Product Update: Summer 2025

Welcome to the latest update from WhisperClaims. We’ve been busy over the past six months working on a couple of major new features, as well as our usual bug fixes and generally making sure the app is running smoothly!

Merged scheme claims

In April we launched our Merged RDEC scheme product that can manage almost any claim (more on this later) for accounting periods starting on or after 1st April 2024. This involved a major re-engineering of the app to manage all of the changes to the schemes, including:

Overseas expenditure rules – manage overseas costs accurately under the new scheme

Subcontractor expenditure rules – ensure compliance with the latest HMRC requirements

EPW expenditure rules – handle externally provided workers under the new scheme

Cost splitting – choose whether to claim under ERIS or RDEC for R&D intensive claims

Subsidy handling – adjust to the removal of subsidy impact and new subcontracting rules

We’ve seen a gradual uptake of these new features as R&D claims for post-April 2024 accounting periods start to be processed, and are ready for this to increase rapidly through the autumn as we get closer to March 25 year end deadlines.

Better claim duplication management

Alongside the release of the Merged RDEC scheme updates, we’ve had a good look at what claims can be unlocked and duplicated. As the merged scheme is so different to the old SME and RDEC schemes, we’ve had to restrict duplication so that pre-April claims can’t be duplicated and turned into post-April claims, and vice versa. This means we can make sure that your claims are always accurate and you don’t answer questions that are irrelevant to the claim period.

Not-applicable options for VAT and PAYE references

A small but very helpful change this time – we’ve added a checkbox for you to indicate where a company doesn’t have a VAT or PAYE reference, rather than having to bodge it with a string of zeros!

AI review feature (beta release)

Finally, we’re very happy to have released our first AI-powered feature! You can now have your technical narrative reviewed using AI, giving you specific feedback about how your narratives can be improved. This feature is available in the technical descriptions section in a Beta version. While it’s in Beta status we’ll be actively assessing usage and gathering feedback to make sure it’s working well for our users, and using that feedback to make rolling improvements.

Coming up…

We’ll soon be launching our Northern Ireland (NI) ERIS updates to enable to app to manage absolutely any claim under the new Merged RDEC and ERIS schemes. Alongside this we’ll be making some changes to the look and feel of the claims management sections of the app to make this easier and more intuitive.

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Do you have any feedback or questions about these new features? We’d love to hear from you! Reach out to our support team and we’ll be happy to assist you.

If you are not already a customer and would like to find out more about our Advice Line support and see a demo of our innovative software, why not get in touch and book a demo?

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