Features List v18.3.0
Release Overview
The IRIS Accountancy Suite Autumn release Version 18.3.0 continues our key initiatives to help you thrive in a digital economy.
We know that everyone’s recordkeeping habits are different. We’ve got these covered so that you can utilise IRIS for all your MTD filings, irrespective of the source data delivered by your clients. In this release we extend our MTD offering to include VAT filing, which allows you to import data as a CSV and file with HMRC’s MTD VAT pilot. IRIS OpenSpace, our secure document exchange service, now includes the ability to bundle multiple documents. We have also enhanced IRIS Connector to support additional data flow between IRIS and other applications, keeping your digital processes seamless.
This release also includes IRIS Payments, our new service that allows IRIS users to get paid online. Finally, we’ve made a number of other enhancements to aid workflows and improve efficiency throughout the Suite.
General
General Data Protection Regulations
Our Autumn release Version 18.3 has enhancements to client data management to underpin your GDPR compliance including an audit trail of key staff events and a cleanse option for integrated clients that are partnerships, LLPs, individuals and limited companies. This helps ensure the right information is retained for each connected party when you delete records.
Tolley Tax
IRIS’s partnership with LexisNexis continues to bring innovations and we are delighted to introduce Tolley AI. The team at Tolley have built a natural language search that utilizes a combination of artificial intelligence and machine learning to display results and with feedback learn what the correct results are. This includes the Whillans Rate Checker beta, that can be accessed through IRIS OpenPortal. The Whillans Rate Checker builds on this AI technology to allow users to use natural language searches to find a range of rates, allowances, and deadlines from the Whillans Tax Tables. This is free to use for IRIS customers, so make sure to visit the IRIS portal to try it for yourself.
Making Tax Digital
We continue to keep you compliant with our Making Tax Digital solution for Income Tax, allowing you to take part in the HMRC beta service for clients with trading and/or property income.
We have also included the ability for the tax submission to be finalised and the tax calculation confirmed which replaces the need for a tax return submission for your clients that are taking part.
In December, HMRC plan to allow the submission of interest and dividend receipts and gift aid donations via the same Making Tax Digital APIs so that more clients can get involved in the pilot; we have included the ability to make these submissions now as part of our Autumn release so that you are ready to use them as soon as HMRC go live.
IRIS VAT Filer
Since the HMRC online tool for submitting VAT returns is not MTD compatible, and cannot be used for businesses with a turnover above the VAT threshold from April 2019 onwards,; we have released a new module that will allow you to continue making these submissions on behalf of your clients and remain compliant.
IRIS VAT Filer imports the VAT values from either a CSV file or clipboard and transfers them on to HMRC via their new MTD API’s. It automatically connects and retrieves any previous MTD submissions and current obligations for the selected client.
IRIS VAT Filer also retrieves any liability and payment data directly from HMRC for the client and displays this information on screen, so that it’s easy for you to track what is due and what is still outstanding for your client.
Accounts Production
IRIS Connector introducing MyWorkPapers
New to IRIS Connector is a direct import from MyWorkPapers to allow trial balances to be imported directly from your working paper files into Accounts Production ready for preparing the final accounts. If you are a customer of MyWorkPapers you can now pull data in from working paper files and push data out to audit files, making the process as efficient as possible.
Legislation
- Amendments to FRS 102; Triennial Review 2017. These changes have been applied to Limited Companies (including groups).
- Allowing early adoption or applying to accounting periods starting on or after 1st January 2019
- Small entities – Statement of Compliance, aligning wording more closely with company law on the balance sheet
- New taxonomies for iXBRL to cover the changes
- New Analysis of Net debt note within the Cash Flow Statement
- IFRS 15: Revenue from Contracts with Customers
- Allowing early adoption or applying to accounting periods starting on or after 1st January 2018
- New account codes for Contract Assets and Liabilities
- New data screens to generate required disclosures under International Standards
- IFRS 9: Financial Instruments
- Allowing early adoption or applying to accounting periods starting on or after 1st January 2018
- New data screens to generate required disclosures under International Standards
- Previously released in 18.2 (Summer):
- Updates to the Audit reports regarding the Duty of care to third parties (Bannerman wording) following the technical release issued by the ICAEW in May.
- Updates to Academies, to accommodate the recently released Academies Accounts Direction 2017-18, including a note for Trade Unions and a new tangible fixed asset ‘Assets under construction’.
Personal Tax
Based on your feedback, we’ve added the ‘Mark data entry as complete’ icon back onto the toolbar within Personal Tax to allow you to easily track which sections of your client’s returns are completed and which are not.
Business Tax
The Corporation Tax Computation now clearly shows all information needed for your clients to know what payments to make and when, as the payment due dates are now included. Settings have also been updated which allow you to choose whether to switch this off for individual clients or all clients in your database; so you have full control over the display of this extra information.
Based on recent feedback we have received; we have also included the option to suppress the agent details from being printed on the cover sheet of the enhanced Corporation Tax computation; so you no longer need to remove the cover sheet entirely.
All Tax
Tax Legislation and annual updates:
- Updated Dividend Database
- Updates to cater for the latest HMRC Specials & exclusions
- Updated form 50FS
- Updates to CT600 and the latest taxonomy and schemas
Time & Fees – Export Invoices
We are continuing to increase productivity and improve user experience in Time & Fees.
We have enhanced the export of the invoices from Fees. We have created a new dedicated screen that will allow you to quickly and easily export the invoices with VAT and Nominal Codes breakdown into .csv format. This will then enable you to import the invoices into KashFlow or any other bookkeeping system.
Time & Fees – Import Receipts
We have also added the ability to import receipts into Fees from .csv files to allow a much quicker way to post the receipts in bulk, saving you time and effort. You can now use the bank data feeds to create an import and post all the receipts in one go. Before the import the system will do a pre-pass check and validate the information is input correctly for each receipt highlighting you the fields that didn’t pass the validation. You would then be able to make changes directly on the import screen without need to go back into the receipts file.
IRIS OpenSpace
Bundle documents
When uploading from IRIS to OpenSpace, you can now bundle multiple documents such as a covering letter, accounts and tax computation into a single PDF and request e-Approval or e-Signature on the bundled document, reducing client and staff notifications and streamlining the approval process.
View All Files
We have also added an option for ‘All Files’ on your dashboard. From here you can search, sort and perform actions such as delete, download and notify on multiple files at the same time. It’s a great way to manage your OpenSpace storage by removing files no longer needed.
IRIS Payments
IRIS Payments is a new service that allows IRIS users to get paid online. IRIS Payments is powered by Stripe, a leading provider of internet payments software, and allows clients to securely pay invoices generated from IRIS Fees by credit and debit cards.
A request for payment of invoices generated from IRIS Fees can now be sent to IRIS OpenSpace, where clients will see a new ‘Pay’ button. Clients will be taken through a secure card payment process which, once payment has been made, will show as “Paid” in OpenSpace and automatically sends the receipt into Fees so you can review all pending payments and post them to the ledger.
IRIS Payments also introduces the ability to configure automated reminders to send emails for any unpaid or missed payments, to chase overdue invoices from clients.
To find out more about IRIS Payments, click here.
IRIS OpenLearning
As part of the Autumn release we are launching a new Learner Home page which consolidates the existing Browse Our Training page and the users training record. All available courses are displayed as well as information about the courses completed and requested by the user.
Find courses quickly using the search field at the top of the page and then request and open Curriculum in the normal way.
Also available from the Learner Home page is access to the IRIS Help Centre. This is where you will find information on how to implement and use the product features in the IRIS Accountancy Suite.
To see the what’s new for the IRIS Accountancy Suite (18.2.0) release click here
To see what’s new in the IRIS Accountancy Suite Spring (18.1.0) release click here
Pre-population of client data
The number of calls that the product makes to HMRC’s APIs has now been reduced, which should help to reduce the number of errors that HMRC return when their system is overloaded
We have updated the matching process of employment records between IRIS and HMRC to ensure that the PAYE reference is correctly presentedIRIS Connector
IRIS Connector allows imports from a wide variety of products including direct accounting data imports from all the major cloud bookkeeping providers and improved CSV imports to ensure you stay ahead irrespective of the source data you receive from your clients.Time & Fees
The Client Billing Decision screen in Fees has been enhanced with the ability to preview an invoice prior to posting. The invoice document can now be generated without making a posting to the ledger and can be further submitted in draft for approval. We have also simplified the workflow of posting the invoice to make it quicker to print the invoice after the posting and enhanced the interface to remember any changes to column sizes and order in the Client Billing Decision screen.
In Auto Billing the description field is now being displayed on the batches review screen to make it easier to differentiate the batches.
