Why you can rely on SureFile


SureFile Accounts has been developed by leaders of the project to introduce iXBRL in the United Kingdom.


The tests in its assurance service reflect deep understanding and experience of XBRL tagging and production of iXBRL accounts. The tests are based on authoritative knowledge of the XBRL taxonomies and tagging requirements. They have been refined and confirmed by use on a variety of accounts.


Andy Greener was the strategic technical architect of the HMRC Company Tax online filing service. He was responsible for the introduction of Inline XBRL into the service and is an expert on the validation processes run by the government gateways.


Peter Calvert is a director of XBRL UK Ltd and is responsible for developing and managing the XBRL taxonomies used to represent UK accounts. He is the author of XBRL UK's official guidance on preparation of accounts in iXBRL. He has been helping and advising HMRC, software vendors and major accounting firms in their use of XBRL and iXBRL. Peter helped to design the service and is now a consultant to SureFile.


As leading UK experts on iXBRL, they have set up the SureFile service to provide objective, impartial and reliable testing of accounts in iXBRL. It runs tests which are independent of any vendor's accounts or tagging product or service. Its servers are secure and confidential.


For more information about the partners of Surefile Accounts, who also include software and database experts, see About Us.


Surefile Accounts uses the same XBRL validation software provided by Corefiling Ltd which is employed by the HMRC and Companies House filing gateways, and is consistent with the validation software employed by the Irish Revenue. SureFile can ensure it provides identical basic validation results to the government gateways.


Surefile runs additional software to:

  • Test aspects of XBRL tagging and accounts to help preparers to avoid issues which may bring unwanted attention from tax authorities.
  • Provide warning and error messages which give meaningful information and guidance for accounts preparers and taggers. This should be a major help in correcting problems.

As well as providing its own validation and assurance results, it offers a free-of-charge option (or UK customers) of running accounts anonymously via HMRC’s own test system. This will provide a confirmation message from HMRC’s own gateway that an accounts submission is valid.


Clearly, there are practical limits to what SureFile can achieve. Subscribers and potential subscribers should read What Surefile does not do and Terms and Conditions for more information.