Mar 2021
30
How does the TWSS Reconciliation affect me?
Are you wondering why you now owe Revenue money as a result of The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS)?
For the first 6 weeks of the TWSS back in March 2020, during the transitional phase, Revenue refunded a flat rate of €410 per employee per pay period, regardless of the employees' earnings. In a lot of cases this €410 exceeded the subsidy that the employee was entitled to receive, and it was made very clear from the start that there would be a reconciliation to rectify this overpayment.
The scheme was designed to assist employers and employees impacted by COVID-19, and to encourage companies to keep their workers on the payroll. If you didn’t avail of the TWSS then you won’t have a TWSS reconciliation.
On Monday 22nd March 2021, Revenue advised that most employers can now access their TWSS reconciliation balances in Revenue’s Online Service (ROS). The reconciliation balance is based on the actual information provided to Revenue by the employer.
The TWSS reconciliation period opened on 22 March 2021 and employers have until the end of June to review and accept the reconciliation amounts. Revenue are strongly recommending that employers take the time to read & understand the guidance before accepting the reconciliation amounts.
Approximately 40% of the employers that availed of TWSS are balanced. Revenue have said they will not pursue companies that owe a balance of under €500 as they will be considered balanced.
BrightPay hosted a TWSS reconciliation webinar with guest speakers from Revenue on 24th March 2021. During the webinar, we discussed the reconciliation process and had a Questions & Answers session at the end. Watch the webinar on-demand now.
You can also click here to register for our next webinar, which takes place on 21st April 2021
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Mar 2021
16
TWSS Reconciliation – An Important Update
One year after the introduction of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), the Revenue reconciliation process is finally underway. Revenue have now compared the total subsidy amounts paid to employees, against the subsidy amounts paid to the employer. This has allowed Revenue to determine the amount of TWSS owed back to Revenue from employers.
All employers who availed of the TWSS will receive a Statement of Account in their ROS inbox on Monday 22nd March 2021. Employers will have until the end of June to review the detailed information and accept the reconciliation amounts. Once you have accepted the reconciliation calculation, you will either be paid any additional amount due to you by Revenue or be required to repay any amount that you owe to Revenue.
Free Webinar
Join Thesaurus Software for a free webinar on Wednesday 24th March at 10.30 am. In this webinar, we will be joined by a guest speaker from Revenue who will discuss what you need to know about the TWSS reconciliation process. Plus, we will demonstrate how to cross-check reconciliation amounts with the payroll software and how payroll automation can help your business during COVID-19.
Agenda
- TWSS Reconciliation Process
- Reconciling amounts in Thesaurus Payroll Manager
- Reconciling amounts in BrightPay
- How payroll automation can help you with COVID-19
*** High demand for this webinar. Book your place now to avoid disappointment. ***
If you are unable to attend the webinar at the specified time, simply register and we will send you the recording afterwards.
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- COVID-19 & Working from Home - 1 Year On
- EWSS Q&A - Common Support Queries
- Lockdown 3.0 - What have payroll processors learned?
Mar 2021
12
Online Payslips: Their benefits and why you should use them
Why switch to online payslips?
Online payslips have a number of benefits
The best payroll software not only makes processing payroll easy but also allows employees to quickly access their payslips. Gone are the days when payslips were printed and manually sent out by post. These days employees look for easy and immediate access to their wage information.
BrightPay Connect, an optional cloud portal that integrates with BrightPay payroll, provides new useful and impressive features. It allows you to secure your payroll data to the cloud and provides employers and employees with their own payroll dashboard which can be accessed through the web or by a smartphone app. Offering payslips online can bring numerous advantages to your business. Let’s take a look at five benefits of having payslips in the cloud.
1. Saves Time
BrightPay Connect and BrightPay payroll software are fully integrated. This means that once you’ve finalised the pay period on BrightPay, the payslips will automatically appear in the online portal according to your specified date and time settings. Your payroll processor no longer needs to spend time emailing or printing payslips. With BrightPay Connect, it’s quick and automatic.
2. Cost-Effective
Electronic payslips are cost-effective. You can reduce your spend on paper, print and postage. Even better, you can save money on labour time too. Less time spent on yet another administrative task frees up your employees so they can concentrate on more urgent responsibilities.
3. Environmentally Friendly
Switching to online payslips is an easy and quick win to help make your business more green. By providing payslips through a cloud portal, you can reduce the amount of waste you produce. Creating an environmentally friendly work environment also has the added benefit of appealing to employees who are eco-conscious.
4. Ensures GDPR Compliance
Payroll data contains sensitive personal information that must comply with all requirements set out by the GDPR. For instance, in the case of emailing payslips you are required to password protect them and set unique passwords for each employee. However, if you want to simplify the process while ensuring you’re compliant with the GDPR and all of its requirements, then using a secure cloud portal is the solution. Using BrightPay Connect, you can be assured you are GDPR compliant.
5. Cloud Security
Not only does BrightPay Connect ensure GDPR compliance but it also makes sure your employee data is protected from cyber-attacks, such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, authentication hacking, exposure flaws and request forgery. By utilising Microsoft Azure, BrightPay Connect keeps your employee’s payslip information safe when it is in transit and when it’s being stored.
Book a demo of BrightPay Connect today to discover more features that can help you streamline your payroll and HR processes.
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Mar 2021
10
COVID-19 & Working from Home - 1 Year On
It’s been exactly one year since BrightPay sent all employees to work from home for 2 weeks as a mysterious flu-like disease called COVID-19 began spreading across Ireland and the UK. Those 2 weeks have turned in 52 weeks... and counting.
On March 10th 2020, employees were given access to all the tools and resources needed to work from home well in advance of the lockdown panic that came towards the end of March 2020. BrightPay worked with employees to try and strike a balance between ensuring employees could be productive and focused when not in the office, whilst also juggling often hectic home lives as we all adjusted to lockdown. Keeping in-touch and keeping moral up was a key priority.
The company was in a fortunate position to be able to continue employing all members of staff during such a scary and uncertain time. BrightPay’s COVID-19 response plan involved additional staffing and increased hours to assist customers. With payroll being an essential service and part of every business, the show had to go on!
BrightPay has been at the forefront for employers and accountants when it comes to The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and were the first payroll software provider to release software upgrades to cater for the schemes as changes were announced. BrightPay’s overall response to COVID-19 was rated 98.6% in a recent customer survey, and this included payroll upgrades, webinars, online guidance and customer support.
BrightPay won the COVID-19 Hero Award (supplier) at the Accounting Excellence Awards that took place recently. There were a number of criteria that were considered by the panel for this award. Judging took into account the speed, time and relevance of businesses’ COVID-19 response and how many customers accessed it.
Despite all the COVID-19 scheme changes, upgrades and webinars, the developers have been kept busy constantly improving the software and introducing new features. BrightPay’s optional add-on product, BrightPay Connect now supports two-factor authentication sign in. This means you can add an extra layer of security to the employer login on your BrightPay Connect account in case your password is stolen.
As remote and flexible working are now the new normal, BrightPay in tandem with BrightPay Connect now allows for a completely seamless "working from home" experience where there are multiple individuals who work on or require access to the same employer files. BrightPay Connect can help you prevent conflicting copies of the payroll, including an ‘other user check’ and a ‘version check’ when opening the payroll.
Let’s hope we all return to a somewhat normal life within the next year, and that I won’t be writing ‘working from home 104 weeks later’ this time next year. BrightPay wishes you the very best as we enter Year 2 of living with COVID-19.
If you are looking to change payroll software provider or looking to bring your payroll in-house, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Book a free 15-minute online demo to see how BrightPay can change your world of payroll.
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- Lockdown 3.0 - What have we learned?
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Mar 2021
8
International Women’s Day 2021
Thesaurus Software is proud to be supporting International Women’s Day 2021.
The theme of International Women’s Day this year is “Choose to Challenge”, a theme we wholeheartedly agree with. When we challenge the norms, the status quo, the “because that’s just the way it is”, we create change. At Thesaurus Software we firmly believe that change is necessary for development and improvement, so much so that it is embedded in our core values.
This year we are enhancing our Inclusion and Diversity efforts, in the hope that all staff will feel comfortable in bringing their whole self to work. International Women’s Day is our first day of celebration this year, our aim is not only to celebrate our women, but to raise awareness of inclusion more generally.
Promoting Gender Equality at Thesaurus
We are proud to say that we have always had a strong representation of women right across our company.
Our senior management team is 66% female. Across the Company as a whole, we are 64% female.
As we grow, we are continuously looking at how we can best assist our employees to grow and be themselves. In the last six months, we have introduced two key initiatives which help us achieve this.
- Firstly, LinkedIn Learning has been made available to all employees. LinkedIn Learning has been a game-changer for our employees and opened the window on learning and awareness.
- Secondly, we have just introduced paid maternity and paternity leave. We really hope that this will help new parents to be successful both at work and at home.
Our Female Leaders
We asked some of our female leaders for their thoughts on working in leadership;
“It’s important that all managers inspire, engage, and encourage their team. This is what I strive for. As a female manager, I’m very privileged to work for a company that recognises and promotes these values for both men and women equally. Females in any workplace should never underestimate what they are capable of achieving” - Karen Bennett, Chief Commercial Officer
“My advice to my 20-year-old self would be to think of your career as a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t ever settle on the first job or career path you undertake, if you are not invested in it. Allow yourself the time to discover what are you passionate about doing. Finding a job that I love has certainly helped me reach the point in my career that I’m at today.” - Victoria Clarke, Product Development Manager
“As a woman working for Thesaurus Software for the past 23 years and fast approaching retirement, I feel I am now entering the most exciting period of my career at Thesaurus Software and rather than winding down, the journey forward in this fast-growing company, supported by our amazing CEO, Paul Byrne has no limits.” - Ann Tighe, Senior Business Development Manager
“Working at Thesaurus as a woman in management, I feel inspired by other female leaders and peers within the company to lead my team with the same encouragement I feel every day. I have always felt hugely supported as a woman within Thesaurus which has provided me with the tools I need to motivate and empower my team, particularly as I progressed into the management role.” - Cailin Reilly, Sales Manager
“After joining Thesaurus Software as a Marketing Intern, I never thought that I would be where I am today after just 6 years. Working at Thesaurus Software has really given me the opportunity to progress, both in terms of personal and professional development. No two years have been the same and it has been an exciting time to be part of the team, helping the company grow to where it is today.” - Rachel Hynes, Marketing Manager
IWD 2021 in Thesaurus
Some of our fantastic team have taken part in the IWD challenge, standing up socially distantly and choosing to challenge. See their fab pictures below.
This year, we will also be using our LinkedIn Learning platform to raise awareness around inclusion and equity in the workplace. We have a series of short informative videos addressing a range of topics that we will share with staff remotely during March.
Our message to all our employees today is, bring your whole self to work, your thoughts and ideas are valued, we love to hear them. Working together, trusting, respecting and supporting each other we can only do great things.
