AI and other fantastic upgrades – a year of IRIS Elements

IRIS has one goal, which is to make life easier for you – and in the last year, our product teams have delivered.

The secret? A wealth of extra functionality, including AI anomaly detection.

Consider, for example, our cloud accounting solution IRIS Elements. This platform now does even more of the hard work for you, saving you valuable time and helping you stay organised.

You helped make this possible

All of this has been achieved with your help. IRIS Elements is built around a community of accountants who provide valuable feedback.

So, let’s look at the progress we made together before exploring how AI anomaly detection works.

A rolling start for a strong year

A strong year in accounting tech needs momentum, and that began in July 2024. The elements roadmap accelerated with the launch of the professional versions of:

• IRIS Elements Tax
• IRIS Elements Accounts Production.

This was a gear change in compliance depth, automation, and workflow capabilities. Accountants now had more powerful tools in Elements if they needed them – ones they could access from anywhere, thanks to a fast, secure, cloud platform.

So, how did IRIS Elements get even better in 2025?

During 2025, our team listened to you, our accounting community, and they acted. For example, we upgraded:

• client privacy
• farm accounts
• bulk online filing.

But our efforts didn’t stop there.

A top-tier enterprise for growing firms

As your firm grows, IRIS Elements is being developed to grow with you. The spring and summer of 2025 saw our development team pass a major milestone in that ambition. We launched enterprise-level solutions for tax and accounts, including support for FRS 102 filings and IFRS accounts.

And because it’s essential to stay up to speed with AML, we introduced biometric ID checks. This keeps your practice aligned with the latest regulatory requirements and supports legislation like the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) and evolving ID checks.

Expanded capabilities for charities, FRS 101, and IXBRL

2025 has seen IRIS Elements expand its enterprise-level accounts production offering with three major enhancements:

• Charity accounts: Now included as standard in the enterprise license, supporting both incorporated and unincorporated charities. Users can easily manage dedicated funds, activities, and grants, with all the latest compliance features built in.
• FRS 101: Firms can now prepare statutory accounts with reduced disclosure requirements, streamlining group reporting and compliance.
• IXBRL editor: The new editor gives users precise control over financial statement tagging, helping ensure submissions meet Companies House and HMRC requirements.

An upgraded user experience

Our ambition has always been that users could log into IRIS Elements – without looking at the manual – and use it immediately. That’s why this October brought a wave of integration improvements, user interface enhancements, and dashboard upgrades. All these updates were a direct result of listening to your feedback on how you want to use the platform.

MTD is ready to go

By April next year, we fully intend to deliver group accounts functionality and go live with our MTD (Making Tax Digital) platform. For those already participating in the HMRC trial, this functionality is available now.

Investing in purpose-built AI

We see AI everywhere these days – but made-for-purpose AI is harder to come by. That’s where we set our sights, and the result is an incredible start.

If you’re an IRIS Elements Tax user, you can use our first big AI feature today: anomaly detection. It helps accountants spot issues early, with a smarter, quicker, and easier review process for personal tax returns.

How it works

With just a few clicks, users can now run an AI anomaly detection service that compares two years’ worth of tax return data for each client. The system intelligently flags differences that are worth noting – whether it’s something missing this year, a newly added item, or a change that exceeds expected thresholds. These insights are flagged in a dedicated recommendations panel, helping accountants catch potential issues as soon as possible.

Feedback from early adopters has already led to rapid improvements, including performance boosts and more targeted recommendations.

Good AI always means safe AI

In all the excitement around AI, it’s important to think about safety. Our AI accounting features are being built with privacy and security at their core. All personal data is stripped out before processing within the UK.

AI and the future of IRIS Elements

But what’s next for AI tools in IRIS Elements? Our roadmap includes expanding checks to cover all data points on the tax return, integrating HMRC business rule checks, and even suggesting tax optimisation opportunities. Soon, users will also be able to import data directly from PDFs, further streamlining busy periods and reducing manual entry.

AI that comes to the rescue

If you need to investigate an issue with your software, you likely don’t want to stop what you are doing to make a phone call or jump on Teams. It’s nearly always better to look up an answer quickly and then carry on with your day.

Our IRIS Elements AI customer assistance tool has been live for a full year, and the results speak for themselves. The most recent numbers point to a success rate higher than 90%.

This tool uses a vast database of historic tickets, training documentation, and analytics to provide accurate, timely responses to customer queries.

Discover more – see our IRIS Elements webinar, on demand

Get the full update on IRIS Elements from our experts – including more details on everything we discussed here, such as:

• AI tax anomaly detection
• Accounts production enhancements
• MTD

It’s your chance to see these upgrades in action and find out what questions your fellow accountants had to ask during the live event.