BrightPay celebrates 10-year anniversary

From humble beginnings to an award-winning, industry-leading payroll software provider BrightPay is celebrating our 10th anniversary! In February 2012, BrightPay was launched in the United Kingdom, marking a momentous step in our journey. It wouldn’t have been possible to be where we are today without our customers, dedicated staff, and partners who have supported us along the way. We want to say a huge thank you to you all.

This anniversary provides a chance for us to reflect on ten years of creating, innovating, and delivering payroll software excellence. Reflecting on our major milestones and achievements makes us nostalgic for those early days but also hugely proud of how far we’ve come. Here are just a few of our big moments:

Taking a look back at BrightPay’s Achievements

2010: Developing a Bright idea

Although our anniversary is indeed February 2012, the story of BrightPay goes back a few years before this date. Creating easy-to-use payroll software was always our passion and by 2010, we had nearly 20 years' experience of providing payroll software to Irish customers. We wanted to expand our presence in the UK market though and we knew we needed a special product to do so. This led Ross Webster, Lead Software Developer and Director of BrightPay to join the team and begin building a solution that would simplify the payroll process and delight customers.

2012: Launch Day

After 2 years of development, we were ready to launch BrightPay for the 2012/13 tax year. BrightPay entered the market as a modern, user-friendly payroll software. Speaking recently to one of our very first customers who has remained with us all these years, we spoke about why he initially chose BrightPay and why he continues to use it.

2013: Ready for Real Time Information

Real Time Information was introduced in 2013 and was one of the most significant changes ever made to PAYE. Its introduction was a massive change to how businesses submitted PAYE information to HRMC. Eager to help our customers manage this change as easy and efficiently as possible, BrightPay immediately introduced full, HMRC recognised support for RTI. This allowed our customers to manage all their RTI requirements and send RTI submissions directly to HMRC through the payroll software. BrightPay’s responsive and easy-to-understand RTI functionality, led to many happy customers spreading the word about BrightPay. Our customer list began to grow and grow!

2013: BrightPay recognised by industry awards

With one year under our belt, we were delighted to see we were shortlisted for multiple awards in 2013. This included CIPP’s Payroll and Pensions Excellence awards, Payroll World Awards 2013, and AccountingWeb Software Satisfaction Awards.

2014: Ready and eager for auto-enrolment

When it came to the phased rollout of automatic enrolment to mid-sized businesses in 2014, BrightPay were ready and happy to help. In 2014 we introduced full auto-enrolment functionality supporting all requirements set out by The Pensions Regulator. This allowed our customers to manage their auto enrolment duties with ease. It was and still is, one of their favourite features.

2014: Our first integration with a pension provider

With the introduction of auto enrolment duties, came the need for a more integrated process with pension providers. In 2014, we also launched our first direct API integration with the pension provider, NEST. This was followed in later years by integrations with Aviva, The People’s Pension, and Smart Pension. This time-saving feature allowed our customers to make their payroll process even more efficient.

2016: Connecting to the cloud

Listening to and responding to our customer requests is what drives BrightPay’s development plan. This was exemplified by the launch of BrightPay Connect in 2016. Although our customers wanted to keep BrightPay’s desktop functionality, they also wanted the option of cloud connectivity. With the launch of BrightPay Connect we were able to provide our customers with an automatic cloud backup, employee self-service, automatic payslips, greater data security, and an employer dashboard for bureau clients. BrightPay Connect continues to grow in popularity becoming an unexpected HR boon for many of our customers.

2018: Even more integrations

Looking to make the payroll workflow a smoother process for our customers we began to develop API integrations with multiple different accounting software packages. In 2018, we introduced our first accounting software integrations with Quickbooks, Xero, and Sage. We now have 11 accounting software integrations and have plans for more. 

2018: BrightPay secures investment from Hg

2018 brought some exciting news for BrightPay. We secured investment from Hg, a specialist technology investor. With the support of Hg, we were able to grow, taking on more employees and developing our software further. This allows us to keep on top of growing payroll needs and trends.

2020: Celebrating more awards

We love a party as much as the next person and it’s always a delight when we can go to a big bash celebrating the best in the business. It’s even more fun when we win! We have been delighted to have won awards in recent years, including Top Payroll Product of the Year at the 2021 AccountingWeb Software Awards and winner of the Payroll and HR Software of the Year 2021 at the ICB Luca Awards. We were also named winner of the COVID Hero Supplier Award at the Accounting Software Excellence Awards 2020, winner of Payroll Software of the Year 2019 at the ICB Luca Awards, and winner of Payroll Software of the Year 2018 at the AccountingWEB Software Excellence Awards.

2022: What’s next?

It’s exciting to see how far BrightPay has come and to anticipate what will happen next. We do know that the BrightPay team have been working around the clock to make sure we can deliver what you want. From our customer feedback we know that that is ‘BrightPay in the cloud’. Fully in the cloud this time. We expect to launch BrightPay Online in late 2022! We’ll make sure to keep you updated. To make sure you're the first to know, sign up here to receive notifications about BrightPay.

Related Articles:

• Making the move to BrightPay: The time is now!
• 5 Reasons why BrightPay receives a 99% Customer Satisfaction Rating
• BrightPay wins ‘Payroll and HR Software of the Year 2021