May 2022
13
5 benefits AccountancyManager can bring to your business
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Accountancy Manager has recently become part of Bright, provider of BrightPay, one of Ireland’s leading providers in accounting and payroll solutions.
AccountancyManager is an award-winning cloud-based practice management software that has taken the accountancy industry by storm. They automate the most time-consuming tasks for accountants and bookkeepers, so you can spend time on more important tasks at hand.
Their fully customisable management solution allows you to automate your admin and easily import and onboard clients in a jiffy. In just five years of business, it has become one of the UK’s leading onboarding and practice management software. Read more about the history of AccountancyManager here.
Due to the fast-paced nature of the industry, on top of the demand for practice management and process automation, Bright will now provide accountants, bookkeepers and businesses with an end-to-end suite of award-winning software.
What benefits does this merger offer accountants and bookkeepers?
This merger will provide AccountancyManager with access to additional resources, allowing them to continue investing and improving their products and services to exceed customer expectations.
AccountancyManager offers a wide scope of features for accountants, bookkeepers and businesses. These include but are not limited to:
1. Automated client emails and texts
With AccountancyManager you can say goodbye to chasing up client emails. All you have to do is create the email templates for the services you provide, and tell the system when and how often you’d like them to be sent. AccountancyManager will do all the work for you by sending them automatically, making sure they go to the right clients, at the right time.
2. Automate task management
Keep your team organised with AccountancyManager’s automatically generated task lists. These task lists are fully customisable and can be tailored to each member of your team. Each task can be broken down further, with the ability to prioritise importance and are track tasks with ease.
3. Onboarding
AccountancyManager automates your entire client onboarding process. This includes automating proposals and letters of engagements, professional clearance emails, AML checks and risk assessments.
4. Client Portal
Your clients will have access to a free online portal when you join AccountancyManager. In this portal, they can upload and sign documents via e-signatures, as well as having the ability to update their personal details and check deadlines.
5. Profitability
With AccountancyManager, you can track staff costs against your client revenue to see which jobs are the most (and least) profitable for your business. This allows you to identify your strongest profit sources as well as providing you with the opportunity to view revenue, cost of labour, hours, budget profit and actual profit.
*Bonus benefit* Notifications
AccountancyManager keeps you fully informed and up-to-date by notifying you when:
- Clients upload or sign documents
- Complete forms or update their details
- Deadlines are approaching
- New tasks are assigned to you
- Any changes made to your tasks
The Client Timeline also keeps a record of every call, text, and email sent, as well as whether or not your client has opened your email.
For further information on the features AccountancyManager can provide your business, please visit the website.
“I have been very impressed with the product offering and the reputation of AccountancyManager and I am delighted that they are joining forces with us. Our respective businesses share the same philosophy; placing the customer journey above all else. Together, we will be well positioned to make that journey even better. I am also delighted to welcome Kevin and James to our highly talented leadership team.”
- CEO of Bright, Paul Byrne
Is AccountancyManager integrated with BrightPay?
This merger won’t be affecting your use of BrightPay payroll software, however now that we are all part of Bright, one of the leading providers of payroll and accounting software in the UK and Ireland, it does present an opportunity for us to explore these options further. So watch this space!
Mar 2022
28
BrightPay and AccountancyManager join forces
It has been an exciting six months since BrightPay merged with Relate Software to become Bright Software Group or “Bright”, as we are now known. Things haven’t slowed down since and we are delighted to announce that Bright has now acquired AccountancyManager, the UK’s leading onboarding and practice management software. The cloud-based software slots in nicely with Bright’s payroll, HR, bookkeeping and post-accounting software products. This is an exciting opportunity for the individual brands to exploit our operational synergies and develop the best products to serve payroll bureaus, accountancy firms and SMEs across the UK and Ireland.
Click here to find out more about Bright.
Who are AccountancyManager?
AccountancyManager (AM) is an award-winning practice management software that shares the same ultimate goal as Bright; to improve accountants’ day-to-day activities by automating time-consuming tasks, helping them to achieve a better work/life balance and grow their businesses. Founded in 2017 by James Byrne and Alex Hawke, AccountancyManager quickly grew and today is used by thousands of accountants and bookkeepers across the UK and Ireland.
A Bright future for AccountancyManager
James Byrne, co-founder of AM will continue as a shareholder in the combined group and will remain involved with the business as an advisor to the combined board. Kevin McCallum, CEO of AM, will become Chief Operating Officer of the new, combined group as well as continuing to manage AM, working closely with Bright CEO, Paul Byrne.
Here’s what Kevin McCallum, incoming COO of Bright, has to say about the merger: “AccountancyManager joining Bright makes so much sense for many reasons, but for me, the shared values and customer-centric approach are the most compelling. I’m excited to be joining Paul and the wider Bright team in building out the scope and scale of our business and supporting more and more accountants and their clients.”
By partnering with AccountancyManager and combining products and strengths from both businesses, Bright can provide a greater offering to our customers, with scope and backing for further innovation and development. This is an exciting moment in Bright’s journey to delivering a one-stop solution for businesses and accountancy firms. Together we will aim to provide a best-in-class software suite with a clear value proposition to drive efficiency and reduce errors, all with increased flexibility from working with a cloud offering.
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Oct 2021
13
Budget 2022 - Employer Payroll Focus
Income Tax
There is no change to tax rates for 2022, the standard rate will remain at 20% and the higher rate at 40%.
- The Standard Rate Cut Off Point (SRCOP) has been increased by €1,500
- The Personal Tax Credit increased by €50 from €1,650 to €1,700
- The Employee Tax Credit increased by €50 from €1,650 to €1,700
- The Earned Income Credit increased by €50 from €1,650 to €1,700
Universal Social Charge (USC)
- Exemption threshold remains at €13,000
- There are no changes to the rates of USC
- The 2% USC rate band has increased by €608, from €20,687 to €21,295
USC Rates & Bands 2022
€0 – €12,012 @ 0.5%
€12,013 – €21,295 @ 2%
€21,296 – €70,044 @ 4.5%
€70,045 + @ 8%
Medical card holders and individuals aged 70 years and older whose aggregate income does not exceed €60,000 will continue to pay a maximum rate of 2%.
The emergency rate of USC remains at 8%.
Non-PAYE income in excess of €100,000 will continue to be subject to USC at 11%.
Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme
The Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) will continue until the end of April 2022 in a graduated form.
- The current rates will remain for October and November 2021
- Employers availing of EWSS on December 31st 2021 will continue to be eligible until April 30th 2022, assuming they meet the eligibility criteria which will continue to be a 30% reduction in turnover/customer orders in 2021 compared to 2019
- EWSS will close to new employers from January 1st 2022
- For December, January and February a two-rate structure will apply as follows:
Level of subsidy the employer will receive is per paid employee
| Employee Gross Weekly Wages | Subsidy Payable |
| Less than €151.50 | Nil |
| From €151.50 to €202.99 | €151.50 |
| From €203 to €1,462 | €203 |
| More than €1462 | Nil |
- For March and April 2022, a flat rate subsidy of €100 will apply
- The reduced rate of employer’s PRSI will no longer apply for the final two months of the scheme
National Minimum Wage
The National Minimum Wage will increase by 30 cent from €10.20 to €10.50 per hour from January 1st 2022.
Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI)
The weekly threshold for the higher rate of employer PRSI will increase to €410 from €398, this is in line with the increase in the National Minimum Wage.
Parent’s Leave
Parent’s leave has been increased by two weeks, this brings it up to seven weeks from July 2022.
VAT
The reduced rate of 9% VAT for the tourism and hospitality sector will continue to apply until the end of August 2022.
Social Welfare Payments
There will be a €5 increase in all weekly Social Welfare payments with effect from January 2022. The maximum personal rate of Illness Benefit will be increased to €208 per week. Maternity Benefit, Parent’s Benefit and Paternity Benefit will be increased to €250 per week.
Remote Working
Where an employer does not pay the e-working allowance (€3.20 per day) to an e-worker, employees will be able to claim tax relief on 30% of the cost of vouched expenses for heat, light and broadband in respect of the days worked from home.
Extension of BIK Exemption for Electric Vehicles
The BIK exemption for battery electric vehicles will be extended out to 2025 with a tapering effect on the vehicle value. This measure will take effect from 2023. For BIK purposes, the original market value of an electric vehicle will be reduced by €35,000 for 2023, €24,000 for 2024 and €10,000 for 2025.
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Sep 2021
28
BrightPay and Relate Software join forces to create an accounting and payroll software champion
We are delighted to announce that BrightPay has joined forces with Relate Software, a leader in post-accounting, practice management, and bookkeeping software. The partnership will aim to create a software champion serving payroll and accounting bureau and SMEs across Ireland and the UK.
BrightPay is a modern payroll and HR software which takes care of every aspect of running your payroll, from entering employee and payment details to creating payslips and sending real-time payroll submissions. The software has been designed from the ground up to be clear and simple, and yet no compromise has been made on its payroll features.
Likewise, Relate is dedicated to building innovative and focused products designed specifically for the accounting profession. Its offering includes Surf products, a cloud native product suite of bookkeeping, post-accounting, and practice management software. Relate is an industry-leader in Ireland and has been building software for over 25 years.
By partnering with Relate and combining products and strengths from both businesses, we can provide a greater offering to our customers, with scope and backing for further innovation and development. This is an exciting moment in BrightPay’s journey to delivering a one stop solution for businesses and accountancy firms. Together we will aim to provide a best-in-class software suite with a clear value proposition to drive efficiency and reduce errors, all with increased flexibility from working with a cloud offering.
For more information, please see the press release and customer FAQs.
Aug 2021
31
2021 Customer Survey - the results are in!
We value our customers’ feedback and opinions as it allows us to improve and grow our business. We recently conducted an annual survey as it is a powerful indicator of overall success as a company as it captures the entire experience of using BrightPay, from the product features to the daily customer support to the live webinars and online documentation.
We are proud of the continued high marks and appreciate the thoughtful feedback from this year’s survey and would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who took part. The survey looked at customer satisfaction, software performance and customer support.
We’ve compiled the results of our latest survey and we wanted to share them with you.
The Results
As the survey was very comprehensive, we’re not going to share the results of each and every question. But we did want to share the main areas of focus and what you, our customers, have said.
- We asked: How satisfied are you with BrightPay?
- You said: BrightPay achieved a 98.8% customer satisfaction rate, which is fantastic news for everyone on the BrightPay team.
- We asked: How would you rate the following BrightPay Connect features?
- You said: The most highly rated BrightPay Connect features included automatic cloud backup (98.8%), online employer dashboard (100%) and employee self-service portal & app (100%).
- We asked: How satisfied are you with BrightPay's Customer Support?
- You said: The majority of customers rated our telephone support (97.5%), email support (99.2%), online help documentation (97.1%) and online video tutorials (98%) as excellent, very good or good, giving our customer support team an overall satisfaction rate of 97.9%.
- We asked: How would you rate BrightPay’s handling of COVID-19?
- You said: 99.5% of customers answered that they found our handling of COVID-19 overall to be either excellent, very good or good - in particular, our free online COVID-19 webinars (99.6%), payroll upgrades (99.7%), online help and support (98.8%) and phone and email support (99.99%).
Customer Testimonials
We also received a number of customer testimonials from the survey - all of which will be added to the BrightPay website in due course. Some of our favourite testimonials received include:
“I found the functionality during my use of TWSS and EWSS outstanding”.
“A big thank you for your excellent TWSS / EWSS updates throughout the pandemic, they were very beneficial”.
“It is great to have an Irish company providing such a high level of service, support and innovation - the webinars are extremely useful”.
Get in touch
If you feel that you’re not using the full suite of BrightPay or BrightPay Connect’s features to its fullest potential, you can book a free 15-minute online BrightPay and/or BrightPay Connect demo.
