Aug 2019
19
Upcoming Webinars - Brought to you by BrightPay
PAYE Modernisation Webinars | Guest Speaker: Revenue
BrightPay has teamed up with Revenue where we will look back on PAYE Modernisation in 2019 and decide if the new real time payroll reporting system has been a success. The PAYE Modernisation webinar series features four webinars for employers and four webinars for payroll bureaus and accountants, starting with PAYE Modernisation: One year on - was it a success? which takes place at the end of September.
Payroll & Cloud Platforms
Cloud technology is here and it can easily compliment any SME workplace. This webinar busts the myth that employee related technology is only for the big employer. During our webinar on the 2nd of October - Payroll and cloud platforms: What employers need to know (and why employees love it) - we take a look at exactly how you can manage your employee administration with cloud technology. Huge cost and time savings can be made by using the right technology.
Employment Law Webinars
Business Owners and Managers are all too aware of the ongoing challenges and constant changes in the area of Employment Law and HR Best Practice. This webinar will offer the opportunity to keep abreast of change and plan for the future, including terms and conditions of employment, gender pay reporting, parental leave and WRC 2019 targets. Join us on the 12th of September for 2019 HR & Employment Law Landscape to make sure you’re kept up-to-date with employment law.
Don’t miss out!
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Aug 2019
13
Automatic Pensions to be rolled out in Ireland from 2022
The government has announced major changes to the pensions system in Ireland, including State, private and public service pensions, which aims to address Ireland’s significant retirement savings gap.
The Taoiseach confirmed that the Government's key goals are to "create a fairer and simpler contributory pension system where a person's pension outcome reflects their social insurance contributions, and in parallel, create a new and necessary culture of personal retirement saving in Ireland".
From 2020, a new State pension system will come into place based on a ‘total contributions approach’ (TCA) where a person’s lifetime contribution will more closely match the benefit they receive. Under TCA, a person's contributory pension will be proportionate to the contributions they make, with fair regard for periods of child rearing, full time caring, and periods in receipt of social protection payments.
Although the State pension will be reformed and will remain at the core of the pension system in Ireland, a new retirement savings system is still needed to supplement the State pension.
Minister Regina Doherty said: “It is increasingly evident that most Irish workers are not saving enough, or indeed at all, for their retirement years. Many people will be faced with a serious reduction in their living standards when they retire – a fall in income they clearly do not want.”
This new 'Automatic Enrolment' retirement savings system will be introduced from 2022 to support and encourage personal savings provision. It is intended that employee savings in this scheme will be supported by employer and State contributions.
Under this system, workers will be ‘auto enrolled’ into a workplace pension scheme with the option to opt-out, should they choose to do so. However, looking at the international experience of similar systems, for example in the UK, once enrolled, workers tend to remain in the scheme.
Automatic enrolment is a natural extension of the payroll process, making more sense for employers to process the majority of these duties within their payroll software. At BrightPay, we have experienced the rollout of auto enrolment in the UK first hand, where we introduced auto enrolment features which enabled users to automate and simplify the entire process. BrightPay Payroll Software will be able to seamlessly cater for Auto Enrolment.
BrightPay Payroll Software | Thesaurus Payroll Software
Jul 2019
11
Auto Enrolment: More payroll changes on the way for Ireland
The government has announced major changes to the pensions system in Ireland, including State, private and public service pensions, which aims to address Ireland’s significant retirement savings gap.
The Taoiseach confirmed that the Government's key goals are to "create a fairer and simpler contributory pension system where a person's pension outcome reflects their social insurance contributions, and in parallel, create a new and necessary culture of personal retirement saving in Ireland".
From 2020, a new State pension system will come into place based on a ‘total contributions approach’ (TCA) where a person’s lifetime contribution will more closely match the benefit they receive. Under TCA, a person's contributory pension will be proportionate to the contributions they make, with fair regard for periods of child rearing, full time caring, and periods in receipt of social protection payments.
Although the State pension will be reformed and will remain at the core of the pension system in Ireland, a new retirement savings system is still needed to supplement the State pension.
Minister Regina Doherty said: “It is increasingly evident that most Irish workers are not saving enough, or indeed at all, for their retirement years. Many people will be faced with a serious reduction in their living standards when they retire – a fall in income they clearly do not want.”
This new 'Automatic Enrolment' retirement savings system will be introduced from 2022 to support and encourage personal savings provision. It is intended that employee savings in this scheme will be supported by employer and State contributions.
Under this system, workers will be ‘automatically enrolled’ into a workplace pension scheme with the option to opt-out, should they choose to do so. However, looking at the international experience of similar systems, for example in the UK, once enrolled, workers tend to remain in the scheme.
Automatic enrolment is a natural extension of the payroll process, making more sense for employers to process the majority of these duties within their payroll software. At BrightPay, we have experienced the rollout of auto enrolment in the UK first hand, where we introduced auto enrolment features which enabled users to automate and simplify the entire process.
BrightPay Payroll Software will be able to seamlessly cater for Auto Enrolment without any additional costs to the software, and also includes free phone and email support.
Jun 2019
25
PAYE Modernisation: The good, the bad and the ugly
Latest Revenue figures for PAYE Modernisation show that 161,000 employers have successfully submitted over 2 million payroll submissions in respect of over 2.6 million employees.
Although the new system has proved very successful overall, the first four months of the new real time payroll reporting system also faced some recurring issues with payroll submissions. Here are the 10 most common errors seen by Revenue:
- Employers mistakenly sending the payroll data to Revenue more than once.
- Employers incorrectly creating duplicate employments for the same employee.
- Payroll submissions, or parts of payroll submissions, failing the validation process.
- Employers ceasing employment for employees in error by incorrectly including cessation dates in payroll submissions.
- Employers failing to apply the most up-to-date Revenue Payroll Notification (RPN) when running payroll.
- Employees being taxed on the emergency tax basis where an RPN is available.
- Incorrect operation of emergency tax e.g. employee reported with emergency tax, but no tax deducted by the employer.
- ‘Gross Pay’ shown as less than ‘Pay for Income Tax’ and/or ‘Pay for USC’.
- No USC deducted where the employee is not USC exempt, and similarly, USC deducted where the employee is USC exempt.
- Employers paying their tax liability twice in error e.g. by setting up both a ROS Debit Instruction and Variable Direct Debit for the same payment period.
Where errors arise, employers should immediately rectify them to ensure that they are not included in future payrolls. Early action also reduces the possibility of a Revenue intervention. Revenue will continue to assist any employer who is experiencing genuine difficulty in complying with the new PAYE requirements. However, it is important to remember that employers who fail to engage with Revenue or who persistently breach the PAYE Regulations are liable to a €4,000 penalty per offence.
It is in every employer’s interest to ensure that the data submitted to Revenue is accurate and in line with the employee’s payslip record, especially now that employees have access to their pay and tax details through their myAccount. Any discrepancies between payroll details on an employee’s payslip and those reported to Revenue could result in employees seeking clarification from their employer.
Jun 2019
5
BrightPay Customer Update: June 2019
PAYE Modernisation Update: Payroll and tax details now available to employees in myAccount
With real time reporting now in place for employers, Revenue has turned their focus to the benefits of this new system for employees. Since the 15th of May, all employees can now view their payroll details, as reported by their employer, through myAccount. Employers should be aware that employees can now view any discrepancies between payroll details on an employee’s payslip and those reported to Revenue.
Read more | Revenue help guide
The hidden benefits of an employee self-service system
The ability for employees to view and edit their own data is one of the most important advancements of HR in recent years. Providing employees with remote access to view personal information is also a best practice recommendation of the GDPR. It's obviously true that employees have a lot to gain from a self-service system, but what about HR personnel, managers and everyone else involved in the payroll and HR process? They benefit too!
The importance of backing up your payroll data
Disasters happen. It’s all part of being in business: Fire, flood, theft, you name it. If you own premises or an office, it might happen to you. While an act of God can’t always be helped, you can be prepared too. Of course, you’ll have insurance; but what about your priceless payroll data? For a payroll bureau or business, these payroll files underpin the vital task of paying employees.
From the support desk: Can BrightPay be accessed from multiple users on different machines?
BrightPay employer data files can be stored on a shared network drive or cloud drive to be accessed by multiple PCs. The BrightPay software application must be installed on each individual PC you wish to use to access the shared location. A single BrightPay licence allows for up to five installations.
More FAQs | Online Documentation | Video Tutorials
New User Management Interface for Connect
Our new User Management feature for BrightPay Connect makes it more seamless and quicker for users to be set up or amended. It offers the option to select permissions for multiple employers at one time for a standard user. There is also a new permission to allow standard users to connect and synchronise employers from BrightPay to Connect and a new feature to mark an employer as confidential.
GDPR: 1 Year On
It’s been one year since the introduction of the GDPR, and employers and accountants are reviewing their systems, processes and procedures on an ongoing basis to ensure they are doing their best to avoid hefty non-compliance penalties. Find out how BrightPay Connect can help you overcome some of the key challenges GDPR presents when processing payroll.
May 2019
27
The hidden benefits of an employee self-service system
The ability for employees to view and edit their own data is one of the most important advancements of HR in recent years. Providing employees with remote access to view personal information held is also a best practice recommendation of the GDPR. It's obviously true that employees have a lot to gain from a self-service system, such as BrightPay Connect.
But what about HR personnel, managers and everyone else involved in the payroll and HR process? They benefit too! For administrators, it's a way of delegating the workload that would otherwise be handled solely by them. Implementing an employee self-service system is a way to re-distribute various tasks and bring them to the employee’s level.
On the surface, an employee self-service system seems designed simply to relieve a bit of pressure on your HR department. It cuts out the tedious administrative work involved in everyday tasks such as:
- Printing or emailing payslips
- Responding to payslip requests
- Responding to leave balance enquiries
- Managing annual leave requests
- Updating employee contact details
But the benefits to the business go much deeper than that. Some employee self-service systems also have the following benefits:
- Reduce errors - Entry errors and other mistakes may be avoided by allowing employees to enter their own personal information. By eliminating the need for double entry and allowing employees to evaluate their own information, the chances of inaccurate information may be greatly decreased.
- Reduce sick days - Some businesses have noticed a reduction in sick days since implementing employee self-service systems. As sick days are much more visible on screen to both employees and their managers, this likely acts as an incentive to keep sick days to a minimum.
- Cut costs - The administrative cost of processing leave or printing out payslips should not be underestimated.
- Reduce paper - The ability for employees to access payslips and other documents online can be a time and money saver. By replacing paper documents, you are also reducing your impact on the environment.
- Keep staff up-to-date - An employee self-service system can allow you to notify employees of policy changes or company-wide announcements. Employees don’t need to access their email to view changes - they can simply log in to their self-service employee app wherever they are to stay abreast of any legislative or company-wide changes that may affect them. The employer can then track which employees have viewed the notice, resource or document.
When implemented successfully, a company may see immediate increases in productivity and efficiency. Managers and HR personnel will save labour hours and frustration on a daily basis, and instead, have more time to concentrate on more important tasks.
Book a demo today to find out how BrightPay Connect can transform your business.
May 2019
21
PAYE Modernisation Update: Payroll and tax details now available to employees in myAccount
PAYE Modernisation is now in full force with the majority of employers having seamlessly transitioned to the new reporting system. From January until the end of April this year, some 161,000 employers have successfully submitted over 2 million payroll submissions in respect of over 2.6 million employees.
With real time reporting now in place for employers, Revenue has turned their focus to the benefits of this new system for employees. Since the 15th of May, all employees can now view their payroll details, as reported by their employer, through their myAccount. Further improved services through myAccount will also follow later in the year.
Employers should be aware that employees can now view any discrepancies between payroll details on an employee’s payslip and those reported to Revenue. It is therefore very much in every employer’s interest to ensure that the data submitted to Revenue is accurate and in line with the employee’s payslip record.
For more information about employee pay and tax details in myAccount, visit Revenue’s new PAYE Modernisation for Employees helpguide.
May 2019
15
GDPR: 1 Year On
It’s been one year since the introduction of the GDPR, and employers and accountants are reviewing their systems, processes and procedures on an ongoing basis to ensure they are doing their best to avoid hefty non-compliance penalties.
BrightPay Connect is tailored to help you overcome some of the key challenges GDPR presents when processing payroll. Although BrightPay Payroll is a desktop application, BrightPay Connect enables users to store their payroll information in the cloud. Because the payroll information is stored online, it has allowed us to bring you even more functionality and benefits, enabling users to work quicker, more efficiently and more profitably within the scope of the GDPR guidelines.
GDPR Benefits of BrightPay Connect
- Secure Backup - BrightPay Connect enables you to automatically and securely backup your payroll data to the cloud. With the GDPR, it is important to keep a copy of payroll files safe in case of fire, theft, damaged computers or cyber-attacks. BrightPay Connect maintains a chronological history of all backups which can be restored or downloaded at any time, keeping your payroll records protected.
- Self-Service Access - Under the GDPR legislation, where possible the controller should be able to provide self-service remote access to a secure system which would provide the data subject with direct access to his or her personal data. Since the payroll data is stored online, you can invite employees to their own password-protected self-service portal, which is accessible on any device. This fulfils the recommendation to provide remote access to a secure system where employees would have direct access to their personal data.
- Reduce Confidential Emails - For payroll bureaus, clients can log in to the employer dashboard anytime and run their payroll reports. As soon as the payroll is finalised, any report that is saved in the payroll software will automatically be available to the client on BrightPay Connect, eliminating the need to manually run the report and email it to the client. Instead, this reduces your workload while securely giving these sensitive, payroll documents to the client, through the online account. Similarly, payslips will also be available to the employer as soon as they have been finalised.
- HR Documents - Employers can upload sensitive HR documents and confidential employee payroll information, again eliminating emails containing sensitive information. Employers can upload documents, resources and links for all employees (e.g. company handbook), individual employees (e.g. employment contract), departments (e.g. training documents) or they can choose to hide them from employees (e.g. performance reviews).
- User Access - BrightPay Connect has the ability to set up users with restricted access, complying with the GDPR’s privacy by default, which states that you should only have access to necessary information required to complete the task at hand. With BrightPay Connect, you can restrict users from viewing employee documents, employees marked as confidential, financial information including payslips and payroll reports and whether or not they can approve employee requests. There is also the option to restrict users to individual departments.
- Employee Personal Details - The employee can use the employee self-service to view personal information that is held in the payroll software, such as their postal address, phone number and emergency contact details. They can also update and amend these details through their self-service portal so that the employer has the most up-to-date and accurate information. This improves transparency with the employee and ensures that personal data is current and up-to-date, both of which are requirements by the GDPR.
- Annual Leave Management - BrightPay Connect allows employees to request leave through their self-service portal and view their annual leave calendar. Leave will then be synchronised in both the employee’s calendar and BrightPay payroll software. Again, this improves transparency with the employee, reduces email communication containing sensitive information and ensures that you have the most up-to-date information.
Many businesses are looking for better ways to keep their employee's payroll data safe and secure. By introducing BrightPay Connect, you will be taking steps to be GDPR compliant. Book a demo today to find out how BrightPay Connect can help you with improving GDPR compliance.
Apr 2019
17
BrightPay Customer Update: April 2019
Why employees love self-service apps (and you should too!)
As a concept, self-service is nothing new. From paying at the supermarket self-service checkouts to online banking, consumers don’t want to have to wait for something if they know they can get it themselves. It’s no different in the workplace. With a self-service system, employees can download payslips, request annual leave, look at policies and HR documents and update personal information - all without once contacting HR personnel.
Read more | BrightPay Self-Service App
Say goodbye to sick days - A hidden benefit of BrightPay Connect
Some businesses have noticed a reduction in sick days since implementing employee self-service systems. As sick days are much more visible on screen to both employees and their managers, this likely acts as an incentive to keep sick days to a minimum. With BrightPay Connect, employees can view their annual leave and sick days instantly from their smartphone or tablet.
Did you miss it? Watch our employment legislation webinar on demand now
New employment legislation was introduced in March bringing significant changes to employment law. The new Act requires employers to provide employees with key terms of employment in writing within 5 days of starting employment, as well as providing greater protection for those in casual working arrangements. This short webinar highlights the key legislative changes and gives practical advice to employers on how to comply.
How BrightPay Connect is helping with GDPR
It’s been almost one year since the introduction of the GDPR; many businesses are reviewing their systems, processes and procedures on an ongoing basis to ensure they are doing their best to avoid hefty non-compliance penalties. Find out how BrightPay Connect can help your business comply with the GDPR legislation.
Employee Self-Service: Reduce Your Workload Immediately
With BrightPay Connect, the powerful and secure online portal for employees gives them access to view and retrieve historic payslips and other payroll documents, eliminating requests to their manager. Employees can also update their basic personal details including address, contact details, and emergency contact details online. This will ultimately reduce administration duties for managers, thus empowering employees.
Apr 2019
11
Why employees love self-service apps (& you should too!)
As a concept, self-service is nothing new. From paying at the supermarket self-service checkouts to online banking, consumers don’t want to have to wait for something if they know they can get it themselves. It’s no different in the workplace.
An employee self-service is the ultimate tool whereby employees can login from anywhere to view their employment and pay related information. With a self-service system, employees can download payslips, request annual leave, look at policies and HR documents and update personal information - all without once contacting HR personnel.
Benefits for Employees
- Instant Payslips - The employee can login to the employee self-service portal to view and download their most recent payslip, along with all of their historic payslips. Gone are the days of emailing HR chasing lost or past payslips when needed, for example when applying for a mortgage.
- Annual Leave - Employees can submit leave requests instantly through the employee self-service portal. Once the leave is approved, employees will be notified and the approved leave will automatically appear on the employee’s calendar. Employees can also view their leave balance and leave history through their portal.
- HR Documents - Access everything in one central place - a single online login gives the employee instant online access to other employment related documents such as employment contracts or company handbooks and policies.
- Personal Data - With the self-service portal, the employee can view their personal payroll information that the employer has on file. The employee can also amend or update various personal data, including their postal address, contact number, emergency details etc.
- 24/7 Access - Employees can login to the employee self-service through any web browser at any time - meaning they don’t have to be at their desks to use it. They can login from home or anywhere else with an internet connection. Better yet, employees can access their employee self-service directly from their phones using the BrightPay employee app.
Knock-on Effect for Employers
Today’s employees are accustomed to having information readily available. An employee portal can help fulfil that expectation with the added benefit of creating workflow efficiencies. The employee self-service portal eliminates the burden of sending payslips, updating personal information, approving annual leave requests and answering leave balance enquiries for the payroll department. Managers and HR personnel will save administrative hours and frustration on a daily basis when no longer faced with working through these monotonous and time-consuming tasks.
The former way of managing employee data is fast becoming outdated. What was once considered normal in the past is no longer considered normal anymore. Today, the new normal is to implement an employee self-service system whereby workflows are streamlined, with added benefits for both employees and employers.
Book a demo today to find out how BrightPay Connect can transform your business.
