How can I pay employees?

According to the 1991 Payment of Wages Act, the method which will be used to pay an employee their wages should be clearly stated in their contract of employment. Employers have the option to pay their employees by cash, cheque, bank draft, postal order or by credit transfer to an account specified by the employee. Whether an employee is paid weekly, monthly or whichever pay interval you have set out in the employee’s contract of employment, employers should ensure that employees are always paid on time.

The method by which you pay your employees will not only affect the efficiency of your payroll but depending on which method you choose and how well you use that method, it can also impact your business’s reputation and even employee morale. Listed below are three of the most common methods of paying employees and their advantages and disadvantages.

What is the best method of paying employees?

1. Cash

Some employers may feel that paying their employees in cash is the quickest and easiest option. Paying by cash means employees will have instant access to the funds and there are little to no administrative costs involved. However, while it is perfectly legal, using cash is not always an efficient way of paying employees.

Your payroll software will keep a record of the amounts to be paid to your employees each pay period, including all additions and deductions. However, when you pay in cash you will have no record or proof that the payment has been made. It is advised, when making cash payments, that you have your employees sign a document to confirm that they have received their wages and the amount which they have received. This can mean that there will be more administrative work involved than you may have thought. When paying employees by cash, it is also important that you are aware of the security risk of having a large amount of bank notes on you or at your business premises.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, hybrid working has become the norm. This means that in some businesses employees are now working from different locations, with many employees working from their home. If you have employees who are working remotely for part or all of their working week, it may no longer be viable to pay them by cash. And while legally you can send cash by registered post, it is not covered by insurance under the Registered Post service.

2. Cheque

One advantage paying employees by cheque has over paying employees by cash is that once the cheque has been cashed or lodged by the employee, you will have record that the payment has been received. However, employees may not always be happy about being paid by cheque as it means there is a wait period between them receiving the cheque and them being able to access the money. Cheques drawn on Irish banks can take up to 5 business days to clear, meaning employees may not be able to access their wages till up to over a week after pay day. Plus, if you are sending employees their cheques by post, this can lead to further delays and you may end up with some very disgruntled employees.

3. Credit transfer

Perhaps the most common method of paying employees is through a credit transfer. This is when payment is taken directly from the employer's bank account and paid into the bank account specified by the employee.

Paying employees by credit transfer means there will be a complete record of when the employee was paid and the amount which they were paid. The SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) system was first introduced into Ireland in 2014 and had many advantages over the previous system. When using SEPA to transfer payments it only takes one business day to clear compared to the three business day turnaround for older systems.

What is the easiest way of paying employees by credit transfer?

You can now pay employees using SEPA, directly through your payroll software. BrightPay Payroll software now has full integration with payments platform Modulr, providing payroll processers with a quick and easy way to pay employees.

To use this new functionality, you first must sign up to a Modulr account and pay any associated fees to Modulr. Then, once a payroll has been finalised, you simply choose the “Pay by Modulr” option in the payroll software. From there you log into your Modulr account and you will be asked to authenticate your login using your mobile device. Once logged in, simply follow our online guide and you will be able to pay your employees quickly and easily with only a one-day turnaround.

What are the benefits of paying employees directly through BrightPay?

Paying your employees by credit transfer using our new integration has the most benefits for employers when compared to other payment methods, including:

• Little administrative work
• A one-day turnaround
• Flexibility to change payments up until the day before
• Fully traceable and secure

To learn more about BrightPay’s new direct payments feature, why not book a free online BrightPay demo today. Or, you can watch our webinar discussing how our new integration can benefit your business.

What the new public holidays mean for employers

Did you know that the introduction of Ireland’s new public holiday brings us to a total of 10 public holidays per year? This brings us more in line with the rest of Europe, as the average number of public holidays stands at about 10-14 per year. Some countries such as Slovakia have an even higher number, with 15 public holidays per year.

Here at BrightPay, we provide the most up-to-date information on important changes to your payroll process, including any legislative changes related to Revenue. From the implementation of PAYE Modernisation to our integration with multiple APIs, we make sure that your payroll workflow is completely streamlined and fully compliant.

What date is the new public holiday in Ireland?

The extra public holiday in Ireland this year is on the 18th of March 2022, however, this is just a once-off case. The new public holiday that’s being permanently implemented will be happening on the first Monday in February, commencing from 2023. This has been implemented to honour Ireland’s most famous female saint, St. Brigid.

What if the 1st of February is a Friday?

If the 1st of February happens to fall on a Friday, then the February bank holiday will happen on that Friday, rather than the following Monday.

Why is there an extra public holiday in March this year?

The extra public holiday for March 2022 was brought into effect to recognise the efforts of the public and in remembrance of the 9,000 people who have lost their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This extra public holiday results in Ireland now enjoying a well-deserved four-day weekend this March, alongside the celebrations for St. Patrick’s Day.

Not only that, but the government is also taking this a step further, by gifting a recognition payment to eligible frontline healthcare workers. This recognition payment will consist of a once-off €1,000 that won’t be subjected to income tax, PRSI, or USC.

How do I pay employees during a bank holiday?

If your employees are working during a public holiday, they are entitled to an additional day’s pay. This also applies if a public holiday happens to fall on a weekend.

If employees aren’t working that day, they have the right to choose an alternative option at least 21 days prior to that public holiday. These alternatives could include a paid day off on the public holiday or an additional day of annual leave.

Part-time employees should also receive an additional day’s pay if they are working during a public holiday.

If your part-time employees aren’t working that day, they are entitled to a day’s pay if they’ve worked at least 40 hours over the previous five weeks and if they normally work on the day of that public holiday.

If they don’t meet both of these criteria, then they are entitled to one-fifth of their weekly pay.

For further information on what employees are entitled to during public holidays, please take a look at the Organisation of Working Act 1997.

How can I manage employees’ leave better?

Whether it’s public holidays or annual leave, it can all be quite hard to manage and can feel overwhelming sometimes for you as an employer.

Some employers manage their employees’ annual leave though outdated methods such as handwritten notebooks and complex excel files. Here at BrightPay, we find that these methods are not only prone to error, but they’re also incredibly time-consuming, taking up a considerable amount of admin work, especially over holiday periods.

Our cloud extension, BrightPay Connect, can provide your employees the ability to request annual leave through our user-friendly employee app at the tap of a button on their phone or smart device. Employees can view their annual leave through a built-in calendar format, where they can see their leave for the entire year.

You as the employer can then simply log into your desktop and either accept or reject employees’ annual leave requests. This is all done through the simple and easy-to-use calendar format, where you can view all of your employees leave for the year.

Employees then receive a notification when you have updated their request submission via their employee app.

BrightPay Connect also provides many other features, including:

• Employer dashboard that allows you to view employee details, payslips and any outstanding payments due to Revenue
• Automatic cloud backup of your payroll data every 15 minutes, guaranteeing the safety of your payroll data by storing it in a secure and remote location.
• HR document hub where you can upload any important HR documents, including contract of employment. You can also control which departments/employees have access to specific documents.
• Employee self-service portal where employees can download and print any of their payslips from anywhere at anytime.
• Increases your GDPR compliance by allowing employees to have more control over their data while improving the security of that data.

Watch this quick one-minute video on how BrightPay Connect can enhance your business today.

Interested in learning more? Why not sign up for a free 15-minute demo for a more in-depth explanation on how BrightPay Connect can work for you as an employer.

How can I stay up-to-date on important future updates?

Here at BrightPay, we are constantly finding innovative ways to make your payments to employees as smooth and seamless as possible.

We are up-to-date on all the latest Revenue regulations to ensure the competency and efficiency of your business. We also hold webinars on a regular basis with industry thought leaders, where we go into further depth on particular topics of importance.

We recently hosted a webinar on changes to the EWSS since the 1st of February, where we discussed the recent changes to the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme, along with some questions and answers at the end. To view more upcoming webinars over the next couple of weeks, just click the link below.

Related articles:

• Avoid Annual Leave Backlog
• Sick pay comes to Ireland: How does this affect employers and payroll processors?
• How long you should retain employee data under GDPR

BrightPay’s direct API with Xero

BrightPay Payroll Software now integrates with the accounting software, Xero. Using direct API technology, BrightPay users can now send their payroll figures to Xero instantly with no manual entry required. The API uses a file format that is unique to Xero ensuring a seamless process for the user. Once the systems are integrated and mapping is complete, it will be saved for future use, so you only have to set up that part once. This integration will eliminate duplications and manual errors that sometimes occur when exporting and importing data files. It not only saves time, but also increases productivity as this manual task is now automated.

How it works

• Within BrightPay, select Xero from the journal menu in the toolbar. A window will appear where it will prompt you to log in to Xero.
• Once logged in, it will retrieve your nominal ledger codes from your Xero account.
• Simply map each payroll data item to the relevant nominal ledger code which can be used for multiple items. You can also include records for payslips across multiple pay frequencies.
• There is an option to set exceptions where items should be mapped to an alternative nominal account code.
• When you are ready to send your journal, click ‘send to Xero’. Once sent, the payroll figures will automatically become available in Xero. You also have the option to print, email or export your payroll journal.

Watch a step-by-step 4-minute video that shows you how the BrightPay and Xero integration works or read our useful online support documentation with the relevant steps on how to connect BrightPay to Xero using API integration.

About Xero

Xero offers fast, simple and powerful accounting software for a range of customers including small businesses and accountants & bookkeepers. Manage your practice efficiently with Xero to pay bills, claim expenses, accept payments, track projects and much more.

You can access all Xero features for 30 days for free, then decide which plan best suits your business.

Find out more

Book a free 15-minute online demo of BrightPay to see the software in action. The demo will run through all of the must-have features that BrightPay has to offer while using a sample company.

BrightPay is a cost-effective payroll solution with no hidden charges or strings attached. Try BrightPay for the remainder of 2021 for FREE and see for yourself how much easier processing payroll can be!

Related articles:

• Introducing BrightPay’s New Accounting API Features
• How to integrate AccountsIQ and BrightPay
• Budget 2022 - Employer Payroll Focus

Yikes, is your business GDPR compliant? (+ 3 simple GDPR tips)

Since GDPR swept across Europe in 2018, there have been a ton of questions surrounding the legislation. Such as:

• What is GDPR?
• How does it affect me as an employer?
• How do I improve my GDPR compliance?

Being one of Ireland’s leading payroll software providers, BrightPay has spent the past four years finding innovative ways to enhance our software to ensure it is fully GDPR compliant.

Let us look at some of these commonly asked questions in more detail.

What is GDPR?

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. It is a law that ensures that any place or person who has access to your data either has your consent to do so, or for legal purposes.

This can be anything from your personal data such as your name and address, or more sensitive data such as your financial or medical records.

How does this affect me as an employer?

Any data you obtain, store or use from an employee (i.e. PPS number, payroll information, internet usage) must be done so with the employee's consent and in a way that is fair and secure.

Your employees have the right to:

• Access their data
• Rectify their data
• Be informed as to how their data is both obtained and processed
• Erase their data
• Restrict people from processing their data
• Object to their data being used for marketing, scientific or historic research
• Data portability

Not complying with GDPR can result in a data breach. A data breach can be anything from sending a payslip to the wrong employee’s email, to a full-blown cyber-attack resulting in a leak of personal information.

How do I improve my GDPR compliance?

When you sign up to BrightPay Connect you no longer have to worry about sending the wrong email to an employee, or for personal information getting leaked.

Here are 3 simple tips on how you can use BrightPay Connect to improve your GDPR compliance.

1. Employee 24/7 Self-Service Portal

Do you often get caught in never-ending email threads about changes to employees’ records? Are your employees hounding you for payslips for their mortgage applications?

With BrightPay Connect this can all be done by a simple tap on your phone through our innovative smartphone and tablet employee app. The app allows your employees to have instant access to their payslips from their device that is ready to view, print and even download.

They also have access to HR documents, uploaded by the employer, such as contracts of employment, staff handbook and company updates.

You as the employer can also even restrict specific users from accessing certain data, which only improves your GDPR compliance even further.

Watch this quick 3-minute video on how our BrightPay Connect mobile app saves you time and money, while improving employee engagement.

2. Integration with payroll software

Employees can also adjust their personal details whenever they like through the BrightPay Connect app. This automatically syncs with BrightPay’s payroll software, so you no longer have to update details manually – eliminating unnecessary email trails in the blink of an eye!

This aligns with GDPRs best practice recommendations, as it provides employees direct access and control to their data from a secure and remote location.

3. Automated Backup

Worrying about cyberattacks are a thing of the past with BrightPay Connect’s fully secure automated backups.

These backups take place every 15 minutes – uploading your employees’ data directly to the cloud. This means that if your computer becomes damaged or stolen, there will be a backup ready right here at hand ready to go, giving you complete peace of mind.

These constant data backups running in the background improves not only your security, but also the efficiency of running your business.

“I am extremely impressed with the quality of the product, the excellent friendly customer support, and the pricing structure. The BrightPay Connect self-service platform is fantastic for delivering reports and payslips by secure means.”

- Michael Wilson, Meiring Chartered Certified Accountants

BrightPay Connect also comes with a host of other features for employers, such as annual leave calendars and requests, Revenue payment schedules, and much more.

With over 330,000 businesses using our software and a 98.8% customer satisfaction rate (from our recent 2021 customer survey) so you know you are in safe hands.

It’s time to take your employees’ payroll data to the next level – book a demo with us today.

Looking for further information on GDPR? Check out our webpage on GDPR that provides a more detailed analysis on the topic.

BrightPay Customer Update: March 2022

Welcome to BrightPay's March update. Our most important news this month include:

• New bill for remote working set to be introduced

• Revolutionize your payroll this year with digital banking

• How to process a leaver in BrightPay

Additional public holiday in Ireland 

The extra once-off public holiday on 18th March 2022 was brought in to recognise the efforts of the public and in remembrance of those who lost their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that employees are entitled to an additional day’s paid leave. 

Holiday entitlements Read more

---

Upcoming webinars you don’t want to miss 

 Connecting payroll and payments with Modulr

Register for our upcoming joint webinar with Modulr on 10th March to discover how you can make payments to employees from within BrightPay.

Bureau webinar Employer webinar

 

BrightPay’s integration with Surf Accounts: How it works 

Join our upcoming webinar on 23rd March at 11.00 am where we discuss BrightPay's new API integration with Surf Accounts. 

Book your place now

---

Make your payroll bureau stand out

In a world where customers have infinite choices, it’s important to stand out from the crowd. This guide will showcase ways that you can grow your practice while saving money, time, and improving efficiency. 

Download free guide

---

Supercharge your payroll and HR processes

Your payroll and HR processes can be more integrated thanks to cloud technology. This guide will showcase six ways that cloud platforms enable employers to work more efficiently, by streamlining administrative processes and delegating manual tasks to their employees. 

Get your free copy

---

BrightPay & Relate Software Merger - 6 Months On 

In September we announced that we have joined forces with Relate Software. Over the past six months, we have been working hard to merge both companies into one, and we are now jointly operating as Bright Software Group. By operating as Bright, we have access to additional resources to improve the services and support we provide to our customers.

There are no changes to the functionality of the software or the support you may receive from our team. 

---

New bill for remote working  

The government wants to introduce legislation that will underpin employees’ right to request remote work. BrightPay, in tandem with BrightPay Connect, will allow for completely seamless “working from home” functionality, where there are multiple individuals who work on or require access to the same employer files. 

Find out more Book a demo

Posted byHolly McHughinCustomer Update

Save on overhead costs and bring your payroll in-house

With the COVID-19 restrictions finally eased, business owners all over Ireland are enjoying a permanent return to normal business operations after two years of repeated openings and closures. It’s been an incredibly costly two years for businesses, not only in revenue lost due to closure but also in money spent on adapting their infrastructure to suit social distancing rules.

Although we’ve moved back to normality, COVID-19 remains a lurking threat and it’s not surprising that businesses are looking to save costs where they can. One overhead that employers will be looking at reducing is payroll. They can do this by switching from outsourced payroll services to doing it themselves in-house. The good news for businesses looking to bring their payroll in-house is the availability of great payroll software that can help them achieve this.

Payroll software, such as BrightPay, offers employers an intuitive, easy-to-use application, which even the most inexperienced payroll processor can, in a short time, get to grips with. It will keep you up to date with changes to payroll and tax legislation as well as provide you with free support including online demos, webinars, and video tutorials.

If you haven’t processed payroll before or have very little experience with it, here are some points to consider when bringing your payroll in-house:

1. Work with your accountant:

Although you’re making the decision to bring payroll in-house, you’ll still likely be working with your accountant to help manage your finances and prepare your accounts. If they managed your payroll previously, they will likely be able to transfer files to facilitate you in setting up on your own. With BrightPay you can set up at any time, start partway of the tax year or continue partway in the tax year.

BrightPay currently offers direct import options for a number of different payroll software providers, allowing you to quickly import your company and employee details. If your accountant uses a different software, BrightPay can facilitate the import of employee information in CSV format or through the use of Revenue Payroll Notifications.

2. Trial it out:

If you’re unsure about how well you will manage payroll on your own, don’t commit to it yet. Instead, try out the software. Trialling it out can allow you to conduct a test payroll run while at the same time your accountant can continue to run the payroll separately. This means that if you do make a mistake, it won’t have an impact on your employees. It also gives you the chance to compare the payroll information in parallel, to see if and where you went wrong.

BrightPay offers a 60-day free trial of its payroll software, an ideal way to test out the software to see if it’s the right fit for your business. The free trial version has full functionality with no limitations to any of the features.

3. Use the opportunity to add new HR features

BrightPay Connect, the cloud extension to BrightPay, offers an employer and employee self-service portals that can help streamline HR tasks and better integrate it with payroll. With BrightPay Connect, you can:

• Share payslips directly to employees using the BrightPay Connect app
• Manage annual leave requests made by employees using the app
• Share confidential documents with employees such as their contract of employment
• View and access payroll reports
• View amounts paid and due to Revenue

4. Consider the accounting software:

If you do decide to bring payroll in-house, you will still need to send payroll journals and payroll data to your accountant. Choosing a payroll software that offers integration with accounting software can save you and your accountant time and hassle. API integration allows you to send this information directly to the general ledger in the accounting package. BrightPay includes direct API integration with the following accounting software: AccountsIQ, QuickBooks Online, Sage Business Cloud Accounting, Xero, and Surf Accounts.

Discover more:
Bringing payroll in-house is entirely do-able. While there are challenges associated with it, more and more businesses are seeing the benefits of it. To help you understand the full benefits that a business can gain by bringing their payroll in-house, book an online demo of BrightPay and speak to a member of our team today.

• “It’s just so easy to use” – What customers have to say
• Data backup: 3 strategies to ensure you never lose your payroll data
• 7 reasons why you should process payroll in-house

“It’s just so easy to use” – What customers have to say

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.

What are customers saying about BrightPay?

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 interface:

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:

• “Compared to other payroll software we've used, it's easy to use and intuitive”.
• “Hassle free and easy to operate”.
• “If I can use it, anyone can. It’s so easy to use, coupled with excellent back-up service”.

Response to COVID-19:

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.

More on Customer Support:

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!

What can BrightPay customers expect next?

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.

Related Articles:

• Introducing BrightPay’s New Accounting API Features
• BrightPay Payroll: Evolving to exceed customers' expectations
• Revolutionize your payroll this year with digital banking

Posted byÁine CourtneyinPayrollPayroll Software

Data backup: 3 strategies to ensure you never lose your payroll data

Do you backup your data regularly? 17% of businesses keep no data backups whatsoever and store information only on their computer's hard drive. The purpose of a backup is to create a copy of your data which can be recovered in the event that the original is disrupted. Backups protect against hardware failure, virus attacks, natural disasters, and human error.

A recent Hiscox report, which surveyed 355 companies in Ireland, showed that 41% of Irish businesses suffered at least one cyber-attack in 2020. The report also revealed that 6.5% of Irish firms paid a ransom following a ransomware attack.

It is essential that you backup your payroll data to protect your business and your employees. Your business can save time and money if any of the above events occur, and you have a copy of your data elsewhere. Discover three ways you can backup your data below.

1. Backup using cloud storage

Investing in cloud storage such as Google Drive or Dropbox allows you to keep your data safe in the cloud. You will need to remember to manually backup your data regularly. With cloud storage, an advantage is that your data has multiple backups within your storage provider’s data centres. This means that if something catastrophic happened to your backup, it is already backed up somewhere else.

2. Use an external hard drive

A less popular option is backing up your data using a physical storage device or USB key. Your data transfer speeds are typically faster as you don’t require an internet connection. This method can come with its own risks and cost per GB can also be expensive.

3. Use BrightPay Connect

If you process payroll in-house, BrightPay Payroll Software’s add-on product, BrightPay Connect, automatically backs up your payroll data to the cloud every 15-minutes and again when you close the file. A chronological history of backups will be maintained which can be restored to your PC at any time. Click here to book a free 15-minute online demo of BrightPay Connect.

Discover more:

To discover more about BrightPay and BrightPay Connect and how it can improve your payroll services and save you time, schedule a free online demo with a member of our team today. BrightPay payroll software also offers a 60-day free trial of its payroll software, an ideal way to test out the software to see if it’s the right fit for your business. The free trial version has full functionality with no limitations on any of the features. BrightPay Connect is not included in the free trial.

Related articles:

• Payroll App – What your employees can and cannot see
• Revolutionize your payroll this year with digital banking
• No cost, no commitments: try BrightPay for free for 60 days

Posted byHolly McHughinPayroll

BrightPay Customer Update: February 2022

Welcome to BrightPay's February update. Our most important news this month include:

• EWSS Update: Changes from 1st February

• Statutory Sick Pay – Preparing for 2022

• New bill for remote working set to be introduced

Posted byHolly McHughinCustomer Update

EWSS Update: Changes from 1st February

On the 21st January 2022, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe announced changes to Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) subsidy rates from 1st February.

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions which were brought in last December, the enhanced rates of the EWSS were extended for all businesses for December 2021 and January 2022. As well as this, the scheme was reopened in December for certain businesses who were previously registered for the EWSS and experienced a reduction in turnover as a direct effect of these new restrictions. With these restrictions now lifted from 21st January, many businesses have returned to normal, and the EWSS rates are now changing in line with this.

Changes to the EWSS from 1st February

From 1st February we will begin to see a gradual reduction in subsidy rates up until the scheme ends for all businesses in May. The EWSS rates which businesses are eligible to receive will depend on whether or not they were one of the businesses that were directly impacted by the COVID-19 regulations which were introduced in December.

The reduced rate of employer’s PRSI of 0.5% will continue to apply to wages paid before 1 March 2022 in relation to those who are eligible for the subsidy payment. The full rate of employers’ PRSI will be reinstated with effect from 1 March 2022 for all businesses.

Rates from 1st February for businesses directly impacted

For businesses that were directly impacted by the COVID-19 regulations that were introduced in December 2021, they will continue to receive the enhanced EWSS rates for the month of February, as outlined in the table below. For the month of March, the EWSS rates will revert to the original two-rate subsidy of €151.50 for employees with a gross weekly wage of between €151.50 to €202.99 and €203 for employees with a gross weekly wage of between €203 and €1461.99. For the months of April and May, businesses will receive a flat rate of €100 per employee. The scheme will eventually end for these businesses on 31st May 2022.

Rates from 1st February for other businesses

For businesses that were not directly impacted by the COVID-19 regulations that were introduced in December 2021, the enhanced subsidy rate will end on 31st January, and they will receive the two-rate subsidy for the month of February. For the months of March and April, these businesses will receive a flat rate of €100 per employee. The scheme will then end for these businesses on 30th April 2022.

Note: Revenue are working on updating their systems to cater for these changes. A BrightPay upgrade will also be released in line with these new changes.

EWSS Webinar

On February 4th, BrightPay will be holding a free online webinar where we will be joined by representatives from Revenue to discuss recent EWSS changes and the updated guidance for employers. We will also have a questions and answers section at the end of the webinar where we will answer any questions you may have regarding the scheme.

Posted byElaine CarrollinEmployment UpdateWages