Before you file, your client has to approve the accounts and the Company Tax Return. Client review lets you send both to them from inside Tax Optimiser. The client gets a login of their own that can read the documents, sign them, approve them or send you a question, and can do nothing else. Their approval, with the date, time and signature, is recorded against the period.
It is switched off until your firm turns it on, and only your firm’s own team can send a request.
What the client can and cannot do
The client’s login is not an organisation login. It opens one small set of pages:
- a list of the requests you have sent them;
- for each request, the documents as PDFs, an Approve button with an optional signature, and a box to send you a question.
They cannot open the trial balance, the accounts editor, the computation, any other period or any other screen, and they cannot change a figure. If they type another address into the browser they are taken back to their list.
What they read is a copy taken when you press Send. Changes you make afterwards do not reach them until you send it again, so the documents they approve are exactly the ones they were shown.
Switch it on for your firm
Open Firm Details, choose the Companies House tab and tick Send Accounts and Corporation Tax to Clients for Review and Approval. Click Save.
A Client review card then appears at the bottom of the Overview of every accounting period, for everyone in your firm. Your clients’ own logins never see the card.
Send the documents
Get the period to the point where you would normally ask for approval: the accounts read correctly in View Accounts and the computation is finished. Then open the period’s Overview, go to the Client review card and click Send for review.
- Director – choose the director who is approving. Their name is filled in for you, and a signature they give is placed on the accounts. Choose Someone else to send to a person who is not a director, such as a company secretary or a finance manager.
- Name and Email address – the person and the address they will sign in with. Use the client’s own address.
- Documents – the statutory accounts, the Corporation Tax computation and CT600, or both. Statutory accounts cannot be ticked for an organisation that does not file them.
- Ask for a signature – tick this if the client must sign as well as approve. Left unticked, a signature is optional.
Click Send. The accounts, the computation and the CT600 are produced and copied, which takes a few seconds, and the request appears on the card.
Heads up – an email address that already belongs to an accountant or administrator login is refused. A client review login must be the client’s own.
What the client receives
The client is sent an email saying that you have sent them documents to review. Replies to that email come to you.
- A client who is new to Tax Optimiser gets a link to choose a password, followed by a link to the documents.
- A client you have sent documents to before gets the link to the documents and signs in with the password they already have.
- A client who already has an organisation login signs in with that login and opens the link in the email.
If your firm has its own branded portal, send from the portal so that the links in the email take the client there.
The article Reviewing and approving documents from your accountant is written for the client. You can send them the link, and it is also on their pages as How this works.
Follow the request
Each request is a row on the Client review card, with who it went to, which documents, and its status.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Sent, not yet opened | The client has not opened the request. |
| Opened by the client | The client has opened it. The row shows when they first did. |
| Question from the client | The client has asked something and is waiting for you. |
| Approved | The client has approved. The row shows when, and whether they signed. |
| Withdrawn | You withdrew it. The client can no longer open it. |
| Replaced by a later request | You sent the same person a newer request for this period before they approved this one. |
You are emailed when the client asks a question and when they approve, so you do not need to keep checking.
Answer a question
A client who is not ready to approve can send you a question. It appears under the request, and the status changes to Question from the client.
Type your answer in the box under the question and click Reply. The client is emailed, the status goes back to Opened by the client, and the whole conversation stays with the request.
If the answer means changing the figures, make the change and then send it again. Replying does not update the copy the client is reading.
What approval changes
When the client approves, the request shows Approved with the date and time, and whether it was signed.
On the period itself:
- The approval date is filled in with the day the client approved, but only if you have not already entered one. A date you entered is left alone.
- The signature, if the client gave one and you chose a director when you sent the request, is placed on that director and appears wherever the accounts are signed.
- If the request was for the Corporation Tax return only, the CT600 declaration date is filled in instead of the accounts approval date, again only if both are blank.
- A locked period, one that has already been filed, is not changed at all. The approval is still recorded on the request.
Check the approval date before you file. The same date is used for box 980 on the CT600, so it must be the date the director approved.
The approval is a record of who approved, when, and from which internet address. It is not a certified electronic signature of the kind a signing service issues.
If the figures change: send it again
The client only ever sees the copy made when you pressed Send. After changing anything in the accounts or the computation, click Send for review again for the same person.
- A request they had not yet approved is marked Replaced by a later request and closes for them. They work from the new one.
- A request they had already approved stays as an approval. The new request sits beside it and needs approving in its own right.
Withdraw a request
Click Withdraw on a request to close it, for example if it went to the wrong address. The client can no longer open it or its documents, and if they follow an old link they are told the documents are no longer available. An approved request cannot be withdrawn.
What is not sent, and other things to know
- Supplementary CT600 pages are not sent. The client gets the main CT600 and the computation, not pages such as CT600A or CT600L.
- A period longer than 12 months sends two CT600s, one for each return, with one computation covering both.
- A return that has not been filed is marked as a draft on the copy the client sees.
- Turning the firm setting off removes the card and stops new requests. Requests you have already sent stay open to the client, so withdraw any you no longer want before you turn it off.
- The client has no screen for changing their password. They use Forgot your password? on the sign-in page.
Frequently asked questions
Can my client change anything in the accounts?
No. A client review login can read the documents you sent, approve them, sign and ask a question. It cannot open any working screen or change a figure.
Does the client need to pay or have their own Tax Optimiser account?
No. The login is created for them when you send the first request, and there is no charge for it.
Can I send the same period to two directors?
Yes. Send a request to each of them. Each has their own login, their own request and their own approval. Only one signature is kept for each director.
Can I ask for approval without a signature?
Yes. Leave Ask for a signature unticked. The client can still add one if they wish.
The client says they never received the email. What should I do?
Check the address on the request. If it is wrong, withdraw the request and send it again to the right address. If it is right, ask them to check their junk folder, or to go to the sign-in page and use Forgot your password? with that address.
Will approving file the accounts or the return?
No. Approval records the client’s agreement. You still file with Companies House and HMRC in the usual way.
Can a client with their own organisation login send documents for review?
No. Only a firm’s own team can send a request, and only when the firm has switched client review on.