IPS AND INSOLVENCY END OF YEAR ROUND UP 2015

IPS and Insolvency Update

Welcome to the last update of 2015. What a busy year it has been! We have issued two new versions of the program and covered a raft of legal and regulatory changes. As we look forward to 2016, I cannot see the pace slowing down and the proposed re-write of the Insolvency Rules is keeping everyone on their toes.

Latest release

IPS build 166 was released on 30 November to coincide with introduction of the revised SIP9 due to the insolvency rules changes effective from 1 October. The new rules and SIP concerning IPs having to seek creditor approval of fee estimates have proven a challenge to both Turnkey and the industry, with very little guidance available. Watch this space for further updates. We look forward to feedback as the changes bed down over the next few months.

RTI

As detailed in the last blog, IPS now has a direct link to the HMRC RTI system. This means that returns following distributions to employees and directors can be easily made. Clarification was sought concerning prior year returns and changes were made to incorporate this.

RPO Portal

As you will no doubt be aware, the Redundancy Payments Office portal for employee claims became compulsory from 1 September. We have worked with our clients to provide an interface between the RPO data entered by the employee during the RP1 process and IPS. This work will cut down on the amount of re-keying required to capture the claim information necessary to correctly process employee claims.

User Group

On 20 October we attended the annual IPS user group meeting held at Warwick University. The meeting this year was extremely successful with a very large attendance and presentations from the RPO and Encompass. I understand users found the day to be of immense value. For a summary of points raised and to obtain copies of the Turnkey presentation please contact us.

Collaborations

If you have been reading previous blog posts, you will know Turnkey actively seeks out opportunities to ensure our product provides discernible efficiencies for our client base.

This has become even more important as we move into an era where fees will be scrutinised closer than ever before.

Previous collaborations have included links with the Land Registry, UK Sort Code database, Post Office Postcode data and Foreign currency exchange rates.

Two collaborations that provide instant benefit are notice filing with the Gazettes and other publications and links to searches carried out by the IP.

When we reviewed the process for lodging notices with the Gazette we were struck by how inefficient the process was, a word document is often produced from IPS and then either a user re-keys this information at the Gazette portal or the document is sent to an agency for filing. We knew that a more efficient process would be available and to that end we were introduced to Timecut.

Timecut specialise in automated publications meaning that Insolvency Practitioners can now file Gazette and newspaper notices direct from IPS providing immediate benefits in terms of efficiency and risk reduction. This service which is included within IPS as part of the licence is now in use by a number of firms and the number of notices filed is growing each day. To find out more and obtain an account please contact the IPS support team.

A new collaboration with Encompass Uncover was launched with the latest IPS release. The Encompass system provides a web based visual platform for conducting and linking searches that would be performed in every case, from Companies House to Land Registry and Credit reference searches. The collaboration with Turnkey means that information uncovered in searches undertaken by the IP can be passed direct to IPS.
The result is a reduction in case set-up time and the assurance that information contained within IPS is up to date and accurate. Further work means that search costs can be passed to cases directly within IPS.

The Encompass team are dedicated to making this platform the de-facto place for IP searches and are continually adding to their list of data providers. To find out more or arrange a demonstration, see the Encompass web site.

Next Year

2016 looks to be an exceptionally busy time with legislative changes on the horizon.

We are grateful to the industry recognised compliance professionals that we work with who have been assisting us in this area. As an IT company, their expertise is much appreciated.

Turnkey plan to launch a regular series of webinars focusing on various areas of IPS. This will, I hope, bring users’ attention to areas of the program which are sometimes overlooked. The webinars will be conducted by the expert IPS support team at Turnkey.

Further information and dates for webinar number one will be issued early in the new year.

Turnkey has for some time been working to provide a revised document and checklist pack and we hope the first set will be available early in the new year.

We would like to thank MacDonald Henderson solicitors for their efforts in making this possible.