BrightPay Release Notes

24.1

04/01/2024

Fixes/updates:

Corrects handling of which pay period a one-off benefit appears in when a schedule's pay dates come after its period end dates.
Corrects calculation of 'cost to employer' for payslips that include benefits.
Fixes import of Eircode from Thesaurus Payroll Manager.

24.0

14/12/2023

See https://brightsg.com/en-ie/blog/whats-new-in-brightpay-2024

23.4

18/09/2023

Updates:

Supports new CWPS rates that are effective from 18 September.

23.3

07/07/2023

Updates:

Modulr – new feature allows a single approval for a batch of multiple payments.
Other minor improvements.

23.2

11/04/2023

Updates:

Finance Bill 2023 update: For vehicle BIK calculations, the upper limit of the highest kilometrage band is reduced by 4,000km.
Improves rounding of calculated weighted departmental amounts (in both analysis and when posting a departmental journal).
Modulr payments fixes.

23.1

05/01/2023

Fixes/updates:

Corrects calculation of period gross pension-able pay when there is SSP.
Corrects calculation of parenting pay top-up in certain situations.
Corrects calculation of vehicle benefit where over 26,000 equivalent annual kilometres are travelled and employee qualifies for the reduced rate.

23.0

14/12/2022

See https://www.brightpay.ie/blog/2022/12/what-s-new-in-brightpay-2023/

22.3

02/12/2022

Updates and fixes

Shows a warning when attempting to prepay week 53/54/56.
Various other minor fixes and corrections.

22.2

01/02/2022

Updates and fixes

Supports EWSS extension for businesses directly impacted by the Public Health Restrictions (PHR) introduced in December 2021.
Supports new CWPS rates which take effect from 1 February 2022.
Adds bank holiday to calendar for 18 March 2022.
Other minor fixes.

22.1

11/01/2022

Bug fixes

Fixes issue where ’total’ summary rows could be missing from reports.
Fixes issue where Surf Accounts would not appear as a journal option.
Other minor fixes.

22.0

14/12/2020

See https://www.brightpay.ie/blog/2021/12/what-s-new-in-brightpay-2022/

21.8

10/12/2021

Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS)

Updates EWSS to use higher rates in December 2021 (as announced by Revenue on 9th December 2021).

21.7

24/11/2021

Updates and fixes

Updates format of PSR submissions for compatibility with Revenue's latest validation rules.
Improvements to journal submission integrations.
Fixes to SEPA file format.

21.6

22/10/2021

Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS)

Extends support for the EWSS into November and December 2021.

Pay using Modulr

BrightPay's Modulr integration is now available, enabling a modern and simple way to pay your employees.

Updates and fixes

Updates SEPA file format for compatibility with more banks.
Other minor fixes and improvements.

21.5

29/09/2021

Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS)

Extends support for the EWSS into October 2021 (which has been confirmed by Revenue to continue to use the same rates and rules).

21.4

20/07/2021

Journal API Submissions

BrightPay now supports posting journals directly to Sage, Quickbooks, Xero and AccountsIQ via API (while continuing to offer the option of a CSV journal).

21.3

18/06/2021

Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS)

Extends EWSS up until 30 September 2021.

CSO

Support for supplementary CSO returns.
Corrects CSO report data for various scenarios.

21.2

11/03/2021

Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS)

Extends EWSS up until 30 June 2021.

Bug fixes

Other minor fixes and improvements.

21.1

19/01/2021

Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS)

Updates EWSS subsidy calculation to use the enhanced rates up until 31 March 2021.

Bug fixes

Fixes calculation of insurable weeks in pay periods where an employee is taking more than a week of consecutive annual leave days.
Other minor fixes and improvements.

21.0

14/12/2020

See https://www.brightpay.ie/blog/2020/12/what-s-new-in-brightpay-2021/

20.10

25/03/2021

New feature:

Shows total subsidy amount in new footer of TWSS reconciliation CSV preview.

20.9

10/02/2021

Updates and fixes:

Supports 2-factor authentication (2FA) for Connect login.
Other minor fixes and tweaks.

20.8

26/10/2020

Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS)

Updates EWSS rates in line with recent announcement from Revenue.

20.7

11/09/2020

Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS)

New report that calculates estimated EWSS subsidy amounts and PRSI credits.
Ability to create CSV file for EWSS sweepback claims.

Other updates

October 2020 CWPS rates

20.6

28/08/2020

New – Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme

Support for denoting which employees are on the EWSS (which is then reported on PSR).
Warns where an employee is marked as being on the EWSS outside of the EWSS dates (July 2020 to March 2021), or where employee is on EWSS but does not qualify for subsidy due to earnings.
Ability to record EWSS employer PRSI refund in Revenue Payments.

Updates to Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme

TWSS reconciliation CSV file.
TWSS subsidy amounts are now included in the 'wages and salaries' amounts on CSO EHECS file.
Warns where an employee is on class J9 with a TWSS subsidy outside of the TWSS active dates (April 2020 to August 2020).
Ability to record TWSS tax/USC refund in Revenue Payments.

20.5

27/05/2020

Various improvements and fixes:

Improves allocation of Employment ID to re-hired employees (preventing a duplicate value being used in some situations).
Improvements to RPN matching.
Other minor fixes.

20.4

05/05/2020

Support for operating the Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme from 4 May 2020 onwards

This upgrade is required to be able to process employees on the Wage Subsidy Scheme from 4 May onwards.
BrightPay now requires that you import your TWSS CSV file (which you can download from ROS) to process employees on the scheme. (As instructed by Revenue, BrightPay now uses the exact figures in the TWSS CSV file to calculate allowed subsidy and maximum top-up amounts.)
Various warnings and flags are now raised when employees are being processed on the scheme incorrectly or non-optimally.

20.3

27/03/2020

Support for Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme

Replaces the previous Employer COVID-19 Refund Scheme.
New addition type "COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme Payment".
Adding the new addition type to a payslip (or selecting PRSI class J9) triggers a prompt to set up the payslip in line with the scheme rules (see Revenue website for full details).
Supports automated calculation of average weekly earnings for use in scheme, as well as calculation of subsidy scheme payment and maximum employer top-up.

20.2

20/03/2020

Support for Employer COVID-19 Refund Scheme

PRSI class J9 for use in scheme.
New addition type "COVID-19 Pandemic Payment".
Setting PRSI class J9, or adding the new addition type to a payslip, will trigger a prompt to automatically set up the payslip in line with the scheme rules (see Revenue website for full details).

Other updates and fixes

Enables pension AVCs to be optionally persisted to next pay period.
Corrects employee address on security payslip stationery.
Other minor fixes and improvements.

20.1

30/01/2020

Updates and fixes:

Supports February 2020 employer PRSI threshold updates.
Corrects LPT figure on payroll journals.
Other minor fixes and improvements.

20.0

17/12/2019

See https://www.brightpay.ie/blog/2019/12/what-s-new-in-brightpay-2020/

19.6

12/11/2019

New features:

Ability to add a post-cessation payment for an employee who had left in a previous pay period.

BrightPay Connect:

New feature allows you to request a Connect user (e.g. your client) to complete payroll entry or payroll approval for a given pay period online, after which you can download the data directly into BrightPay. For more information, log into your Connect dashboard and click the new Requests link in the top navigation.

Bug fixes and improvements:

An RPN can now be checked for and retrieved in any open pay period, regardless of whether it had been previously ignored and finalised or not.

19.5

25/09/2019

Features and updates:

October 2019 CWPS rates
New feature – ability to easily re-hire or add an additional employment for an employee.

Bug fixes and improvements:

Where an RPN update reduces or zeroises tax credits/cut-off points such that it works out the employee has cumulatively underpaid tax, the tax bill is now held back while the employee is on zero pay, and not applied until the employee receives a payment.
Improves RPN handling where an employee's PPSN or Employment ID is changed after having already downloaded RPNs for that employee.
Fixes issue in which the ordering of departments on reports in Analysis could be inconsistent.
Updates BNP Paribas bank SEPA format.
Other minor fixes and improvements.

19.4

11/06/2019

Bug fixes and improvements:

Corrects various figures on PSR submissions for certain payment and employment scenarios.
Improves CSV import handling of mid-year cumulative amounts.
Updates Danske Bank SEPA format.
Improves calculation of CSO EHECS report totals to address certain pay schedule scenarios.
Other minor fixes and improvements.

19.3

07/02/2019

This update contains important fixes for issues discovered since the 19.0–19.2 releases.

Bug fixes

'Revenue Reconciliation' now supports the latest response format from Revenue (and so no longer crashes in some scenarios).
Improves selection of the RPN version to use when starting payroll late in the tax year.
Better handles the situation where a PSR is 'undone' again after having previously been undone before.
Fixes Revenue liability calculation in certain scenarios.
Other minor fixes and improvements.

19.2

25/01/2019

This update contains important fixes for issues discovered since the 19.0 and 19.1 releases.

Bug fixes

Corrects detection and usage of 'Previous PPSN' on retrieved RPNs.
Improves detection and selection of correct RPN version to use in certain employment scenarios.
Forces a unique Line Item ID on the next PSR after the undo/deletion of a previous PSR.
Other minor fixes and improvements.

New developments

We've made it easier to get started with BrightPay Connect – you can now create your account and link your employer directly from within BrightPay.
SEPA payments file now supports Deutsch bank accounts.

19.1

08/01/2019

This update contains important fixes for issues discovered since the 19.0 release.

Bug fixes

Allows customers with a Standard licence to use an agent certificate.
Improves RPN handling where employees are paid in arrears.
Improves RPN handling where a payslip with period dates in between two RPN retrievals is re-opened.
Ensures that where two RPNs have the same Issue Date, the one with the later Number is used for updates.
Fixes issue handling 29 February employee birth date.
Several other minor fixes and improvements

19.0

14/12/2018

See https://www.brightpay.ie/blog/2018/12/what-s-new-in-brightpay-2019/

18.2

08/01/2019

This update includes the following features and fixes:

2018 Year End

2018 P35 file
2018 P60 certificate

BrightPay Connect

Supports hour-based annual leave updates from Connect

Other updates

Fixes and improvements to importers from other software

18.1

03/07/2018

This update includes the following:

Ability to create List of Employees CSV file, which can be uploaded to Revenue in preparation for PAYE Modernisation.
New Employee Register printable report.
Ability to exclude notional pay from Cost to Employer calculation.
Corrects payroll journal when one or more employees are contributing to a pension scheme.
Enables customisation of the 'Tax Rate' that is output into a Xero journal CSV file.
Removes diacritics from employee/bank names automatically when creating a SEPA file.
Other minor fixes and improvements.

18.0

20/12/2017

See https://www.brightpay.ie/blog/2017/12/what-s-new-in-brightpay-2018/

17.3

30/01/2018

This update includes the following:

Fixes totals on CSO EHECS file for certain patterns of pay periods and pay dates.
Corrects inclusion criteria for PRSI Exempt indicator on P60.
Corrects calculation of year-to-date employer PRSI-able gross when PRD is being paid.
Fixes issue in which BrightPay could consume excessive memory.
Other minor improvements.

17.2

12/10/2017

This update includes the following features and fixes:

2017 Year End

2017 P35 file
2017 P60 certificate

BrightPay Connect (previously BrightPay Cloud)

BrightPay Cloud will be known as BrightPay Connect going forward. This upgrade updates all references in BrightPay to use the new terminology.
New feature allows an employee to be marked as “confidential”, which prevents them being visible to users without the requisite permission on the BrightPay Connect employer dashboard.
Employees now manage their own password for the employee self service dashboard, and so the password field in BrightPay has been demoted to “PDF password” only.

Other updates

Improvements to P2C import.
P45 now shows PRD amounts if applicable.
Other minor fixes and improvements.

17.1

11/01/2017

This update addresses issues which have been discovered since the release of 17.0, including the following:

Corrections to amounts in analysis when running a departmental report on multiple weighted departments.
Fixes an issue that could occur when printing certain P2C files.
Support for an expanded range of PPS numbers.
Update to Collsoft importer to work with the latest file format.
Other minor fixes and improvements.

17.0

15/12/2016

17.0 RTM

16.1

18/10/2016

This update includes the following features and enhancements:

2016 year end functionality including 2016 P35 file and 2016 P60 certificate.
Ability to exclude employees from receiving USC concession in week 53/54/56.
Ability to import from CollSoft Payroll.
CITIbank SEPA file format.
Other minor fixes and improvements.

16.0

15/12/2015

16.0 RTM

15.2

03/12/2015

This update includes the following features and enhancements:

2015 year end functionality including 2015 P35 file and 2015 P60 certificate.
Bankline 2015 bank file format.
HSBC bank file format.
Enables a dash ("-") to be included in a CSO enterprise number.
Other improvements and bug fixes.

15.1

04/03/2015

This is a maintenance and bug fix release and is recommended for all customers. The following is included:

Fixes an issue in which an employer file cannot be saved in or opened from certain shared network locations.
Fixes an issue in which certain valid USC cut-off point combinations are not accepted by BrightPay.
Fixes annual leave entitlement carry-over calculation for some staggered leave year scenarios.
Fixes departmental breakdown calculation of some values in analysis.
Adds support for reducing Illness Benefit derived PAYE where insufficient tax credits would otherwise result in it causing a negative net pay.
Improves layout of printed payslip when there are lots of multi-line items included.
Improves handling of recently opened files.
Improves bank compatibility of the SEPA files produced by BrightPay.
Other minor corrections and improvements.

15.0

17/12/2014

2015 RTM.

14.2

02/02/2015

This update corrects an issue in which the P35 medical insurance totals are overstated in certain situations (preventing the P35 file from being successfully uploaded to ROS).

14.1

10/11/2014

This upgrade contains support for the 2014 year end.

It also includes several other minor improvements and bug fixes.

14.0

18/12/2013

This is the 2014 RTM version.

Please install over 0.14.X by first manually uninstalling 0.14.X via Control Panel.

13.2

19/06/2013

This updates supports the handling of Local Property Tax (LPT) payroll deductions, which will become mandatory for applicable employees from 1st July 2013 onwards.

Several other fixes and improvements are also included.

Local Property Tax (LPT)

Ability to import P2C files which contain total LPT amounts. Total LPT amounts can also be entered manually.
LPT calculation and inclusion of LPT values on payslips and workings.
P45 and P45 Part 3 updated to support LPT values (both ROS files and printable versions).
P30 updated to support LPT values (on-screen, ROS files, and printable versions).
Several LPT fields have been added to analysis.
Ability to enter LPT year-to-date information in a mid-year employer setup.

Other features, improvements and bug fixes:

Ability to print employee calendar.
Ability to print annual leave entitlement calculation.
Ability to enter previous employment figures for P46 employees (before, it was only possible for P45 Part 3 employees).
Ability to import several new mid-year year-to-date values when importing employees from CSV.
Fixed an issue in which an incorrect PRSI class is stated on the P45 for an employee who had one or more zero-pay payslips.
Fixes an issue in which certain USC rates/bands and previous employment figures are not correctly imported from a P2C file.
Fixes an issue in which incorrect year-to-date values are shown on the Tax Deduction Card of an employee who started during the tax year.

13.1

15/04/2013

This is an important update with several bug fixes and improvements.

One of the fixes is for a rare issue in which P30 Revenue payment totals may not be correctly calculcated. After installing the 13.1.0 update, please check your Revenue payments in BrightPay for any outstanding amounts.

13.0

25/01/2013

This is the 2013 final release version.