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Budget day - What happens in a tax software house

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25th Dec 2005
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The budget is an important date in accountants' and tax professionals' diaries. Many stay up all night putting together full briefings for their clients which typically are presented in a breakfast session the following day.

For staff at tax and practice software house IRIS, Budget day brings its own challenges and detailed planning well in advance is essential. To keep its 4,200 customers supplied with up to date software any amendments need to be incorporated into the product as quickly as possible. This entails listening closely to any changes the Chancellor announces that may impact on the taxation system.

With the date of the budget set within two weeks of the start of the new tax year, most of the work on the new tax year's software update has already been completed. The product has gone through extensive beta testing and this week it is scheduled to go out to a further batch of customers in what is termed a 'candidate' release before it is issued to all customers at the end of the month.

The 2004/05 tax tables are updated following the announcement of new rates by the Chancellor. However, any retrospective changes announced add a new dimension to all those involved in the development of the software. Unlike other companies, the IRIS tax product is part of a full suite of software with total integration between all the different modules, all of which will be fully tested to ensure that the changes are reflected in the suite as a whole.

Jeremy Watson, Personal Tax Development Manager said: 'We will be paying particular attention to the budget statement and analysing the comment carefully. IRIS prides itself on the fact that it consistently delivers its tax software update ahead of the start of the new Tax Year so that all our customers are fully prepared. We are already well prepared and if the Chancellor announces any retrospective changes, these will need to be incorporated into the software without delay. If this is the case the development team will face a succession of late nights until the work is completed, to ensure our customers are kept up-to-date.'

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