Sign inA focused board for every team, one source of truth for the practice
Payroll, VAT, CIS and company secretarial each get their own department board, with a one-click move from queue to done and an optional no-review auto-pass for routine recurring work. Partners and managers still see every board in one place.
Oblix department and specialist boards give a UK accountancy practice's payroll, VAT, CIS and company secretarial teams each a focused stage-based board of their own recurring work, with an optional per-department 'auto-pass' that lets staff move routine recurring jobs from queue to done in one click without a reviewer — while partners and managers keep one consolidated view across every department and all status changes are audited.
- Gives payroll, VAT, CIS and company secretarial teams each their own focused stage-based board (waiting, not started, in progress, completed; VAT adds an in-review column before filing)
- Lands each specialist on their own board and keeps them locked to it, while partners and managers see every board in one consolidated surface
- Lets a practice opt a department into auto-pass, so routine recurring jobs move from queue to done in one click with no reviewer
- Keeps full reviewer sign-off on any department left off auto-pass, and never allows accounts, tax or advisory work to be fast-tracked
- Reads every board from the same clients, jobs and deadlines, and records every status move to the audit trail
The general job list buries the work each team actually runs on
Payroll runs to a different rhythm than year-end accounts. So does the monthly CIS return, the quarterly VAT cycle and the steady drip of confirmation statements. When all of that sits in one shared list, a specialist has to filter and re-filter every morning to find their own queue, the practice manager can't tell at a glance whether this month's payroll is clear, and the recurring jobs that should take seconds to tick off get the same heavyweight review step as a complex set of accounts. The result is a board nobody fully trusts and a manager who still ends up asking who has done what.
Each team opens to its own board; the practice still has one set of facts
In Oblix, payroll, VAT, CIS and company secretarial each get a focused stage-based board showing only that team's recurring work. A specialist signs in and lands on their board, not a filtered slice of everyone's jobs. Routine recurring work can move straight from queue to done in a single click where the practice has opted in, while jobs that genuinely need a second pair of eyes keep their reviewer. And because every board reads from the same clients, jobs and deadlines, partners and managers see all of it in one place. Nothing lives in a separate spreadsheet for each department.
How department boards work
Every team gets a board shaped to how its work actually moves, while the practice keeps one shared set of clients, jobs and deadlines underneath.
Fixed departments mapped to boards
Oblix ships with a defined set of departments — Accounts, Tax, VAT, Payroll, CIS, Company Secretarial, Advisory and a mixed view. Payroll, VAT, CIS and company secretarial are the four specialist departments, each with its own focused board (company secretarial work shows as CS01 / confirmation statements).
Specialists are locked to their own board
A staff member who sits in a specialist department lands on that single board as their main surface; the recurring work lives there, not on their personal home queue. Deep links to other departments are redirected back, so people stay in their own lane.
Partners and managers see everything
Anyone with oversight — senior staff and above, including the office manager — sees all department boards in one consolidated surface, so no team's workload is hidden from the people accountable for it.
Stages that match how the work moves
Each board moves work through plain stages — waiting for details, not started, in progress and completed. The VAT board adds an in-review column, because VAT returns are checked before filing, whereas payroll and CIS runs are not. A job never vanishes between columns.
One-click done where it's earned
On a board the practice has opted into auto-pass, each card shows a 'Mark done' button that moves a routine recurring job from queue straight to complete in one step, with no reviewer. Every move is recorded to the audit trail.
Set leads and auto-pass per department
Managers assign a lead for each specialist department and choose, per department, whether routine recurring work skips review. Any department left off keeps its normal reviewer sign-off step — the choice is yours, not the software's.
Auto-pass is a choice, and it never touches your accounts and tax work
Auto-pass only ever applies to the four specialist departments — payroll, CIS, VAT and company secretarial. It can never be switched on for accounts, tax or advisory jobs; the server rejects any attempt to fast-track those, so a complex set of accounts always keeps its reviewer. Auto-pass is a manual admin toggle a manager sets per department, not an AI decision. By default payroll, CIS and VAT come with auto-pass enabled and company secretarial does not, and you can change any of that in settings.
What it gives the practice.
Department & specialist boards for payroll, VAT, CIS and company secretarial
Every team opens straight to its own focused queue instead of digging through one shared job list.
Optional no-review auto-pass with one-click 'Mark done'
Routine recurring jobs move queue-to-done in a single step, so the work that should be quick actually is.
Oversight sees every board in one consolidated surface
Partners and the practice manager can read every department's workload at a glance, with no spreadsheet per team.
Validated job status workflow with reviewer sign-off
Work that genuinely needs checking still gets a named reviewer and a recorded approve-or-return decision.
Every status move written to the audit trail
Even one-click done leaves a who-did-what-when record, so fast does not mean untraceable.
Questions practices ask
Which departments get their own board?
Payroll, VAT, CIS and company secretarial each get their own focused department board. These are the four specialist departments in Oblix; company secretarial work is surfaced as CS01 / confirmation-statement work. Accounts, tax and advisory run on the general jobs board rather than a dedicated specialist board.
What does the optional auto-pass actually do?
Auto-pass lets staff move a routine recurring job from the queue straight to done in one click, with no reviewer step. It is a per-department setting a manager turns on, and it applies only to the four specialist departments — payroll, CIS, VAT and company secretarial. Any department left off keeps its normal reviewer sign-off, and accounts and tax jobs can never be auto-passed.
Can a specialist see other teams' boards?
No — a specialist is locked to their own department board, which is their main working surface. Links to other departments are redirected back to their own board. Partners, managers and other oversight roles, by contrast, see every department board in one consolidated view.
Can I create my own custom departments?
Not currently — Oblix uses a fixed set of departments rather than free-form ones you define yourself. The set covers Accounts, Tax, VAT, Payroll, CIS, Company Secretarial, Advisory and a mixed cross-department view. The four specialist departments each map one-to-one onto a board.
Does one-click done mean work goes out unchecked?
Only where you have explicitly opted a department into auto-pass for its routine recurring work. Anything you leave off keeps a named reviewer who must approve or return the job, and accounts and tax work can never be fast-tracked. Every status change, including a one-click done, is written to the audit trail so there is always a record of who moved what and when.
Give the practice one place to see the work.
Bring every client, job, deadline, document, chargeable hour and client conversation into a single operating view for the whole firm.