Nov 2022
30
Security alert! 5 steps to protect your payroll data
Cyber-security is a serious matter and should be at the forefront of any business. This is especially important for accounting firms and payroll bureaus as they process sensitive personal and financial data. Almost everything is stored online and accessible at your fingertips, so just how safe is your clients’ payroll data and their employees’ payslips? Here are five simple steps you can implement to start improving the security of your payroll data today.
Where is your payroll data stored?
When you process your clients’ payroll, do you know where the data gets stored? A recent study by IPASS and Intelligo showed that 14% of Irish payroll processors don't know where their data is stored. Whether it’s stored to an external hard drive or on your computer’s hard drive, either of these options can pose security threats. What would happen if your laptop was stolen? Or if your computer was hacked? It’s important more than ever nowadays to store such data on a platform that has both the credibility and reputation behind it, to ensure your clients’ payroll data is kept safe and secure at all times.
On top of that, are your clients' employees' payslips as secure as they could be? For example, do you manually send them via email or print them out in the office? These can both pose security risks and could result in a data breach. From emailing a payslip to the wrong person, to someone around the office viewing a payslip without the employee's expressed permission.
Store important payroll reports out of harm’s way
Payslips aren’t the only thing bureaus and accountants should be worried about. Payroll reports also contain sensitive data, that if exposed to the wrong person, could have detrimental effects. There are users across the internet who are constantly trying to access such information too. For example, for Irish payroll processors:
- 31% have received correspondence from people impersonating employees
- 26% have been targeted in phishing scams
- 57% feel they have been targeted in some way
Let clients’ employees access their data themselves
We are all human and we all make mistakes. Have you ever sent the wrong payslip to an employee, or sent an email to the wrong client? All it takes is one click or one download to expose your client’s data to the wrong users. That’s why one of the best ways you can improve security is by letting clients and clients’ employees have more access to their own payroll information.
Did you know that 7% of enquiries from Irish employees are to check their holiday balance and 10% are because they have forgotten the password for their emailed payslip? Introducing a tool to clients such as an employee app can allow their employees to access payslips 24/7, which aligns with GDPR best practices and saves you time in the long run as you no longer need to deal with such enquiries.
Have better support in place for hybrid working clients
Now that 18% of payroll processors are working either remote or hybrid models, this leaves more risk for data such as payslips, employee details and other sensitive information to be sent to the wrong emails or exposed to the wrong people. Putting a system in place that can prevent these data breaches can help boost the security of your clients' payroll data and save your bureau’s reputation.
An example of such a system could be letting clients enter any updated payroll information to a secure online portal, each pay period. This allows the client to securely enter their employees’ hours, any additions or deductions, add any new starter details, for that pay period. It’s all done through an online portal too, where the client can enter these details from anywhere. This reduces the likelihood of clients’ payroll data being exposed to unauthorised users via email, WhatsApp, or paper-based files laying around the office.
Follow GDPR best practices
If you’re wondering does sending an employee’s payslip to the wrong email address count as a data breach, the short answer is yes. GDPR breaches are more common than you may think, and regardless of whether you’re aware of it or not – every business across the nation is at risk. For example, in 2020, Tusla became the ever first Irish company to be given a fine for a GDPR rule breach and it cost the company €75,000.
Data breaches range in severity and not only threaten your client’s payroll data safety, but also your bureau’s reputation. Here are some common examples of data breaches:
- Sending one of your client’s reports to another client, without their expressed permission
- Your computer gets stolen and client information is leaked to unauthorised third parties
- Staff’s personal information is altered without their expressed permission
Letting staff have more control over their personal data, by using tools such as employee apps, and providing clients with transparency on where and how their data is stored aligns with GDPR best practices.
Which payroll software is best for security?
All of the issues mentioned above can be dealt with by using BrightPay’s cloud extension, BrightPay Connect. With BrightPay Connect, your data is backed up to a secure Microsoft Azure server, where your clients and their employees have access to their own data through a self-service employer dashboard and a self-service employee app. You can also:
- Automatically back up clients’ data, while you work
- Provide clients access to a payroll and HR portal, where their employees can access payslips and HR documents securely from their smartphones
- Integrate your payroll software with a wide variety of accounting software and pension providers
BrightPay is a multi-award-winning payroll software and one of Ireland’s leading providers of payroll software for accountants. Why not sign up for a free 15-minute demo of our cloud extension, BrightPay Connect, to see how it can improve your online security today.
Nov 2022
14
5 Tips to Improve your Accountancy Practice
As an accountancy practice owner, improving efficiency and increasing revenue are your main goals. However, this can be quite a difficult task as there are daily hurdles you may face which can hamper performance.
In the day to day running of your business, you may have to juggle many tasks such as processing payroll, bookkeeping, preparing financial statements and taxation services, keeping on top of it all can be difficult. In this article, we look at payroll and how the process can be streamlined for accountants, allowing you more time to spend on other tasks.
1. Say goodbye to manual data entry
Traditionally, you would manually enter clients’ payroll data into your payroll software, each pay period. This can be a very tedious and time-consuming task, which is also prone to human error. Thanks to award winning payroll software, BrightPay, and it’s cloud extension, BrightPay Connect, you can say goodbye to manual data entry, and say hello to a more automated payroll workflow. Through BrightPay Connect’s online dashboard, clients can view a summary of their payroll information before the payroll is finalised. This allows your clients to check for any possible errors or send you information on any changes that should be made to the payroll for that period. This can all be done directly through BrightPay Connect’s online portal; improving your payroll accuracy and reducing the chance of payroll errors occurring.
2. Automatic cloud backup
In an era where cyberattacks and data breaches are on the increase, backing up and securing your data has never been more important. According to a 2022 survey by Censuswide, 95% of Irish SME’s were hit by cyberattacks in the past year. In light of this, it’s important that every Irish accounting firm has measures in place to protect their clients’ data. Payroll software, BrightPay, has a cloud extension, BrightPay Connect, which can help solve this problem.
With BrightPay Connect, you no longer need to worry about manually backing up your payroll data. BrightPay Connect will automatically back up your payroll data to the cloud every 15 minutes and once again whenever you close out of a payroll file. This ensures that your clients’ payroll data is safe and secure. BrightPay Connect uses one of the world's most trusted cloud servers, Microsoft Azure, to store data. Backups can be restored at any time, through BrightPay Connect’s online dashboard.
3. Employer dashboard
Reducing your workload and saving time for other tasks is a goal for most accountants. With BrightPay Connect’s, online employer dashboard, accountants can work more efficiently by sharing payslips with their clients automatically through the portal, once payslips have been finalised. This process removes the manual workload and saves you time each pay period. Additionally, through the employer dashboard, clients can run their own payroll reports, meaning they won’t have to come to you when they need that information.
4. Integration with accounting software
Reducing the time you spend on time-consuming tasks such as transferring data from one system to another is vital. There can be a lot of time wasted on the double entry of payroll figures, when you should only really have to enter this information once.
It’s important that you use payroll and bookkeeping software that communicates with one another to remove the workload that comes with manually entering data. BrightPay’s integration with accounting software, Surf Accounts, is a great example of this. By connecting BrightPay to Surf Accounts, you can automatically send your payroll journals to the general ledger in Surf Accounts. This reduces errors by eliminating the need to reenter employee payroll data into your accounting software.
5. Pay your clients faster
Ensuring your clients’ employees are paid on time every week or month is one of the most important aspects of your payroll services. If there are delays in employees getting their wages, you will have unhappy clients with unhappy employees. This could damage your practice’s reputation, and you could potentially lose valuable clients.
Traditionally, it would take 1-3 business days for payments to be processed when paying employees by credit transfer. However, thanks to BrightPay’s integration with payment platform, Modulr, this process can be sped up dramatically. Modulr’s easy-to-use service allows you to make same-day payments to employees, when processed before 2.00 pm, cutting time spent manually processing payments and keeping both you, your clients and your clients’ employees happy.
BrightPay and BrightPay Connect users have a wide variety of tools at their disposal to help improve their payroll services. Not only will these features help save you time, but they can open up an opportunity to offer new services to clients and a new stream of revenue for your practice.
Why not book a free demo of BrightPay Connect today and discover how you can improve your accountancy practice and not be left behind.
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Nov 2022
9
How an employee-app can help you manage HR responsibilities
As an employer, juggling all of your tasks can be quite difficult. Duties such as managing your employees and processing payroll can leave you feeling stressed. Without a HR department, these tasks can be very time consuming.
If hiring HR staff isn’t possible, the next best thing is an online employer dashboard and an employee self-service app that can help you manage your HR tasks, all from one place. Payroll software, BrightPay, has a cloud-extension called BrightPay Connect, which is an easy-to-use software that can act as an alternative to a HR department in your business.
Annual leave management
When employees want to book annual leave, often they have to request it by filling out a document, sending the request by email, or they may ask for the time off in person. Before dealing with the request, the employer may need to check what other employees are on leave at that time, and the employee could be left waiting for days or weeks to hear if their request had been granted. As well as this, with face-to-face requests, if not dealt with straight away, it’s easy for them to slip your mind. Processes like these can be inefficient and lead to employees being dissatisfied.
With BrightPay Connect, your employees have access to an online dashboard and a self-service app, where they can request time off from their laptop, tablet or smartphone, in just a few clicks. Once approved, the leave request will flow directly into the payroll software, eliminating the need for you to make any changes to your employees’ payroll information. This feature can help you manage and organise your employees’ leave more efficiently.
From the employer dashboard, you can view a companywide calendar where you can keep track of all types of employees’ leave, be that annual leave, sick leave, maternity leave or other types of leave.
Manage payslip distribution
In the digital world, distributing your employees’ payslips by paper or even email is now a thing of the past. Using these methods of distributing employees’ payslips can put your employees’ information at risk of a security breach. For example, paper payslips can easily fall into the wrong hands, or an email can be sent to the wrong email address. When you use BrightPay Connect, payslips are automatically shared with employees through a secure online portal. Employees will receive a push notification on their smartphone device when a new payslip becomes available, or they can log into BrightPay Connect through an internet browser to view their payslips. Additionally, BrightPay Connect keeps a history of your employees’ payslips which they can view or download at any time. This is convenient for both parties as it means employees won’t need to come to you to request copies of past payslips if they needed them for a loan or mortgage application, for example.
Manage and store important company handbooks
Do you find it difficult to get your employees to read important company updates or HR documents? BrightPay Connect enables you to send important updates to your employees via the employee self-service app, in a few clicks. You can share personal documents with individual employees such as a contract of employment, or you can share documents with multiple employees at the same time, such as a staff handbook or company policies. Through your own dashboard, you can see who has and hasn’t opened these documents, which makes it easy for you to track who has read them.
BrightPay Connect is a powerful cloud-extension that enables you to operate your business with ease. The online employer dashboard and the employee self-service app enables you to manage your employees’ leave requests, easily distribute your employees’ payslips and share documents with employees. As well as these HR benefits, through BrightPay Connect’s online dashboard, you have online access to your payroll data. BrightPay Connect automatically backs up your payroll data to the cloud every 15 minutes or each time you close out of the software.
If you are interested in learning more about BrightPay Connect, why not book a free 15-minute demo of the cloud software today and see how it can improve your business.
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