CCH Assesses Readiness of UK Accountants for E-Filing Corporation Tax Accounts by 1 April deadline

Feb. 16, 2011 - PRLog -- CCH, the leading global provider of tax, accountancy and audit information, software and services, part of Wolters Kluwer, has upgraded its UK Accounts Production software to automatically generate iXBRL accounts, as well as launched a new tool, CCH iXBRL Review & Tag, to tag accounts produce in Microsoft Word and Excel.

With the April 2011 deadline for compulsory e-filing fast approaching, CCH research carried out among more than 450 accountants in practice shows that a third are yet to appoint anybody to take responsibility for implementing iXBRL. While a third prepare some or all accounts in Word or Excel, 74% of those polled say they haven’t considered how they will convert these into the new iXBRL format.

A copy of the full survey results can be downloaded from the CCH website: http://www.cch.co.uk/ixbrl.

CCH’s Accounts Production software now automatically generates iXBRL accounts for submission to HMRC or Companies House, removing the need for time-consuming manual tagging and greatly reducing the risk of mistakes through human error.  

The new CCH iXBRL Review & Tag tool is integrated with CCH Accounts Production and has three roles:

- to review the iXBRL accounts produced by CCH Accounts Production prior to submission;
- to amend or apply additional tags to accounts produced by a third party; and
- to tag accounts not currently in iXBRL for submission to HMRC.

This gives accountants in business and practice increased flexibility in the run-up to April and reassurance that accounts produced in Word or Excel can be quickly converted for submission.

Review & Tag works using a drag and drop interface, allowing accountants to select a tag from a list and drop it onto the appropriate data. Once produced, the resulting accounts can be filed online using CCH Corporation Tax or a third party system, and it is also possible to save a tagging template for re-use, reducing the workload the following year.

CCH Technical Product Manager, David Routley, says: “Our research was completed just a month ago and, while we might expect accountants to be a little further along the track, our findings show that many who handle accounts in Word or Excel are still not prepared for the move to compulsory e-filing.

"The enhancements to CCH Accounts Production and the introduction of Review & Tag provide a comprehensive solution. Over a third of accounts say they receive accounts produced by a third party, yet the majority still don’t know if these will be in iXBRL format. Review & Tag provides a quick and efficient way of tagging these for filing online, removing the need to re-key data or outsource the tagging process which could jeopardise accuracy and security.

"Electronic filing is required for any UK Corporation Tax submissions from 1 April 2011 relating to financial years ending after 31 March 2010. With the deadline looming accountants and companies do not have much time left to get their strategy in place.”

About CCH

CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business (www.cch.co.uk), is the leading global provider of tax, accountancy and audit information, software and services. It has served tax, accountancy and business professionals since 1913. In the UK CCH provides books and online information, software, professional development and fee protection. Wolters Kluwer is a market-leading global information services company with annual revenues (2009) of €3.4 billion and maintains operations in over 40 countries across Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Its shares are quoted on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices.

You can follow CCH UK and Wolters Kluwer UK on Twitter: @cchvoice, @wolterskluweruk

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Wolters Kluwer UK, incorporating CCH and Croner, is a provider of business information and consultancy services to help make businesses more effective and profitable; from software and online information, to books, journals, training and consultancy.