What’s new in Active, September 2026
Year-end does not arrive gently. The deadlines stack up, the team is stretched, and the jobs that eat the hours are rarely the interesting ones.
- Getting opening balances right when a new client comes across.
- Formatting the notes so they read consistently.
- Re-running a period without rebuilding it from scratch.
- Chasing a single figure back to where it came from.
None of it is hard, exactly, but all of it adds up, and it adds up at the busiest time of the year.
This quarter’s releases in Active each take one of those jobs and make it lighter, and the headline is a big one for anyone producing final accounts.
Statutory reporting in Active
We have released statutory reporting in Active.
You can now produce UK accounts inside the platform across FRS 102, FRS 102 1A, 105 & Dormant Company Accounts, plus Sole Trader, Partnership and LLP accounts, in the same place you already do your accounts and work papers.
The point is not just that the accounts come out of one system. It is what that does to the work around them. When preparation and review sit together, the review stage is faster, the output is consistent across every job and every preparer, and a new team member produces accounts that look like everyone else’s from day one. That standardisation is where the time goes, and it is where firms feel the difference first.
Statutory reporting is live now, so you can put it in front of your own client data straight away.
Faster accounts editing, side by side
Accounts editing in Active now works side by side.
You edit on one side and see the finished accounts on the other, with your changes reflected as you go, so you are not flicking between a working view and an output view and holding the difference in your head.
It sounds like a small thing. In practice it is the difference between a review that flows and one that stops every few minutes to check what a change actually did. Editing stays responsive on larger and more complex accounts files too, which is exactly where the old back and forth used to bite.
A guided Opening Balance Wizard
Bringing a client’s accounts into a new system is the moment opening balances are most fragile, and the moment a mistake is hardest to unpick later.
The new Opening Balance Wizard walks you through setting them up step by step, so the figures go in cleanly the first time and there is far less manual entry to get wrong.
For a firm onboarding several clients at once, that is a quiet but real saving: fewer corrections weeks down the line, and more confidence that the base you are building on is right.
The Intelligent Note Engine
The notes to the accounts are one of the most repetitive parts of the job, and one of the easiest to leave slightly inconsistent from one set to the next.
The Intelligent Note Engine handles them more cleverly, so the notes come together with less manual formatting and stay consistent across your accounts.
Less time spent reworking notes by hand is less time spent on the part of the file that clients never thank you for and reviewers always check.
Intra-Period Rollovers
For management accounts, Intra-Period Rollovers let you roll figures forward within a period rather than rebuilding a set from scratch each time.
If you produce monthly or quarterly management accounts for clients, you already know how much of that work is repetition. Rolling the period forward keeps the structure you have set up and lets you focus on what has actually changed.
Xero Transaction Links
If you work with clients on Xero, tracing a number back to its source usually means leaving your accounts, opening Xero, and hunting for the transaction.
Xero Transaction Links close that gap. A figure in the general ledger report links straight through to the matching transaction in Xero, so you can go from a number in the accounts to the entry behind it in a single click.
It is a small bridge that removes a genuinely tedious bit of the review, and it keeps the trail from accounts to source clear for anyone picking the file up after you.
Also new: Active Data
Two further releases are rolling out under Active Data this quarter.
- Activity Map gives you a view of activity across the firm
- Data Lake makes your Active data available to your own reporting tools.
We will share more on both shortly.
Frequently asked questions
What’s new in Active this quarter?
This quarter brings statutory reporting inside Active across FRS 102, FRS 102 1A, 105 & Dormant Company Accounts, plus Sole Trader, Partnership and LLP accounts, side by side accounts editing, the Opening Balance Wizard, the Intelligent Note Engine, Intra-Period Rollovers for management accounts, and Xero Transaction Links. Activity Map and Data Lake are also rolling out under Active Data.
What is the Opening Balance Wizard in Active?
The Opening Balance Wizard is a guided, step-by-step way to set up opening balances when you bring a client’s accounts into Active. It reduces manual entry at the point balances are most fragile, so the figures go in cleanly the first time and there is less to correct later.
Do these updates apply to my firm?
Most apply to any firm producing or reviewing final accounts in Active, including statutory reporting, accounts editing, the Opening Balance Wizard and the Intelligent Note Engine. Intra-Period Rollovers are for management accounts workflows, and Xero Transaction Links are for firms working with clients on Xero.
Do I need to set any of this up, or is it automatic?
Statutory reporting, side by side editing and the Intelligent Note Engine are part of Active as you use it. The Opening Balance Wizard runs when you bring a client’s balances across. Xero Transaction Links apply where you work with Xero data. If you are unsure how a feature fits your setup, your Active contact can help.
Can I trace a figure back to Xero from Active?
Yes. With Xero Transaction Links, a figure in the general ledger report links straight through to the matching transaction in Xero, so you can move from a number in the accounts to the underlying entry in one click, without leaving your workflow to search for it.