the module

In manage modules, click the toggle on the right hand side for Anti-Money Laundering checks, and save.

You can now close this tab and go back to Expert Agent.

Give staff members the Permission to perform an AML check

As a Super user, go to Agency Staff under Business Configuration and ensure they have an email address and telephone number populated, as this is required in order to enable AML checks for a staff member.

Go to the Advanced tab (1) under Permissions on any staff member profile you would like to configure to perform checks. Tick the box to Purchase/Perform AML Checks (2). Each time a user performs a check they are effectively purchasing a check, as you will be charged £1.50 for each check performed. Save the setting (3) and advise the user to log out and back in for the change to take effect.

If the staff member has an email address missing, and/or a phone number missing from their profile, you will see a message to advise they cannot be enabled for AML checks. This will need to be populated before you can continue. 

If the staff member sees a message advising "you do not have permission to start a new check" when they click on the AML Checks tab against a client's record, they have not had the permission set and a Super User will need to complete the steps above.

Performing an AML check

From an applicant, landlord, or property record for the person or people you want to perform a check for, click on the AML Checks tab (1) . Click the button to Start A New Check (2).

A record must have all of the following fields completed in order for a check to be requested: Title, Forname, Surname.

N.B. If a single one of these fields are complete, the individual will be displayed as a possible candidate for a check, but you will need to manually go back and fill in the missing fields before continuing the check.

When all the fields are complete, and you click Start A New Check, the client will be pre-ticked for you.

You can edit or add an email address from this screen, but if you choose to do this you will be warned that the change only applies for the purpose of this check and is not applied back to the record.

Where two people exist on a record, both will be shown on this screen and pre ticked (provided they both have title, forename, and surname complete). If there are multiple email addresses separated by a semicolon, the first email address will be assigned to the first individual, and the second email address to the second individual. You will be asked to check this before proceeding, and if they have been applied incorrectly you will either need to change the order of the email addresses in the record or edit them on this screen for the purpose of the AML check. 

There are two types of check you can request against each individual, and both types are pre-ticked for you on the form. It is your responsibility to familarise yourself yourself with the law in regards to anti-money laundering and pick the combination of checks which are fit for purpose. We are not able to offer advise on what level of check is right for you.

If for any reason you want to carry out different levels of checking for different individuals, you will need to untick one of the individuals at the top of the screen and complete a separate form for them.

When you are happy with the selection on the from, click Submit. PropertyFile will send the individual(s) an email regardless of their consent or preference settings, so ensure your customer is happy to receive the check before making the request.

Completing the check

 When you click submit on the form to request a check, the client will receive an email from PropertyFile, branded as per your configuration in your PropertyFile account, with a link to a form to complete and submit. The body of the email states:

The email then merges in the negotiator name of the person who requested the check, and their contact details as they are set in Expert Agent. There is a button at the top and bottom of the email for the recipient to click which will take them to the form.

Your client should complete the form within 14 days of receiving the email, otherwise the link will expire and, if you still require a check to be performed, you would need to request a further check. You would not be charged in this instance- the charge only applies when the form is submitted. 

When the check is ID only:

The recipient will see the below form to complete:

When the check is for impersonation only:

The client will see all the same questions for the ID check (as above), as these are required by Experian in order to select relevant questions for the impersonation check. When these are submitted successfully, the impersonation questions are displayed. The client has 20 minutes to submit the answers to all the questions. If they fail to submit within the 20 minutes, Experian returns the result of "Abandoned" and you will be charged for the check.

If Experian cannot verify the identity of the individual, Experian will be unable to present the impersonation questions, and the client will see a screen which explains their identity could not be verified, with conformation of what information they submitted. If they submitted incorrect information, you will need to request another check so they can complete the form correctly. You will be charged £1.50 regardless of the result of each impersonation check.

When the check is for both identity and impersonation:

The client will have exactly the same experience as when the check is for impersonation only, but you will have a result returned for both identity and impersonation, whereas the impersonation check only will not provide you with a result for identity. If the identity element of the check fails to identify the individual, you will not be charged for the impersonation element of the check. 

 

Viewing the check in Expert Agent

 When you have submitted the request for a check, you will see a row on the AML Checks tab for each check you requested. Initially the status will show as pending, and when you refresh the tab the status will change to sent. This means that the email has been sent from PropertyFile. 

You will also see an AML Check event in the Events tab of the record for each check that is requested.

By accessing the right hand tool bar in EA, and editing the quicklinks visible to you, you can select to view Office AML Checks Awaiting Submission.

By viewing this selection, you will see a grid list of AML checks that have been requested by your office, filtered by a status of sent.

You can access the same grid from Tools, Reporting, AML Checks. You can filter by any status, the type of check and a date range. If you choose a status of Completed you can filter further by the result of the check.

 

Resending a check

 If your client accidentally deleted the email or cannot find it, you can request to resend the check by clicking the Resend button next to the check on either the AML Checks tab of the person’s record, or from the quicklink. 

You will be asked to confirm you want to resend the check, before the email is sent. You will not be charged for resending the email; you are only charged when the client submits the form. The email will always be resent to the original email the request was sent to, regardless of whether or not the email address of the person has been updated in EA in the meantime. If the client has already submitted the form from the email, you will no longer have the option to resend, and must start the process of requesting a check again if another needs to be performed for any reason.

Voiding a check

 If you decide you no longer want or need your client to complete the check or checks you have requested, you can click the Void button next to the check on either the AML Checks tab of the person’s record, or from the quicklink. 

You will be asked to confirm you want to void the check, before this takes effect. You will not be charged for any checks you void; you are only charged when the client submits the form. If the client has already submitted the form, the Void button will not be visible on the check. In the unlikely scenario that the client submits the form between you clicking void, and clicking to confirm you want to void the check, you will see a message to advise the check cannot be voided. 

 

When you have confirmed that you want to void the check, if the client then accesses the link to the form from the email, they will see a message advising that they are unable to complete the check.

Once the check is voided, if you would like to delete the check so it no longer appears on the AML Checks tab and quicklink, you can delete the check altogether by clicking the Delete button that becomes visible on a voided check. If you delete the check, an AML Checks event is created on the Events tab to advise of the deletion.

 

Sending a reminder

 If you would like PropertyFile to automatically email a reminder to your customer when a specified number of days pass without them completing the check, a Super User can configure this in ‘AML Check Reminder Emails’ under Output Configuration.

Check the box to enable reminders, and specify the number of days between each reminder email. Save.

After that number of days have passed, the recipient will receive a reminder email asking them to complete the check, with a link to the form.

 

Viewing an audit trail of events

 You are able to view a full audit of events relating to each check by clicking on the Audit Trail button next to the check on either the AML Checks tab of the person’s record, or from the quicklink. 

 

The audit will provide the following information:

• The status of the check. Where the status is that the check is complete, the result of the check is displayed.
• If the check is complete, the Experian Reference is available for you to provide should there be any subsequent queries relating to the result of the check. Our Support Team is not able to assist with any queries relating to the outcome of the check. This should be raised directly with Experian. 
• The type of check the audit relates to; ID or Impersonation
• The name of the negotiator that requested the check
• The date and time the check was requested
• The date and time the email was sent by PropertyFile (this will usually be the same as the date and time it was requested)
• The date, time and IP address relating to each time the client clicked the link in the email to view the form
• If the check is complete, the date, time and IP address for when and where the check was completed.
• The name of the person undergoing the check
• The email address the check was sent to

 

 

Expiring a check

 If 14 days passes between you requesting a check, and the check being submitted by the individual, the check will automatically expire. The status of the check will show as Expired. If you still require a check to be completed, you need to request a new check. You will not be charged for checks that Expire.

 

Notification that a check is complete

 There are two ways you will be notified when an individual has completed an AML check.

1. You will receive a PropertyFile email to the address of the staff member who requested the check. There will be an email for each check requested.

2. The staff member who requested the check will receive an internal message in EA to notify them that the check is complete. There will be a message for each check requested.

An AML Check event will be created for each check that is completed, with the result visible from the grid.

Check results

Possible ID check results:

Authenticated - This is a positive result that indicates the individual’s identity has been verified satisfactorily. 

Not Authenticated - The applicant has not been authenticated to the required minimum level. You should seek other proofs of identity before doing business with this applicant.

Refer - One or more infringements have occured. The detail of these are provided in the PDF document that is supplied in EA.

 

Possible Impersonation check results:

Authenticated - A satisfactory number of questions were answered correctly so the confidence is high that this person is not impersonating a false identity. 

Not Identified - The questions were not presented, because the identity of the individual could not be authenticated (same as a ‘Not Authenticated’ result for an ID check)

Not Authenticated - The questions were presented to the individual, but they did not answer enough questions correctly to meet the minimum threshold

 

Abandoned - The individual failed to complete the questions within 20 minutes and the check timed out.

 

These results will be displayed against each check on the AML Checks tab of a record, and on the ‘Office AML Checks Awaiting Submission’ grid, if you have it filtered to show completed checks.

By clicking the ‘View Result’ button, a PDF will be displayed that shows more information about the result obtained from Experian, including a score relating to the degree of confidence that may be placed in your customer’s identity.

 

If the personal details of the individual that Experian return differs from the details you held in EA at the time the check was requested, you will see a warning triangle advising that the details do not match.

When you click the warning triangle, the pop out grid appears showing you the difference between what was held in EA when the check was requested and what was submitted to Experian. This is to guard against someone maliciously entering different person details in order to return a positive result from Experian.

 

Money laundering check date and method

 On the Dates tab of a property record there is a space to record when you completed the Money Laundering Check, and by what method. When an AML check is completed on a vendor, these fields are automatically populated with the date the check was completed, and the method is set as ‘Experian via PropertyFile’.

The sales finance side of Expert Agent is far more simple than our lettings finance which allows you to fully account for your lettings client account.

While you are able to create invoice documents to send out upon Exchange of Contracts  and also for One Off Charges, along with adding a receipt to the Charges Tab of the property using the receive a payment under the right click > housekeeping > sales accounts, these functions are only intended to provide an audit trail on the property record and aren't in any way intended to be relied upon for accounting purposes or to be MTD compliant.

You can produce a report to show you these Property Invoices  but the original point of entry for any invoices raised via your business/office account needs to be your dedicated office accounting software and not Expert Agent.  There are no accounting features within Expert Agent for the sales side of your business.

For anyone using Bank Export to make their Landlord and Contractor payments, some banks require the file to be in a .txt and some in a .csv.

If you require a CSV and use Excel, Excel will pre format your columns to a "general" format which will mean any sort codes or account numbers that begin with a zero will be missing the first number. To counteract this, you need to download the file slightly differently. 

Run your chosen bank export as normal from the payments to make report - clicking to create bank export - choosing your bank and making your selections. Then click save to download the file.

When the file downloads, rather than clicking on the download in the bottom left:

Open Excel on your machine and find the downloaded file to open it:

 From here you will be presented with the following:

 Click the 'Next' button without making any changes. This will open the following:

In the 'Delimiters' section change the setting from 'Tab' to 'Comma' and click the 'Next' button. This will open the following:

You will need to then select the columns that contain the Sort Code and/or Account numbers and change the 'Column data format' from 'General' to 'Text' and click the finish button. This will open your CSV with all columns formatted correctly.