Accountant firms can send the finished return to the client to read, approve and sign electronically before it is filed, in the same way as a set of accounts or a CT600. The client sees a fixed copy of the return on HMRC’s forms — nothing else in Tax Optimiser — and can approve it, sign it, or send a question back. This is for firms: an individual filing their own return declares on the Submission screen instead.
Switching it on
Client review is a firm-level setting, off by default. Turn on Enable client review in your firm’s settings and the Client review card appears on the Submission section of every client’s return (and on the period overview for accounts and Corporation Tax). The card is shown to your firm’s team only.
Sending
Press Send for review, check the client’s name and email address (they default to the individual’s own login), tick Ask for their signature if you want the return signed as well as approved, and press Send. The client receives an email with a link; a client who has never signed in is sent a link to choose a password first. What they open is the full return on HMRC’s forms — the SA100, every supplementary page and the SA110 — as it stood when you pressed Send.
Because the copy is fixed, if you change the figures afterwards, send it again: the new request supersedes the old one and the card keeps the history. Pressing Submit to HMRC is still your action; an approval does not file anything by itself.
What the client can do
The client’s review page shows the return, a How this works link to the client-side guide, and three actions: Approve (with a drawn or uploaded signature when you asked for one), Ask a question, or simply read it. A question comes back to the card with the client’s wording and a reply box, and your reply goes to them by email; the thread stays on the card. Clients can only ever see the review they were sent — they have no access to the return itself, the firm’s other clients or the Help Centre.
Statuses and withdrawing
Each request on the card shows who it went to, who sent it and when, and its status: Sent, Viewed, Question raised, Approved (with the signature image when one was given) or Withdrawn. Withdraw closes a request the client has not yet approved — use it if the wrong version went out or the client should no longer have the link. An approval is recorded on the request and stays with the year; the year itself is not locked or changed by it.
