If you've been running an accountancy practice in the UK for any length of time, chances are you've used IRIS. It's been the default choice for decades — accounts production, tax, practice management, payroll, the lot. Walk into most high street firms and you'll find it installed somewhere.
But "default" and "best" aren't the same thing. And more firms are starting to ask whether the software they chose ten years ago is still the right fit for how they work today.
The IRIS ecosystem
IRIS isn't one product. It's a suite — IRIS Accountancy Suite, IRIS Practice Management, IRIS Time & Fees, IRIS Elements, and a growing list of acquired brands (Senta, Staffology, KashFlow, FreeAgent for IRIS). The idea is that everything connects through CCH Central or IRIS Elements, giving you one view of your practice.
In theory, that's appealing. In practice, it often means logging into multiple applications that were built at different times, by different teams, with different design philosophies. Users describe the experience as "good, but clunky." The interface across many IRIS products feels dated — functional, certainly, but not something you'd choose to spend eight hours a day looking at.
The pain points firms report
Speed. This comes up repeatedly in reviews. Generating a set of accounts in IRIS can be painfully slow compared to cloud-native tools that do it almost instantly. When your team is producing 200 sets of accounts a year, those minutes compound.
Support. IRIS has moved much of its support offshore, and the feedback hasn't been kind. Reviews mention staff who aren't equipped with the knowledge to resolve issues, calls that don't get returned, and a general sense that once you've signed the contract, you're on your own. For a firm that relies on this software for everything, that's a real risk.
Cost. IRIS products are generally priced per module and per user, and the bills can add up quickly once you've got accounts production, tax, practice management, and document management all running. Several firms have noted feeling locked in — the switching cost is high because your data is spread across multiple IRIS products, and extracting it all isn't straightforward.
The acquisition treadmill. IRIS has been acquiring smaller software companies at pace. Some of those products (like Senta) have seen development slow down after acquisition. If you're using an IRIS product that was originally built by a smaller, more focused team, it's worth checking whether that team is still driving the roadmap — or whether the product is being quietly folded into something else.
What Fortium offers instead
We're not trying to replace your accounts production or tax filing software. IRIS does that, and if it's working for you, keep it. What we're replacing is the practice management layer — the part of your day that IRIS handles with a patchwork of modules built across different eras.
One system, not a suite. Client management, document storage, workflows, a client portal, invoicing, email integration, WhatsApp messaging, e-signatures, AML/KYC checks, and HMRC MTD integration. All built together. All in one interface. You don't need to switch between applications or wait for different modules to sync data between them.
Cloud-native from day one. IRIS has been adding cloud features, but much of the core software was designed for desktop. Fortium was built for the browser. It works on your laptop, your phone, your tablet — wherever you are. There's nothing to install, nothing to update, and no VPN required to access your data from home.
Flat pricing. No per-seat charges. No per-module add-ons. Your whole team gets access to everything for one price. For a firm with six or eight staff, the difference between per-seat IRIS licensing and Fortium's flat rate is significant.
Support from people who built the product. We're a small team. When you contact support, you're talking to someone who knows the codebase, not someone reading from a script in a different timezone. That won't scale forever, but right now it means your problems get fixed fast.
A modern interface. Your team spends their working day in this software. It should be fast, clean, and pleasant to use. Fortium is built with modern web technology — it loads quickly, it works on mobile, and it's designed to get out of your way so you can focus on actual client work.
The switching question
Moving off IRIS is a bigger decision than switching from, say, Senta or TaxCalc. Your data is likely spread across multiple IRIS products, and the migration isn't trivial.
But that's also part of the problem. The longer you stay, the deeper the lock-in. Every year, your data gets more entangled in the ecosystem, and the cost of leaving goes up. We've designed Fortium's onboarding process to make migration as straightforward as possible — CSV imports, bulk client creation, and a team that will help you get set up properly rather than leaving you to figure it out.
If you're not ready to leave IRIS entirely, that's fine too. Some firms use Fortium alongside IRIS — keeping accounts production and tax where they are, but moving practice management, document storage, and client communications into Fortium. It's not all or nothing.
Who should consider the switch?
If your firm is small to mid-size (say, 3 to 30 staff), you're paying per-seat IRIS licensing that feels expensive for what you get, your team complains about the interface, and you've had one too many frustrating support calls — Fortium is worth a look.
We're not pretending to replace a 30-year-old enterprise suite overnight. But for the practice management side of your firm? We think we've built something better.
Join the Fortium waitlist to find out.