Inform Direct product update – August 2024

Full end to end automation

Following this release your part in the confirmation statement process can be completely automated:

• A company’s confirmation statement information is automatically sent via email to the client company on the scheduled day for agreement
• The client company reviews information and using the link in the email they are directed to a portal (which can be white labelled)
• With one click the client can confirm the information
• Depending on your choice this can either:
  • Be automatically filed at Companies House
  • Notify you that they have confirmed the information so that you can control the filing to Companies House

If the information is not correct when they review it they are able to use the portal to describe the amendment(s) needed, which will in turn notify you of the changes required.

New elements ‘Out of the box’

‘Out of the box’ there will be a new ‘Workflow’ on your account that will:

• Step 1 – Generate the confirmation statement approval document
• Step 2 – Email it, including a link to the client portal where the recipient can confirm the information (or ask for amendments)

This ‘Out of the box’ workflow will use our new:

• ‘Out of the box’ email template that includes a link to the client portal
• ‘Out of the box’ portal

As per our other releases, these are the ‘Out of the box’ versions that you are able to use but you can add your own too, including your own client portal.

Adding your own ‘Client portal’

Not only can you easily use our ‘Out of the box’ portal but we’ve made sure that you can easily create a portal that aligns with your own branding so that your clients feel like they are on one of your own website pages. You are able to:

• Use your company logo
• Choose a primary and secondary colour
• Add a link to your own website
• Add information that you would like to be in the footer of the client portal (e.g. your company name, number etc.)
• Preview how this might look to your customers

These can be created in the ‘Manage client portals’ area of your ‘Account’. Once created our technical team have to do some minor configuration to allow your chosen portal URL to be usable. Once we’ve done this the client portal’s status will be updated to ‘Ready to use’ and you’ll be able to use this client portal.

What clients will see

When the scheduled automation day arrives for a company your client company will get an email that will include a link to the portal that they can use to either:

• Confirm that the company information is correct; or,
• Describe the changes that are needed

This client portal is responsive so that it adapts easily to use on mobile, tablet or desktop

Client portal actions

Where the client company confirms the information, if you’ve set up your workflow to:

• File the confirmation statement – then it’ll be submitted automatically to Companies House
• Not file the confirmation statement – then you’ll be alerted to the client company’s confirmation via a dashboard notification and an email

Where the client company responds that some changes are needed you will be informed of this via a dashboard notification and an email. The information they entered about the changes needed can be viewed by clicking on the dashboard notification.

Still more to come …

We are still not finished on automation and have other new uses planned for the client portal so keep an eye out for future updates and get in touch to let us know of anything else you would find useful.

Please let us know your feedback

Do let us know how you are finding the automations, along with any other enhancements or feature recommendations that would improve Inform Direct for you.

Our commitment to improving Inform Direct can be seen on our timeline of updates, past, present and future.