Feb 2022
18
We were delighted to have received a 99% Customer Satisfaction rate in our 2021 Customer Survey. The survey asked BrightPay payroll software customers to rate a number of different features, including its payroll features, its value for money, time saving capabilities, cost savings, and user interface. The results showed an overall 99% satisfaction rating with an overwhelming number of customers commenting on the software’s easy-to-use interface and intuitive design.
Whether you’re a business owner with a small team of employees or an accountant with 50 clients processing payroll for hundreds of employees, your payroll software should provide you with essential help. From quickly running multiple payment schedules side-by-side, to utilising the flexible report builder, and sending Payroll Submission Requests each pay period, BrightPay customers experience a quicker and more straightforward payroll process.
The importance of an intuitive software design cannot be overstated. It allows users to easily understand how the software works, learn how to use the software quickly with minimal instruction, and it provides for a more pleasant user experience. Payroll comes with many different components and factors to it and while BrightPay’s payroll software provides full functionality, it has not compromised on its design. Customers, both new and old, have commented on this. When asked why they would recommend the software to a colleague, replies included:
It’s been a challenging year for payroll processors, adapting to new schemes and subsidy rates, from the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) followed by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS). BrightPay has quickly rolled out updates in response to these changes and have supported customers by partnering with Revenue to host frequent webinars. This allowed businesses and payroll processors to ask any questions that they had and ensured they had the most up-to-date information on the schemes. 99% of customers rated the free online webinars and payroll upgrades as excellent and 100% of customers rated phone and email support as excellent.
“COVID-related webinars, especially early on in the pandemic were excellent. Without doubt the best source of user-friendly information available.
I was especially appreciative of the question & answer sessions, which helped me appreciate that I wasn't the only person who had queries regarding administering the new protocols.
The speakers were always well informed and had pragmatic solutions to any issues raised. The quality of these presentations was the main reason I moved our payroll to Brightpay.”
- BrightPay Customer
BrightPay’s excellent customer support is a point of pride, and we were delighted to see 98% of customers were extremely satisfied with the support they received the past year. The support offered to customers includes phone and email support from payroll specialists to free product demos, webinars, guides, and other documentation. Customer support is included in all licences and has been free for nearly 30 years!
BrightPay continues its development plan and to evolve to create the best customer experience possible. We recently rolled out new integrations with several accounting software so customers can send their payroll journals directly to their accounts at a click of a button. In addition to this, we launched an API with Modulr, the payments platform, facilitating direct payments to employees.
We’d like to thank all customers who took part in our customer survey. Your feedback is used to adapt the development strategy to ensure we’re delivering on what you really want when it comes to payroll software.
Discover more:
To discover more about BrightPay and how it can improve your payroll services and save you time, schedule a 15-minute demo with a member of our team today.
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Jan 2022
7
Similar to their European counterparts, Irish consumers have increasingly moved online, both for their shopping and for their banking. Over the past year, consumers who had previously never used digital channels turned to online and mobile banking for the first time. The use of cash declined while contactless payments surged, with a record €1 billion payments made in May 2021. While the use of digital banking has been on the rise for a number of years now, the pandemic urgently accelerated a shift in digital behaviour. A survey conducted at the start of this year found that 69% of Irish consumers trust digital banking providers with 62% of these saying it was due to the simplicity of their services.
It should come as no surprise that this change in digital behaviour is also reflected in how businesses are managing their payments. As technology continues to advance and consumers become more experienced with digital banking, their behaviour is reflected in their decision making in the workplace. This has already been seen in the payroll sector.
In the UK, we’ve seen payroll processors adopt digital banking solutions in order to improve their payroll workflow, have more flexibility with making payments, and to send faster payments to their employees. Accountants and payroll bureaus have also begun offering it as a new service to customers.
An integrated system between the payroll software and the digital finance platform can offer a smoother, more efficient payroll workflow. Using an API (Application Programming Interface) users can initiate payments from within the payroll software enabling them to pay employees and subcontractors with a few clicks of a button. It saves time and is more efficient.
Those payroll processors experienced with using traditional bank payment methods will be used to the overly long process of submitting bank files every month or even every fortnight, to pay employees’ wages. You’re typically required to submit bank payment files at least three days in advance of when the payment is due which can be quite a manual process with numerous steps involved in it.
Digital banks offering access to the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) allows businesses to send payments across the EU member states (and 8 other countries) and can also offer the option of EUR and GBP accounts. Payments can be sent on the day they’re due (before 2.00pm) and if they’re sent any time after that or sent on a non-working day, they’ll arrive by the following working day.
BrightPay users now have access to Modulr, the payments platform behind banking app Revolut, to pay employees. Payroll processors looking to speed up their workflow with a more convenient payment method will have access to SEPA credit transfers. By signing up to Modulr, the payroll processor can initiate payment from within BrightPay once the payroll has been finalised. The payment then needs to be approved by two-factor authentication using their phone before being sent to employees.
Learn more about BrightPay's integration with Modulr.
SEPA is a much better alternative to bank payment files which is why there has been such an uptake of it across the EU. It allows for quicker payments and faster processing times. However, as part of their long-term strategy, the European Payments Council have developed SEPA Instant Payments. With this, users can send payments instantly 24/7. While this has not been rolled out by retail banks in Ireland yet, it’s likely we’ll see the rollout of this by more digital banks in the near future. Stay posted!
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Dec 2021
14
BrightPay 2022 is now available (for new customers and existing customers). Here’s a quick overview of what’s new:
You can now create and send payment requests to Modulr directly from BrightPay, provided you have an active Modulr account that is set up for making payments. Payee information and amounts are automatically populated using the data from your payroll, making it a simple, fast and efficient way to pay your employees.
BrightPay can now post payroll journals to Surf Accounts.
We're continually at work on the next version of BrightPay, developing new features and making any required fixes and improvements. See our release notes to keep track of what has been changed to date at any time.
Nov 2021
17
When an employee leaves their job, they must be marked as a leaver in the payroll. The employee’s leave date must be entered before their final pay period is finalised. This sends information to Revenue when the Payroll Submission Request is sent to let them know that the employee has left. Under PAYE Modernisation, employers are no longer required to issue a P45 to an employee and submit the P45 Part 1 to Revenue.
It couldn’t be easier to process a leaver in BrightPay. To do so, follow the step-by-step instructions below:
1) Before finalising the payslip, access the employee record by clicking on their name within the Payroll utility. Next, you can select the employee’s last day of work from the dropdown menu. Click 'Save Changes'.
2) Once saved, return to the Payroll utility and finalise the employee's payslip when ready to do so. On finalising the employee's payslip, you will be prompted to submit the associated payroll submission to Revenue. This submission will contain the employee's leave date and report it to Revenue.
As a result, the leaver will no longer be included in any future pay periods. However, the employees’ payslip history will be still available on BrightPay if needed.
BrightPay runs free online demos daily to show you the ins and outs of how the software works. Book your free place now.
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Nov 2021
11
In this year’s annual customer survey, BrightPay Payroll Software received a 99% customer satisfaction rate. The score, along with our customers’ comments, reflected and highlighted the software’s easy-to-use interface and the variety of functions it provides. The customer survey is a great way for us to understand what our customers love about the software, and more importantly, what they’d like to see improve. The suggestions and feedback are used to help us plan our product development timeline and to ensure we’re continually evolving to not only meet our customer’s expectations, but to exceed them. Our focus on improvements and creating a better customer experience has seen two new features recently added to BrightPay payroll software; payroll journal integrations and a payments integration.
The payroll journal feature allows users to create wage journals from finalised pay periods so that they can be added directly into various accounting packages. Four new payroll journal integrations have been added to BrightPay payroll software, allowing you to send your payroll journals directly from BrightPay to AccountsIQ, Quickbooks Online, Sage Business Cloud Accounting, and Xero. Thanks to the integrations, you’ll no longer need to export CSV files from the payroll software and import them to the accounting software. Instead, BrightPay's APIs facilitate direct access to your accounting software, saving you time, reducing mistakes, and improving your payroll workflow.
How does it work?
Your payroll journal file is customised to the accounting package you use. It includes compatible files and a built-in nominal ledger mapping system. With the nominal ledger mapping, you can decide where payroll items get posted to in your accounting software. Once you’ve decided which nominal accounts they will be added to, you can save the settings. For future use, you simply select the date range you want the payroll journal to include and click send.
To make paying employees quick and easy, BrightPay have introduced a new payments integration with Modulr, the payments platform. Modulr is a fintech company who are the payments platform behind the digital banking app, Revolut. With the Modulr API you have access to the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA), the European-wide payments scheme. From BrightPay, you can initiate credit transfer payments to employees, saving you time and simplifying the payroll payments workflow.
How does it work?
Once the payroll has been finalised, Modulr customers can pay employees by selecting ‘Pay by Modulr’ in BrightPay’s payroll software. You’ll be asked to login to your Modulr account and to approve the payment using two-factor authentication on your mobile phone. The payments will then land in your employees account by one working day. If you don’t have an account with Modulr, you must first register as a new customer. To learn more about this feature, click here.
Please note that to avail of this new feature, customers will be subject to additional charges.
To discover more about BrightPay and how it can improve your payroll services and save you time, schedule a 15-minute demo with a member of our team today. Or to try BrightPay for yourself, why not begin your 60-day free trial today. The free trial is fully featured with all functionality.
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Nov 2021
5
Procrastination is something which we can all be guilty of in different areas of our lives. Whether it’s making a phone call or getting new tyres for your car, we can all fall prey to putting things off or leaving things to the last minute. “Procrastination is the thief of time” is a phrase from a 1742 poem that is still very relevant today. And this saying couldn’t be more true when it comes to switching payroll software provider. We usually procrastinate tasks that we perceive to be difficult or unpleasant and it is understandable that you may feel this way about trying a new payroll software. However, this doesn’t need to be the case.
You may have been thinking about switching your payroll provider for some years now. You’ve been delayed, perhaps because, in previous years you were busy and didn’t get around to doing it. Before you knew it, the new tax year was looming, and you decided it’s easier to just stay put with your old provider. This is a common mistake often made by payroll processers and one that can turn into a vicious circle that goes on for years. Meanwhile, you may be wasting time and money by using a subpar payroll software.
NOW is the time to do your research and make the important decision as to which software is best suited to your needs. When it comes to switching your payroll provider, the worst thing you can do is to leave it until the last minute. The beginning of the new tax year is of course the most common time people switch, mainly because they want to get their money’s worth from their previous software subscription, and they don’t want to have to pay for a whole new subscription that will only be used for a few months. However, waiting until then to make your decision is not advisable. If you wait until December, you are not leaving yourself enough time and chances are you’ll end up putting it off for another year.
Another worry for payroll processors is moving the payroll data from one software to the other. However, the new tax year will be the busiest time of the year for payroll software providers’ migration and customer support teams. By deciding to move now, you can avoid the rush, and will also receive extensive support in migrating your payroll data.
BrightPay are offering a 60-day free trial of our software where you can experience the full functionality of BrightPay at no cost and with no commitments. 60 days gives you plenty of time to try out our software, make an informed decision and migrate your data with the help of our experts, all before the beginning of the new tax year. By utilising our free trial, you can copy over your data and run a dummy payroll on BrightPay alongside your current software. Doing this allows you to discover the advantages BrightPay may have over your current provider before you fully switch.
By downloading our free trial, you won't be left asking yourself “what if?". You have nothing to lose, and it means getting something else ticked off the to-do list. Even if you think you are happy with your current software, a free trial allows you to discover what you may not even know you are missing.
Click here to begin your 60-day free trial today. The free trial is fully featured with all functionality.
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Oct 2021
1
Accountants and payroll bureaus sometimes find that processing payroll takes a lot longer than they would like. Because of this, some accountants may be making little to no profit from offering payroll as a service. Nevertheless, it is a service expected by customers. If you aren’t making a profit from payroll processing, this could be down to not using the right payroll software. By switching to a payroll software that automates tasks you can transform payroll from a time-consuming manual process into an easy process where certain tasks take care of themselves, saving you both time and money.
Not only can you make a profit from processing payroll but depending on what payroll software you use it can be an opportunity to maximise profits by allowing you to offer new services to your clients which you may not have considered before. When it comes to introducing your staff and your clients to new services, you may think you have enough on your plate and that it would take up too much of your time. However, BrightPay Connect, a cloud add-on to BrightPay Payroll software, has little to no learning curve, allowing you to immediately begin offering additional services to clients. Offering new features such as a self-service dashboard for clients, a mobile app for their employees or giving your clients access to new HR tools is a lot easier than you think.
In our upcoming free webinar, we will discuss how cloud technology and automation is transforming payroll services and allowing payroll bureaus and accountants to increase profits. Register here.
Webinar agenda:
Please note: This webinar is specifically designed for accountants, bookkeepers, and payroll bureaus.
Webinar Information:
The webinar takes place on 7th October at 11.00 am and is free to attend for accountants in practice and payroll bureaus.
If you are unable to attend the webinar at the specified time, simply register and we will send you the recording afterwards.
Sep 2021
16
BrightPay recently announced that new journal integrations were added to the payroll software. These integrations allow customers of AccountsIQ, Quickbooks Online, Sage Business Cloud Accounting, and Xero to send their payroll journal directly from BrightPay to their accounting software at the click of a button. In BrightPay, your payroll journal file is customised to the individual accounting software provider, with compatible files and built-in nominal ledger mapping. Using the integrated system means you can save time, reduce mistakes, and improve your payroll workflow.
An integrated accounting and payroll system can simplify how you work and allows you to have the best of both worlds. You can have your payroll software with its easy-to-use interface and full functionality without having to spend unnecessary time exporting payroll data to your accounting software. With the journal API (Application Programme Interface) integrations you can:
Save time:
If you are responsible for carrying out payroll duties and sending this data to your accounting package each pay period, you are familiar with the amount of time it can take. By using the API you can significantly reduce the amount of time you spend on this task. Instead of exporting and importing the figures manually, the payroll journal is sent directly to your accounting software and the figures are automatically added to the general ledger.
Reduce costly mistakes:
Double entry of figures can result in costly mistakes that end up taking time to identify and correct. The API integration means that this data is transferred straight from BrightPay payroll software directly to the journal, avoiding any chance of errors occurring.
Improve efficiency:
The purpose of an API integration is to allow two systems to communicate with one another in order to improve business processes and enhance productivity. With the payroll journal integration you can benefit from a quicker and more efficient workflow. The payroll information can be set up to be sent to the relevant ledgers. For example, you can post wages and salaries cost from the payroll to the nominal ledger account in your accounting software called ‘Wages and Salaries’. If you want to create any exceptions to this, you can. For example, you can separate out the costs of directors’ salaries to be mapped into a separate nominal account.
The set-up of the API for the different accounting software is very similar. Using the API for AccountsIQ as an example:
If you are using a different accounting software, you can discover how to set it up by clicking the following links: Xero, Quickbooks, and Sage Business Cloud Accounting.
If you’re interested in learning how BrightPay can improve your payroll services and save you time, schedule a 15-minute demo with a member of our team today.
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Aug 2021
12
When we weigh up the pros and cons of outsourcing versus in-house payroll, you can see there are many benefits that your business can gain by making the switch to bringing payroll in-house. Internal staff resources can be reassigned to payroll processing to help mitigate the monetary impact of the pandemic on your business's outgoings.
Processing payroll in-house can offer financial rewards and provide several added benefits including:
Although there are some benefits to outsourcing your payroll, you can get the best of both scenarios when you choose the right payroll software.
Having the right provider for your business is crucial and can mean the difference between a laborious payroll process that you dread every pay period, and a quick and easy payroll that you hardly think about at all. But finding the right one isn’t necessarily as easy as it seems. There are so many payroll software providers today that sifting through them can be overwhelming. To make it easier for you, we have summarised the key reasons why you should use BrightPay.
Is BrightPay the right in-house payroll software for your business? If you’re thinking about bringing payroll in-house, now could be the right time to make that transition. Get in touch and book a free 15-minute online demo.
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Jul 2021
26
COVID-19 has accelerated the move to paperless systems for businesses all over the world. In retail we saw outlets curtailing the use of cash due to fear of spreading the virus; causing payment habits to evolve faster than ever. With more of us working remotely, the office has also seen rapid innovation and it has become crucial that businesses digitalise their paper forms. While some of us may have found the move to digital difficult at first, many of us are now used to it and can easily visualise a future where paper is no longer needed in the workplace. The pros of a paperless workplace far outweigh the cons and it has the ability to revolutionise the way we work.
The move to paperless is nothing new in the world of payroll processing. Going back to a time where payroll was done manually and without the help of software is unimaginable to most payroll processers. However, if you are still using paper anywhere in your workflow, it’s time to make the change.
BrightPay Connect is a cloud add-on to our payroll software that can help you to digitalise payroll and HR processes, allowing you to cut down on your use of paper and even stop using it altogether. So how can BrightPay Connect help you achieve this?
BrightPay Connect digitalises the following tasks:
Surveys have found that the average amount spent by businesses on printing is over €800 per employee. With 30% of print jobs not even being picked up from the printer and 50% of print jobs ending up in the bin within 24 hours, businesses are essentially throwing money away. A document such as a staff handbook can be as long as 100 pages. Say you have 40 employees, that adds up to 4000 pages and a lot of money being spent on paper and ink. Sharing the staff handbook through a cloud portal cuts out this cost altogether.
With BrightPay Connect, staff have the ability to access important documents through the employee self-service app on their phone. This means they no longer have to store physical documents that can often be lost or get thrown away. It also means that if you would like to update or change any of the information in the document, it is easy to do so. Once the document has been updated, employees will receive a push notification to let them know the newly updated document is ready to be viewed.
Sharing a document online with a few clicks of a mouse is far more convenient than having to print off, sort through and physically distribute reams of paper. It also doesn’t matter where an employee is; in the office, working from home, or even travelling abroad, everyone will have access to the document at the same time.
Paper-based processes are notoriously slow and are more prone to error which can end up taking you hours to correct. One way you can save time with BrightPay Connect is by digitalising your annual leave management processes. Instead of having employees submit paper forms, the employee can request leave wherever or whenever suits them; be it from their desk or even in their own time through the BrightPay Connect mobile or tablet app.
Once a request for leave has been made, the relevant manager will receive a notification on their own BrightPay Connect dashboard. From the dashboard, employers can either approve or deny the leave request. Through your dashboard, you can view a real-time, company-wide calendar where you can see which employees are on leave, when they are on leave and the type of leave, saving you hours of time when dealing with annual leave requests.
Another great benefit of using BrightPay Connect's online document sharing feature instead of paper is that it allows for accountability. From the employer dashboard, users have the ability to track who has read the documents which have been shared with them and who hasn’t. When it comes to managing annual leave through BrightPay Connect, you can assign users to manage requests from specific employees. You also will have a record of who has requested leave, when, and who has dealt with the request.
Employee documents, especially payslips, are highly confidential documents which contain sensitive personal information. It is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that the employees' information is kept safe and secure. If you are still sharing paper payslips with employees, you are leaving them at high risk of a data breach. In the BrightPay Connect mobile app, employees will receive an email and a push notification when their latest payslip becomes available to be viewed or downloaded. From the app, employees can also view and download all historic payslips. BrightPay Connect uses a design structure that maximises security. Each user will have their own login details and unique password. BrightPay Connect utilises the Microsoft Azure platform, keeping the employee’s personal information secure.
Technology is always evolving and by not moving from manual paper processes to digital ones, you are at risk of being left behind by the competition. Companies are having to continuously innovate to keep up with customers' expectations and payroll is no different. The digital transformation has changed employees’ expectations. To attract and retain top talent, employers need to replace old manual processes with digital solutions. In a recent employee survey, 91% of employees said they want digital solutions and 88% think that technology is a vital part of the employee experience.
Lastly, the biggest advantage of going paperless is that you are helping to save the environment. By curtailing the use of paper in the workplace not only are you saving trees, but you are also helping to reduce pollution, save water and cut down on the use of fossil fuels which are used to make ink. Turning a single tree into 17 reams of paper releases around 110 lbs of C02 into the atmosphere. It has become the responsibility of businesses to cut down on carbon emissions and going paperless is the first step you can take.
It is becoming increasingly important for businesses to make more environmentally friendly choices. BrightPay recently conducted a survey of our UK customers and over 70% of respondents said that they would like to make more environmentally friendly decisions for their business. From the same survey, 43% said that it was either extremely important or very important for them to choose suppliers who make a conscious effort to reduce the impact they have on the environment.
Read about our own sustainability efforts here.
Why not book a free online demo of BrightPay Connect today and find out more about its benefits and how it can help your business go paperless.
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