Loan and Mortgage Inquiry Intake

A lending inquiry arrives as a phone call at seven in the evening, a web form at midnight, a referral email from an accountant, and a direct message on a social profile. Each one lands somewhere different. One goes in a notebook, one sits in a shared inbox that three people half-watch, one gets forwarded to whichever adviser replied first. Nobody can say, on any given Monday morning, how many live inquiries exist, who owns each one, or which of them has gone quiet. The firm is not short of demand. It is short of a single place where demand is visible.

Then the document phase begins, and that is where the money actually leaks. Identification, proof of address, three months of payslips or two years of accounts, bank statements, proof of deposit and its source, existing mortgage statements, a credit report authority. Each item is requested by hand, in a different email thread, over weeks. The outstanding list lives in one person's head. Cases die here routinely, and they rarely die because the client was unsuitable. They die because nobody asked a second time for the third payslip, or because the client sent six files and no one confirmed which four were still missing, or because the inquiry sat for eleven days while the adviser assumed the administrator was chasing it and the administrator assumed the adviser was.

Meanwhile the client is in the dark. They have made what is probably the largest financial decision of their life and they do not know whether anything is happening. So they call to ask, which costs the firm a staff interruption and costs the client confidence. And because the intake was informal, the file that eventually reaches a reviewer, a compliance check or an auditor has holes in it: no durable record of what was asked and when, which disclosure the client was given before the fact find, when consent for a credit search was obtained, or why the inquiry was routed to the adviser it was routed to. The firm may well have done the right thing. It just cannot easily prove it.

Pipeline and stages

One pipeline, Lending Inquiries, with eleven live stages. Every inquiry from every channel enters at stage one, so the pipeline becomes the single answer to the question of what is live.

• New Inquiry - captured, not yet spoken to.
• Contact Attempted - at least one outbound attempt logged, no reply yet.
• Qualified and Adviser Assigned - basic facts captured, a named adviser owns the case.
• Fact Find Booked - appointment in the calendar with the assigned adviser.
• Fact Find Complete - adviser has conducted and recorded the full fact find.
• Documents Requested - checklist issued to the client.
• Documents Complete - every checklist item received and marked checked by a human.
• Submitted to Lender - application away.
• Lender Decision Received - decision in, being communicated.
• Offer Issued - formal offer out, progressing to completion.
• Completed - drawn down or settled.

Plus one terminal stage, Not Proceeding, which any stage can exit into with a recorded reason. Nothing is ever deleted; it moves here.

Calendars

• Fact Find Appointment - 60 minutes, individual adviser calendars grouped into one team group, 24 hours minimum notice, 15 minute buffer after. Round-robin distribution is deliberately off; routing is rule-based so that case ownership is explainable later.
• Document Review Call - 20 minutes, used when a client needs help understanding what is being asked for rather than advice on the product.
• Decision Discussion - 30 minutes, booked only by an adviser or administrator once a lender decision lands. Clients cannot self-book this; a decision is always communicated by a qualified person.

Custom fields

Create these on the contact or opportunity record. The names matter because every workflow condition below references them.

• inquiry_type - dropdown: Residential purchase, Remortgage, Buy to let, Commercial, Bridging, Personal loan, Other.
• inquiry_source - dropdown: Website, Phone, Web chat, Referral partner, Existing client, Social, Walk in.
• referrer_name - text, populated when inquiry_source is Referral partner.
• adviser_assigned - dropdown of advisers, plus Unassigned.
• employment_basis - dropdown: Employed, Self employed, Company director, Contractor, Retired, Other. Collected as a fact only, never scored.
• loan_amount_band - dropdown of bands, used for routing by case complexity rather than for any eligibility statement.
• target_timescale - dropdown: Within 1 month, 1–3 months, 3–6 months, Just researching.
• doc_checklist_issued_date - date.
• docs_outstanding - long text, the live list of items not yet received.
• docs_received_count and docs_required_count - numbers, used to drive the client-facing progress line.
• id_verification_status - dropdown: Not started, Submitted, Verified, Query raised.
• disclosure_sent_date - date the firm's initial disclosure or terms of business was issued.
• disclosure_acknowledged_date - date the client confirmed receipt.
• credit_search_consent - dropdown: Not requested, Given, Declined; plus credit_search_consent_date.
• marketing_consent - dropdown: Given, Declined, Withdrawn; plus marketing_consent_date.
• support_needs_flag - switch, set by a human only, to mark a client who needs additional care in how and when they are contacted.
• preferred_contact_window - dropdown: Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Any.
• preferred_language - dropdown.
• case_reference - text, the firm's own file number.
• lender_name, lender_submitted_date, lender_decision_date, offer_expiry_date, target_completion_date - populated by staff as the case progresses.
• not_proceeding_reason - dropdown: Client withdrew, Went elsewhere, Purchase fell through, Documents never supplied, Referred out, Other; plus not_proceeding_notes.
• last_client_update_sent - date, written by every outbound status workflow so staleness is measurable.

Tags

• Journey state: inquiry-new, adviser-assigned, fact-find-booked, docs-outstanding, docs-complete, awaiting-lender, offer-issued, case-completed, not-proceeding.
• Case type: type-residential, type-remortgage, type-btl, type-commercial, type-bridging, type-personal-loan.
• Handling: needs-human-now, support-needs-review, complaint-language-detected, stalled-14-days, reactivation-hold.
• Consent: no-marketing-consent, sms-opted-out, email-unsubscribed. These are hard suppression tags that every promotional workflow checks first.

Forms and funnels

• Lending Inquiry Form - the public form. Name, email, mobile, inquiry_type, target_timescale, loan_amount_band, preferred_contact_window, preferred_language, free-text situation box, and two separate tick boxes: one consenting to be contacted about this inquiry, one for marketing. They are never combined and neither is pre-ticked.
• Secure Document Upload - a per-client link behind the client portal, accepting multiple files, with the live outstanding list rendered at the top so the client always sees exactly what is left.
• Fact Find Pre-Work - sent after booking. Factual questions only: income structure, existing commitments, dependants, address history. It gathers information for the adviser; it does not produce an outcome for the client.
• Not Proceeding Reason - a short internal form staff complete when closing a case, which writes not_proceeding_reason.
• Case Status page - a simple authenticated landing page showing the current stage, the outstanding document list and the last update date. This page is the main reason status-chasing phone calls stop.

BO's role and guardrails

BO handles first contact on web chat, SMS and after-hours email. BO exists to capture, schedule and route. BO is not an adviser and the configuration must make that structurally impossible rather than merely discouraged.

BO may: greet and identify the inquiry type; collect the factual fields above; state the firm's hours, process and what documents are typically needed; offer fact find slots from the adviser's live calendar; confirm a booking; send the firm's disclosure document; answer what happens next and who the client will speak to; tell the client where their status page is.

BO must never: recommend a product, lender or term; state or imply what the client can borrow, afford, or be approved for; quote an interest rate, fee, product or comparison; express a view on whether remortgaging, borrowing more or consolidating is a good idea; say anything that could be read as a personal recommendation; comment on another firm's advice; or continue a conversation once the client asks an advice question.

Hard handoff triggers. Build an escalation branch that fires on intent or keyword and immediately tags needs-human-now, notifies the duty adviser, and takes BO out of the conversation: any question containing should I, can I afford, how much can I borrow, which is better, what rate, is it worth, or recommend; any mention of a complaint, ombudsman, regulator or legal action; any disclosure of bereavement, illness, redundancy, debt difficulty or other vulnerability, which also raises support-needs-review for a human to assess; and any explicit request to speak to a person. BO's reply in all cases is a fixed line: "That is a question for one of our qualified advisers rather than me. I am passing this to the team now and someone will come back to you - would you like me to find you an appointment in the meantime?"

BO's opening message always carries a one-line identity disclosure so no client is misled about who they are talking to, and every BO conversation is retained in full on the contact record as part of the case file.

Numbers and channels

• A dedicated local tracking number for inquiries, with call recording and voicemail-to-text, routed to a ring group during business hours and to BO plus a callback promise outside them. Recording announcements are mandatory and configured at the number.
• SMS on a registered messaging number for appointment and document traffic only, with standard opt-out language on the first message of any sequence and keyword handling active.
• Email from a monitored firm address with the assigned adviser's name in the signature, so replies reach the case rather than a generic inbox.
• Web chat on the site with BO as first responder and a visible route to a human.
• Optional: a second tracking number per referral partner, so referrer_name populates automatically from the number dialled.

One inquiry, start to finish. A first-time buyer finds the firm on a Saturday evening.

1. Capture. She completes the Lending Inquiry Form at 21:40 on a Saturday: residential purchase, within 1–3 months, evening contact preferred. She ticks the box consenting to contact about her inquiry and leaves the marketing box unticked. The platform creates the contact, writes inquiry_type, target_timescale, preferred_contact_window and marketing_consent of Declined, applies tags inquiry-new, type-residential and no-marketing-consent, and creates an opportunity in New Inquiry.
2. Acknowledge within the minute. She gets an email and an SMS confirming the inquiry is logged, naming the next step and its timing, and linking the firm's initial disclosure document. disclosure_sent_date is written. The messages promise a human call; they say nothing about rates, products or what she might borrow.
3. BO picks up the follow-up question. Ten minutes later she replies to the SMS asking what documents she will need. BO answers with the firm's standard factual checklist and offers to find her a fact find slot. She asks a second question: whether a two-year or five-year fix is better. BO does not answer. It tags needs-human-now, notifies the duty adviser's phone, posts the fixed handoff line, and offers appointment slots instead.
4. Book. She takes a Tuesday 18:00 slot from the live Fact Find Appointment calendar. The opportunity moves to Fact Find Booked, tag fact-find-booked is applied, and the booking is written to the adviser's connected calendar.
5. Assign and route. Assignment runs on inquiry_type and loan_amount_band rather than on who is free: residential purchase goes to the residential team, with first-time buyer cases preferring the adviser the firm has designated for them. adviser_assigned is set, the opportunity owner changes, tag adviser-assigned is applied, and the rule that fired is written to the record note so the routing decision is reconstructable.
6. Pre-work out. She receives the Fact Find Pre-Work form and the disclosure acknowledgement request. She confirms receipt of the disclosure, which writes disclosure_acknowledged_date, and completes the pre-work the following evening. The adviser now walks into the appointment with address history, income structure and commitments already on file.
7. Reminders. 24 hours and then 2 hours before the slot, she gets reminders carrying the adviser's name and the dial-in or address, plus a one-tap reschedule link. Nothing is sent inside configured quiet hours.
8. Fact find. The adviser conducts the appointment, records it, and marks the opportunity Fact Find Complete. During the call the client mentions her mother is ill and she may be the primary carer. The adviser sets support_needs_flag, which quietly lengthens every chase interval in the document workflow and suppresses SMS chases in favor of email.
9. Document checklist issued. The adviser selects the checklist for an employed residential purchase. The platform writes docs_required_count, builds docs_outstanding, sets doc_checklist_issued_date, moves the opportunity to Documents Requested, applies docs-outstanding, and sends the secure upload link with the itemized list and her status page URL.
10. Chase, but only for what is actually missing. She uploads four of seven items. The upload handler decrements the outstanding list and the next chase, three days later, names only the three remaining items. She never gets asked again for something she has already sent, which is the single biggest driver of clients disengaging at this stage.
11. Documents complete and checked. The last item lands. Because every item is present, the platform does not advance the stage on its own; it creates a task for the administrator to verify the files are legible and current. Only after that human check does the case move to Documents Complete, tags swap to docs-complete, and id_verification_status is set to Verified.
12. Submission and status. The adviser submits to a lender and writes lender_name and lender_submitted_date. The case moves to Submitted to Lender, tag awaiting-lender applies, and the client gets a factual update: her case is with the lender, who it is with, and when she will next hear from the firm regardless of whether there is news.
13. Decision, by a human. The lender responds. Staff write lender_decision_date and move the case to Lender Decision Received. The automation here does not tell the client the outcome; it books a Decision Discussion and texts her that her adviser wants to talk her through it. The outcome is always delivered by the qualified person.
14. Offer and completion. Offer issued, offer_expiry_date and target_completion_date written, milestone updates scheduled against the completion date, and on completion the case moves to Completed. She is then asked for a review, and if she has since given marketing consent she enters the annual review cadence. If she has not, she gets a service-only reminder and nothing else.

Eight workflows. Every one of them opens with the same suppression check, so write it once as a reusable condition: if sms-opted-out then no SMS steps run; if email-unsubscribed then no marketing email steps run (service email about a live case continues); if needs-human-now then all automated client-facing sends pause until a human clears the tag.

1. Inquiry Capture and Immediate Acknowledgement

Trigger: Lending Inquiry Form submitted, or inbound call completed on the inquiry number with no existing contact, or BO chat session that captured name and contact details.

Actions in order:

• Create or update the contact. Write inquiry_type, inquiry_source, target_timescale, loan_amount_band, preferred_contact_window, preferred_language, marketing_consent and marketing_consent_date.
• Apply inquiry-new and the matching type tag. If marketing_consent is not Given, apply no-marketing-consent.
• Create an opportunity in Lending Inquiries at New Inquiry, named with the contact name and inquiry_type.
• Wait 0 minutes. Send SMS: "Hi [first_name], thanks for your inquiry - it is logged with [firm_name] and one of our advisers will call you [next_business_window]. Nothing to do yet. Reply STOP to opt out of texts."
• Send email, subject "Your inquiry with [firm_name] - what happens next". Body sets out the three steps (a call, a fact find appointment, a document list), states the firm's hours, attaches or links the initial disclosure document, and names the person or team who will be in touch. No rates, no products, no indication of what the client might be able to borrow.
• Write disclosure_sent_date = today.
• Internal notification to the duty channel with the inquiry type, timescale and source.
• Create task "Call new inquiry" for the duty adviser, due inside the firm's first-contact standard, respecting preferred_contact_window.

Branch: if submitted outside business hours, the SMS copy changes to "...will call you after 9am tomorrow" and BO is enabled on the conversation thread so a reply gets a factual answer immediately.

Exit: opportunity leaves New Inquiry, or not-proceeding applied.

2. Adviser Assignment and Routing

Trigger: opportunity created in New Inquiry, or inquiry_type changed.

Branches, evaluated in order, first match wins:

• inquiry_type is Commercial or Bridging, or loan_amount_band is in the firm's top band: assign to the specialist adviser.
• inquiry_type is Buy to let: assign to the buy-to-let adviser.
• inquiry_type is Residential purchase or Remortgage: assign to the residential rota, respecting any absence flag.
• inquiry_source is Referral partner and referrer_name has a designated adviser: assign to that adviser, overriding the above.
• No match: assign to the named fallback owner and apply a task for the practice manager to route manually within the business day.

Actions: write adviser_assigned; change opportunity owner; apply adviser-assigned; move to Qualified and Adviser Assigned once basic facts exist; add a record note stating which rule fired and why, so the routing decision is reconstructable months later; notify the assigned adviser on their preferred channel with a link to the opportunity.

Exit: adviser_assigned is populated and the owner matches it.

3. Fact Find Booking and Attendance

Trigger: appointment booked on the Fact Find Appointment calendar.

Actions in order:

• Move opportunity to Fact Find Booked; apply fact-find-booked; remove inquiry-new.
• Immediately: confirmation email with date, time, adviser name, format, and the list of things worth having to hand. Plus confirmation SMS: "Confirmed: [date] at [time] with [adviser_first_name]. We will talk through your situation - no decisions needed on the call. Reschedule here: [link]"
• Wait 5 minutes. Send the Fact Find Pre-Work form and the disclosure acknowledgement request.
• Wait until 24 hours before start. Reminder email with a one-tap reschedule link.
• Wait until 2 hours before start. Reminder SMS: "Reminder: [time] today with [adviser_first_name]. [join_link_or_address]"
• If the pre-work form is still incomplete 12 hours before, send one nudge only: "A couple of questions before [adviser_first_name] calls - it saves 15 minutes on the appointment: [link]"

Branches: if support_needs_flag is on, drop the 2 hour SMS and replace it with a short call task for the adviser. If the appointment is canceled, the opportunity returns to Qualified and Adviser Assigned and workflow 7 begins counting. If marked no-show, send one rebooking message and create an adviser callback task; after two consecutive no-shows, stop automated outreach and task a human.

Exit: opportunity reaches Fact Find Complete, or cancellation, or not-proceeding.

4. Document Checklist Chase Ladder

Trigger: opportunity moved to Documents Requested.

Actions in order:

• Write doc_checklist_issued_date; set docs_required_count from the chosen checklist; build docs_outstanding; apply docs-outstanding.
• Send email "Your document checklist - [case_reference]" listing every item plainly, with the secure upload link and the status page link. State a target date.
• Send SMS: "Hi [first_name], your document list is in your email and on your case page: [status_link]. Upload as you get them - no rush to do it all at once."
• Wait 3 days. If docs_outstanding is not empty, send SMS naming only what is left: "Still to come: [docs_outstanding]. Upload here: [upload_link]"
• Wait 4 days. If still outstanding, send email with the remaining items and one line on why each is needed, plus an offer to book a 20 minute Document Review Call.
• Wait 5 days. If still outstanding, create a task for the assigned adviser to call personally. Automated chasing pauses for 48 hours while that task is open.
• Wait 7 days after the call task. If still outstanding, send a final written chase stating the case will be placed on hold and asking the client to confirm whether they want to continue.
• Wait 7 days. If still outstanding, apply stalled-14-days and hand to workflow 7.

Branches: if support_needs_flag is on, multiply every wait by 1.5 and send email only. If the client replies to any chase, pause the ladder for 72 hours and task the adviser. If complaint-language-detected fires, stop the ladder entirely and escalate.

Exit: docs_outstanding empty, or not-proceeding, or needs-human-now set.

5. Document Received Handler and Completion Gate

Trigger: file uploaded via Secure Document Upload.

Actions:

• Attach the file to the case; increment docs_received_count; remove the matched item from docs_outstanding; recalculate the client-facing progress line on the status page.
• Send acknowledgement SMS within 2 minutes: "Got it - thanks. [n] of [docs_required_count] received. Still to come: [docs_outstanding]." If docs_outstanding is empty, the second sentence becomes "That is everything on the list - we will check it over and come back to you within [standard]."
• Notify the administrator in the case channel.
• Condition: if docs_outstanding is empty, do not advance the stage automatically. Create task "Verify document pack - [case_reference]" for the administrator, with a checklist of legibility, date currency and name match.
• Only when that task is completed does a second step move the opportunity to Documents Complete, swap docs-outstanding for docs-complete, set id_verification_status to Verified, and notify the adviser that the case is ready to submit.
• If the verifier rejects an item, it is written back into docs_outstanding with a reason, the stage stays put, and one re-request is sent: "One of the statements came through cut off at the bottom - could you send that page again? [upload_link]"

Exit: Documents Complete reached and verified.

6. Awaiting Lender Status Cadence

Trigger: opportunity moved to Submitted to Lender.

Actions:

• Apply awaiting-lender; remove docs-complete; write last_client_update_sent.
• Immediately: email confirming the application has gone to [lender_name], stating the date, what happens next in process terms, and when the client will next hear from the firm. No prediction of the outcome, no timeline promise the firm does not control, no commentary on likelihood.
• Wait 7 days. If still in this stage, send a holding update: "Quick update on [case_reference]: your application is still with [lender_name] and we have not had a decision yet. Nothing is needed from you. We will be back in touch by [date] either way." Rewrite last_client_update_sent.
• Repeat every 7 days while the stage is unchanged. This no-news update is the single highest-value message in the build, because silence is what generates inbound calls and lost confidence.
• If the lender requests more information, staff add it to docs_outstanding, which re-triggers workflow 4 at a shortened cadence of 2 days and 3 days, and the client is told plainly that the lender has asked for one more item.
• Wait until 21 days in stage. Create a task for the adviser to chase the lender and a notification to the practice manager.

Exit: stage changes to Lender Decision Received or later, or not-proceeding.

7. Stalled Case Escalation

Trigger: daily scheduled scan of all open opportunities.

Conditions and actions:

• Any opportunity with no activity for 7 days: notify the owning adviser with the stage and the last action.
• No activity for 14 days: apply stalled-14-days, create a task for the practice manager, and add the case to the weekly review list.
• No activity for 21 days: send one written message to the client asking whether they want to continue, with two explicit options, and task a human to call. Copy: "Hi [first_name], we have not been able to move [case_reference] forward recently. Are you still looking to proceed? Either answer is completely fine - just let us know so we keep your file accurate."
• No reply after a further 7 days: move to Not Proceeding with not_proceeding_reason of Documents never supplied or Client withdrew as appropriate, apply not-proceeding, and record who authorized the closure.
• Any case in New Inquiry for more than one business day, or with adviser_assigned of Unassigned at any point: immediate escalation to the practice manager. These two are hard service failures and should be alerted, not reported.

Exit: activity recorded, or case closed.

8. Closure, Consent and Audit Sweep

Trigger: opportunity moved to Not Proceeding or Completed; plus a weekly scheduled sweep across all records.

Actions on closure:

• Require the Not Proceeding Reason form before the move is accepted, writing not_proceeding_reason and not_proceeding_notes. A closure without a reason is not permitted.
• Send one courteous closing message and nothing further: "Thanks for letting us know, [first_name]. We have closed [case_reference] and will not chase you again. If anything changes, we are here - and your documents will be handled per our retention policy."
• Apply reactivation-hold with a hold period the firm has set. No marketing contact during the hold, and after it only if marketing_consent is Given.
• On Completed: request a review, and only if marketing_consent is Given, enroll in the annual review cadence. Otherwise schedule a service-only reminder at the appropriate point.

Weekly sweep conditions, each producing an exception task rather than a client message:

• disclosure_sent_date empty on any case past Qualified and Adviser Assigned.
• disclosure_acknowledged_date empty on any case at Fact Find Complete or beyond.
• credit_search_consent of Not requested on any case at Submitted to Lender.
• marketing_consent empty on any contact receiving marketing-category sends.
• support_needs_flag set with no human note in the last 90 days.
• last_client_update_sent older than 14 days on any open case.

Exit: each exception is cleared by a named person, and the sweep report is retained as evidence that the check was run.

The first change is that the firm can answer the question it previously could not: what is live, who owns it, and what is each case waiting on. The pipeline is that answer and it is current without anyone compiling it. The Monday meeting stops being an exercise in remembering and becomes an exercise in deciding.

The second is that document collection stops being the place cases die. A client with a named, shrinking list and a status page they can check behaves completely differently from a client with four email threads and no idea what is outstanding. Status-chasing calls fall away, because the answer is already in front of them.

The third is evidential. Every disclosure issued, every consent given or declined and when, every message sent, every routing decision and the rule that caused it sits on one record in order. That matters on the day a reviewer, a file check or a complaint asks what happened, and it matters more because nobody had to remember to write it down.

The fourth is scope discipline. Because BO cannot advise and every advice-shaped question is routed to a person within minutes, the firm gets speed of response without putting regulated advice in the hands of an automation. Volume stops forcing a choice between responsiveness and propriety.

Metrics to watch

• Time to first human contact, measured from form submission to a logged call or reply. This is the number that correlates most directly with inquiries converting to fact finds.
• Inquiry to fact find booked rate, split by inquiry_source, so referral partners and paid channels can be compared on something other than volume.
• Fact find to documents complete rate, and the median days taken. This is the attrition point the build exists to fix; watch it weekly for the first quarter.
• Average chases per completed checklist, and the count of items requested more than twice.
• Case age by stage, with alerts on anything beyond the firm's own service standard, and the count carrying stalled-14-days at any time.
• Documents complete to lender submission days, which isolates internal delay from client delay.
• not_proceeding_reason distribution. If Documents never supplied dominates, the checklist or the chase cadence is wrong, not the market.
• Status page views per case, against inbound status-inquiry call volume. The first should rise as the second falls.
• Handoff rate and handoff response time for conversations BO escalated, plus a periodic human read of a sample of BO transcripts to confirm no advice-shaped language has crept in.
• Disclosure acknowledgement rate before the fact find takes place.

Decisions to make before building

• The document checklist per inquiry_type, agreed in writing with whoever owns case quality. The automation can only chase a list someone has defined.
• The routing rules. Which adviser takes which inquiry_type and loan_amount_band, who covers absence, and what happens to an inquiry that fits no rule. Default to a named fallback owner, never to Unassigned.
• Your own service standards for first contact, for update frequency while awaiting a lender, and for case age by stage. The workflows enforce whatever you choose, so choose deliberately.
• Which stage transitions a human must confirm. The build above gates Documents Complete and all decision communication behind a person; keep that gate.

Integrations and provisioning

• Calendar connection for every adviser, two-way, so the fact find calendar never offers a slot that is already taken.
• Secure file storage for uploads, with retention and access rules the firm has actually decided on. Confirm where the authoritative copy of a client document lives, the platform or your document system, and do not end up with two.
• A tracking number per channel you want to measure, plus the referral-partner numbers if you are using them. Allow lead time for number provisioning.
• Call recording enabled with the announcement configured at the number, and a decision recorded on how long recordings are kept.
• SMS sending registered before launch. In the United States and Canada that means A2P 10DLC brand and campaign registration with your use case described accurately; registration takes days to weeks and unregistered traffic is filtered, so start it first. Elsewhere, confirm the local equivalent and any sender-ID requirements.
• Opt-out handling live on day one: STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE and equivalents must suppress the contact automatically and write sms-opted-out, and every sequence must check suppression tags before sending. Standard opt-out language belongs on the first message of any sequence.
• Quiet hours configured to your jurisdiction's rules and respected by every scheduled send, with a documented list of which messages, if any, are genuinely transactional exceptions.
• Email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) on the sending domain, and a reply path that lands on the case.

Compliance and record-keeping posture

Financial services messaging is regulated, and that shapes the build rather than sitting beside it. Three things in particular.

• Suitability. A personal recommendation can only follow from a proper assessment of the client's circumstances, carried out by someone qualified to make it. That is why nothing in this build produces an outcome for the client: the forms gather facts, BO collects and schedules, and every advice-shaped question routes to a person. Keep automated copy to process, timing and factual document requirements. If a draft message starts to read like it is steering a choice, it has crossed a line.
• Record-keeping. Assume every client communication, consent, disclosure and decision will need to be produced later, in order, with dates. Build for that from the start: the custom fields above exist mostly so the file is complete, and conversation transcripts, call recordings and sent messages should all be retained on the record rather than in individual inboxes.
• Disclosure. Clients need to know who they are dealing with, in what capacity, and what the firm's status and terms are, before substantive discussion. Hence the disclosure document in the first acknowledgement, the acknowledgement date field, and the identity line at the top of every BO conversation.

Separately, the personal and financial data this build collects is sensitive. Decide your lawful basis for processing, your retention periods, who internally can see uploaded documents, and how you handle a deletion or access request, before the first real client record exists. Keep consent for contact about an inquiry distinct from consent for marketing, and treat a withdrawal of marketing consent as absolute while still allowing service messages about a live case.

The specific rules that bind you depend on your jurisdiction, your permissions and the products you handle, and they change. Nothing here is regulatory or legal advice. Take the structure above to your own compliance function, your compliance consultant or your legal counsel, have them sign off the message templates, the BO guardrails, the consent wording, the disclosure timing and the retention settings, and record that sign-off before go-live. Re-review the templates whenever your permissions or product range change.

To scope this build for your firm, book a call at bookings.appbo.io.