Personal Tax- Using Client E-Checklists and Queries

personal-tax-using-client-e-checklists-and-queries

Personal Tax- Using Client E-Checklists and Queries

8th April 2022

IRIS Personal Tax: Using Client E-Checklists and Queries in Openspace(OS)

E-Checklists provide a quick and easy way for you to deliver the necessary information, allowing your accountant to complete your Self Assessment tax return using IRIS Openspace. The checklist only picks up the clients PT data from a prior year eg looks at 2022 data when you generate it in 2023, so if no data in prior year then no data will show in the checklist. You as the accountant can only edit the values/data in PT, you cannot generate a e-checklist and then edit the values (only your client can edit/enter values).

1. As an accountant – you must have your IRIS Openspace account created with a email address and a valid OS password saved against their IRIS login account (If the email/or password is not valid read here).
2. As a client for the accountant – you must have a email address and your accountant has created your IRIS Openspace account and they must register by logging in to activate the account. The client name used to create this OS account is used when approving documents.

Main IRIS help centre for echecklist guide: https://help.iris.co.uk/IRIS/ODL/MainHowTo.htm

If you do not use or your clients do not use Openspace then you can use the ‘Paper Checklists’

1. Load IRIS Personal Tax and load a client
2. Select Administration and select e-Checklists.
3. Select the relevant option: New= create a new list for 1 client or selected number of clients, Status= lists all checklists created/uploaded/imported etc which you can review,
4. How to Edit or add new questions for all clients OR 1 client. Select the option: Edit e-checklist questions. You can now edit the content and add new questions – this will be applied to all your clients now.
5. If you only want to add a new question for one client, create their E-checklist first then view or edit it.
6. Go to File and Edit and Add Section etc. Now you can edit the questions or add new questions JUST for this one client.

How to add/edit the cover letter for a sent checklist to client? Accountant logs into their OS account – Settings/ customization/ E-mail templates/ Then edit the appropriate e-checklist template. (for example – one template is called ‘New E-checklist to Client’)

How to add attachments like Word or PDFs to a E-checklist? Accountants first need to generate the echecklist (do not upload it yet) and VIEW it. On the top left click FILE and then EDIT. This ungreys out the bottom left ‘Attachment’ option. You can now add additional files to the checklist eg Word, PDFs etc and then upload it to Openspace. When your client opens the echecklist they have to manually click the ‘attachment‘ option on left side to view this added file(they do not have a option to approve, just view it)

How to delete a e-checklist? Load the client in PT, Administration | E-checklist | E-checklist status. Find the relevant year of the checklist and delete from here. If you do not delete them from here then you will get a warning when you try and delete this client from OS, to state they have a existing checklist (remember to delete all checklists from all years for this client you need to delete). There was a Openspace update on 12th May 2023 to allow client deletion in OS without needing to first delete their echecklists.

Warning before you delete a PT client: If you first delete a client from PT without properly deleting all the checklists first then you may have checklists which now cannot be removed from OS. UPDATE: There was a Openspace update on 12th May 2023 to allow client deletion in OS without needing to delete their echecklists.

When I generate e-checklists for all my clients it freezes at a certain point (stops at certain client name/letter). There is a data issue on 1 or more of your clients. For example, when you run checklists for all and it reaches that affected client, it will freeze and stop the entire run. Use the Range of clients option when you first run the reports. Ignore/bypass the specific name where it freezes and run it from the names afterwards (Run the checklist just before the affected client, stop and then run a 2nd time after the affected client) If that works, then manually look at the clients you believe is the cause – do they have an active email etc. At least you can narrow down the affected client(s) and bypass them so you can get the majority of the e-checklists completed. You may get a error like this when generating or uploading to clients:

PT crashes for 1 client when uploading checklist – Load the client in PT, Client , View , Address tab, click the NUMBERS button, check if there are multiple emails listed here, only keep one email(on the 1st email box) and delete the others. Save and Regenerate the echecklist and upload to the clients Openspace.

Generated e-checklists for all my clients it doesn’t upload to ALL clients (shows as Not Uploaded). There is a data issue on 1 or more of your clients. For example, when you download for all and it reaches that affected client, (note down the name and shows ‘not uploaded’ after this certain name). Use the Range of clients option when you first run the reports. Ignore/bypass the specific name where it doesn’t upload and run it from the names afterwards (Run the checklist just before the affected client, stop and then run a 2nd time after the affected client)

If you get the error generate the XML document for a certain client – read this KB: https://www.iris.co.uk/support/knowledgebase/kb/personal-tax-e-checklist-generate-error-generating-xml-document/

If you cant find a data issue for the affected client – use the Attribute option to indicate to yourself that you can’t use future e-checklists for that one client.

E-checklist is not picking up any data from prior year – it is designed to look at values (not ‘0’ or NULL values) in the prior year. If there is no value data (eg no income) then no data will show in the checklist. For example if you have no bank interest in 2021 then the 2022 checklist will not pick up any interest entries. Also check there is no closed/disposed date in the prior year entry as that can stop it showing on the checklist.

E-checklist is not picking up any HMRC value data from prior year – For example Employment and Pension HMRC income is missing on the e-checklist. HMRC values has never been used for e-checklists as these values have been amalgamated and any clients affected would require individual values therefore ‘manual values’ will be picked when using e-checklist. If you want to run current year e-checklist, follow these steps:

a) Go back to PREVIOUS year and open the HMRC value. Switch to Manual values and enter the same income values.

b) Change to CURRENT year. Edit and Bring forward. Then delete the old e-checklist.

c) Generate a new checklist and it will pick up the Manual values.

E-checklist is not picking up ‘GIFT AID’ data from prior year – open the prior year and open the gift aid entry. Tick the box ‘Same payments to be made next year’. ok. Change to next year, bring forward data. Now it will appear on e-checklist. However if the gift aid claim is not relevant for the current year then just delete it.

Client has answered the newly added in questions but remains as a RED minus? A client has ticked ‘mark as answered’ on the newly created questions (from the accountant) but doesn’t change to a GREEN tick- why? This has been reported to our Development team as its a visual issue for the user. Ask all users to still tick as answered, save and finalise. When the accountant checks the section status when importing they will show the correct GREEN TICK on the new questions.

Client answering Car Make (under Employment) but get error ‘Please enter alpha numeric values only’? Users must fill in the Car make, £ or numeric box fields with letter or numeric values – you cannot use special characters (apart from ‘,’ which is permitted). Some new car makes may have ‘special characters’ in the title which causes this error.

Paper / E-Checklists – On Section C and Allowance it still shows the partner name even when separated from them- why? This is because of ‘Marriage allowance’ entry – as it is still available even if separated from spouse/civil partner- so it needs to show the details on both checklists.

How to import clients data into PT – clients would login their OS account – e-checklist and answer all the sections (they will see a tick box for every question: Mark as answered), then they would complete the FINALISE E-CHECKLIST on the left side, this locks in their answers and notifies the accountant and it then appears as GREEN ticks on your PT side (‘Answered Status’ column, see below) but show a RED minus if they haven’t fully answered it. We recommend you remind clients to check and approve ALL sections (shows as Green ticks) so not to cause any issues where they assumed they answered it but really they havn’t and thus missing new data/values when importing.

IF your client needs to correct/add further info after finalising it – either you directly manually fill it into their PT account OR delete the checklist and send it to the client again.

You can still import the non answered sections by clicking the relevant section on the left and ticking ‘Mark section as reviewed'(on bottom right). It will show up as Green ticked (import status). You can see client below didn’t answer the ‘UK pensions’ question but you decided to still import the details.

On very bottom left – click ‘Import’ and tick the box and proceed.

Import and Mark section as reviewed buttons

When you upload Echecklist into PT and crashes with error/or not values appear in PT: If all/certain clients are affected – ask another user to try as well to import it on another pc. If all users/clients affected then ask your IT to check your pc antivirus firewalls and online security settings which can cause this crashing. Please read this KB

If just one client is affected and all users affected: Delete that checklist from the echecklist screen (you can warn client there was a technical issue which is why your sending again) and generate a new one and send to them – once finalised by them– import it onto your PT (Do ask other users of PT to try as well).

‘Send Reminder’ button greyed out?: Check if a checklist for client shows as ‘NOT STARTED’ status (which mean they haven’t accessed it yet). This ungreys out the button to allow you to send by email a reminder to fill in the checklist.