Apr 2017
24
Auto Enrolment - Increased workload or increased opportunity for Bureaus?
This year, accountants and payroll bureaus will see a large number of their clients approaching them to assist with auto enrolment (AE). The process of complying with AE requires payroll expertise to calculate pension contributions for employees who are eligible and for employees who choose to join or opt into the pension scheme. 2017 will see the largest number of employers reach their staging date. At the end of March, we saw a new record of over half a million employers who have complied and fulfilled their auto enrolment duties.
The sheer volume of small and micro employers going through the AE process represents an opportunity for payroll bureaus to add a new service to their existing payroll services. Many of these small employers will be using HMRC's Basic PAYE tools (BPT) which will not cater for the needs of automatic enrolment. Basic tools is just that, a basic tool. It will not carry out the employee assessment required, produce communications to send to all employees, cater for enrolment, produce payslips that show both employer and employee contributions or create the pension data file to submit to the pension provider. This lack of functionality with Basic Tools is another reason why your clients may look to you for help with their duties.
For employers who wish to carry out their payroll and auto enrolment tasks in house, they have the option to switch to payroll software that can support their employer auto enrolment duties. Check to see if your payroll provider can import from Basic PAYE Tools. BrightPay has a specially developed feature, where you can import your employer data into BrightPay from BPT instantly. There is no need for manual data entry. Some good providers even offer a free payroll software licence which includes auto enrolment to micro employers.
How much is auto enrolment software?
At this stage you should be aware that you should not have to pay an extra charge for auto enrolment functionality. Unjustifiably, some payroll providers are charging their customers for an auto enrolment module or add-on. Some are also charging per employee, per month which can be expensive. If you do the maths, you will soon see how this can add up over a yearly period. There are other payroll systems that can deal with auto enrolment but it can be a manual process of running reports every pay period with additional steps required to process your client through AE.
It is worth investing in payroll software that has automated auto enrolment technology. BrightPay has been developed specifically with payroll and auto enrolment automation in mind. Using an automated software will not only save you time but it can make you money. By improving efficiencies, bureaus will naturally increase productivity and profitability for each client. BrightPay can email payslips, send RTI returns, automate auto enrolment, manage holiday pay and a whole list of features.
An important thing to look out for is the ability to import your staff details into the payroll. BrightPay has the ability to import data via CSV file or FPS. You can also directly import each of your client's employer information into the program. At BrightPay, we have developed tailored import facilities from HMRC’s Basic Tools and Moneysoft where payroll bureaus can import multiple employer files at the same time. Read: Switching to BrightPay - Made Easier for you!
Increased opportunity?
With the right, automated payroll tools, the process of auto enrolment should be very straightforward, seamless and, above all, a profitable exercise. Without doubt, auto enrolment should be an additional service that your payroll clients should expect to pay for. For many accountants and bureaus, auto enrolment has been the perfect platform to increase revenue. The smaller employer is likely to be the least prepared for auto enrolment and are also likely to turn to a payroll professional to outsource their payroll and auto enrolment tasks. Additionally, clients will want to avoid being fined for non-compliance by the Pensions Regulator. This is another motivation to use a professional to get it right first time round.
Increased workload?
With the wrong tools, helping your clients through auto enrolment could end up being very costly and time consuming. Check how much your payroll provider is charging for auto enrolment. Your workload will be increase if you do not utilise an automated software. For example, your payroll software should automatically complete the employee assessment each pay period for you and then alert you of any new AE duties that need to be performed.
This assessment needs to take place on an on-going basis to monitor any changes to an employee's circumstance. If they turn 22 or if there is an increase in their earnings, they may become eligible. Auto enrolment does not just take place at staging, it is an ongoing process. As auto enrolment is an integral part of the payroll process, BrightPay believe that it should be an included feature as part of the price of your payroll package. Paying more money for auto enrolment software will eat into your profits and make for a poor bottom line.
BrightPay is the answer
BrightPay is a user friendly payroll package that makes your auto enrolment journey easy. BrightPay take the manual grunt work out of AE by automating employee assessment, enrolment, producing letters and is integrated with 18 pension providers. Book a BrightPay Demo where we will show how you can setup your clients in BrightPay and start the automated process once you reach your staging date. BrightPay will ensure that you can streamline your AE processing to maximise efficiencies and profits.
Related articles
Auto Enrolment - This is what you must know for 2017
Switching to BrightPay - Made Easier!
Payroll clients continue to ignore auto enrolment
Apr 2017
3
Customer Update - April 2017
BrightPay 2017/18 is Now Available. What's New?
The release includes exciting new features to make your payroll and auto enrolment journey easier and less time consuming. Our development team have been working hard to bring you the best customer experience, improving BrightPay’s performance and responsiveness.
Payroll Benefits 2017-18 - Register before 6th April 2017
Employers who wish to payroll benefits in the tax year 2017-18 must register with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) using the online Payrolling Benefits in Kind (PBIK) service before 6th April 2017 (if you had not already registered last year).
Auto Enrolment employer duties - Employee Assessment
Read our blog published on UK Business forums as we explain the ins and outs of what you need to understand your employee assessment process.
Have tried our latest add on - BrightPay Connect?
BrightPay Connect (previously named BrightPay Cloud) is an optional add on online tool that gives your clients access to their own dashboard. It allows you to automatically backup your payroll data to the cloud. Employees can log onto an online self service portal to view payslips and request annual leave. Bureau discounts for bulk purchases.
BrightPay Payroll & Auto Enrolment Training
At the end of the training session, participants will know how they can best use BrightPay to suit their payroll requirements, including:
- how to set up employer and employee records
- how to create and process pay items
- how to complete a payroll run and submit data to HMRC
- how to generate customised reports to suit your business requirements
Payrolling Benefits: What do you need to know? - Free Webinar
This presentation explains how to calculate cash equivalents for all of the different benefits employers may wish to payroll. It also provides best practice advice on the systems that employers should have in place to improve their workflow if they are interested in payrolling benefits for the first time.
For Payroll Bureaus
Review BrightPay on Accounting Web
Accounting Web’s Practice Excellence Awards have just launched. Please share your views on BrightPay and you could win a prize. AccountingWEB are offering one lucky winner £500 in Amazon vouchers, and 2 runners up with Amazon vouchers worth £250. The survey takes less than 30 seconds.
Auto Enrolment Webinar with Guest Speaker NEST
Over 750,000 employers are due to reach their staging date this year. Many of whom will choose NEST as their AE pension scheme. Join BrightPay & NEST as we take you through creating an effective AE pricing plan and how to easily set up NEST.
For Employers
Rate BrightPay on Software Advice
Software Advice is a review platform that rates various software products. As a valued customer, your feedback is very important to us. Please share your views on BrightPay. The survey takes about 2 or 3 minutes to complete.
Feb 2017
15
Customer update from BrightPay
Have you tried our latest Cloud add-on?
BrightPay Connect is our newest add-on for BrightPay that offers powerful automatic backup features and annual leave features. Give your client and their employees online access to their payroll data. Significant discounts available for multiple bulk purchases.
Webinars for Bureaus
BrightPay have designed a number of webinars that are specifically tailored to meet the needs of payroll bureaus. Register for our next free webinar: Surviving Brexit for your Payroll Bureau. With Brexit uncertainty and 750k employers to stage in 2017, how will your bureau survive the fallout of Brexit to stay profitable?
BrightPay Payroll Training - 5th April & 11th April
We have designed training webinars to take you step-by-step through the payroll and auto enrolment process. At the end of the training session, participants will know how they can best use BrightPay to suit their payroll requirements.
BrightPay 2017/18 Release
BrightPay 2017/18 is packed with lots of new features, including a Payroll Journal export to accounts packages, the ability to batch send RTI and CIS submissions for multiple companies and much more.
Important Update for free BrightPay users
Please take time to read this important update for all free BrightPay users.
Risk of County Court Judgement for Employers who ignore Automatic Enrolment Duties
Employers who are persistently ignoring their automatic enrolment duties are being warned by The Pensions Regulator that they could be issued a county court judgement.
Have you tried our sister product, Bright Contracts?
Bright Contracts has everything you need to create and manage up-to-date staff policies and procedures and contracts of employment.
Jan 2017
10
Payroll software should work with any Auto Enrolment pension scheme.
As part of automatic enrolment, employers need to have a qualifying workplace pension scheme in place. However, if you are an employer and have no eligible employees you do not need to set up a scheme. Non-eligible jobholders have the option to opt in to the scheme and entitled workers can choose to join the scheme, therefore it would be advisable to have a scheme in mind.
For an eligible jobholder, the employer and the employee must pay into the chosen scheme to help the employee save for their retirement. Eligible jobholders have the right to opt out of the scheme. Employers will need to find a scheme themselves or consult with an accountant or financial adviser to help them choose the best option.
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) advises employers to research a few different schemes before they make their decision. The following schemes have informed TPR that they are open to the small employer market.
- The People’s Pension
- Ascot Lloyd Benefit Solutions
- True Potential Investments
- Standard Life Workplace Pension
- Welplan Pensions
- AutoEnrolment.co.uk
- The BlueSky Pension Scheme (TBPS)
- NOW: Pensions
- NEST
- Aviva Workplace Pension
Employers will need to confirm that the pension scheme will accept all their staff, how much it will cost to implement and what the ongoing costs will be to both the employer and the employee. Importantly, you will need to make sure it works with your existing payroll software. BrightPay supports 17 different pension schemes listed below. We also offer direct API integration with both NEST and Smart Pension. This means users can submit their pension files directly from BrightPay to the pension provider, similar to RTI submissions. BrightPay can also accommodate any pension scheme that is not directly supported where users can export a csv file with the required information selected and upload to the pension portal.
Find out more here.
Related articles
- Auto Enrolment - Choosing a Pension Scheme
- A few things to consider when choosing a pension scheme for AE
- What’s involved with AE on an ongoing basis?
Dec 2016
21
The top 5 benefits of using BrightPay Connect for Automatic Enrolment
Auto Enrolment Overview
Auto enrolment has been introduced because people in the UK are living longer lives but not saving enough for retirement. The government estimates that as much as 7 million people do not have adequate savings to provide for them in retirement. The government will also be unable to cope with the increasing number of people retiring in the future.
By law, every employer in the UK has auto enrolment (AE) duties to complete. Employers must enrol all eligible jobholders into an AE workplace pensions scheme. The employer must also contribute to the employee’s pension pot. It is called automatic enrolment because it is automatic for employees but it’s not automatic for employers.
To comply with automatic enrolment, employers need to complete a number of AE duties, including employee assessment, communications, process employee requests, calculate contributions and deductions and submit files to the chosen pension provider. There will be additional duties to perform if the employer chooses to postpone AE. Employees will also have certain rights including being able to opt out, opt in or join the pension scheme.
BrightPay Connect & Auto Enrolment
Employers can reap huge benefits from cloud software. BrightPay Connect is the latest add-on that integrates directly with your BrightPay payroll. Cloud software provides flexibility and online access on the go where your payroll and certain auto enrolment data can be accessed on any device. Auto enrolment functionality should be included free of charge as part of your payroll software package. Payroll should allow you to automate and simplify your automatic enrolment duties. For efficient and successful AE compliance, BrightPay Connect offers significant online advantages for automatic enrolment including:
- Auto Enrolment Communications
Employees can be given access to their own online self-service portal where they can access and download their payroll documents. Communicating with employees about their AE rights is a compulsory part of complying with AE. You must notify all employees about their worker category, give information about how AE applies and let them know their rights. BrightPay Connect can help with the process of sending AE communications. You will have the option of sending and making the AE communications available on each employee's online portal where they can view, download or print the letter.
- Interactive Payslips
Part of an employer's duty is to calculate the correct contributions and deductions for each employee. This information should be visible on the employee's payslips displaying the employee and employer contribution amounts. BrightPay Connect allows employees to view and download all current and historical payslips. These interactive payslips will show these auto enrolment contributions for you. See a sample BrightPay payslip below.
- AE Compliance
To ensure compliance, it is essential that your staff records are correct, including employee dates of birth, salaries, National Insurance numbers, contact details and amounts being paid into the pension scheme each pay period. Having the correct information will ensure you have what is needed to run auto enrolment effectively. On the employee portal, employees can keep their contact details up to date and make any changes should their contact details need to be modified. As BrightPay Payroll and BrightPay Connect are fully integrated keeping up to date with your AE staff records is easy.
- AE Reporting
You are legally required to keep certain information and records for the purposes of AE. Poor record keeping could result in a fine being issued by the Pensions Regulator. All employers must provide certain information to the Pensions Regulator to let them know that they have complied with their AE duties. Auto enrolment reports can be set up and saved in your BrightPay payroll. Any saved reports will then be available to the payroll bureau and to the employer on BrightPay Connect.
- Mobile Access
People want their information on the go. Payroll bureaus, employers and employees can access their payroll data on any smartphone, desktop computer, tablet or laptop. Accessing your payroll and auto enrolment data on BrightPay Connect allows the processes to be easier and more flexible. Online access also allows for better communication regarding automatic enrolment between workers, employers and bureaus.
How BrightPay can help with Auto Enrolment
BrightPay payroll offers full auto enrolment functionality to take the hard work out of the employer duties for you. What’s more, there is NO additional charge for auto enrolment. Your payroll and auto enrolment duties must still be processed on the desktop BrightPay Payroll application.
The AE process in BrightPay Payroll
BrightPay can automate a lot of the administrative auto enrolment processes for you. Simply enter in the staging date and the rest is easy. When setting up your AE pension scheme, you will have the ability to set up your contribution rates too. Once you reach the staging date in BrightPay, the payroll will automatically assess all employees for you. From there, BrightPay will automatically produce the appropriate letters for each employee which can be printed, emailed directly to the employee, downloaded or uploaded to the BrightPay Connect self-service portal. Other AE tasks are seamlessly handled, including postponement, processing opt in, opt out or join requests, support for AE pension schemes and AE reporting.
Find out just how easy the entire process can be. Book a BrightPay Connect demo today.
Dec 2016
8
Auto Enrolment & the Small Employer Market
Auto enrolment is being rolled out in stages across all employers, and started with the larger employers in October 2012. By October 2018 all employers will be required to offer workplace pension schemes to eligible workers.
New employers (or new PAYE scheme users) will begin to reach their staging date depending on when PAYE income was first payable. These employers will have a staging date of between 1 May 2017 and 1 February 2018.
By the end of October this year, almost 300 thousand employers had completed their declaration of compliance, enrolling over 6.8 million eligible jobholders into a workplace pensions scheme. The Pensions Regulator estimates that, over the next three years, over 1 million small and micro employers will need to act as a result of auto enrolment.
The so called tsunami is almost upon us and it keeps growing each quarter, with the largest number of employers reaching their staging date early next year. You can see from the image below that auto enrolment will affect 170 thousand employers within the next three months.
A lot of the companies staging before now will probably have had their own HR people or in- house accountant to help them through the enrolment process. The vast majority of those staging from now onwards will have no in-house expertise. These employers may not have the knowledge or experience to make informed decisions when it comes to their AE obligations.
With the vast quantity of information available, employers are fast becoming confused and overwhelmed. These clients will require help understanding the implications for them, their employees and their business.
So, payroll bureaus have a gift-wrapped business opportunity! And this is business you don’t have to go chasing. Read more about offering AE as a service with BrightPay’s free guides.
Nov 2016
11
Making Tax Digital – How agents can prepare their business
Our good friends and tax software specialists, BTCSoftware, have been closely following the developments of HMRC’s Making Tax Digital programme. They have put together a handy overview which gives some background to the initiative, in particular Agent Services.
Agent Services encompasses the way accountants and tax advisers will be identified and authorised on HMRC’s systems to access client tax data and use other information facilities.
The guide is co-authored with accountingweb and also gives advice on how agents can prepare their practice and their clients for MTD’s arrival.
You can download a free copy here.
Nov 2016
2
After Auto Enrolment Staging - What happens next??
Once you have completed the initial setup of auto enrolment you will need to complete a set of tasks on an ongoing basis. Clients will need to comply with their ongoing duties to avoid being fined by the Pensions Regulator.
Ongoing Assessment: All employees must be monitored on an ongoing basis to see if there are any changes to their worker category. For example, if an employee turns 22 or their qualifying earnings increase then they may become an eligible jobholder. Even if this occurs after staging, your client will still need to carry out new AE assessment duties for this individual employee.
Your payroll software should easily monitor the ages and earnings of any new and existing staff. Good payroll will automatically notify you of any changes to an employee's status therefore there should be no need to run a report every pay period. Any employees that become eligible will need to be enrolled and an AE communication letter issued to them.
Record Keeping: Clients must keep records of their auto enrolment activities for six years. They must also keep any employee opt-out notices for a period of four years. By law, there are two different types of records that an client must keep.
- Pension staff records- including employees names and addresses that have been enrolled, records of when the contributions were paid to the pension scheme, any opt-out notices and much more.
- Pension Scheme records - including the client pension scheme reference and scheme name and address.
These records or reports should be available in your payroll software
Post Assessment Report: A useful report to run is a post assessment report after your client has staged. The report will give your client a clear picture of what has taken place on the staging date for each employee. Your payroll software should easily produce this report to include each employee, pay frequency, assessment date, employee’s age, pensionable pay and assessment category. It would also be valuable to see employees who have been postponed. PDF Example post assessment report.
Pension Submission: Your payroll software should work and support your auto enrolment pension scheme. Each pension provider requires their data files in a certain format. Check to see if your payroll allows for the easy transfer of data files to the pension scheme. Some providers such as NEST and Smart Pension offer a direct integration or an API facility between payroll and pension provider which will save you time each pay period. Read: How useful will the NEST API tool be?
Paying Contributions: Your client will need to pay the correct level of employee and employer contributions to the AE pension scheme in a timely fashion. The contribution amounts will either be based on a fixed amount or a percentage of earnings. You payroll software should easily calculate both fixed or percentage amounts for you. One you have set up the contribution calculation basis then you payroll should deduct the correct amounts automatically for you.
To conclude..
The responsibility for meeting your automatic enrolment duties ultimately lies with your client. However if you are contracted to carry out AE on behalf of your client then you have an obligation to fulfill the terms of the contract. View a full list of Auto Enrolment Features in BrightPay.
25% BrightPay when you Switch!!
New bureau customers can now save 25% when they switch to BrightPay. To avail of the discount, you can purchase online or contact our sales team on 0845 3004 304 or [email protected] and quote '25% Discount Sale'.
*Offer applies to new bureau customers who switch from a different payroll software provider for the first year subscription only. Applies to BrightPay 16/17 bureau licences only.
Sep 2016
9
BrightPay to showcase BrightPay Cloud at Accountex
We are excited to be able to showcase our new BrightPay Cloud product at Accountex 2017!!!
BrightPay have just launched an innovative online tool for payroll bureaus, employers and employees. BrightPay Cloud is an add-on to BrightPay Payroll bringing exciting new online features to our customers. BrightPay cloud is not a ‘cloud version’ of the desktop version of BrightPay. Rather, BrightPay Cloud provides a way to connect your payroll data to the cloud to enable new features.
Processing your payroll will still be managed and maintained on your BrightPay Payroll which will remain a desktop based solution. We recognise that employers and their employees want a certain level of cloud functionality to access their payroll information on the go, online and at anytime.
BrightPay Cloud Explained
- Automated Cloud Backup
Until now, BrightPay customers had to manually back up their payroll data. Even if your data is regularly backed up onto your computer, you could lose it all if your computer is broken, lost or stolen. Manually backing up succumbs to human error along the way too. Using BrightPay Cloud, your payroll data will be automatically backed up every 15 minutes to a secure cloud facility. Any changes you make to your payroll data in BrightPay will automatically be synced back to the Cloud.
- Payroll Bureau Dashboard
Bureaus can view each client's payroll information on one online dashboard including the employer's paye reference code, payroll reports, employer annual leave calendar, when the last payroll has been finalised to and more. Payroll bureaus can invite their clients to their own personal self service employer portal. Likewise employers can also invite their accountant to BrightPay Cloud. Bureaus can also view the schedule of HMRC payments, any outstanding payments due and access the P30 for each tax period. The bureau dashboard allows you to save time, reduce admin and collect your clients payroll information as you need it.
- Employee & Employer Self Service
Employers can access their own self service dashboard online where they can view their employees information, manage holiday leave requests, access payroll reports and view scheduled HMRC payments and liabilities. Employers can also grant their employees access to an interactive, online self service portal. Employees can log on and view their payslips and other relevant payroll documents such as P60’s. Employees can even request annual leave from the self service portal. A notification will then be visible on the employer's dashboard and also emailed to them informing them of any employee request.
- Bureau Branding / White Labeling
Accountants or payroll bureaus may wish to brand BrightPay Cloud with their own logo. Not only does the Cloud allows accountants to add value to their existing payroll services but also helps position their company branding with their clients. Employers will additionally have the feature to brand their self service portal with their branding.
For more info click - BrightPay Cloud Features or BrightPay Cloud Overview.
Accountex 2017
BrightPay will be back again at Accountex 2017. With over 6,500 visitors through the door, Accountex is the place to be to meet the very best of accountants, suppliers and key influencers in the accounting space. For BrightPay, it is the perfect platform to introduce our latest Cloud product to the accounting industry. Drop by our stand and say hello. Our team would be happy to take you through the benefits and features of BrightPay Cloud.
Aug 2016
15
BrightPay shortlisted for Payroll Product of the Year Award
The Payroll World Awards finalists have just been announced. We are delighted to reveal that BrightPay has been shortlisted for the ‘Payroll Software Product of the Year’ award for the second year running.
A panel of 12 judges now face the daunting task of deciding on winners for each category. 142 companies have been shortlisted for all the awards. For the payroll product of the year, the judges are looking at each finalist to examine where the payroll software can offer business benefits to their customers.
The payroll software industry has become increasingly competitive and the Payroll World judges want to see evidence that BrightPay can provide the following;
- Offering significant cost savings/business benefits to clients
- Customer satisfaction including client testimonials
- Innovative client solutions
A few interesting statistics from BrightPay’s recent customer survey include:
- BrightPay has a 99% customer satisfaction rate and 98% for customer support.
- 99.7% of customers rate BrightPay as excellent, very good or good for overall quality.
- Customers describe BrightPay as reliable, high quality, useful, unique and good value for money.
- 99.5% think BrightPay’s interface is user-friendly.
- 99.8% agree BrightPay is automated.
- 99% of customers save time and money.
- 88% save on administration. 99.5% of customers believe that BrightPay is committed to keeping up with changes in payroll legislation
- 98% of customers rate our customer service as excellent; very good or good.
- BrightPay has a 98% satisfaction rate for customer support.
- 97% agree customer support are knowledgeable and 99% agree they are professional.
- 98% of customers find it beneficial that BrightPay includes free email and phone support.
- 90% of customers agree that BrightPay's customer support has improved in the last year.
The winners will be announced this November at the Payroll World Awards Event. Best of luck to all the finalists.
Check out the list of finalists for the payroll software product of the year here.
