IRIS introduces IRIS Analytics

6 minutes length

Posted: 19th September 2018

With increasing pressure to become more effective and productive, a new analytics tool for large accountancy practices promises to provide comprehensive insights into business performance, resulting in greater efficiency and the foresight to maximise strategic direction.

IRIS Accountancy Solutions has launched IRIS Analytics in response to partners in practice requiring greater insight into the practice performance. Issues such as the lack of visibility in client billing, job costs and staff productivity are preventing practices from truly understanding what’s working well and where improvements to service provision can be made. Without insights into key financial, operational and productivity KPIs, partners may miss changing environments and will be unable to respond.

Nick Gregory, Chief Product and Marketing Officer at IRIS says, “Most firms recognise the need to gain a better understanding of their business performance but lack the tools to achieve this. The ability to obtain comprehensive insight into business performance enables practices to identify issues early, drill down into the detail, develop strategies to address them and ensure the business achieves its goals. Analytics can also be used to highlight gaps in a firm’s offerings, allowing the practice to develop new services to support the next generation of clients.”

IRIS’ view of analytics is supported by an ACCA technology report, ‘The race for relevance – technology opportunities for the finance function’* where it highlights the importance of the tools. “Analytics can help companies to see patterns in their data that enable them to predict issues and triggers before they happen, instead of being forced to react to them after the event. It speeds up finding answers to problems, eliminating data silos and ‘democratising’ data itself.”

The information within IRIS Analytics is provided in graphical representation with the ability to drill down for detailed analysis. Partners also have access to historical data allowing comparison to prior performance, set targets for future success and assess achievements against them.

IRIS Analytics is the latest solution to help accountancy practices embrace digital transformation as a catalyst for change. Its best in class tools manage the entire business, from attracting and managing clients through to added value consultancy and practice productivity. IRIS Analytics integrates seamlessly with financial reporting software such as IRIS Financials and can pull in real-time data from third-party finance, HR, payroll and MIS systems.

For further information visit our Accountants in Practice page.

* https://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/ACCA_Global/professional-insights/the-race-for-relevance/pi-race-for-relevance.pdf page 18

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IRIS Accountancy Solutions

About IRIS Accountancy Solutions

With over 21,000 customers and 83 of the top 100 UK accountancy practices using IRIS products and services, IRIS Accountancy Solutions exists to simplify the lives of accountants by making them more effective and more productive. Through its heritage of deep domain knowledge, breadth of product functionality and innovative use of technology, IRIS delivers best-in-class accountancy software solutions for use by every practice in the UK.

Accountants trust IRIS to help guide them and their clients through the once-in-a-generation, political, legislative, economic and social disruption in the UK accountancy industry, enabling them to transform their practice, represent their interests to the UK Government and legislative bodies and thrive in the new digital accountancy economy.

Approximately, 44% of all online submissions to HMRC and Companies House are made using IRIS software – the most efficient suite of integrated compliance, productivity and collaboration solutions for accountants to grow and evolve their practice.

The Data Support Agency acts as an outsourced Data Support Officer to provide guidance, tools, templates and support, housed in a secure IRIS portal.

Anecdotal evidence from the IRIS GDPR Conference held earlier this year, found many accountancy professionals view data protection as peripheral to their core role and lack the in-house skills to remain compliant, placing them at legal risk. The lack of resources means there is little time to review existing procedures and establish new complicated process.

Opinion solicited from IRIS customers in May 2018 found nearly half (49.17%) of respondents manage their own IT infrastructure, which highlights the diversity of responsibilities partners and owners need to manage.

Sion Lewis, CEO of IRIS Accountancy Solutions says, “There are a continual number of business issues industry professionals need to manage; from changes in legislation, to succession planning and considering the best way to restructure a practice to evolve beyond compliance services. Amid these challenges, managing data protection is easily pushed down priority list; we want to help remove this burden by offering a service to manage ongoing compliance.

“In the same way as businesses outsource HR, bookkeeping or IT support, the partnership with The Data Support Agency enables accountancy professionals to easily access legal data compliance requirements. We are delighted to work with such talented experts and hope this alleviates another crucial issue to help accountants thrive in the digital economy.”

Nicola Hartland, CEO and Co-Founder of The Data Support Agency says, “We appreciate that few accountancy practices have the time, expertise or resource to dedicate to this legislation and it can be hard to know where to start. Our experience in this area, combined with IRIS’ 40-year heritage in the industry enables accountancy professionals to access a service designed and dedicated for their needs.”

IRIS GDPR Advisor provides a guided process to attain compliance that acknowledges all practices are unique and will travel their compliance journey at different speeds. It maintains a comprehensive audit trail to demonstrate activities in the case of an investigation and provides an option to investigate compliance implications before new services are developed and delivered.

The forefront of IRIS GDPR Advisor is a portal which houses:

• A readiness dashboard displaying the current status and actions required to attain and/or maintain compliance

• A resource library fully maintained by The Data Support Agency which includes tools, document templates, processes, planning, support and FAQ’s

• Secure storage: an audit trail and central hub for all GDPR & Data Protection compliance documents

In addition, customers can access a dedicated customer support helpdesk staffed by certified GDPR specialists, whether communicating by phone, email, or online chat.

Sion Lewis concludes, “GDPR compliance is just the start of the journey and should not be viewed as a one-off activity. Protecting personal data is central to every client relationship and needs to be frequently monitored. By continuing training and process checks, practices not only ensure they are compliant but also build client loyalty and trust.”

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IRIS Accountancy Solutions

With over 21,000 customers and 75 of the top 100 UK accountancy practices using IRIS products and services, IRIS Accountancy Solutions exists to simplify the lives of accountants by making them more effective and more productive. Through its heritage of deep domain knowledge, breadth of product functionality and innovative use of technology, IRIS delivers best-in-class accountancy software solutions for use by every practice in the UK.

IRIS Software Group

IRIS Accountancy Solutions is a division of IRIS Software Group, the largest privately-owned software supplier in the UK and one of the most trusted business-critical software and services providers in the UK today. Through its solutions, the group serves more than 80,000 SMEs, corporates, and payroll bureau customers across a wide range of UK industry sectors. IRIS Software Group offers the greatest range of specialist accountancy, financial management, human resource management and payroll solutions – delivered as a choice of integrated on-premise software and cloud-based applications. These are managed under the leading IRIS, PTP, KashFlow, Keytime, Taxfiler, Cascade, PS Financials, Results Squared, ParentMail, Star and Earnie product brands.

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