Data Protection: Guidance on data accuracy and rectification

Introduction

Data protection law imposes obligations on users to ensure the accuracy of the personal data that is processed as well as keeping it up to date where necessary.

The IRIS Accountancy Suite (IAS) has several features to assist users with data accuracy:

• The unique integration of IAS built around a centralised database eliminates the need to duplicate data entry and improves data accuracy.

• IAS is updated throughout the year for legislative updates to ensure that the compliance and validation rules built into the software are up to date.

• Online filing validation is carried out within the product before submission to Companies House/HMRC, reducing the risk of the Accounts/Tax Return being rejected.

• Pre-population of client data made available via MTD can be imported directly into IRIS Personal Tax.

• e-Checklist data can be reviewed prior to importing. For more information see online help Using e-Checklists - Importing E-Checklist data.

• Before submitting a Companies Confirmation Statement, review the data held against the information at Companies House.

• Most fields also include a spell check; this can also be called from any field using the F7 key. In Accounts Production, the spell check feature for the narrative field can be disabled/enabled for each user via Setup | Posting screen. For more information see online help How to Enable/Disable the Spell Checker option.

• As of v20.2, when using the Shared address functionality to share the postal address of clients, the system will not share the clients telephone and email address details. 

Also access to IAS and any sensitive client data may be restricted in several ways potentially preventing rectification to client information in specific scenarios:

1. Group permissions are used to set permissions on the level of access the user has, for example, full access, restricted access, read only and no access. For more information see online help IRIS General: Staff Group Permissions and IRIS General: Permissions.
   
2. Staff privileges can be placed on the areas of the system each user has access to, for example, common privileges as well as privileges which are specific to each of the modules. For more information see online help IRIS General: Staff Privileges.
   
3. Confidential client feature allows the user to set a password on a client and thereby restricting staff access to the client to only those with the password. This feature can assist in restricting access to a client to ensure there is a block on processing activities within IAS if necessary. See KnowledgeBase article IAS-1794: How to password protect a client.

Data can also be rectified and resubmitted to Companies House and HMRC (within the limits of what is defined/regulated by Companies House and HMRC). To rectify information with either government body consult with them on their processes around rectification of any data submitted and accepted by them.