Notes for owners · CRM, automation and RevOps
A document checklist that stops KYC and paperwork from stalling a customer
How to write one numbered KYC document list that says what a usable copy looks like for each item, with a single upload route, so a customer can finish the paperwork in fewer sittings.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
Rules for this trade differ by state and professional body, and they change. Check the current position with your own council or adviser before you act on anything here.
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"I will send the papers tonight." Nine days later you are still waiting for one clear photograph of one card, and the customer has stopped answering. The customer did not change their mind. They lost track of what was left. One numbered list, one place to send it, and a tick-sheet on your side go a long way towards fixing this.
Where does a willing customer actually get stuck?
At the item nobody told them about. Business-loan files show it well. Take an invented loan agent in Salem helping a pump-parts workshop owner. On the call the agent says "send KYC, GST returns and bank statements". The owner sends a PAN card that evening. Two days later the agent asks for address proof. Then for twelve months of statements. The statements arrive as a password-locked PDF and the password is in an SMS the owner has deleted. By the fifth message the owner replies "will do" and does nothing.
Every request was reasonable. But each arrived alone, so the owner could not see the end of the job, and the one real obstacle, the locked PDF, surfaced last. A customer may drop out not at the hard item but at the fourth surprise.
Next time the agent gives the whole list at once. Beside the statements it says: "if your bank sends a locked file, write the password in the same message". The owner finishes most of it in one evening, but the address proof does not match the form and takes another week to sort out at the issuing office. The list could not fix that, only bring it forward.
What does the list itself look like?
Keep it short; the layout below has seven items. For each, say what is acceptable and the one way it usually goes wrong. Your compliance contact decides the real items for your product, so treat this as a layout.
Hi [name], everything we need is below, seven items. Send each as a photo on this number with its item number as the caption. Call me on this number if anything is unclear.
- Identity card: all four corners visible, no glare.
- Address proof: the address must match the form. If it does not, tell me now.
- Photograph: plain background, face clear.
- Signature: on plain white paper, photographed flat.
- Bank proof: cancelled cheque or first statement page. Glare over the account number is the usual reason we ask twice.
- Income or business paper, only if your product needs it. A locked PDF? Send the password too.
- Nominee or contact person: name, relationship, number.
Two things make this work. Anything that needs an errand, such as a bank visit for a cancelled cheque, sits near the top so the errand starts early. And every line says what "good" looks like, so nobody has to phone to ask what "address proof" means.
How do you track it from your side?
A sheet with one row per customer and one column per item. Tick when a usable copy arrives, not when something merely arrives. Add three more columns: date of the first message, date the last item was usable, and the item that took longest.
After a few files, one or two columns will stay empty longer than the rest. Those items have bad instructions. Rewrite them with a sharper example before you blame customers.
How do you stop name and address mismatches?
Ask for the name exactly as printed on the identity card, before anything else, and compare every later paper against it. If the bank record says "R. Kumar" and the card says "Ravi Kumar S", settle it on day one. Say: "Your bank has your name differently from your card. Which one should we use?"
If a record has to be corrected at the bank or by an issuing office, tell the customer early. That errand takes longest, and the customer can start it while the rest goes on.
Where do the papers go?
To one place, named in the first line of the list. If your firm allows documents on WhatsApp, give one number. If your policy keeps identity papers off personal phones, give an upload link and say so plainly. Ask your compliance and IT people where papers are stored and who can see them before an adviser starts collecting IDs on a private phone. Rules on data and consent differ by body and change, so check with your own adviser or regulator.
Never accept the same paper in two places. When item 5 comes by email and by WhatsApp, someone files one copy and the other is lost.
What does the second message say?
Only what is missing, and why each piece matters.
Got 1, 2, 3 and 5. Left: 4 (signature on white paper) and 7 (nominee name). Both take two minutes. Shall I call at [a time that suits you] and sit with you while you finish?
The whole list is gone, and so are the greeting and the apology for chasing. Each message is shorter than the one before, so the finish line looks close.
When will this not help?
When the product needs an in-person verification, the list is a preparation list for the visit, and the aim is that the customer arrives with one folder. And when the same customer stalls on the same item twice, stop messaging and call. Something is wrong with the paper itself, such as a name that cannot be matched, and a message cannot sort it out.
Rebuild the list from your last ten stalled files
Pull your last ten files that began and did not finish, and mark the item each stopped at. Rewrite the list so those items come with an example and a warning. Get the wording cleared by your compliance contact, send it as the first message after the call, and put the same text on the page that follows your enquiry form. The wider picture for lenders, advisers and distributors is on the financial services hub. If you cannot see where your files are being lost, or want the form side looked at too, tell us what you need.
