IRIS Software Group (IRIS), the number one software supplier to accountancy practices has today announced the launch of IRIS Elements, the next generation cloud accountancy platform. 

IRIS Elements revolutionises the way accountancy practices run their firms; freeing up their time and resources to grow their practices, deliver added-value services and produce better business outcomes for their clients. IRIS Elements will offer an evolving suite of applications designed to support all areas of accountancy as firms scale, from data capture, compliance and bookkeeping through to customer servicing and advisory services. It automates workflow across multiple applications whilst maintaining a single view of the customer, so accountants can collaborate easily with customers to drive better business outcomes.

The launch of IRIS Elements is a landmark moment not just for IRIS, but for the accountancy profession. IRIS has transformed how it develops and delivers its services to ensure accountants have the exact tools they need to face the future, in the cloud. 

Built and delivered in collaboration with hundreds of accountants, IRIS Elements redefines the way they run their practices and helps unlock business potential. Most importantly, it has been built so accountants can move to the cloud at their own pace; a critical ask from the hundreds of accountants who collaborated with IRIS in designing this cloud platform.

Jim Scott, Managing Director of Accountancy at IRIS said, “When IRIS saw the cloud software trend accelerating some time ago, we knew accounting practices could gain real benefits from it. Even before Covid-19, we could see that accountants would want to embrace cloud technology; reduce technical complexity, increase their agility, support flexible working and improve their ability to respond to changing customer demands.  

“We realised what accountants needed was not a tactical, piecemeal response to cloud but a strategic, future-ready and scalable solution. IRIS Elements is the answer to this need.”

DELIVERED TODAY

The IRIS Elements modules available at launch include: IRIS Elements AML (Anti-Money Laundering), IRIS Elements SmartTax and Senta by IRIS.

IRIS Elements AML

The decision to prioritise Anti-Money Laundering (AML) was made following customer conversations that revealed many accountants didn’t have a defined AML process. Instead relying on a series of time-consuming manual processes which often led to confusion and errors.

Lucy Vann-Patrick, Director at V Ran said, “Elements is such an easy and quick system to use...Using both ID checks and risk assessments, you can make an informed decision on the client's risk. Everything is self-explanatory and user friendly.”

IRIS Elements AML has been designed to drastically reduce time-consuming processes with efficient online data checks, providing the security accountants need to onboard new clients with confidence. The fully cloud-based solution is integrated into IRIS Practice Management and supports firms’ need to comply with the latest AML regulations while improving overall productivity.

IRIS Elements SmartTax

Accountants told IRIS that as well as compliance in the cloud, what they want right now is an instant view of their clients’ tax that enables them to adjust figures to instantly see the effects of different scenarios. IRIS Elements SmartTax delivers ‘real-time’ tax calculations from within IRIS Personal Tax to improve efficiencies and enable them to deliver true tax planning today. It is available at no extra cost for existing IRIS Personal Tax customers.

Aly Rainey, Director at Crack-A-Tax Ltd said, “I have used IRIS for many years and have always found it incredibly easy to use which is why I’ve stayed loyal for so long. It’s great to see IRIS now venturing properly into a more cloud-based system, of which IRIS Elements and SmartTax is the showcase. "

“SmartTax allows me to see the current tax status of the client I’m working on in real time, and it’s making a really positive difference to the preparation of my client tax returns as I no longer have to keep running the tax computation! I look forward to seeing Elements and SmartTax becoming part of the everyday provision.”

Augmenting the power of the cloud within the desktop, IRIS Elements SmartTax makes tax processing much more efficient so accountants can spend time focusing on what matters – tax planning, advising on investment and succession planning for clients, as well as marketing to and acquiring new clients for the firm.

Senta by IRIS

IRIS’ customers within the design community including Golding Accounting, Pink Pig Financials and My Cloud 9 Accounting told IRIS the Covid pandemic changed the way accountancy practices are run and accelerated the need to manage firms in the cloud. In response to this, as part of its “build, buy, partner” strategy, IRIS acquired Senta, the award-winning cloud native SaaS Practice Management solution, to accelerate its ambitions in the cloud practice management area for IRIS Elements.

Senta by IRIS provides many of the core features found within the desktop IRIS Practice Management and is a single source of truth for client data that is available instantly in the cloud. It further simplifies accountants’ workload with automated & flexible workflows that are easily configured to fit any accountancy firm; time chasing for information is minimised thanks to automated reminders for staff and clients, making sure nothing is forgotten.

Senta by IRIS and IRIS Elements AML are already integrated, enabling basic ID checks on clients from within Senta and by the end of August this year we will have full data integration between Senta and the IRIS Elements platform.

Jonathan Priestley, Senior Product Director said, “IRIS Elements exists to support, inspire and empower all accountants. Our future-ready cloud accountancy platform gives practices the capabilities they need to embrace new ways of working. In-built automation and streamlining creates productivity, efficiency and speed gains for every type of accountant. We are providing accountants with extra time to focus, the capacity to grow, and the capability to deliver better business outcomes.”

THE FUTURE OF ELEMENTS

The IRIS Elements platform will be expanded in the coming months with new modules driven by the requirements of IRIS’ customer community. These include IRIS Elements Advisory Plus and  IRIS Elements Essentials.

IRIS Elements Advisory Plus

IRIS Elements Advisory Plus builds upon the existing five-year reports within IRIS Accounts Production, allowing access to this powerful advisory-enabling information from anywhere.  The report has been evolved within the IRIS Elements platform and is presented as a graphical dashboard of clients’ business information. This puts the critical information accountants need at their fingertips, so that they can start analysing trends and advising their clients on how to improve business outcomes.,

IRIS Elements Essentials

Our analysis shows that over the last 12 months, an increasing number of accountants have chosen to start new firms. Doing this under normal circumstances is hard enough, let alone in the middle of a pandemic. To support these accountants, IRIS will be launching a suite of best-in-cloud solutions covering practice management and productivity, tax preparation & filing, and payroll all available via the IRIS Elements platform; enabling accountants to run their whole practice from a single, central console.

Subscribers will have access to the other IRIS Elements modules as they continue to expand rapidly while getting the highest efficiency gains by using the latest cloud technology.