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Weekly Live Session - July 23, 2025

This Weekly Live session was a free-ranging Q&A, with questions covering using separate email addresses for one person linked to several client records, HMRC agent authorisation details, entering a Companies House number for HMRC, building and sharing client forms, and keeping client folder templates in order, alongside updates on Adfin, Xenon Connect and upcoming conferences.

Key Takeaways

  • Monday night's release stopped clients from submitting blank forms by clicking away instead of pressing save, merged multiple Xama address-change notifications for one person into a single notification instead of one per related client, and taught the system to recognise more variations of "United Kingdom" and "UK" in address fields.
  • One person who is both a personal tax client and a director of a company client can be given two separate contact records with different email addresses (for example a personal address and a work address), related to each other as primary/secondary contacts, so they still log in with one account but receive communications at the right address for each matter. (4:17 area)
  • HMRC agent authorisation needs your ID number, password and agent reference entered in Settings > HMRC Login for self assessment, PAYE and CIS, plus authorising the MTD connection separately; the help centre's "How to use HMRC agent authorisation" guide walks through where to find each reference. (10:20)
  • For MTD authorisation you only need the VAT registration number and registration date; for corporation tax letter codes you also need the UTR, Companies House number (ignore any leading letters or zeros, such as 0 or SC for Scottish companies) and the client's registered office postcode as held at Companies House. A common error is extra spaces around the MTD reference in Settings, which HMRC's API cannot handle. (12:21)
  • When building a client form, use the built-in or custom field question types (not a brand-new, form-only question) if you want the answer saved back to the client record in Engager, and create any custom field before you start building the form. (16:24)
  • When sending a form, choosing to pre-fill it with existing Engager data lets the client review and confirm it; choosing not to pre-fill sends a blank form, which is useful for forcing clients to actively re-enter information such as an address rather than assuming nothing has changed.
  • A draft form cannot be exported as a PDF for colleagues to review, but any team member with Engager access can open it directly from Settings > Form Settings while it is still in draft; allocate a quick task so a colleague knows to check it.
  • A published form cannot be edited, because changing it would retroactively affect every already-completed response; instead, archive it and copy it into a new draft to carry changes forward. This version history (form v1, v2, v3 as rules change) is also valued by AML inspectors as evidence of an evolving compliance process.
  • New year-end folders can be added to a client folder template via Settings > Folders > Folder Templates for a given client type; name folders by year end (e.g. "Year End 2033") rather than by year number alone, since a template sorts them like any file system and plain numbers (23, 24, 25…) sort incorrectly once there are more than nine. (28:34 area)
  • Adfin does not require invoicing (Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent) to be connected in order to work; a client can be linked to Adfin, mandates requested, resent or cancelled, and mandate signing requested as part of the letter of engagement journey, independent of invoicing.
  • Xenon Connect was expected to begin beta testing shortly after this session, with a public release a few weeks out once testing on its higher-risk integrations was complete; Adfin and Proposals were both expected in the following weeks, subject to final testing.

Full Transcript

The session opened with greetings and a summary of Monday night's release, which was fixes rather than new features. Clients had been able to submit blank forms by clicking away from the form instead of pressing save; this is now blocked, so a form can only be submitted once save has actually been pressed. A batch of Xama notification fixes also went out: previously, if one person was related to ten business records plus their own, changing an address would generate eleven separate notifications; the system now merges these into one, since the change only needs making once. The system was also taught to recognise more ways of writing "United Kingdom" and "UK" in address fields (upper case, lower case, mixed case, and the abbreviation), after several rounds of edge cases were reported. A further issue, where a Companies House change that is not actioned today simply reappears the next day, is being looked at as a bigger piece of work to add proper snooze/dismiss options with a choice of duration.

Ray asked whether a client who is both a personal tax client and a director of a company client (also a client) can have different email addresses for each role. Yes: create a second individual contact for the same person with the accounting firm's own email address instead of their work address, then relate that second contact to the company as a secondary contact (with the original remaining primary). Emailing "primary contacts" only will then reach the right address for business matters, while the personal tax matter uses the separate contact's address; the person still only needs one login to see and e-sign everything relevant to them.

Marcus asked for a walkthrough of HMRC 64-8 (agent authorisation) requests. First, in Settings > HMRC Login, enter your ID number, password and agent reference for self assessment and for PAYE/CIS, then authorise the MTD connection separately by logging into the MTD service and entering the agent reference found on the old agent services account dashboard. The help centre's "How to use HMRC agent authorisation" guide shows exactly where each reference lives. On a client's Tax References tab, MTD authorisation only needs the VAT registration number and registration date; the older 64-8-style fields are not required for that. For corporation tax letter codes, you additionally need the UTR, the Companies House number, and the client's registered office postcode as held at Companies House. When entering the Companies House number, ignore any leading letters or zeros (for example drop a leading 0, or "SC" for a Scottish company), since HMRC's system cannot handle them. The most common mistake is extra spaces before, during or after the MTD reference in Settings, which HMRC's API also cannot process.

Elellanena asked whether the trading address and business start date fields should simply be left blank for a personal tax client with no trade. If the trading address is the same as the home address, tick "same as home address" to remove the separate field; if there is no business start date, untick it. Saving then leaves a single address and no business start date recorded.

Marcus asked how to link a form field so that it populates a record in Engager. When building a form (Settings > Client Data Form Settings), each question can be a built-in Engager field (such as date of birth, UTR, name or address), an existing custom field, or a brand-new question created only for that form. Only the first two save their answer back into the Engager record; a form-only question is captured on the form but not stored against the client. Any custom field needed must be created before you start building the form. Forms can be organised into categories and start in draft before being published.

When sending a form to a client, you choose whether to pre-fill it with data already held in Engager (useful for a client to review and confirm, flagging anything that has changed) or send it blank, which forces the client to actively re-enter information rather than assuming nothing needs updating.

Miriam asked whether a draft form can be exported as a PDF to share with colleagues before publishing. It cannot, but this is unnecessary: any team member with Engager access can go to Settings > Form Settings and open the same draft form directly, add comments, or simply discuss it, without it being changed from draft status. Allocating a quick task to a colleague ("please check this draft form by tomorrow") was suggested as a simpler way to get sign-off than generating and circulating a PDF.

Miriam also raised the problem of colleagues suggesting changes after a form has already been published. A published form cannot be edited, by design: editing it would retroactively affect every response already completed using that version, marking them as incomplete. Instead, archive the published form and copy it into a new draft to carry forward any changes, keeping the original version intact. This version history (form v1, v2, v3 as requirements evolve) is also valued by AML inspectors, since it demonstrates an evolving, actively maintained compliance process rather than an unchanged form used for years regardless of rule changes.

Marcus asked how to add a new year's folder to a client's subfolder structure. In Settings > Folders > Folder Templates, choose the relevant client type (for example limited company) and folder category (for example Accounts), then add the new year-end folder. Ray followed up asking why folders do not sort into the correct order once added. Folder templates sort like any file system, so using plain numbers only (23, 24, 25…) eventually sorts incorrectly; naming folders with "year end" as a prefix (for example "Year End 2033") keeps them in the right order, the same principle as any filing system where letters should come before numbers.

Miriam reported continuing problems exporting form responses as a PDF, despite trying the suggested fixes, and was planning to get her laptop checked. This issue affects only two firms out of roughly 1,700 using Engager worldwide (around 1,563 paying subscribers and 120 or so trialists at the time), and testing across Chrome and Safari has not reproduced it; it may relate to an outdated Adobe PDF plugin or browser extension rather than Engager itself, and remains under investigation given how few accounts are affected.

Kirsty asked whether Adfin only works if invoicing is connected. No: Adfin works without QuickBooks, Xero or FreeAgent connected. A client can be linked to Adfin, authorisation requested, mandate status viewed, mandates resent or cancelled, and mandate signing requested as part of the letter of engagement journey, all independent of invoicing being set up.

The session closed with informal discussion: a reminder to vote on ideas in the feedback and road map area; a question about building a working papers tool into Engager, where the view given was that this sits more naturally in TaxCalc given its existing accounts and tax production knowledge, and has been raised with TaxCalc, though nothing is planned; recommendations to follow QuickBooks-focused creator Aaron Patrick and accounting-tech podcaster Jason Staats for software tips and AI use cases; and updates that Xenon Connect was expected to enter beta testing the following week, with Adfin and Proposals both expected in the coming weeks subject to final testing, plus a rundown of upcoming conference appearances including Accountex Manchester, and a note that the firm's Practice Management category win at the ICB awards could not be defended this year because that award category has been discontinued.