The KYB process is short to describe and long to run, because one of its steps has no natural end. This page sets out the steps, marks the one that needs a stopping rule, and then splits the products sold as KYB solutions into the parts they actually cover so you can tell which part you are missing.
The steps
Confirm the entity exists and is what it claims. Identify who can act for it. Identify who owns it, resolving through intermediate companies to named individuals. Rate the customer and record why. Get an approval if the rating needs one. Set the review date from the rating. Six steps, of which the third is the only one that can expand without limit, which is why your policy has to say where it ends and what happens when the chain cannot be resolved.
What is sold as a KYB solution
Usually two things bundled. A data product, which searches registries and returns entity and ownership information, and a workflow, which walks somebody through collecting it. Neither is the file. The data goes stale, the workflow ends at acceptance, and the customer record with its rating, approval and review date is often left in whatever the firm was already using, which is frequently a spreadsheet.
How to tell which piece you are missing
Ask two questions about your own firm. Can somebody produce a named business customer's ownership evidence in under a minute without asking a colleague. And how many business customers on the book have no recorded review date. If the first answer is no, you are missing the record. If the second number is large, you are missing the clock. Neither gap is closed by better registry data, which is what most of this category sells.
Questions people ask about kyb process
How long should the KYB process take?
For a simple structure, the same day. For a layered one, days, and a process that pretends otherwise produces incomplete files with nothing on the record saying they are incomplete.
Do KYB solutions include the customer file?
Some do, most partially. The test is whether the product holds the rating, the approver and the next review date as first-class facts about the customer, or whether it hands you a report and considers the job done.
Can the KYB process be run in a spreadsheet?
It can be started in one. It cannot be kept in one, because a spreadsheet does not enforce a review date and does not record who approved what, and those are the two things the process exists to produce.