Do I need any specialist software to use the ERS service?
If you want to send your notification of a grant of an Enterprise Management Incentives option using an attachment you may need to use certain software as HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will only accept attachments in the correct format.
The notification attachment is written in OpenDocument format (ODF). OpenDocument is a free format for spreadsheets, which is used world-wide. Using ODF means the notification attachment can be opened with a variety of software programs.
Before you can open the notification attachment, HMRC recommends that you should have one of the software programs below installed on your computer:
- Microsoft Excel - Microsoft Office 2010 for Microsoft Windows
- LibreOffice 3.5 or later for Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS and Linux
Downloading LibreOffice is free and only takes a couple of minutes. If you download LibreOffice to your Mac, you may be asked for a donation during the download process. Making a donation to LibreOffice is voluntary - it is possible to complete the download process without making a donation.
Other ODF programs may allow you to open the notification attachment files, but you may experience problems when trying to attach your spreadsheet to your online notification and view its contents in the Employment Related Securities service.
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