TABLE OF CONTENTS

Summary

Under AML legislation, taking a risk-based approach is a core requirement for compliance.


There are three main types of risk assessments that help evaluate exposure to money laundering:

  1. Company risk assessment – A high-level, firm-wide view of the overall risks your company faces.

  2. Client risk assessment – An evaluation of risks tied to the specific client.

  3. Matter or transaction risk assessment – A review of potential risks related to individual instructions or engagements.

Each assessment should consider the nature of the risk, likelihood and impact, and the controls in place to mitigate it.


The First AML Forms feature supports both client-level and matter-level assessments and is fully configurable.


When you configure a risk assessment, it will appear in each applicable case as a form which can be completed internally, sent to another team member or sent directly to the client. 


Upon completion of a risk assessment, risk scores can be generated to classify the overall level of risk associated with the client and/or matter. The overall risk score can be used to drive rules and automations within your cases, ultimately saving you time and ensuring compliance. 


You can export risk assessment data through print preview or Reporting for audit and compliance purposes.


How to Configure Forms


Risk assessments in Source are fully configurable. You can create tailored forms for your business, add branching logic, apply scoring, and manage versions, all from one place.


This guide walks you through how to plan, build, and publish your risk assessments using the Form Builder.


Need help with your forms? Submit a ticket or email us on support@firstaml.com 


Step 1: Map out your existing Form/Risk Assessment 


Before you start building your form, we recommend mapping out the content on paper or in a doc. Think about:

  • What type of risk are you assessing? (Client, Matter, or both?)

  • What sections or categories do you need? (e.g. “Jurisdiction”, “Entity Type”)

  • Which question types make sense for each section? (Yes/No, Select, Free Text, etc.)

  • Do any questions need to branch depending on previous answers?

  • Which questions should contribute to the risk score?

  • What score thresholds will define Low, Medium, and High risk?

Step 2: Open Forms

  1. Go to Settings in the left-hand navigation.
  2. Click Forms.
  3. Click New Form (or select an existing form to edit).
  4. Give your form a name. Note this name is for internal view only, the form name will not be visible to clients. 
  5. Select the Form Type, either Client or Matter* 
  6. Click Submit.


*Client should be used to evaluate the risks tied to the specific client, whereas Matter is used to review potential risks related to individual instructions or engagements. 


If you only want to configure one Risk Assessment within Source, we suggest selecting the 'Matter' option as the completion of the Matter form has the ability to generate risk scores within specific cases, whereas Client does not. 




Step 3: Office Configuration 


New forms default to apply for all offices, to configure your form to only apply to certain offices:


1. Click the white drop down bar under 'Office/s' 

2. Select the applicable offices from the drop down

3. Click 'Save' 


Note: If any of the offices within the dropdown are greyed out, this is because there is already another form of the same type (client or matter) assigned to it. Each office can only have one client and one matter risk assessment form assigned, therefore if you want to assign a new form to a greyed out office you will need to deactivate or remove the office from the old form first. 




Step 4: Form Builder: Add a Display name 


In the Form Builder, add a Display name which will be visible to clients if you are sending the form externally. This is also what the Requirement will be called and what platform users will see within the case. 


1. Click the Display name box

2. Enter the display name - This will automatically save once you click away 





Step 5: Form Builder: Enable scores and thresholds


Risk weighting allows you to automatically calculate the overall risk score of a client or matter. The form builder enables you to add "weighting" to each answer, with lower scores for answers that represent lower risk, and higher scores for red flags. For example, answering “Yes” to “Will we meet the client in person?” might have a score of 0 (low risk), while “No” might have a score of 3 (higher risk). 


When a risk assessment is completed, the cumulative score of all answers is presented and the client/matter is categorised as either Low, Medium, or High risk depending on where the score falls within the score parameters set by you. 


For example if you set the High Risk threshold as 10, an overall score of 11 will categorise the client/matter as High Risk. 




To automatically calculate risk levels:

  1. Click the Enable scores and thresholds toggle
  2. Enter your Medium and High risk thresholds:
    • Total score below low threshold = Low Risk
    • Total score between low and high = Medium Risk
    • Total score above high threshold = High Risk





Step 6: Form Builder: Add Sections and Questions


In the Form Builder, you’ll build your assessment section-by-section using the toolbox.


How to add a question:

  1. Click Add a question

  2. Choose your question type:

    • Choice – Select one or more options (scoring supported).

    • Short answer – Free text (non-scoring).

    • Long answer – Free text with more space to guide the user to provide a longer answer (non-scoring). 

    • Yes/No – Simple yes/no (scoring supported).

    • Header – Use this to visually group related questions into sections.

  3. Enter your question text. You can format the text using tools for bold, underline, strikethrough, and hyperlinks.




Customise your question:

Most question types (excluding Header) support the following options:

  • Not applicable: Enable this if the question might not apply in all cases. You can also assign a score to this response.

  • Required: Force users to answer the question before submission.



Customise your Choice questions:

Choice questions offer the most flexibility and support several options:

  • Add answer options manually, or use a pre-built list (e.g. Country or Entity Type) to save time.

  • Enable Other to allow a free-text response. You can optionally assign a score to “Other.”

  • Enable Multiple answers to let users select more than one option.
    Note: If “Multiple answers” is enabled, branching is disabled for this question.

  • Assign scores to each answer based on risk.
    Tip: Use lower scores for low-risk responses and higher scores for high-risk or red flag answers.

  • Enable Branching to show different follow-up questions based on user responses.
    Tip: We recommend building all your questions first, then adding branching logic once the structure is in place .(Learn more about Branching)



Step 7: Save & Publish 

When you're ready: 

  1. Click Save to save your progress 
  2. Click Publish to save the version


The risk assessment form will now be attached to all new cases associated with the office/s it is assigned to, along with any in progress cases where the risk assessment has not been edited. 


For information about using Risk Assessment within a case. 




Features to make form building easier 


Duplicate question

Copy and reuse an existing question in seconds. This is ideal for quickly building similar sets of questions. 
➤ Click the Duplicate icon within the applicable question. Then edit and/or reorder the duplicated version as needed.
 


Reorder questions and answer options

Sort questions and answer choices for better clarity and logic. You might order answers alphabetically, by risk level, or group them in a way that makes sense.
➤ To move a question, hover over it and click the six-dot icon, then drag and drop it to the desired position.
➤ To reorder answer options, open a select-type question and drag the six dots next to each answer to rearrange them.

 


Pre-built lists

Use standardised lists for common fields Country and Entity type. This reduces manual entry and ensures consistent formatting.
➤ When adding answer options to a choice question, click Use pre-built list and choose from Country or Entity Type.

➤ Select all or customise which of the options from the dropdown you want to add, then click Add

➤  Add risk weighting to each answer


Note: More pre-built lists will be added in future.


 


Save draft during build

You don’t have to complete your form in one go. This helps avoid clutter in version history and gives you freedom to edit incrementally.

➤ As you build your form, changes are automatically saved as a draft.
➤ Your draft won't go live until you click Publish.


Version history 

Every time you publish a new version of your risk assessment, it’s saved in version history. This provides full traceability, supports audits, and lets you track how your risk assessment evolves over time. 

➤ Every time you publish a form, a new version is saved automatically.
➤ Click View version history to see a list of versions of your form.

➤ To publish an old version, click the old version from the list then click Publish



Duplicate form 

Save time when creating similar risk assessments by duplicating existing forms instead of building new ones from scratch. 

➤ Within the forms library, click the duplicate icon and give the form a new name.


Note that when you clone a form the new form will be set to inactive.