Financial Services

Summit Financial — Advisor portal on Zoho Creator

Overview:

Summit Financial, an RIA aggregator, needed a single portal where 1200 advisors could onboard new clients, collect KYC documents, run portfolio reviews, and stay compliant with SEC and FINRA rules. Off-the-shelf SaaS didn't fit their custom commission split logic. They picked Zoho Creator on Helios' recommendation.

Approach:

Helios designed a 14-form, 22-report Creator app spanning the full advisor lifecycle. Deluge scripts enforce KYC rule chains; PandaDoc and DocuSign integrations handle signatures; Zoho CRM and Zoho Books handle the rest of operations. The app is white-labeled with Summit's brand and runs on the advisor's iPad as well as desktop.

Engagement details:

Duration: 10 weeks build + 4-week pilot + 6-week rollout
Team size: 4 (1 architect, 2 Creator/Deluge developers, 1 PM)
Stack: Zoho Creator, Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, Deluge, PandaDoc, DocuSign
Custom: 22 reports, 14 forms, commission-split calculator, KYC rule engine
Compliance: SEC, FINRA, SOC2-aligned with annual audit trail

Outcome:

1200 advisors rolled out in 6 weeks (vs the 6 months Summit's internal team had estimated). 80K+ end clients now managed through the portal with full KYC audit trail. Onboarding time per new client dropped from 9 days to under 2. Summit added a second module (digital signatures + e-delivery) with Helios six months later.