Q3 2026 Product Updates: What’s New Across Bright 

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Running a practice means keeping a lot of plates spinning: year-end deadlines, shifting compliance rules, clients who want more than a set of accounts, and a team that’s already stretched. Keeping up with software updates is rarely top of the list, and that’s fair enough. So each quarter, we bring the highlights together in one place. That way, you can see what’s changed across your Bright products without digging through release notes.

In Q3 2026, Bright released two AI-assisted reports: the Business Intelligence Report in BrightManager and an updated Business Performance Report in BrightAccountsProduction. BrightChecks added AML and company checks alongside ID verification. BrightWorkpapers gained Group Audit & Consolidation, partnership returns now run start to finish across BrightAccountsProduction and BrightTax, and Embedded Payments went live in BrightPay. Underneath the headlines, almost every product picked up something that takes a step out of your day.

Rather than walk through it product by product, we’ve followed the shape of a client relationship: knowing who you’re taking on, doing the work, talking it through with them, and getting people paid. If you only use one or two Bright products, the table below takes you straight to your bit.

Know Who You’re Taking On

Before you take on a new client, you want to know what you’re walking into. Two releases this quarter help with that, from two different angles.

BrightManager’s Business Intelligence Report gives you an AI-written briefing on a UK limited company, generated straight from a prospect or client record. It’s built on Companies House data and covers four things:

• a company snapshot: number, status, incorporation date, registered address, SIC code and company type

• a red flags panel that rates charges, director changes, PSC changes and filing compliance as red, amber or green

• a financial health summary with up to three years of net assets, cash at bank, profit or loss and turnover, where available

• two or three conversation starters to open your first meeting

You generate it on demand, one company at a time. It’s saved against the record, and you can export it to share. It’s just as handy before an annual review with an existing client as it is before a pitch.

It covers UK limited companies only, and Companies House is its only source. Because the commentary is AI-generated, it’s there to support your judgement, not replace it.

Why it matters: a patchy filing history is a risk worth spotting early. Late accounts for a private company start at a £150 penalty and climb to £1,500 once they’re more than six months late, doubling if it happens two years running.

[Read our guide to Companies House checks before taking on a client.]

Then there’s the compliance side. BrightChecks now covers AML screening and company checks alongside ID verification.

AML Standard screens lower-risk clients in the background, covering address, mortality, PEPs and sanctions. There’s no biometric step and no need to involve your client.

AML Enhanced combines biometric ID with PEP, sanctions, address and mortality screening in one pass. It covers nine distinct checks, including disqualified director status, adverse media and law enforcement records. If a match is unclear, it’s flagged for you to review, so the final call stays with you.

Company Check gives you a company credit report from CreditSafe data, with automatic alerts if anything changes afterwards.

Everything sits in one dashboard and runs from one credit wallet. You pay for the checks you run, and no subscription is required.

Using both? Company Check is a credit report from CreditSafe data, with ongoing monitoring. The Business Intelligence Report is a briefing from Companies House data, built from your BrightManager record. One keeps an eye on risk, the other prepares you for the conversation.

Walk Into Client Meetings with the Analysis Done

Statutory accounts show the minimum the public record needs. Your clients usually want to know a lot more than that.

We introduced the Business Performance Report in BrightAccountsProduction last quarter. It takes up to six years of your client’s nominal ledger data and turns it into charts, tables and AI-written commentary, giving you a ready-made discussion document for your next meeting. This quarter, you can choose exactly how many years to analyse, anywhere from two to six, and BrightAP remembers your choice for each client.

Everything it writes is editable, and you review it before you share anything. That’s the rule behind both of this quarter’s AI releases: built from your data, reviewed by you, decided by you.

Year-End Work, Joined Up

This is where Bright products started working together more noticeably.

Partnership returns now run start to finish in BrightTax.

1. Prepare the accounts in BrightAccountsProduction.

2. Link them into the 2025/26 Partnership Tax Return from a dropdown of linked accounts.

3. Complete the return, check and calculate, then submit to HMRC from BrightTax.

When you print, tick “Include Backing Schedules” to add the SA800PS, SA800TP, SA801, SA802, SA803 and SA804 schedules for your records. It’s opt-in, so your existing prints stay as they are, and the schedules aren’t sent to HMRC. Earlier years still use manual entry.

Importing sole trader figures got easier too. BrightTax now imports sole trader figures into the SA103 section of an Individual Tax Return from VT Transaction+, VT Final Accounts and other SNF-compatible software, by file or by copy and paste. You’ll see a preview with any conflicts flagged before anything is overwritten. It supports 2025/26 and 2026/27 returns.

BrightTax picked up plenty more besides:

• Structures and Buildings Allowance now works across Individual, Partnership and Corporation Tax returns. A £100,000 office extension could mean around £3,000 a year in relief.

• Capital gains disposals can be recorded individually on SA108, with BADR, Investors’ Relief, Negligible Value Claims and NRCGT supported.

• SA100 line-by-line detail now covers 26 boxes.

• Short-life asset elections work in partnership capital allowances.

• The SA302 Prior Year Comparison report prints straight from the return.

• Every return has a General Notes field for internal notes that never reach HMRC.

In BrightAccountsProduction, TaxCalc trial balance imports now map nominal codes to the right accounts automatically, so you’re not rebuilding the mapping every time you bring a client across.

FRS 102 lease accounting is already supported in BrightAccountsProduction, for accounts commencing on or after 1 January 2026. This quarter, BrightAP added checks that right-of-use asset information in the tangible assets note is complete before you produce accounts, so gaps get caught before they reach a client.

For MTD, BrightBooks added a button on the MTD ITSA Return page that opens your client’s HMRC Business Tax Account in a new tab, using your own agent credentials. If the chat assistant can’t answer your question, you’re now handed to a live support advisor with the conversation carried over. You can also switch Pay Now on or off for individual invoices.

Group Audits Without the Spreadsheet Gymnastics

Group Audit & Consolidation has arrived in BrightWorkpapers. Create a Group Audit file against the group’s top-level client, select Consolidate, and carry on working while it runs in the background. When it’s done, you’ll get an email showing how many entities were consolidated out of the group total, with a breakdown of anything excluded and why. The Consolidation Breakdown page shows figures by subsidiary, and ticking Group by Transaction lets you trace exactly how entries rolled up.

Why it matters: consolidation is where traceability goes missing. Now every figure has a clear path back to the subsidiary it came from.

There are a handful of smaller wins too:

• rotate PDF pages in the viewer, with annotations staying put

• edit review points without leaving the workpaper

• export several zip files at once

• add header rows to Programs

• Excel Connect now recognises BrightWorkpapers naming, so existing setups keep working

Keep the Practice Moving

Kanban View was one of the most requested features in BrightManager, and it’s here. Switch your Task List to a board, with tasks as cards in columns. Drag a card to update its status, open it in a side panel, and set up the columns to match how your team actually works. It’s a personal setting, so colleagues keep whichever view they prefer. Search, filters, bookmarks and export all still work, though bulk actions stay in List View.

Also new in BrightManager:

• Aged WIP by Service shows unbilled work by service line, with click-through to the time behind it.

• Email fields now suggest addresses saved against the client as you type.

• The People Portal page shows when each client was last sent a registration email, so there are no more duplicate invitations.

Payroll: From Final Payslip to Money in the Bank

Finishing payroll used to mean exporting a bank file, logging into your bank and uploading it. Embedded Payments is now live in BrightPay, and you’ll find it in the product as Pay By Bank.

Once a pay period is finalised, connect your bank account, create a pay run and authorise the payment at your own bank. It runs on open banking, provided with Crezco, and BrightPay never holds the funds. You can now remove a connected bank account yourself, and BrightPay shows which pay schedules used it so you can choose a replacement. Payments also show as processed as soon as they complete.

Cross Tax Year Reporting has been a highly requested item! The report lets you report across two tax years in one go. If your client’s financial year doesn’t line up with the tax year, there’s no more running separate reports and stitching them together in Excel. It was the feature you voted most anticipated in a recent webinar poll.

The BrightPay team also made plenty of everyday improvements:

• journals and exports are faster

• scheduled P60, P11D and P45 emails send reliably

• Government Gateway credentials are remembered after a successful submission

• Client Portal documents generate in the background, so you’re not left waiting

Frequently Asked Questions

This content may have been developed with the assistance of AI tools. Content is reviewed by a member of the Bright team before publication. Guidance on legislation can be obtained from your industry body.