Accountancy software specialist IRIS has hit the road this month to prepare the profession for real time information (RTI) for PAYE and to show off its latest payroll and online products.
Probably the most significant announcement at Twickenham rugby stadium on Tuesday 2 October was IRIS Payroll for Accountants (pictured above), which brings together features designed to cater for practices handling payroll for their clients.
The bundle, available via a quarterly subscription, includes bureau payroll software, IRIS HR Manager software, and a P11D module.
The payroll module has been linked to both the IRIS Accountancy Suite and the online IRIS OpenBooks accounting application, so that year-end payroll figures can be pushed through into clients’ records in the Personal Tax module, while payroll payments can also be exported to the ledgers maintained in IRIS OpenBooks.
One of the main themes of the IRIS World event was the challenge posed by RTI, and IRIS CEO Phill Robinson emphasised that IRIS Payroll for Accountants would equip firms to deal with the opportunities RTI would present.
“Our research shows that 23% of micro businesses don’t have any payroll software at all,” he said. “Under RTI they will need software or a bureau to submit information to HMRC. There’s an opportunity to offer a service to those micro businesses.”
While the existing IRIS Payroll module is already equipped for RTI, the submission engine will be embedded in the Accountants edition by the year’s end, he added.
Enthusiastic firms looking to get their clients into the RTI pilot before then might be frustrated, but IRIS will be ready with technology and practical advice on the RTI transition well ahead of April. Some of the 100 or so payroll developers listed on HMRC’s site will not be ready by then, creating an extra opportunity for new business, Robinson said.
IRIS Payroll for Accountants is built around an on screen dashboard giving an overview of the schemes being managed. A search facility within the system means that if you’re working on one company and someone from another scheme rings up to notify a change of details, you can search for the employee via the dashboard, click on the result and go straight to their record.
The employee’s record displays their period and year to date pay information in a second pane on screen, to make it easier to answer queries quickly.
Global changes can also be applied from the Dashboard view to selected employees without having to change each record.
The IRIS World roadshow kicked off at the Twickenham rugby stadium on Tuesday 2 October, continuing via Ricoh Arena, Coventry on 4 October, and with further dates booked for Cumbernauld (10 Oct) and Manchester (16 Oct). More details here.