What Colin checks and how to use the file and report checker

Last updated: October 12, 2026

This article explains what Colin checks, where the checks come from, how to run a file check and a report check, and what the checker does not do.

Colin is the compliance checker on AdvisoryAI. It has two parts: a file checker that reviews the documents behind a piece of advice before the report is written, and a report checker that reviews a finished suitability report. Both give a pass or fail per check with the reasoning, so you can fix gaps before the file goes to your compliance function or network. If you have heard it described as the compliance case checker or the file review tool, this is the same thing.

Before you begin

Colin is available to firms whose licence includes it, and the trial includes full access to Evie, Emma and Colin. If you cannot see it, ask your account manager; see Pricing and your licence: who to ask.
Gather the client's recent documents before a file check: meeting notes, relevant emails saved as PDFs, illustrations, fact find, and the terms of business.
Documents held in your back office system have to be downloaded and added to Colin by hand. The back office document pull used for reports does not feed the file checker.

What does Colin check?

Colin runs a fixed set of checks mapped to FCA suitability rules, COBS and Consumer Duty, and reports pass or fail on each with the reason.

The file checker runs about 39 checks mapped to COBS, the checks an FCA file review would look for. It returns a compliance score as a percentage, a pass or fail for every check, and a citation to the document each finding came from. The set includes a vulnerability check under client welfare and a check that the advice was given in good time against the dates in the file.

The report checker maps a suitability report to the FCA's suitability requirements and returns comments and a remedial action for each fail, with a reference to the part of the report it relates to. It gives a suitability verdict rather than a percentage. It checks that the report covers what it must; it does not judge whether the advice itself was right.

The same checks run whatever the report type. Colin covers pension and investment suitability. It does not cover niche pre-sale checks such as equity release.

Where do the checks come from?

Colin is built in-house, from firms' own compliance checklists, and kept current with FCA guidance centrally.

The checklist was assembled from the compliance checklists of firms that use external compliance services, with duplicates removed and the result reviewed with large compliance consultancies. Colin works out of the box and the checks cannot be customised by a firm. There is no published guide to what each section checks; email support@advisoryai.com if you would like the checklist sent to you.

How do I run a file check?

Open the compliance checker from Tools & Settings and choose the file check.
Select the client and add the documents. Add roughly the 15 most recent documents from the client's file, without repeats. Always include the meeting notes, relevant emails as PDFs, and the illustrations. There is no exact input list; the more of the file Colin can see, the fewer false fails.
Run the check and read the results: the overall score, each check as pass or fail, and the citation to the document behind each finding.
Fix the gaps and run it again. A fail for a missing terms of business becomes a pass once the document is in the set. You cannot add a document to a finished run, so start a new check with the full set of documents each time.

Please note: the file checker tells you which check failed, not which document would turn the fail into a pass. Read the reason given against the check and work out what the file is missing. The report checker does give remedial actions.

How do I check a suitability report?

Open the report checker and upload the suitability report as a document. For a report generated on AdvisoryAI, you can also start the check from the compliance check button on the finished report. For a report written in Atlas, download it first and upload it to the report checker.
Choose the check to run, for example the Consumer Duty assessment.
Read the verdict, the number of checks passed and failed, the comment on each, and the remedial action for each fail.
Edit the report and check it again. Each run is independent.

Colin treats every uploaded report the same way, whether it was written on AdvisoryAI or elsewhere. There is no link between the report writer and the checker, so a report generated by Emma gets no easier ride than one written by hand. Reports you wrote before you joined AdvisoryAI can be checked in the same way.

Can I download the results?

Yes. Both the file check and the report check can be downloaded as a PDF with the score, each check, and the comment on why it passed or failed.

What does Colin not do?

Judge the advice as a whole. Colin checks consistency and appropriateness against the source data, such as asset allocation, cash flow and contributions, and checks that required content is present. Whether a recommendation was the right one for the client remains a judgement for your file reviewer. If you want to know whether a specific scenario is caught, such as a bond contribution made while the ISA allowance was unused, email support@advisoryai.com with the scenario and the client name; the team runs it against the checklist and replies with which check, if any, covers it.
Check document recency. Colin cannot tell whether an illustration or fact find is the latest version. Check dates yourself before you upload.
Report across cases. There is no trend view across many files; each case is assessed on its own. For questions across your book, use Atlas.
Run your own call observation checklist. Colin's checks are fixed. To check a recorded meeting against your firm's own list, such as whether the adviser said the call was recorded and took the client through security, put the checklist into Atlas with the client selected and ask it to report against each point.

Please note: if you have finished a check and cannot clear the documents to start a new one, email support@advisoryai.com with the client name and the date of the check.

Also asked

How long is our data kept, how do we delete it, and can we export everything?

Transcripts are retained for 12 months; clients, documents and reports stay until you delete them. Deleting a client or a document is permanent after a 30-day recovery window, so download anything you need first, and untick a document in a report rather than deleting it if you only want it left out. Formal deletion requests sent to support@advisoryai.com are honoured within about three days with written confirmation on request, and bulk exports are handled by the team on request. How long your firm keeps recordings or transcripts for its own records is set by your compliance function or network; your firm is the data controller and AdvisoryAI the processor. The detail is in Data security, retention, deletion and export.

Can our compliance manager listen to the audio rather than read the transcript?

Colin and the supervisor role work from the text transcript and the documents; audio playback is not available through either. If your compliance manager needs the recording of a particular meeting, email support@advisoryai.com with the client name and the meeting date; the team checks whether the audio is still held and sends it or explains what is available.

Should we wait before rolling Colin out to our advisers?

Email support@advisoryai.com before you schedule adviser training on Colin and say how many users you plan to train and when. The checker is being updated, so the team confirms whether the version your advisers will see is about to change and whether training now or later makes more sense.

Next steps

Run a file check on your next case before it goes to your compliance function, and keep the PDF with the file.
Ask your account manager if you want Colin enabled for named users only.

Check your next case. Open AdvisoryAI, go to Tools & Settings and open the compliance checker.