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Move new-client onboarding and AML checks into one self-built client portal instead of email
Katie Johnson, founder and CEO of AFI Balance, a bookkeeping, payroll and advisory firm in Townsville, Queensland (11 years in business), on a panel at The Firm's AI in Practice Summit
She built an onboarding and client app with Perplexity Computer, which she says uses Claude Sonnet in the background and is hosted on AWS in Australia, with GitHub alongside. After the first meeting, a client who wants to onboard gets an invite, signs through every step including the AML checks, and then gets access to the portal. For AML it runs the PEP and watchlist scans automatically and shows whether someone is high-risk, and it pulls data in from Xero. She has Perplexity Computer audit the site at 7am every morning to make sure the apps are working.
Perplexity Pro $17/mo billed annually (promo shown on Pro page) is the plan we checked; we haven't checked which Perplexity plan includes Computer
Advanced · or we do it from $149/mo
Perplexity, Perplexity Computer, GitHub
The problem
For close to two years her main problem was getting client data and onboarding into one place, from onboarding through to enquiries. The big software she tried was good, but there was always something missing.
What happened
She says the first version of the app took about ten minutes to build. When she spoke, the portal was live with a small group of core clients and herself, not yet with her team. Her team's access, the full rollout, an AI agent named Cafe to answer clients' payday super and payroll tax questions, and moving client messages and documents off email into the portal were next steps, not results. No time figures are given. Owner-told.
Quoted in the source: Katie Johnson, founder and CEO, AFI Balance. Source: The Firm, AI in Practice Summit: Real Firms, Real Builds (panel with Katie Johnson of AFI Balance) (2026-06-02) · Added 2026-10-19.
How to set it up yourself
- What AFI Balance does: after the first meeting, a new client gets one invite that walks them through every onboarding step, including AML checks, and then lands in a client portal.
- List every onboarding step you do now, in order: engagement, ID and AML checks, software access (Xero or QuickBooks), bank feeds, payroll details, first documents. Mark which ones the client does and which your team does.
- Use the prompt below to turn that list into a build plan, then build the smallest version (invite, steps, portal) in the AI app builder you already use.
- Run it with a handful of trusted clients first, as Johnson did, and keep the AML risk decision with a qualified person. Only then give your team access and move other clients over.
Copy-paste prompt
I run {FIRM NAME}, a bookkeeping firm in {COUNTRY}. Here is every step of our new-client onboarding today, in order, with who does it: {STEPS}. Our AML/KYC requirements: {AML REQUIREMENTS}. Plan a simple client onboarding app: 1) the screens a new client goes through after accepting our proposal, 2) what data and documents each screen collects, 3) where a staff member must review or approve (the AML risk rating and the decision to accept the client always stay with a person), 4) what the client sees afterwards. Keep it to the smallest version I can test with 5 clients. Mark anything you're unsure about as [CHECK].One short email a day: 3 new AI use cases from real small businesses, each with its source and setup steps, plus a Tool of the Day. Free, no spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Tools used
Perplexity
AI answer engine that searches the web and cites sources.
From Pro $17/mo billed annually (promo shown on Pro page) (checked 2026-10-18)
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Checked prices: Perplexity: from Pro $17/mo billed annually (promo shown on Pro page) (verified 2026-10-18)
Rather not do it yourself?
We'll set this up in your tools, in your voice, tested. $149/mo with setup included (6-month minimum), or $497 pay-once. Satisfaction guarantee: we'll fix it until it works. Pay-once setups: or we refund your setup fee. $149/mo plan: cancel in the first 30 days and we refund your first month. Terms. We reply within 1 business day.
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