Can client due diligence (KYC) be run in Bitrix24?

Bitrix24 can hold the whole history of the check, but it does not screen clients against sanctions lists; that is done separately. The client record holds the questionnaire, document copies, beneficial owner data, the risk level, who checked the client and when, and the date of the next review, and the deal cannot be handed over for formation until the check is marked as passed. Firms that act as an agent in setting up legal persons or provide a registered office count as DNFBPs under Article 3 of Cabinet Resolution No. 134 of 2025 and keep due diligence records for at least 5 years after the relationship ends (Article 25). We do not keep suspicious transaction reports in the CRM.

How can we collect client documents without WhatsApp and email threads?

The client uploads their passport, photo and other documents through a CRM form with file fields, and the files land in the record straight away. The key fields are required by stage, so a deal cannot be handed over for formation without the documents. Fields with passport data are visible only to selected employees and departments. According to Bitrix24, bitrix24.ae cloud accounts are hosted in Frankfurt; if documents must stay in the UAE, we install on-premise Bitrix24 on your server in the UAE.

Bitrix24 · business setup and consulting in the UAE

Bitrix24 for business setup firms in the UAE

Q: How do we avoid missing client licence and visa renewals?

Expiry dates for the licence, establishment card, visas, Emirates IDs and office lease go into a Renewals smart process linked to the client company and its people. Ahead of time, for example 60 and 30 days before, an automation rule gives the consultant a renewal task and sends the client a WhatsApp reminder if they have agreed to such messages. For a new company the CRM also tracks the deadline to apply for corporate tax registration: 3 months from incorporation under FTA Decision No. 3 of 2024, with an AED 10,000 penalty for late registration.

We build the CRM around how corporate services are sold and delivered in the UAE: while the client takes a long time to choose between the mainland and free zones, the deal moves through stages with a date for the next step, client documents land straight in the record, and the CRM itself reminds you about licence, visa and Emirates ID deadlines. Due diligence records and beneficial owner data sit next to the deal and are open only to the people who need them for their work

3 monthsfor a new company to apply for corporate tax registration; late registration carries an AED 10,000 penalty

15 daysto notify the registrar when the company's beneficial owner data changes

5 yearsminimum retention of client due diligence records after the relationship ends under UAE rules

from 10,000AED standard CRM setup

Where clients and deadlines get lost

Four places where a deal goes cold, a renewal goes to a competitor and a client check turns into a paper chase

A long decision with no next step

The client compares the mainland and free zones, works out how many visas they need, talks it over with partners and disappears for weeks. Without a date for the next contact the deal goes cold, and the consultant only remembers the clients who get in touch on their own

Documents in chats and inboxes

Passports, photos, visas and statements arrive in the consultant's WhatsApp, the shared inbox and personal messages. The right file is dug out of the chat history, and a passport copy that has already expired goes to the authority

Deadlines in a spreadsheet

Licences, visas, Emirates IDs and office leases renew on different dates, and the spreadsheet falls behind. The client finds out about the expiry on their own, and the renewal goes to whoever reminded them first

Due diligence in folders

Questionnaires, document copies, beneficial owner data and records of checks sit in different places. When a bank or a supervisor asks how a client was checked, the history has to be pieced together

What we build in Bitrix24

A pipeline for a long cycle

Stages from the first enquiry to payment: consultation, choice of jurisdiction and business activity, proposal, approval, payment. Each stage has its own time limit: if a deal stalls, an automation rule gives the consultant a task to contact the client. The source and the partner who referred the client are visible in the record and in reports

Proposals and contracts from templates

The document generator builds the proposal, contract and invoice from your own DOCX templates with CRM data: the package, government fees and your services on separate lines. The client gets the document as a link by SMS, as a PDF by email or in a chat if they have written to you before

Client documents in the record

The client uploads their passport, photo and other documents through a CRM form with file fields, and the files land in the record straight away. Passport, visa and Emirates ID expiry dates are kept in separate fields, and the key fields are required by stage: without a passport copy the deal cannot be handed over for formation

Formation as a separate process

Once the client has paid, they move into a Formation smart process with its own stages, for example: trade name reservation, initial approval, licence, establishment card, visas, bank account. Tasks for each step are created automatically, and the client gets a message about what is ready and what is needed from them

Renewals by date

The licence, establishment card, visas, Emirates IDs and office lease are recorded with their expiry dates in a Renewals smart process linked to the client company and its people. Ahead of time, for example 60 and 30 days before, an automation rule gives the consultant a renewal task and sends the client a WhatsApp reminder if they have agreed to such messages

Recurring services

Bookkeeping, VAT and PRO services under contract run as recurring deals: the CRM creates a deal for each period on its own, and the invoice is prepared from a template. The client record shows all of their deals, not just the first registration

Due diligence and beneficial owners

Under UAE anti-money laundering rules, corporate service providers that set up companies for clients, give them a registered address or take roles in their companies must check their clients and the clients' beneficial owners. Bitrix24 does not screen clients against sanctions lists, but we set it up so that the full history of the check is in the client record and the deal does not go to formation until the check is passed

Firms that, for their clients, act as an agent in setting up legal persons, act or arrange for someone else to act as a director, secretary or partner, provide a registered office or correspondence address, or act as a trustee or nominee shareholder count as DNFBPs (designated non-financial businesses and professions). This is set out in Article 3 of Cabinet Resolution No. 134 of 2025, the executive regulations of Federal Decree-Law No. 10 of 2025
The identity of the client and the beneficial owner is verified before or while the business relationship is established (Article 6), and if due diligence cannot be done, the relationship must not start or continue (Article 14). That is why we set up the deal in Bitrix24 so that it cannot be handed over for formation until the record shows that the check has been passed
A beneficial owner is a person who, directly or through other companies, holds 25% or more of the capital or voting rights, or controls the company in another way, for example through the right to appoint or remove most of the board. If no such person can be identified, a senior manager is treated as the beneficial owner (Article 5 of Cabinet Resolution No. 109 of 2023)
The company keeps a register of beneficial owners and a register of partners or shareholders (Articles 8 and 10 of the same resolution). The beneficial owner register includes the passport or ID number and its expiry date, and a valid passport or ID copy is attached to the register of partners or shareholders (Article 10). So the passports of beneficial owners and shareholders go into Renewals too, and ahead of time, for example a month before expiry, an automation rule sets a task to request a new copy and update the data
The law requires ongoing monitoring, not just a check at onboarding (Article 19 of Federal Decree-Law No. 10 of 2025). The record holds the risk level set by the compliance officer, while the date of the next review goes into Renewals, where an automation rule sends a reminder ahead of it
Due diligence documents and data are kept for at least 5 years from the end of the business relationship or the completion of the transaction (Article 25 of Resolution No. 134 of 2025). A former client's record is not deleted: their deals stay in the CRM at closed stages, and only the people responsible can open the record
Suspicious transactions are reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit immediately and without delay through its electronic system (Article 18 of Resolution No. 134 of 2025); in the UAE that system is goAML. We do not keep these reports in the CRM: the compliance officer prepares and stores them outside the shared system
Fields with passport data and check results are visible only to selected employees and departments, and sales managers work only with their own deals. Account administrators see every field, so we keep the circle of administrators small
According to Bitrix24, bitrix24.ae cloud accounts are hosted in AWS data centres in Frankfurt. If your retention policy or your partners require document copies to stay in the UAE, we install on-premise Bitrix24 on your server in the UAE
For breaches of anti-money laundering rules, the supervisor can impose a fine of AED 10,000 to AED 5,000,000 for each violation (Article 17 of Federal Decree-Law No. 10 of 2025)

Client deadlines the CRM keeps track of

Dates from licences and client documents turn into tasks and reminders. Some of these deadlines are set by law, and missing them can cost the client a penalty

Corporate tax registration

A company incorporated on or after 1 March 2024 applies for registration within 3 months of incorporation. Late registration carries an AED 10,000 penalty, but the FTA waives it, or refunds it to the tax account, if the first tax return is filed within 7 months of the end of the first tax period. The deadline is counted from the incorporation date in the record

FTA Decision No. 3 and Cabinet Decision No. 10 of 2024

Beneficial owner registers

The registers go to the registrar within 60 days of licensing and registration, and changes to the data are reported within 15 days. An automation rule sets tasks with these deadlines: from the licence date and from the date of the change, which the consultant marks in the record

Cabinet Resolution No. 109 of 2023, Articles 11 and 15

Licence and establishment card

Every licence and establishment card has its own expiry date, and renewal terms differ between jurisdictions. We set the reminder schedule to match your clients: the mainland and each free zone have their own

date from the licence

Visas and Emirates IDs

Visa and Emirates ID expiry dates for the client's employees and partners go into the Renewals smart process, linked to those people's records. An automation rule sends a reminder in advance, and each visa renewal becomes a separate deal with its own price

date in the Renewals smart process

An AI agent on the front line

At night and at weekends, an AI agent answers messages in WhatsApp and on the website: it asks about the business activity, the number of partners and visas, the emirate and the timing, offers a consultation slot and hands the enquiry to a consultant with the record already filled in. We set the agent up so that it does not give tax or legal advice or promise approval times, and passes such questions straight to a consultant. More on the AI agents page

How the implementation runs

Review

We look at where clients come from, how sales and formation work, and where documents, deadlines and due diligence results are kept today

Pipelines and processes

We set up sales, formation, renewals and recurring services, along with proposal and contract templates

Channels and data

We connect WhatsApp, email, telephony and the website, and move clients and document expiry dates over from spreadsheets

Launch

We train consultants, PRO staff and the accounts team, then stay on to support you and refine the system as you go

How much it costs

Standard Bitrix24 CRM setup starts from AED 10,000, and the quote is fixed in dirhams after the review, before the work starts. The Bitrix24 licence and paid third-party services such as WhatsApp messaging are paid separately, as are data migration from old systems and complex integrations. After launch the system is maintained under support packages from AED 1,250 a month

Experience: from enquiry to service delivery in one system

For Performia, a training and recruitment company, we built the whole cycle in Bitrix24: two sales lines with qualification and payment control, handover of the client to service delivery, instalments and outstanding balances in finance smart processes, and 20 document templates for the finance team. The system covers five legal entities and four currencies, and the implementation took 110 working days. The project was in Moscow and in a different industry, but the mechanics are the same: sales with qualification, handover to delivery, documents and payments under control. Performia case

This is not legal or tax advice. The rules come from UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 10 of 2025 on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (Articles 17 and 19), its executive regulations issued by Cabinet Resolution No. 134 of 2025 (Articles 3, 6, 14, 18 and 25), Cabinet Resolution No. 109 of 2023 on beneficial owners (Articles 5, 8, 10, 11 and 15), FTA Decision No. 3 of 2024 on corporate tax registration timelines, Cabinet Decision No. 10 of 2024 on the late registration penalty and the FTA page on penalty waivers. Hosting locations are taken from the Bitrix24 GDPR page and CRM features from the Bitrix24 helpdesk as of October 2026. Decide with your compliance officer and lawyer how to check clients and what to keep in the CRM