AML Software for Accountants & Global Business: How FigsFlow Enables Cross-Border Onboarding & Compliance  

Accounting firms are no longer serving clients just down the road. Increasingly, they’re working with international individuals, overseas companies, cross-border investors, and foreign trusts. This global shift has created huge opportunities, but it has also brought an uncomfortable reality: onboarding and verifying international clients is far more complex than dealing with domestic ones. 

Every jurisdiction has its own rules, document formats, risk profiles, and regulatory expectations. Identifying beneficial owners becomes harder, PEP and sanctions exposure increases, and gathering documentation across countries and time zones can feel painfully slow. Manual onboarding is no longer fit for purpose. 

This is exactly why firms are turning to AML software for accountants that is built to handle cross-border compliance without the frustration, delays, or regulatory risk that often accompanies international work. And among the new generation of tools, FigsFlow stands out as a platform specifically designed for global onboarding. 

The Cross-Border Compliance Problem 

Most firms discover the complexity of international clients the hard way. A client may provide documents that are unfamiliar or formatted differently from UK or US standards. A company owned by an overseas entity may reveal multiple layers of shareholders scattered across various jurisdictions, some of which require enhanced due diligence. Even something as simple as verifying identity becomes difficult when dealing with passports, residence permits, corporate registry extracts, and ID cards from countries you’ve never encountered before. 

On top of that, exposure to politically exposed persons (PEPs), sanctioned individuals or entities, and high-risk jurisdictions skyrockets with global clients. Each of these factors demands careful screening and continuous monitoring, not something that can be handled reliably through spreadsheets or email chains. 

Communication becomes another major obstacle. Chasing documents across time zones, waiting on incomplete uploads, or relying on clients to email sensitive information leaves firms vulnerable to delays, data breaches, and non-compliance. 

It’s no surprise that accountants increasingly feel that cross-border onboarding has become a minefield. 

How Modern AML Software Solves the Global Client Challenge 

This is where technology fundamentally changes the experience. The right AML software for accountants does more than verify ID and tick boxes; it creates a controlled, secure, and standardised workflow that manages every moving part of compliance. 

FigsFlow’s approach centres on removing friction and risk at every step of the onboarding process. It allows firms to onboard clients from anywhere in the world with the same level of confidence as onboarding someone who lives five minutes away. 

One of its most powerful features is global electronic ID verification. Instead of asking clients to email passports or PDF documents, FigsFlow gives them a secure, guided portal to upload whatever their jurisdiction uses — passports, national identity cards, residence permits, company formation documents, and more. The system handles the validation and ensures every piece of information is stored in the correct place, ready for audit. 

Just as importantly, the platform performs real-time PEP and sanctions screening across international databases. For firms dealing with clients from high-risk jurisdictions or politically active regions, this level of automated screening removes both guesswork and anxiety. Continuous monitoring ensures that risks are flagged even after onboarding is complete. 

FigsFlow also simplifies one of the most difficult aspects of dealing with overseas companies: identifying beneficial owners. Instead of combing through inconsistent documents from multiple jurisdictions, FigsFlow guides firms through a structured process that captures ownership information, verifies identities, and links everything together in a single, unified profile. What once felt like forensic investigation becomes a predictable, repeatable workflow. 

Even communication — usually the biggest bottleneck in cross-border onboarding — is streamlined. Clients have a single, secure space to upload documents, complete checks, and respond to requests. Firms are no longer juggling emails, WhatsApp messages, or downloads scattered across local folders. Everything flows through one system, eliminating the risk of missing documents or incomplete files. 

Why Firms That Embrace Global Clients Are Choosing FigsFlow 

As accounting firms continue expanding internationally, technology becomes the only scalable way to manage compliance safely and efficiently. The firms that succeed in global markets are those that can onboard clients quickly, verify them confidently, and maintain airtight audit trails without drowning their staff in manual admin. 

This is exactly the gap that FigsFlow fills. It transforms cross-border onboarding from a high-risk, highly manual process into a streamlined, repeatable workflow backed by automated verification, global screening, secure document handling, and comprehensive audit readiness. 

By adopting AML software for accountants, especially a modern solution built for international work, firms can grow their global client base without taking on additional risk.