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There are several IRIS Accountancy Suite products which have email functionality within it:
IRIS Practice Management - allows logged emails to be sent to clients and tracked within the communications tab.
IRIS Company Secretarial and/or IRIS Company Formation - enables electronic filing of Companies House Forms directly to and in the format prescribed by Companies House.
It is advisable to read the Introduction
to understand the email functionality in more detail and to establish
which configuration required by your practice.
There are several methods available for configuring the IRIS Practice Suite to use the email functionality depending on the combination of IRIS products used within your practice, the degree of functionality required and the email technology available in your office.
Important Information – please read carefully
Some of the email configuration options detailed within this guide significantly enhance the process for the electronic submission of forms to Companies House, primarily through the automatic monitoring and deciphering of the responses received from Companies House.
IRIS Practice Management email functionality and monitoring Companies House responses depends upon the email service (SMTP/POP3 or Microsoft Exchange) that is used at your office. Details of your email system will need to be collated before configuring IRIS Practice Software. (Tables of required information have been provided at appropriate points.)
This topic uses a certain amount of unavoidable computer jargon and you may need advice or assistance from your network administrator. If additional assistance with configuration is required by IRIS Support the Configuration tables MUST be completed with the details specific to your office.
As the email service used by your business is subject to a wide number of variables for example, different software, versions, configurations, permission levels and so on. IRIS cannot guarantee that you will be able to use the enhanced email features within the IRIS Practice Software. Wherever possible, IRIS will provide advice or, in time, enhancements to help you to use the advanced features in future releases.
In order to ensure that you can still file electronically to Companies House we have retained the option to use our existing filing mechanism which is the default setting within IRIS v8.7.2 onwards.
The following flowchart should help to pinpoint the email configuration required by your practice:
What type of business are you? |
Outgoing mail |
Incoming mail |
I am a sole trader/standalone IRIS user looking to monitor emails on one computer relating to one email account. |
Use MAPI |
Use MAPI |
I am a network or data centre IRIS user looking to monitor emails on multiple computers relating to multiple email accounts. |
Use SMTP |
Use POP3 |
My organisation uses a Microsoft Exchange server.
|
Use SMTP |
Use POP3 |
There above types of email configuration possible within your IRIS practice software for sending outgoing mail and monitoring incoming mail are explained in a little more detail below.
IRIS recommendation is to set up an email account with the sole purpose for Companies House correspondence when configuring to use SMTP/POP3. We recommend this for a number of reasons:
all employees can electronically file to Companies House using the single required email address
only Companies House information is made public to all employees and confidential emails in personal accounts are not monitored in IRIS
Outgoing mail
MAPI |
SMTP |
Using a MAPI configuration means all emails will be sent using the default email account setup within the mail client installed on the local computer for example, Microsoft Outlook. |
Using SMTP configuration means emails can be sent directly from email accounts setup on the email server regardless of the default email account specified on your local computer. |
This is the quickest and simplest way to send emails from IRIS as it requires no knowledge of your email system. IRIS will use the settings stored within your mail client for example, Microsoft Outlook. |
This method requires in depth knowledge of your email system which may require advice or assistance from your computer system manager. The advantage of this configuration is emails can be sent from a central account by anyone within IRIS. |
Incoming mail - Configuration for incoming mail is only required for users of IRIS Company Secretarial and IRIS Company Formations.
MAPI |
POP3 |
Using MAPI configuration means all emails received within the mail client installed on the local computer for example, Microsoft Outlook, will be monitored and used to update information within IRIS. Therefore IRIS can only be updated if the mail client and the IRIS monitor are running on the same computer to which the Companies House emails are being sent. |
Using POP3 configuration means emails received by the email server will be monitored and used to update information within IRIS. Therefore IRIS can be updated regardless of the computer/workstation accessing the IRIS software. |
To review an alternative email configuration topics, select one of the below options:
Section 1 - MAPI - Configuration for sending with IRIS
Section 1 - SMTP - Configuration for sending emails with IRIS
Section 2 - MAPI - Configuration for sending and monitoring emails with IRIS
Section 2 - SMTP/POP3 - Configuration for sending and monitoring emails with IRIS
Section 3 - Using Microsoft Exchange