Nov 2019
29
BrightPay awarded 'Payroll Software of the Year 2019'
BrightPay was announced as the WINNER of ‘Payroll Software of the Year 2019’ at the ICB Luca Awards.
The annual LUCA Awards recognise outstanding achievement in the bookkeeping world, where ICB members and students vote in an online ballot to decide the winners of the awards. This year, BrightPay was awarded Payroll Software of the Year, over shortlisted contenders Moneysoft, Sage and Xero.
The awards took place earlier this week, during the annual two-day Bookkeepers Summit, where the BrightPay team had great feedback from the ICB members who are using BrightPay.
Payroll Software you can trust…
The award comes just one year after BrightPay was announced as the winner of ‘Payroll Software of the Year’ 2018 at the AccountingWEB Software Excellence Awards.
With over 25 years of payroll experience, our products are used to process the payroll for over 320,000 businesses across Ireland and the UK. BrightPay also has an impressive 99% customer satisfaction rate and a 5-star rating on Software Advice.
Book a demo today to discover how BrightPay’s award-winning software can improve your payroll processes and save you time.
Nov 2019
29
BrightPay Customer Update: December 2019
Welcome to our December update where you will find out about the latest hot topics and events affecting payroll. Our most important news this month include:
- How will auto enrolment affect you in 2022?
- BrightPay Connect monthly subscription pricing - How does it work?
- 2019 HR & Employment Law Landscape - What you need to know
Plans to auto-enrol workers in pension schemes by 2022
In 2022, all employers are likely to have certain auto enrolment mandatory duties to complete by law. As a nation, we are not saving enough for our retirement. Many are planning to rely solely on their state pension which could lead to a reduced standard of living. The Irish government aims to bring in an auto enrolment system where all employers will enrol their employees into a workplace pension scheme and contribute towards the employee pension pot.
PAYE Modernisation: One year on - was it a success?
BrightPay has teamed up with Revenue for a series of free PAYE Modernisation webinars. In this webinar, we will look back on PAYE Modernisation in 2019 and decide if the new real time payroll reporting system has been a success. We’ll also deep dive into the evolution of cloud technology in payroll.
- Part 1: Discover the common mistakes employers make and learn what’s to come in 2020.
- Part 2: Learn how BrightPay Connect’s cloud platforms can improve your payroll efficiency.
Watch this short video to see how your business can benefit from BrightPay Connect
BrightPay Connect is our cloud add-on that works alongside BrightPay payroll software. Automatically store payroll information in the cloud and enable online access anywhere, anytime for you, your employees and your accountant. You will be up and running in seconds. Find out how BrightPay Connect can improve your payroll processes with a free online demo.
New BrightPay Connect Feature for Bureaus
This is what you must be offering as part of payroll (And why clients will LOVE it)
Client Payroll Entry
The Payroll Entry Request allows clients to easily and securely enter their employee’s hours, saving bureaus hours of administrative time. Additions and deductions that have been set up by the bureau in the payroll software can also be selected by the employer. All of the information included in the Payroll Entry Request (payments, additions, deductions and new starters) will seamlessly flow through to the bureau’s portal, ready for payroll processing.
Client Payroll Approval
BrightPay Connect’s Payroll Approval Request allows bureau users to securely send their clients a payroll summary before the payroll is finalised. Clients can review and authorise the payroll details for the pay period through their online employer dashboard. Ultimately, your client will be accountable for ensuring the payroll information is 100% correct before the payroll is finalised. Additionally, there is an audit trail of the requests being approved by the client.
Nov 2019
27
How cloud payroll portals can improve your cybersecurity
Until the recent past, small businesses were unlikely targets for sophisticated cyber-attacks. But in the internet era, things have changed dramatically.
SMEs are doing more business online than ever and they are using cloud services that don’t use strong encryption technology. It’s turned your average SME into a likely, lucrative target. There’s a lot of sensitive data to be had, and if it’s behind a door with an easy lock to pick then all the better.
This new reality is on display in official statistics. Over four in ten businesses (43%) and two in ten charities (19%) experienced a cybersecurity breach or attack in 2018, according to the government’s cybersecurity breaches survey.
Three-quarters of businesses (74%) and over half of all charities (53%) surveyed also identified cybersecurity as a high priority for their organisation’s senior management. It’s likely GDPR and its stiffened sanctions for breaches and blunders has a lot to do with this heightened priority.
Payroll processing is a key innovation battleground in this new era of hacks and data regulation. Clients want the convenience of online access to their payroll information, but they also demand (and require) the very best in security.
For a bureau, offering best-in-class cybersecurity is a valuable way to add and demonstrate value, with very little actual effort on your part. A bureau using the most secure cloud payroll facility will offer data security as standard.
Meanwhile, the security itself is actually handled by the software supplier and the infrastructure they provide. All you need to do is make the right choice when it comes to picking a software partner.
When using BrightPay Connect in conjunction with your BrightPay desktop application, for instance, all communication between both systems is carried out on a safe channel with maximum security.
BrightPay utilises all manner of best practice to guard against nefarious tactics such as data injection, authentication hacking, cross-site scripting, exposure flaws, request forgery, and the many other types of vulnerabilities.
BrightPay Connect utilises the Microsoft Azure platform to give users reliability, scalability, data redundancy, geo-replication and timely security updates out of the box.
As a payroll bureau, cybersecurity is a critical commercial area. You must be able to promise security to both current and prospective clients. By investing in payroll software that offers cloud integration powered by the latest tech, that’s an easy promise to keep. Being at the bleeding edge of cybersecurity has never been simpler.
Book a demo today to discover more ways that BrightPay Connect can protect your business.
Nov 2019
20
Important Pricing Update for BrightPay 2020
To ensure that our investment in technology keeps pace with Revenue’s changing landscape and to facilitate the increase in customer support resources, we are changing our pricing for 2020. This new pricing structure is designed to better match usage and support requirements with price.
Unlike many of our competitors, we’ve added hundreds of powerful features and enhancements and heavily invested in additional customer support staff, all so that you don’t have to worry. 99.9% of the time everything will run smoothly but if you ever have problems we will be there to help you. Payroll is way too important not to have a first-class backup service. We believe our pricing remains excellent value and continues to be very competitive when compared to the options from other providers.
Nov 2019
19
Can the Cloud help you attract staff?
The Cloud is the current buzz-word in technology. Employers in the know are reaping the benefits from its capabilities, including helping them attract and retain new staff.
Why is this important? Becoming an employer of choice has never been more important, especially as we are at near full employment. A quick search of any of the main job boards will show an abundance of available jobs. It’s a jobseeker’s market. The challenge for employers therefore is to attract and retain the best candidates. One way to attract and retain employees is to offer them something new, something edgy… a strong, feature-rich, cloud employee self-service system could be it.
Today’s world has gone online, everyone has social media accounts, we are all familiar with buying many of our goods and services online. This is particularly true for millenials (generally defined as those born between 1984 and 1999) who are are fast becoming the largest sector of our workforce. Understanding how to tap into their fast-paced expectations is crucial for business success.
Businesses who do not compete in this space run risks of being overlooked by prospective employees, millennials in particular. This is where employers should consider a cloud, employee self-service system. Offering online access to their annual leave calendar, their personal details, their employers details, all their HR documents and all of their payslips on their smartphones via a dedicated employee app is the smartest, most cost effective way to show your employees you are in the same digital space that they are.
Book a demo today to find out how your business can benefit from cloud self-service systems.
Nov 2019
15
Parent's Leave is here
The Government’s newest way of enabling parents spend time with their new baby came into force on 1st November 2019. This is called Parent’s leave.
What you need to know:
- This leave is currently capped at 2 weeks. The leave must be used before the child turns 1. In cases of multiple births, this leave can only be claimed once.
- It can be taken as a continuous period of 2 weeks or in 2 separate 1 week blocks.
- Parent’s leave must be taken following the end of maternity leave (paid or unpaid) or paternity leave – there cannot be a break between these leave types.
- Six weeks' notice of the intended use should be given to the employer by the employee.
- Employers are allowed postpone parent's leave in situations where taking this leave would have an adverse effect on the business. However, it cannot be postponed for more than 12 weeks.
- Parents receive a statutory payment, currently set at €245 per week (once they have the necessary PRSI contributions).
There is no requirement for employers to pay employees while on parent's leave. It will be up to each employer to decide if they want to top-up this payment. The advice would be to be consistent with approaches taken on the other family leave types.
What employers need to do now:
Company policies should now be reviewed and updated to reflect these changes. This will help you prepare for staff requests for parent’s leave. Should you get an employee request for parent’s leave, make sure you keep your paperwork & record keeping in order.
Bright Contracts has been updated with this policy so you can have peace of mind in knowing you are fully compliant with the new legislation.
Nov 2019
12
How to choose the right Cloud HR platform for your business
Choosing the right HR platform for your business can be difficult. To help you make the right decision we have highlighted five points you need to consider first.
- Cost – Migrating to the cloud should be cost-effective since it does not require you to purchase any new hardware or software. This minimizes up-front costs from the start. You want a product that can grow as you grow or that can accommodate a temporary slowdown in business so you're not paying for something you don't need or worse, find yourself outgrowing your product.
- Productivity – Along with this, you want a product that reduces man-hours, you want it to take those mundane, day-to-day HR tasks off your desk, the requests, the interruptions that distract you from getting your work done. Look for a product that facilitates multiple users. One that allows you to delegate tasks like approving holidays or grant selected access, like letting your accountant see your payroll reports or your P30 breakdown.
- Compliance – You want a product that takes into account the obligations you have as an employer, both under employment law and GDPR, and that includes features that make compliance easy, stress-free and trackable.
- Simplicity – Choose a product that removes the risk for human error in processes. Make sure it is user-friendly and that training and support is available for you to use it effectively. The best cloud vendors will provide the proper tools and education needed to migrate your data with ease.
- Connection – Pick a product with attractive employee features. Make sure your employees, current and future, know that you’re a progressive company and interested in your employee’s welfare. Your employees are not going to be excited about something unless it works for them. People nowadays expect their needs to be met through technology. Banking? Communicating? Tracking your steps? Applying for jobs? Booking a flight? It’s all online. Employees expect to be able to manage their lives online. Make sure you are right there on the cutting-edge of cloud technology!
Book a demo today to find out how BrightPay Connect can improve your business.
Nov 2019
8
BrightPay Customer Update: November 2019
Welcome to our November update where you will find out about the latest hot topics and events affecting payroll. Our most important news this month include:
-
Important Pricing Update for BrightPay 2020
-
Free Webinar - PAYE Modernisation: The story so far
-
Parent’s Leave & Benefit Bill... Paid leave is on the way for all new parents!
Important Pricing Update for BrightPay 2020
To ensure that our investment in technology keeps pace with Revenue’s changing landscape and to facilitate the increase in customer support resources, we are changing our pricing for 2020. This new pricing structure is designed to better match usage and support requirements with price.
Unlike many of our competitors, we’ve added hundreds of powerful features and enhancements and heavily invested in additional customer support staff, all so that you don’t have to worry. 99.9% of the time everything will run smoothly but if you ever have problems we will be there to help you. Payroll is way too important not to have a first-class backup service. We believe our pricing remains excellent value and continues to be very competitive when compared to the options from other providers.
Why Customers Love Us
"When I rang support, I was answered straight away, no holding, and my query answered quickly. My payroll is a joy to do, easy and quick."
Félim O'Connor, Photofast Ltd.
"Having previously used Sage payroll software, I wish that I had used BrightPay much sooner. It is such an improvement and so much easier to use."
Lynda Blake, Day-to-Day Bookkeeping
"Knowing that your exceptional customer service continues after the sale plays a big part in my decision to use and highly recommend BrightPay. Would like to say a big THANK YOU."
Eileen Mc Williams
"Best payroll software I have used. Very user friendly and the reports that can be complied are great because they can be tailored depending on what you want in the report."
Caroline Moynihan, Quiet Moment Tearooms
Free Webinar - PAYE Modernisation: The story so far
This webinar is specifically tailored for employers where we will look back on PAYE Modernisation in 2019 and decide if the new real-time payroll reporting system has been a success. We are delighted to welcome Sinead Sweeney from Revenue who will review some of the most common mistakes employers have made to date and what employers should expect in 2020.
New BrightPay Connect Subscription Pricing Model
From January 2020, customers will be billed on a usage subscription model based on the number of active employees in the billing month. Once signed up for a BrightPay Connect account, you will be invoiced monthly in arrears through our new online billing system. There are no contracts or ties. Should you decide to stop using Connect, no notice is required. Payroll Bureaus on a bureau package will be charged based on the total number of active employees in respect of clients that are synchronised to BrightPay Connect (not on a client-by-client basis). Our 2020 order system will be available shortly.
Free Webinar: Make your payroll bureau stand out with online client platforms
Discover simple ways to impress your clients and make your payroll service stand out. Grow your practice, improve efficiency and save time and money. Register for this free webinar to see how new cloud technologies are positively impacting the way bureaus offer payroll services.
