Apr 2019
16
Customer Update: April 2019
Why employees love self-service apps (And you should too!)
As a concept, self-service is nothing new. From paying at the supermarket self-service checkouts to online banking, consumers don’t want to have to wait for assistance if they know they can get it themselves. It’s no different in the workplace. With a self-service system, employees can download payslips, request annual leave, look at policies and HR documents and update personal information - all without once contacting HR personnel.
Read more | BrightPay Self-Service App
NEW: Payroll Journal Direct API Integration with Accounting Packages
BrightPay now includes direct API integration with Sage One, Xero and Quickbooks Online. With this direct integration, users will be able to directly send the payroll journal to the accounting package from within BrightPay. This accounts software integration eliminates the need to export CSV files from the payroll software and import them into the accounting system, saving time and reducing the risk of errors.
Payroll Bureaus: The 7 Unmistakeable Benefits of Client Payroll Entry
BrightPay Connect is better than ever before. Bureau customers now have the ability to send requests to clients through BrightPay Connect’s secure portal. Requests can be sent to get client approval of the payroll summary before the payroll is finalised or to ask clients to upload their employees’ timesheets and payments, known as Client Payroll Entry.
BrightPay 2019/20 is now available to download - What’s new?
The release includes exciting new features to make your payroll journey easier and less time consuming, including:
- 2019/20 legislative changes
- Automatic Enrolment Updates
- Real Time Information
- More Flexible Journals
- Journal API Support
- Importing Pay Records from CSV
- Improved Support for Offset Annual Leave Year
- CIS Updates
- BrightPay Connect - Cloud Add-on
See what’s new | Buy now | Download BrightPay 2019/20
Looking for customer support? See if our website can help!
It's currently a busy time for our customer support and phone lines with the 2018/19 tax year coming to an end and the new tax year commencing. We have updated our FAQs to include the top 10 questions that we get asked. You can also search our online support documents before getting in touch. You may get the answer to your query so much more quickly!
Visit FAQs | Visit Online Docs
Payroll Bureaus: The big four: How payroll leapt into the future
In the six years since BrightPay was launched, a new wave of payroll innovation and cloud access has completely remoulded the sector, from onerous, manual input into a low effort, dynamic and automated service offering. Download our free guide for payroll bureaus where we look at four specific areas where cloud innovation is already impacting the future of payroll.
Payslips in the cloud is the future for payroll
When it comes to being GDPR compliant, you might think that you only need to password protect all the payroll reports and payslips. There is nothing in the GDPR legislation that states it is no longer permissible to email payslips, that doesn’t mean you can email payslips without protecting the information you send. There is a strict process that needs to be followed.
Accountex 2019 - will you be there?
It’s that time of year again where accountants, bookkeepers, practice managers and finance directors are preparing to travel from all over the UK to Accountex. Discover the latest technical tools from over 250 exhibitors that could help you run your practice more efficiently and productively. After winning Payroll Software of the Year 2018 at the Accounting Excellence awards, the BrightPay team are back with a bang this year, our fifth year in a row.
Auto Enrolment Phasing - Part Two
Minimum auto enrolment contribution rates faced further increases on 6th April 2019, with the total minimum contribution rate now at 8%. Employers are now required to contribute a minimum of 3%. Employees need to contribute the remaining 5%. Find out more about the various scenarios that can occur and how to handle them in BrightPay.
Apr 2019
11
Why employees love self-service apps (And you should too!)
As a concept, self-service is nothing new. From paying at the supermarket self-service checkouts to online banking, consumers don’t want to have to wait for something if they know they can get it themselves. It’s no different in the workplace.
An employee self-service is the ultimate tool whereby employees can login from anywhere to view their employment and pay related information. With a self-service system, employees can download payslips, request annual leave, look at policies and HR documents and update personal information - all without once contacting HR personnel.
Benefits for Employees
- Instant Payslips - The employee can login to the employee self-service portal to view and download their most recent payslip, along with all of their historic payslips. Gone are the days of emailing HR chasing lost or past payslips when needed, for example when applying for a mortgage.
- Annual Leave - Employees can submit leave requests instantly through the employee self-service portal. Once the leave is approved, employees will be notified and the approved leave will automatically appear on the employee’s calendar. Employees can also view their leave balance and leave history through their portal.
- HR Documents - Access everything in one central place - a single online login gives the employee instant online access to other employment related documents such as employment contracts or company handbooks and policies.
- Personal Data - With the self-service portal, the employee can view their personal payroll information that the employer has on file. The employee can also amend or update various personal data, including their postal address, contact number, emergency details etc.
- 24/7 Access - Employees can login to the employee self-service through any web browser at any time - meaning they don’t have to be at their desks to use it. They can login from home or anywhere else with an internet connection. Better yet, employees can access their employee self-service directly from their phones using the BrightPay employee app.
Knock-on Effect for Employers
Today’s employees are accustomed to having information readily available. An employee portal can help fulfil that expectation with the added benefit of creating workflow efficiencies. The employee self-service portal eliminates the burden of sending payslips, updating personal information, approving annual leave requests and answering leave balance enquiries for the payroll department.
Managers and HR personnel will save administrative hours and frustration on a daily basis when no longer faced with working through these monotonous and time-consuming tasks.
The former way of managing employee data is fast becoming outdated. What was once considered normal in the past is no longer considered normal anymore. Today, the new normal is to implement an employee self-service system whereby workflows are streamlined, with added benefits for both employees and employers.
Book a demo today to find out how BrightPay Connect can transform your business.
Read more: 10 surprising benefits of an employee self-service system
Apr 2019
2
Payslips in the cloud are the future for payroll services
When it comes to being GDPR-compliant in a payroll bureau, you might think that you only need to password protect all the payroll reports and payslips. There is nothing in the GDPR legislation that states it is no longer permissible to email payslips, that doesn’t mean you can email payslips without protecting the information you send. There is a strict process that needs to be followed.
If you choose to email payslips, you need to ensure that they are all password protected and sent directly to the employee’s chosen email address. It is very important that a unique password is used for each employee, as using the same password is for all employees could be considered a breach of GDPR. Once they are sent, then the payslips need to be deleted from the server of your payroll software provider.
But sharing the information securely is not the only thing that you need to do to make sure that you are GDPR compliant. Making sure you put all the necessary steps in place to avoid cyber attacks, keeping secure copies of the data in case of theft, fire or damage to the computers and providing employees with a way to easily update the information their employer holds about them are other important GDPR requirements.
Secure portals
Putting a system in place that takes into account all these requirements can be time consuming. Instead, secure portals can simplify the payroll process and offer the most secure environment to protect the employees’ information. Secure portals offer the maximum level of security and compliance with GDPR and make the payroll process much easier since they automate payslip distribution and eliminate the need to email payroll reports each pay period.
Besides the ability to securely send and store payslips and other sensitive payroll documents, self-service portals also have other advantages such as providing employers and employees with an easy way of remotely accessing information. Additionally, self-service portals make it easy for employees to request leave, keep track of their personal information and update it when necessary, and they also keep a secure backup of all the payroll records.
Avoiding cyber threats… and fines!
Self-service portals does not only make GDPR processes much easier, they also eliminate the risk of being fined up to €20 million or 4% of annual turnover of the previous year, whichever is higher. BrightPay Connect automatically backs up payroll data every 15 minutes when the payroll is open, and again when you close down the employer file and all the backups are available to be downloaded and restored if necessary.
This means that the portal always keeps a secure copy of the payroll files in the cloud, protecting the data in case of cyber attacks and making it possible to restore it should something happen to the physical equipment, such as any damage to the computers.
Accurate records
GDPR specifies that individuals have a right to have inaccurate personal data rectified, or completed if necessary. The BrightPay Connect portal makes all the personal data held by their employer visible to the employee, who can easily edit approve leave requests and update contact details for employees.
When the employee information is incomplete or inaccurate, for instance, should their phone number or postal address change, employees can easily update their details from the portal, which they can access 24/7 from any device, such as PCs, Macs, tablets or even their smartphone via the employee smartphone app.
Limited access to data
To be GDPR compliant, all the payslip information should only be available to payroll processors, only when it is strictly necessary for processing the payroll. With BrightPay Connect, users can be set up so that they only have access to the information needed to complete their assigned tasks.
Stay GDPR compliant with BrightPay Connect. Book a demo to find out more.
