Accounting practice automation

• Client take-on and CDD

  Taking on a client means verifying it and its beneficial owners, checking the Companies House register for discrepancies, risk-rating the relationship and issuing the engagement letter before work starts. Professional body supervisors rated 17% of the accountancy firms they assessed in 2024-25 non-compliant.

• Records in for the January peak

  On 31 January 2026, the online deadline, 475,722 Self Assessment returns were filed. A late return costs £100, then daily penalties after three months. Chasing is a feature practice software sells: TaxCalc's Engager lists automated emails and reminders.

• Bank feeds, receipts and coding

  Xero suggests bank matches and auto-reconciles only when its AI is highly confident. Dext extracts supplier, date, total, tax and currency from receipts and presents them for review before publishing. Under VAT Notice 700/22, figures move between programs by digital links only: copy and paste does not count.

• MTD for Income Tax quarterly updates

  Since 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 send quarterly updates by 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, plus the return by 31 January. HMRC puts the group joining from 6 April 2027 at around 1,077,000.

• Year-end, CT600 and confirmation statements

  A private company files accounts within 9 months of its year end, and the CT600 within 12 months. HMRC's online accounts and tax return filing service closed on 31 March 2026, so company tax returns go through commercial software. Companies House will not accept a confirmation statement until every director has verified their identity.

• Xero and Xero Practice Manager

  Ledger, bank feeds, jobs, time and billing. The API allows 60 calls a minute and up to 5,000 a day per organisation (1,000 on Xero's Starter tier); the XPM API needs Xero's security assessment and use-case approval.

• QuickBooks Online and FreeAgent

  HMRC-recognised ledgers: QuickBooks for MTD for VAT, FreeAgent for MTD for Income Tax. Both publish APIs, and FreeAgent's includes one for accountancy practices.

• Dext

  Receipt capture that publishes to over 36 accounting platforms. Its one documented API, Data Health & Insights, is read-only (client health figures); we found none for receipts.

• Karbon

  Practice management with a documented API covering contacts, work items, invoices, payments, time entries, webhooks and file uploads, so a new tool can work with jobs and time directly.

• Senta, IRIS, TaxCalc, BrightManager and Pixie

  Practice management, tax and accounts production. Senta has a limited API for clients, jobs and notes. For TaxCalc, BrightManager and Pixie we found no public API, so connecting may mean exports and imports.

• Client take-on and AML file

  A portal that checks ID through a provider on the GOV.UK digital verification services register, pulls company details from Companies House, records the risk rating and issues the engagement letter, backed by an AML register ready for a supervisor's review.

• Records requests and chasers

  A checklist per service, a client upload page, scheduled reminders and one view of what is missing, with status written back to Karbon, or to Xero Practice Manager where Xero approves access.

• MTD for Income Tax dashboard

  For each client: mandated or not and from when, agent authorisation, each quarter's update and any penalty-point exposure. It reads from the client's ledger, and submission stays in your HMRC-recognised software.

• Deadline and identity calendar

  Companies House due dates for accounts and confirmation statements, HMRC deadlines and your practice-management jobs in one calendar, showing which directors still need to verify their identity before each confirmation statement.

• Income Tax (Digital Obligations) Regulations 2026

  MTD for Income Tax applies to qualifying income over £50,000 from 6 April 2026, £30,000 from 6 April 2027 and £20,000 from 6 April 2028. From 2027-28 a late quarterly update earns a penalty point, with £200 at 4 points; Budget 2026 announced a 2027-28 waiver for April 2027 joiners.

• Money Laundering Regulations 2017, as amended by SI 2026/621

  Regulations 18, 28, 30A and 40 require a firm-wide risk assessment, customer due diligence, discrepancy reports and records kept 5 years after the relationship ends. Most amendments took effect on 30 June 2026. A phased move to FCA supervision is planned from late 2028, subject to legislation.

• Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023

  Identity verification became compulsory for new directors and PSCs on 18 November 2025. From 1 April 2028 all companies must file accounts using commercial software. On 23 October 2026 the government paused the planned requirement for small and micro companies to file profit and loss accounts, and kept abridged accounts.

• Tax adviser registration and the HMRC standard for agents

  Advisers paid to deal with HMRC for clients must hold an agent services account and meet conditions, including approved AML supervision. HMRC set registration windows from 18 May 2026 to 31 March 2027; existing account holders need not re-register. Agents must never ask clients for their HMRC sign-in details.

• Business automation and integrations
• AI automation
• Bespoke software development

Other industries: Recruitment, Letting agents.

Sources

Every rule, date and figure on this page comes from the sources below, checked on 31 October 2026. Rules change: check anything that matters with the source or your adviser.