What's new in IRIS HR Professional? (2026)

Find out about the changes we have made.

You can also check our known issues, fixes, and what's coming soon.

2024 | 2025 | Jan 2026 | Feb 2026| Mar 2026 | Apr 2026| May 2026| June 2026 | July 2026 | Aug 2026 | Sep 2026 | Oct 2026 | Nov 2026 | Dec 2026

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Introduction

These release notes describe new features, enhancements, and fixes since the last release. All changes come from customer feedback and suggestions.

August 2026

Product enhancements - core HR

Holiday Entitlement Increment

• To find this screen, go to System Tools, select Lookup Tables, then Absence When an employee or worker is absent from work. This can be for a variety of reasons., then Holiday Entitlement Increment.

• We have added a new Apply Increments By option, with two choices: Absence Year End, which applies the holiday increment when the absence year ends so that the additional entitlement applies from the start of the new absence year, and Service Anniversary, which applies the holiday increment on the employee's service anniversary, based on their start date.

  To learn more, go to Set up a Holiday Entitlement Increment.

Documents

• We have updated the Documents API so users with API access can upload, update, delete, and retrieve documents for a specific employee

• Some documents were failing to upload when imported in bulk, without notifying you. We have improved error handling to show an upload status for each file, confirming success or explaining why it failed

Accessibility

• We have made accessibility improvements to the homepage in the top navigation bar, including the search, profile icon, and help centre button. Screen readers now correctly announce these system areas when focused on

Payroll Matrix

• The Payroll Matrix now adds a pay code to created payments, ensuring they sync as expected to Payroll.

July 2026

Product enhancements - core HR

API

• API users can now update employees' holiday entitlements

June 2026

Product enhancements - core HR

Termination Date

• You can now edit or remove a termination date in an employee's record at any time before it is reached. Previously, once entered, this was not possible

  Learn how to process a leaver.

Mail Merge

• In My Details > Actions > Mail Merge, we have added a Read and Accept checkbox. This allows you to create and send a document for an employee to read and accept in a single step

  Learn more about running mail merge documents.

May 2026

Product enhancements - core HR

There are no feature enhancements in this release, but we have made some bug fixes.

April 2026

Product enhancements - core HR

Employee lists

• We have replaced lists of employee names in Forms and other system areas with a search field. Now, when selecting an employee's name, you can enter part of their name instead of scrolling through a list

31 March 2026

Product enhancements - core HR

Filter the Dashboard

• On the Dashboard, within the Actions drop-down, we have added an Employee Selector option, allowing you to filter the results shown in the Dashboard to only the employees included in the selector

  

Find out more about using the Dashboard.

Documents

• Now, when you create a document in an employee's My Details > Documents and you select the Read & Accept checkbox on the form, an Acceptance Type drop-down displays. This matches with creating a document in System Tools, and allows you to set how an employee needs to accept the document

  

  Learn more about creating documents with Read & Accept set.

New Starter Checklist

• Following the new Student Loan Plan Type 5 coming into effect from April 2026, we have updated My Details > Payroll > New Starter Checklist, Student Loan Plan

  Plan 5 applies to employees who applied to Student Finance England and started courses from August 2023 onwards.

Directories

• In Directories, when you have more tabs than can fit on one screen, you can access the remaining tabs by selecting the three-line menu icon

  

P60s

• We have updated P60s for the 2025/2026 tax year

Star Payroll

• From April 2026, employees who qualify for Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay Northern Ireland will have a new SPBP (NIRE) Paid column on their payslips

Org Chart Reports

• The following reports have been removed from the Org Chart:
  • Organisational Head Tree
  • People Tree
  • Organisational Groups

3 March 2026

Charts

• We have replaced many charts across the system to improve usability and give them a modern look

  Areas with updated charts include:

  • System Tools > Utilities >Company >Sign-Management > Login Track

  • Perform

  • Recruit

  • Dashboards

    

February 2026

There is no release this month.

Charts

• We have replaced manyall charts across the system to improve usability and make the more moderngive them a modern look.

  Areas with updated charts include:

  • System Tools > Utilities >Company >Sign-Management > Login Track

  • Perform

  • Recruit

  • Dashboards

    

January 2026

Product enhancements - core HR

Feature only available for Ultimate and Professional packages.

Disciplinary tab and form

• You can now record and manage disciplinary actions for employees using the new Disciplinary form. The system stores these records in a new Disciplinary tab, which is only visible to users with Set Rights Set Rights are the system permissions you allocate to employees to control the information available to a user about other employees. permissions.

  The Disciplinary tab is hidden by default. You must activate it using Set Rights permissions. Access is usually given to HR only, as disciplinary information is sensitive. Line managers do not usually require access.

  

  For guidance on creating or updating the item lists in the disciplinary form, use Create a disciplinary record for an employee or Update Disciplinary form list items.

Include Similar Results checkbox

• We added a new search checkbox in Directories called Include Similar Results. Selecting this checkbox returns more results, including partial matches and results for search terms containing a spelling mistake

  

  

For more information, open Search for an employee in Directories

Absence cancellation requests

• We have updated the email wording line managers receive when an employee requests to cancel their approved absence

• If the absence cancellation request is approved, the absence shows as cancelled in the employee's record within My Detail > Absence > Status list

• Absence requests pending cancellation also show on the line manager's Home screen > Notifications > Pending Requests

  

 

Original IRIS HR Professional mobile app

• The original IRIS HR Professional mobile app is now retired and will no longer work on your mobile.

  Download our new redesigned mobile app, Staffology HR by IRIS:

  • iOS – App Store

  • Android – Google Play

  Links are also available on the IRIS HR Professional home screen.

  

Absence Summary

• We updated the charts on the Home screen and in My Details > Absence > Actions > My Summary > Absence Summary. The charts now have a modern look and meet accessibility standards