IRIS Document Management is IRIS’s cloud-native document management system for accountancy and professional services firms. It gives your practice a single, secure place to store, organise, route, search and share client documents, with all the retention, legal hold and access controls a regulated practice needs. It works both as a standalone system and as an add-on to IRIS Firm Management.

Document management software focuses on storing, securing, organising and retrieving files – with capabilities like retention management, legal holds, audit trails and search. Practice management software focuses on running the practice itself – time, WIP, billing, job tracking and reporting. The two solve different problems and can be used together or on their own.

Document management software supports GDPR compliance by giving firms retention management, legal holds, role-based access control and full audit trails in one system. This helps firms apply consistent retention periods, restrict access to authorised staff only, and demonstrate defensible destruction of records when they’re no longer needed – reducing reliance on manual, inconsistent filing across email and shared drives.

Either approach can work well, depending on whether a firm wants documents managed as their own discipline or embedded inside a broader practice management suite. IRIS Document Management is built to work as a fully standalone system, and is also available as an add-on to IRIS Firm Management for firms that want one connected platform.

Yes. IRIS Document Management includes a secure client portal that supports document submission and publishing, with folder-level security, two-factor authentication and retention controls. This gives firms a more secure alternative to exchanging sensitive financial documents by email. Practices can also apply their own branding and logo to the portal, so it fits seamlessly in as part of their own firm rather than feeling like a separate tool.

Retention management and legal holds are core compliance features to look for in document management software. Retention management supports consistent, defensible retention periods and destruction schedules, while legal holds are designed to prevent deletion of documents subject to a dispute or investigation. IRIS Document Management includes both as built-in capabilities, with no add-on requirements or fees.

Yes. General-purpose file storage and sharing tools aren’t designed for regulated practice – they typically lack retention management, legal holds, audit trails and accountancy-specific filing structures. IRIS Document Management is purpose-built for UK accountancy firms, with these compliance and governance capabilities integrated from the start rather than added on. This supports the wider shift toward digital record-keeping that HMRC’s Making Tax Digital programme represents.

Accountancy firms should look for software with strong retention management, legal holds and role-based access control, since regulated client data needs defensible handling. Full-text search, automated filing, a secure client portal and integration with practice management data are also important for reducing manual admin and keeping documents in context with their client work.