Definitive pros & cons list for IRIS?

Posted by John Stokdyk PM | on Tue, 17/11/2009 - 17:48 890 3 comments | report

In Any Answers today an accountant getting ready to set up as a sole practitioner asked for the community's advice about which software was best, IRIS or Sage?

We regularly go around and around this debate, with promptings from fans on both sides. What I wondered might be useful for this group would be to come up with a structured response, stating the pros and cons in different areas, eg:

Integration
Personal tax
Time, billing & practice management
Corporation tax
Online filing
Support
Costs and return on investment

...and of course, any headings you'd like to put forward.

If members of this group can put forward specific comments for and against under relevant headings, we could compile a quick reference guide to point people at when they raise similar queries in the future. I've done some work on this before and can put forward my commentaries on IRIS, but I don't live with the applications day in and day out like you do. I'll be happy to compile the info that comes forward into a draft document for your collective agreement.

Just to keep things fair and balanced, I've asked the Sage Practice Solution discussion group to do the same. Maybe we'll all learn something if we pool our knowledge on this.
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John Stokdyk, Technology editor

Comments

IRIS tax software analysis - early 2008

John Stokdyk | Tue, 17/11/2009 - 18:12 | Permalink

This material is getting on a bit, but should set the scene for any further pro & con discussions. It focuses on tax, so let me know where you think the analysis should be brought up to date and suggestions for pros and cons in the non-tax modules.

Product analysis
The seamless integration within IRIS means that the accountant can take a more intermittent approach to client work rather than having to tackle tax and final accounts in big batches. One user commented that keeping IRIS up to date during the year pays off in the November-January period, when IRIS allows him to monitor every job going through the office hour by hour. The system can track which work was done for a client and by whom, with the facility to set up alerts to show when work in progress has reached particular thresholds, for example 70% of the allocated time.

Once information is entered into IRIS, it can be easily interrogated. Being able to look at a set of accounts on screen and drill back down to how each figure was made up can be very useful for tax computations and dealing with HMRC enquiries.

IRIS Personal Tax comes with a bundle of additional modules including a pension planner, capital gains tax and company car tax calculators. Because the Iris modules share the same data from a single source, when a company's accounts are complete, roughly 80% of the company's tax return was also done. Information can then be used to generate items such as P11Ds and the director's personal tax returns.

[We've got background data from our Software Satisfaction Awards surveys going back several years, sadly the formatting isn't working very well in the on-screen editor... I'll try and update the posting when I get back from holiday next week.]

A 20% drop in product satisfaction between 2004 and 07 indicates that all is not running smoothly for IRIS. The 2006 upgrade of PAYE-Master version 5 to the .NET development architecture was a particular flashpoint, with many IRIS users publicly vowing on AccountingWEB to switch away to other tax/practice software providers. (In practice it can be extremely inconvenient to change, so we have not seen much evidence that these threats have been carried out).

In 2007, IRIS users complained on AccountingWEB about bugs in the 2006-07 personal tax update, the SQL Server upgrade and about the response times and quality of IRIS's previously excellent customer help line. At this time IRIS was looking for new investors, encouraging rivals and commentators to speculate whether it was sweetening up its bottom line by trimming R&D and support costs. Now that IRIS has gained new investment, countering these market perceptions through improved product and service quality has to be a priority. But where it was once the sole focus of management attention, the IRIS practice division is now one unit within a greatly expanded business software group.

Strengths

Practice management - Full integration of everything to do with the client. If a client calls, anyone can talk to them about where we are, what's still needed etc.
IRIS Personal Tax is a superb product, but its core feature is its integration with Business Tax and in turn, with Accounts Production, and with P11D. It would be pointless to incur the expense of IRIS for a stand-alone product.
"It's expensive but bombproof..."
"The Personal tax is full and has the right amount of detail to handle the most complex of returns... I get on well with the data entry."

Weaknesses

It would cost well over £2,000... the quote was well beyond my budget... it would have been a big outlay with all the other IT equipment I required
Hardware demands - "It transpires that my server/network setup needs upgrading to get the best from the product, which was not mentioned by the sales rep."
"Fabulously functional, but at times fabulously complicated. Iris has evolved into quite a complicated product. You cannot possibly use it to its full potential without thorough training, and there are many features which I personally do not find intuitive."

I'll update these with more recent comments from Any Answers on my return, but most importantly, what are the strengths and weaknesses you would highlight about IRIS based on the headings in my previous post.

Looking forward to an illuminating discussion!
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John Stokdyk, Technology editor