Accountancy technology company, TaxCalc, has partnered up with Arkk Solutions, an IT business, to provide online software which will convert business accounts from Excel spreadsheets to iXBRL format.

HMRevenue&Customs has mandated all companies filing tax returns from April 2011, for any accounting period after 31 March 2010, to file on the web in iXBRL, in-line eXtensible Business Reporting Language.

The new facility available to TaxCalc customers will allow users to upload information to a website, with a tagged iXBRL file returned to them ready for submission to HMRC.

iXBRL is an electronic tagging language which allows easier financial comparison for investors and other businesses.

The news from HMRC has sparked all financial software companies to build components into their technology allowing for these changes.

Anne Porter a director at TaxCalc said: "Following research, we found in addition to allowing Excel users to meet the compliance obligations, the need to develop a system which doesn’t require the users to have iXBRL or taxonomy technical knowledge was also a critical requirement."

"With this in mind and the need to develop a conversion which meant data was securely dealt with in the UK we went on to develop with Arkk a “ready-made” tool for all Excel users,” she added.

The software will be available in early May.

Further reading:

Profession pans plan to postpone IFRS

Software firms prepare for fight over filing

iXBRL likened to Y2K