Introducing BrightPay’s New Accounting API Features

We are delighted to announce BrightPay’s new API integration with AccountsIQ, Quickbooks Online, Sage Business Cloud Accounting and Xero. BrightPay's new payroll journal feature allows users to create wages journals from the finalised payslips for upload into specific accounting software. BrightPay will still continue to offer the option of a CSV journal.

Are APIs useful?

APIs are the little pieces of code that make it possible for software applications to talk with each other. With this direct integration, users will be able to directly send the payroll journal to the accounting package from within BrightPay. APIs make this background communication possible. So, it’s very useful for the end-user as it eliminates the need to export the CSV file from the payroll software and import it into the accounting system, saving time and reducing the risk of errors.

Interested in finding out more?

Stop copying the same figures from the payroll into your accounting software! Discover how you can free up time for you to spend on other tasks that really need your attention. Book a free 15-minute online demo now to find out more.

Related Articles:

• What's New in BrightPay 2021?
• Going paperless: how an employee app can help
• Online Payslips: Their benefits and why you should use them

Posted byHolly McHughinNew Features

PAYE Modernisation – 2 years on

The new Irish PAYE system, PAYE Modernisation is now over two and a half years old. Where has the time gone? It feels like only a few short months ago that the deadline was fast approaching. It first launched on the 1st of January 2019 with the goal of delivering Real Time Reporting (RTR) in payroll and putting a bigger focus on payroll compliance for all businesses. The change was well overdue as the Irish PAYE system had no major alterations since 1960 when it was first introduced. So, with that in mind, let's look back on the impact PAYE Modernisation has had over the past two years.

The key changes

All of the ‘P Forms’ - P30s, P35s, P60s, P45s and P46s - were abolished. These forms were previously used when an employee left a job (P45) and given a yearly statement by the employer of each employee’s annual pay and deductions (P60). They were replaced by real time submissions to Revenue. In most cases, this means a file will be submitted either weekly or monthly to Revenue by the employer or payroll processor.

The retrieval of tax credits also changed, with the introduction of Revenue Payroll Notifications (RPNs). Employers must use the most up to date RPN when calculating employees’ pay and deductions each pay period which will update any changes to an employee’s tax credit or cut-off points. This process is made easier when completed through payroll software. Revenue’s annual report released in April 2021, stated that in 2020, there were 8 million Revenue Payroll Notifications (RPNs) requested and 6.1 million successful payroll submissions.

The benefits

PAYE Modernisation has improved the accuracy and transparency of the PAYE system. It has benefited employees, employers and Revenue. Submitting information in real-time reduces tax underpayments and overpayments for employees, reduces admin work for employers and ensures that Revenue systems are accurate and up to date at all times.

Did PAYE Modernisation affect employees?

Since the introduction of PAYE Modernisation, employees can log in to Revenue (MyAccount) and view what has been submitted in relation to them by their employer. Employees can allocate their credits and cut-offs between multiple employments themselves. At the end of each year, they can view their Employment Detail Summary (formerly P60) which is automatically available to employees in January each year.

Payroll software that caters for PAYE Modernisation

BrightPay is at the forefront when it comes to PAYE Modernisation compliant payroll software. BrightPay works directly with Revenue to ensure our payroll software is fully PAYE Modernisation compliant. BrightPay ensures that the correct payroll files are produced and seamlessly submitted to Revenue. The Revenue Commissioners are strongly recommending that businesses ensure that they are using software that caters for the requirements of PAYE Modernisation. Visit BrightPay’s FAQ section where the most common questions relating to PAYE Modernisation are answered.

Discover more 

Book a free 15-minute online demo of BrightPay and find out how the PAYE Modernisation process is made easier when completed through payroll software.

Related articles:

• Common questions – PAYE Modernisation
• Manually calculating PAYE Modernisation
• Automatic enrolment delayed until at least 2023 

Posted byHolly McHughinPAYE Modernisation

BrightPay Customer Update: July 2021

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

• EWSS changes under Ireland’s Economic Recovery Plan

• The key to managing the annual leave backlog 

• Ransomware: How to protect your payroll data 

Automatic Enrolment Delayed until 2023  

The introduction of automatic enrolment in Ireland will be delayed until at least 2023. When introduced, this will mean by law, that employers will have to enrol their employees in a workplace pension scheme.

Let’s Get Topical – The Vaccine Policy 

One year on, the impact of COVID-19 on the employment landscape is hugely significant and has brought about many changes, especially the provisions of an employment contract. This is why Bright Contracts has been a saving grace for many employers as it regularly updates all contract and handbook content.

To get an insight into what Bright Contracts can do, you can watch our video and you can also download a trial version of the software first to get a look at the content and layout. 

Posted byHolly McHughinCustomer Update

EWSS changes under Ireland’s Economic Recovery Plan

On the 1st of June 2021, the Government announced that the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) would be extended until the 30th of December 2021 to support businesses as they continue to reopen and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The rates below will continue for July, August and September 2021.

A decision on the subsidy rates that will apply for October 2021 onwards, is expected to be announced toward the end of August or early September.

The Government have set out an economic recovery plan for Ireland with measures to help businesses who have experienced significant negative economic disruption due to COVID-19 with a minimum of a 30% decline in turnover or in customer orders. The period for this been extended from 6 months to 12 months under the new recovery plan. If you are unsure whether you are within the guidelines or need more clarity, please see further Revenue guidance.

Although the EWSS is a subsidy payable to employers only and will not impact employee payslips, the scheme must still be administered through the payroll. Employers must operate PAYE on all payments, including regular deduction of income tax, USC and employee PRSI from your employees’ pay. With BrightPay payroll software you can simply tick that you wish to 'claim EWSS subsidy for this employee in this pay period' when processing the payroll.

Remember, you must continue to review your eligibility status on the last day of every month to ensure you continue to meet the eligibility criteria. If you no longer qualify, you should de-register for EWSS with effect from the following day and untick the EWSS tickbox in the payroll software.

Want to find out more about the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme? Register for our next webinar on the 27th of July where our panel of payroll and HR experts will answer any questions that you may have.

Related articles:

• Returning to work and the (controversial) vaccine policy
• How to Manage the Annual Leave Backlog as the Country Reopens
• Online Payslips: Their benefits and why you should use them

Avoid Annual Leave Backlog

Managers will likely be in a situation where many employees will request to take leave at the same time. Whether it’s during the summer months, winter months or during school holidays, there will be higher demand at certain times of the year. But how do you handle it?

Employers should have a clear policy on holiday requests. Typically, a “first-come, first-served” approach works well. While it might not be possible to please everyone and give them their requested time off, it is important that you deal with annual leave requests in a way that is transparent and fair to all employees.

With the average annual leave in Ireland at 4 weeks per year, a recent survey from Irishjob.ie revealed that the average employee only uses 60% of their full annual leave per year. Not taking the full allocation of annual leave has absolutely no benefit for employees. It also has no benefit for employers as if staff are not taking enough rest throughout the year it can lead to burn out and unproductivity. Employees should be encouraged to take their full annual leave days every year to avoid this.

Where possible, managers should allow and accept the annual leave requested. However, managers have the right to decline holiday requests (with the correct notice) if the timing of leave would result in the business being understaffed and unmanageable.

If your business is faced with a high demand for annual leave for certain time periods every year, you can require employees to take annual leave on dates chosen by the employer. Employers must give the employee at least one month notice before the period of leave requested.

By introducing BrightPay Connect, employees can access a self-service portal via an app on their smartphone or tablet device. They will be able to request leave 24/7 from anywhere, meaning they don’t need to be in the workplace to request leave. When an employee requests leave, the employer will get a notification to login to their online portal to approve or reject the leave. The requests will be time stamped so you can see the order in which they come in. Employers can access a company-wide calendar that will display all leave so that you can ensure adequate staffing before approving an annual leave request.

You can have multiple users on BrightPay Connect meaning each department/line manager can approve leave for their own department. More information on user access and permissions can be found here.

Book a 10-minute online demo of BrightPay Connect to discover how it can benefit your business.

Related articles

• How to Manage the Annual Leave Backlog as the Country Reopens
• Employee Calendar: Track Attendance at a Glance
• BrightPay Connect: More than just an annual leave tool

Posted byHolly McHughinAnnual Leave

BrightPay Customer Update: June 2021

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

• Automatic enrolment delayed until 2023 

• How to use BrightPay when working remotely

• Ransomware: How to protect your payroll data 

30 days until TWSS Reconciliation deadline  

Employers have until June 30th, 2021, to:

• Accept the reconciliation calculation issued by Revenue
• Make corrections to payslips if necessary, or
• Make an enquiry through MyEnquiries

How Cloud innovation can help simplify the payroll process  

By introducing cloud innovation to your business, employers can work more efficiently by streamlining administrative processes and delegating manual tasks to employees. Download our free guide to find out more.

Posted byHolly McHughinCustomer Update

Ransomware: How to protect your payroll data

Unfortunately, we have all become way too familiar with certain concepts over the course of the past year. Concepts such as R number, variants etc. With the recent ransomware attack on the HSE still disrupting Irish health services, the subject of ransomware is on all our minds.

One of the important lessons that we can take from ransomware is how we should have backups to quickly restore data to get back up and running as soon as possible, if data was lost after a breach.

If you use BrightPay Connect alongside our payroll software, you can be assured that you already have this covered.

All data in BrightPay Connect is stored securely within Microsoft Azure data stores, access to which have been tightly restricted to a limited set of servers and IP addresses. These data stores are replicated across multiple data centres to protect against a major data loss event impacting a particular data centre. Furthermore, the data itself is encrypted and multiple versions of your employer data are retained as a further safeguard. All traffic into and out of BrightPay Connect is encrypted using SSL and we undergo regular penetration testing to ensure our public-facing applications are secure and resilient.

This should provide some comfort for you if you are already using BrightPay Connect.

If the payroll data on your own device is compromised, it should be worthless as many of the key fields (e.g. PPSN, names, bank details) are already encrypted within the software.

If you do not use BrightPay Connect, please ensure that you keep regular external backups of your data. You might even consider using BrightPay Connect for this. View the pricing model for BrightPay Connect where users are billed on a monthly subscription, based on usage where you only pay for what you use.

There are many other BrightPay Connect benefits that we would be delighted to show you on a free 15-minute demo. Book now.

Related Articles:

• What is BrightPay Connect?
• How to Manage the Annual Leave Backlog as the Country Reopen
• Online Payslips: Their benefits and why you should use them

Automatic enrolment delayed until at least 2023

The introduction of automatic enrolment in Ireland will be delayed until at least 2023. The scheme's purpose is for workers to supplement their state pension as a shocking 40% of private sectors workers rely solely on the state pension to fund their retirement. This will mean by law, that employers will have to enrol their employees in a workplace pension scheme. Auto enrolment was supposed to be introduced at the beginning of 2021. It’s now looking like it will be rolled out in 2023, but it could be extended yet again as the full details for auto enrolment are still being ironed out by the government.

How will auto enrolment work in Ireland?

During the phased roll out of auto enrolment, employees will be required to make initial minimum default pension contributions of 1.5% of their qualifying earnings, increasing by 1.5 percentage points every 3 years thereafter to a maximum contribution of 6% at the beginning of year 10.

Employers will be required to make matching (tax deductible) pension contributions on behalf of the employee at the specified contribution rate to help fund their retirement. This means that employees, employers and the State will each contribute to the member’s account.

What are the criteria?

Employees between the ages of 23 and 60 who earn €20,000 or more per annum (across all employments) will be automatically enrolled into a pension scheme with no waiting period. All employees outside of these criteria may opt in themselves. Mandatory auto enrolment requirements won’t apply to any employee who is already a member of a pension scheme, provided the scheme meets certain minimum standards.

Automatic enrolment will be an earnings-related workplace savings system where employees will retain the freedom to opt out if they wish.

Can I prepare for auto enrolment?

It's important that employers understand what they need to do and prepare early. Employers should educate themselves on auto enrolment and familiarise themselves with the terminology. Businesses may need to think about one-off costs to set up an auto enrolment pension scheme, as well as the ongoing cost of paying money into the scheme and managing the process.

If you are a new business and employing staff for the first time after auto enrolment is introduced, your legal duties for automatic enrolment will begin on the day your first member of staff starts work. There will be guidance and support available to ensure that businesses comply with auto enrolment.

Will my payroll software cater for this?

If you’re fortunate enough to use a good payroll software then this will handle and automate the administrative duties for you. With BrightPay, there will be no additional charge for any of the auto enrolment features. All of this will be included as part of your payroll software package, which also includes free customer phone and email support.

At BrightPay, we already experienced the rollout of auto enrolment in the UK. Auto enrolment phased in at the beginning of October 2012, starting with the larger UK companies. Every company in the UK enrolled employees into a pension scheme by 1st February 2018. BrightPay UK introduced auto enrolment features which enabled users to automate and simplify the entire process, so we are already experts in the field and well prepared for the rollout in Ireland.

The extension of auto enrolment beyond 2023 looks very possible as the target market for auto enrolment is younger, lower-paid workers in sectors such as Wholesale and Retail Trade, Accommodation and Food Services, Construction and Industry. These sectors have been worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Adding an extra cost to these employers and employees who have been living off the pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) for the past year, to suddenly start paying into a pension fund, seems unfair and unlikely.

Related Articles:

• Online Payslips: Their benefits and why you should use them
• Four ways to introduce payroll as a service to clients
• Make Sure Your Business Is Doing These 5 Things Before You Bring Employees Back

Posted byHolly McHughinAuto Enrolment

BrightPay Customer Update: May 2021

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

• BrightPay marks Earth Day 2021 

• Webinar on demand: TWSS Reconciliation & EWSS Changes 

• BrightPay and working from home 

BrightPay celebrates Earth Day 2021 

At BrightPay we are committed to a cleaner, greener future for all. Our Green Team celebrated Earth Day 2021 with a number of activities planned throughout the whole week. Here's what we got up to.

Posted byHolly McHughinCustomer Update

BrightPay Customer Update: April 2021

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

• Does the TWSS Reconciliation affect me?

• Online Payslips: Their benefits and why you should use them

• 1 Year On – COVID-19 & Working from Home

Greener Supply Chain with BrightPay 

Here at BrightPay we take environmental responsibility very seriously and are committed to developing our business towards ecological sustainability at both a company and an individual level. Our new carbon efficient offices will open in 2021. We have also recently established a passionate Green Team to educate, promote and inspire sustainability to our employees and our loyal customers Subscribe to BrightPay’s sustainability newsletter to follow our journey.

Posted byHolly McHughinCustomer Update