Take the hassle out of Automatic Enrolment

Whether you have one or 10,000 employees, automatic enrolment is a legal requirement for all UK employers. Automatic enrolment was brought in to make it easier for people to save for their retirement, by bringing pension schemes into the workplace.

Although this is great for employees, it has added to employers’ workloads, as they’re required to handle auto enrolment duties on top of everything else already on their to-do list.

Does automatic enrolment affect payroll?

Automatic enrolment does affect payroll, and has become an extension of the payroll process. The Pensions Regulator encourages businesses to use payroll software that can handle auto- enrolment duties. Such duties include:

• Setting up a pension scheme
• Enrolling eligible employees into the pension scheme
• Deducting pension contributions from employees’ pay
• Auto enrolment letters
• Declaration of compliance
• Re-enrolment every 3 years

What features do I need in my payroll software?

The payroll software you choose can either make or break the auto-enrolment part of your payroll process. Whichever software you pick, it should at least complete employee assessments for you for each pay period.

BrightPay includes full auto-enrolment functionality at no extra cost in all of our licences. This includes an array of features that simplify the automatic enrolment process, including:

• Automatic employee eligibility assessment and notifications to let you know when an employee should be enrolled
• Enrolment functionality (including the ability to enrol multiple employees at once)
• Personalised automatic enrolment letters are automatically generated
• Postponement and opt out options
• Integration with leading pension providers
• Notifications to let you know when an employee should be re-enrolled

How does re-enrolment work?

Re-enrolment is required for certain staff members every three years. It is simply enrolling employees back into an auto-enrolment pension scheme, if they’ve opted out. To apply for re-enrolment, you must complete a re-declaration of compliance with The Pensions Regulator. This is to make sure you’ve completed your mandatory re-enrolment duties.

To do this, you must first choose a re-enrolment date. Next, you must assess your staff to find out which employees need to be re-enrolled. After that, you are then required to put those employees back into a pension scheme within 6 weeks of the re-enrolment date.

Once this is setup, your employees must be sent a letter, letting them know that they are re-enrolled into an auto enrolment pension scheme. You are then required to submit a re-declaration of compliance, which applies even if you don’t have any staff. Further details of re-enrolment requirements and processes can be found here.

BrightPay simplifies the re-enrolment process for you by notifying you of when an employee should be re-enrolled, allowing you to re-enrol them within the software and automatically generating a re-enrolment letter for each employee.

Which pension providers is BrightPay integrated with?

BrightPay is integrated with a number of pension providers, allowing you to submit pension data directly within BrightPay. These include:

• Aviva
• NEST
• The People’s Pension
• Smart Pension

We are also compatible with a number of other pension schemes for upload via CSV files. Click here to view a full list of pension providers.

How BrightPay can make auto enrolment easy

As mentioned above, BrightPay provides full auto-enrolment functionality at no extra cost. Once your duties start date has been entered into BrightPay, you will receive notifications on-screen from that point onwards of any auto- enrolment duties you need to take care of.

Once the duties start date is reached and you’ve set up your pension scheme provider, BrightPay assesses all of your employees automatically, and will keep an eye on any changes to their work status for each pay period.

BrightPay also automatically generates and prepares enrolment letters that can be emailed or exported as PDFs and are personalised for each employee. If you need to enrol any new employees, this is easily done in BrightPay too.

We have a range of online resources to support you around auto- enrolment, including video tutorials and support documents, covering a whole range of automatic enrolment topics.

"BrightPay is an excellent payroll program. What stands out for me is how it takes care of Auto Enrolment automatically, which is even more of a godsend now re-enrolment dates are coming up. Slick modern interface too makes it a dream to use."

- Craig Thornton , CST Accountancy Services Ltd

Take the hassle out of automatic enrolment today – learn how BrightPay can help streamline your entire payroll process, so you can tend to more important matters of your business. Book a free 15-minute demo today.

Posted byEleanor Mc GuinnessinAuto Enrolment

When did you last back-up your payroll data?

Backing up your payroll data is a crucial step in the payroll process to ensure the safety and security of your clients’ data and the data of their employees.

Whether you back up your payroll data daily, weekly or monthly – manually backing up your clients’ payroll data can be another dreaded monotonous task on your never-ending to-do-list.

Not only that, but by not backing up your payroll data, it can leave your clients’ in quite a vulnerable position. What happens if you spill coffee all over your keyboard, or get a virus on your laptop? This could result in weeks, months, or maybe even years of payroll data gone before your eyes.

What can be done to prevent this?

That’s where automatic backups come in. Automatic backups do all the work so you don’t have to, by storing your payroll data on the cloud. This not only saves you time, but also gives you peace of mind. See it as insurance for your payroll data, providing a secure safety net should a crisis occur, allowing you time to focus on other tasks at hand.

There are many other perks to automatically backing up your payroll data too, such as GDPR. Having your clients’ and their employees’ data stored in a secure and remote location improves your GDPR compliance.

What do we recommend?

BrightPay Connect is the cloud extension to one of the UK’s leading payroll software providers, BrightPay.

BrightPay Connect automatically backs up your payroll data every 15 minutes securely to Microsoft Azure data stores. This is fully encrypted and tested regularly to ensure its safety, security and resilience. It also stores chronological backups of data, so you can restore your payroll data from anywhere, at any time.

That’s not all, BrightPay Connect provides many other features, such as a bureau dashboard, a client self-service portal, client payroll entry and payroll approval request functionality. This reduces your admin workload, while also improving your client engagement across the board.

You can also personalise your BrightPay Connect account by adding your own company logo, name and contact details, which will be visible to clients while they access the software. Watch this quick two-minute video on how BrightPay Connect can work for your accounting firm.

Check out how this user found peace of mind after signing up to BrightPay Connect:

“After using other payroll packages for several years, I was highly delighted when I discovered BrightPay. It was the easiest, fastest and operator friendly software I had ever used. The reports are very comprehensive and emailing payslips and reports to clients and employees is so easy. The time I save per payroll is great and the affordability of the package and the different scales make this the package to choose.”

- Irene Hopkinson, Westmill Accountancy

It’s time to take your clients’ payroll data security seriously, book a demo with BrightPay Connect today and never worry about losing your payroll data again!

Posted byEleanor Mc GuinnessinBrightPay Connect

The 22/23 tax year: Key dates for employers

The 2022/23 UK tax year begins on 6th of April, 2022. For employers, there are a range of need-to-know dates and important deadlines you must be remember each year to ensure you stay compliant, and avoid any penalties from HMRC.

To make things easy for you, below, we have compiled a list of payroll and self-assessment tax return deadlines for employers and the self-employed. 

Payroll dates and deadlines

6th April

As the new tax year begins, with it brings a number of changes. Follow the links to read about important changes for the 2022/23 tax year such as the new National Insurance Levy and new NLM and NMW rates.

19th April

You have until the 19th of April to submit your Employer Payment Summary (EPS) for the previous tax year to inform HMRC that you have completed your final submission for the year.

31st May

You must give any employees who were on your payroll on the last day of the previous tax year (5th April) a copy of their P60 by the 31st of May.

6th July

For each employee you provided with expenses and benefits for the previous tax year, you must submit your P11D forms online to HMRC and give your employees a copy of the information on your forms, by the 6th of July. By this date you must also submit a P11D(b) form to HMRC to declare the total amount of Class 1A NICs you owe on expenses and benefits provided for the year.

19th July

If paying by cheque, any Class 1A National Insurance owed on expenses or benefits for the previous tax year must reach HMRC by the 19th of July.

22nd July

If paying electronically, any Class 1A National Insurance owed on expenses or benefits for the previous tax year must reach HMRC by the 22nd of July.

19th October

If you have a PAYE Settlement Agreement, you must pay all tax and Class 1B National Insurance owed by the 19th of October, if paying by cheque.

22nd October

If you have a PAYE Settlement Agreement, you must pay all tax and Class 1B National Insurance owed by the 19th of October, if paying electronically.

5th April 2023

The last day of the tax year is the 5th of April and your final Full Payment Submission (FPS) should be made on or before the final pay day of the tax year.

If you choose to payroll your employees’ benefits for the 2023/24 tax year, you must register online on or before 5‌‌‌th ‌April‌‌‌ ‌2023.

Self Assessment tax return deadlines

31st July

Your second payment on account for the current tax year must be paid by the 31st of July.

5th October

If you’re self-employed or a sole trader, not self-employed, or registering a partner or partnership you must register for Self Assessment by the 5th of October.

31st October

Paper Self-Assessment Tax Returns must be received by HMRC by the 31st of October.

30th December

Deadline for Online Self Assessment Tax Return if you are eligible and want it collected through next year’s PAYE tax code.

31 January 2023

Online Self-Assessment Tax Returns must be received by HMRC by the 31st of January.

Pay any tax you owe for the previous tax year and your first payment on account towards your bill for the next tax year.

To switch to BrightPay before the new tax year, book a free consultation with one of our migration specialists today. Or, to see the software in action, book a free online demo today.

Related articles:

• Construction Industry Scheme: Full functionality at no added cost
• What to include on a payslip and how they should be shared with employees
• 5 Reasons why BrightPay receives a 99% Customer Satisfaction Rating

Posted byElaine CarrollinNews

6 payroll mistakes (and how to avoid them)

Payroll is an essential aspect of any business and one which is important to get right. Whether you are running payroll for the first time as a new business or if you have decided to begin to run your payroll in-house, having previously outsourced to a payroll bureau; here are six mistakes to watch out for when processing payroll.

1. Not complying with HMRC

When you run payroll, you need to report payroll information to HMRC. You may be charged penalties if you do not report the correct information to HMRC or if you do not submit the information on time. It is necessary that you use a HMRC recognised software that can report PAYE information online and in real time, known as RTI. Using a HMRC recognised software is needed for:

• Recording your employees’ details.
• Working out your employees’ pay and deductions.
• Working out any statutory pay your employees’ may be entitled to.
• Working out how much you owe to HMRC.

2. Not complying with GDPR

When processing payroll, you are dealing with a lot of personal information. Using a GDPR compliant payroll software means you and your employees can rest assured that all personal data is stored and managed in a safe and secure manner.

3. Not complying with automatic enrolment

It is a legal requirement for employers to enrol eligible employees into a workplace pension scheme which both the employer and the employee will contribute to. There are certain auto enrolment duties that employers must carry out in order to be fully compliant. Some of these duties are once off actions and others are ongoing duties which involves monitoring changes in your employees age and earnings. Every three years, employers must carry out the re-enrolment of any staff who may have left the scheme.

4. Not backing up payroll data

When running payroll, it is highly recommended that you always keep a backup of all payroll data. It is also advised that this back up is saved somewhere other than on the hard drive of the computer you use to process payroll. Using a cloud platform or an external device to back up data is the safest option to ensure you never lose valuable information, should something happen to your computer.

5. Having inexperienced or untrained staff run payroll

While using the right software has made processing payroll easier than ever before, it is still not something that should be assumed is easy and straightforward to do. When staff running payroll are inexperienced or untrained, you are leaving your business open to problems like employees being paid the wrong amounts, penalties for non-compliance, time wasted correcting errors and overall damaging your reputation as a business. It is also important staff keep up to date and informed with any changing HMRC legislation or employee entitlements.

6. Inefficiency and human error

Your efficiency when running payroll will depend greatly on the level of automation used. Automation cuts down on the repetition of uncomplicated tasks. Automation not only saves your business time and money by allowing you to process payroll quicker, it also does so by reducing the possibility of human error. A payroll software must be used to automate payroll processes.

Solution:

You have two options when it comes to ensuring none of these mistakes are made by your business when processing payroll.

Option One: Outsource your payroll to a professional.

Option Two: Choose a payroll software that ensures all these mistakes are easily avoided.

While outsourcing your payroll duties to a professional might seem like the simplest option, it may not be the most cost effective one. You can save money while having the same peace of mind that your payroll is correct by running your payroll in-house with the right payroll software.

BrightPay is a multi-award-winning payroll software that automates payroll processing. The software is constantly performing tasks in the background, which helps streamline your payroll workflows. BrightPay’s integration with HMRC, accounting packages and pension providers automates payroll tasks while also ensuring that you can easily stay compliant.

BrightPay will automatically assess new employees for auto enrolment each pay period and inform you of which employees need to be enrolled. Our software will then continue to monitor staff and inform you of any changes in eligibility, giving you peace of mind that all your auto enrolment duties are taken care of. BrightPay even automatically prepares customised letters which employees must receive, informing them of their auto enrolment rights.

When it comes to the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR), BrightPay Connect, our cloud extension, helps you stay compliant by offering a secure online portal for employers to share payslips with their employees as well as other HR documents. Our newest feature, two-factor authentication, adds a second layer of security for employers logging into BrightPay Connect. A security code will be sent to the user via email or text which needs to be entered to log in to the employer dashboard, lowering the risk of data breaches.

While there will be a learning curve with any new software, BrightPay’s user friendly interface and intuitive design makes that learning curve a lot less steep. BrightPay’s website has a comprehensive library of support documentation that takes you step by step through payroll processes. If you cannot find the answer you are looking for, BrightPay’s support team can be reached by phone or email; offering BrightPay customers free help and guidance when they need it.

Other useful resources that can be found on our website are our guides and ebooks, video tutorials, blogs and webinars. Previous webinars can be watched on demand from our website. We also host weekly live webinars which anyone can join for free.

Why not book a free demo today and discover how BrightPay can help you avoid payroll mistakes and make processing payroll a breeze.

Posted byElaine CarrollinPayrollPayroll Software

Spring Statement: Payroll changes for April and July

What changes have been made to payroll?

This year’s Spring Statement or “mini-budget” has brought some small changes to how payroll is processed, which will be happening in April and July 2022.

The first change was made to Employment Allowance, which will increase from £4,000 to £5,000 per year. This will take effect from 6th April 2022.

The National Insurance Primary Threshold will increase from £9,880 to the same level as the tax threshold, £12,570. This will take effect from 6th July 2022.

How will this affect my payroll processing?

If you’re using BrightPay, you have nothing to worry about when it comes to these changes. Our software is up to date with these new regulations, and they have been implemented in the software. You, as the payroll processor, can simply continue using BrightPay the way you always have.

How do I stay more up to date with legislation changes?

Here at BrightPay, as one of the leading payroll software providers in the UK and Ireland, we aim to provide you with the most up-to-date and innovative solutions to your day-to-day payroll processes and workflow.

BrightPay is a fully HMRC compliant software, ensuring that your business’ payroll aligns with the latest legislation. BrightPay also stores all communication logs that you have with HMRC, letting you know if your submissions contain any errors in a user-friendly format, which can save you lots of time.

BrightPay features that can help your practice

Automatic Enrolment

Find it hard to get your head around Automatic Enrolment requirements? BrightPay streamlines the entire process for you and provides full automatic enrolment functionality within the payroll software. From setting up employees’ pensions schemes and enrolling them, to sending out personalised automatic enrolment letters and re-enrolment – BrightPay makes all of this possible in a simple and user-friendly format, saving your business a hefty amount of admin workload.

CIS functionality

Unsure when it comes to paying subcontractors? BrightPay has an entire tab dedicated to CIS (Construction Industry Scheme) within the payroll software that caters to all types of subcontractors – including companies, partnerships and sole traders. You can also verify new subcontractors through HMRC from within the payroll software.

Cloud extension

Our cloud extension, BrightPay Connect, helps ensure GDPR compliance by storing your employees’ payroll data securely in the cloud. These backups are done automatically every 15 minutes, ensuring the safety and security of your employees’ payroll.

BrightPay hosts regular free online webinars including webinars on updates to changes in payroll legislation. As well as this, through our website you can find support documentation, video tutorials and payroll guides, available for you to read at any time.

Interested in learning more about BrightPay? Why not sign up for a free 15-minute demo to see how our software can enhance your business in more detail. You can also try our software for free with our 60-day free trial, so you can get the best use of our software before making any commitments.

Related articles:

• BrightPay and AccountancyManager join forces
• BrightPay Wins AccountingWEB’s Top Payroll Product of the Year 2021
• What to include on a payslip and how they should be shared with employees

Posted byEleanor Mc GuinnessinPayroll Software

7 reasons why accountants are switching to BrightPay this year

As an accountant, switching payroll software providers can be an overwhelming decision, given the amount of options available. It’s important to choose a payroll software that can not only meet your clients’ expectations but exceed them as part of your service offering.

Here are seven reasons why accountants are making the switch this new tax year to one of the UK’s leading payroll software providers.

1. Free migration support

Switching over to new software can sometimes be a complicated and time-consuming task to undertake. On top of that, many software providers who offer migration support to their customers, require a service fee. To help take the hassle out of migrating from one payroll software to another, BrightPay offers free migration support.

When you choose to switch over to BrightPay payroll software, you will be assigned an account manager who will guide you throughout the entire setup process, at no extra cost. This ensures that you’re on your feet and ready to go once the switch over has been made.

Book a free migration call with us today and find out why accountants are switching to BrightPay. We are an award-winning payroll software provider, winning AccountingWEB’s ‘Top Payroll Product of the Year 2021’ and ‘Payroll and HR Software of the Year 2021’.

2. Batch Processing

With BrightPay, you can batch process payroll for multiple clients at the same time, which is especially useful for single-director clients whose payroll doesn’t change each pay period. This includes batch finalising payslips, batch sending any outstanding RTI and CIS submissions, along with batch checking for coding notices.

3. Online bureau and client dashboards

With our cloud extension, BrightPay Connect, you can view all of your clients’ payroll information in one secure location, through an online bureau dashboard. Here, you can send payroll requests to clients and in turn, they can enter their payments, additions and deductions for that pay period through their own employer dashboard. You can review the information the client has entered and once happy with it and you have accepted it, the information will automatically update in the payroll software. This feature means you won't have to manually add the payroll information or upload a CSV file.

You can also send a payroll summary to clients for approval before the payslips are finalised. This ensures that your clients are accountable for the accuracy of their employees’ payslips.

BrightPay Connect’s employer dashboard can also benefit your clients by streamlining HR processes. These include:

• Uploading HR or other employee documents to the portal for employees to view, print or download. Accessibility to such documents can also be customised, allowing only certain employees or departments to view them.
• Managing employees’ annual leave through a user-friendly company calendar. Here, clients can easily accept/reject employees’ annual leave requests.
• Clients’ employees have access to an employee app, where they can access payslips, easily submit annual leave requests, view important documents, and request to change any personal details the employer has on their file.

BrightPay Connect also comes with other benefits for accountants and bureaus, such as customisable branding options. Through this, your clients can see your own company name, logo and contact details when they login, enhancing your relationship with them.

Interested in learning more about BrightPay Connect? Watch this short one-minute video on how BrightPay Connect can enhance your business or book a free online demo.

4. Pay employees, subcontractors and HMRC directly through the software

Our integration with direct payments platform, Modulr, allows you to pay employees in as little as 90 seconds, directly through BrightPay. Through the integration, you can also schedule payments, which lets you make any last-minute changes, allowing greater flexibility in how you pay employees.

5. Reports

When using BrightPay, you can create your own customised reports, with over 100 data items to choose from. These reports can be viewed, printed or downloaded, at your convenience. Clients also have the ability to run reports themselves through their employer dashboard, meaning less emails and less admin work for payroll processors.

6. CIS and auto enrolment

BrightPay includes full CIS functionality at no extra cost, allowing you to process subcontractors’ payroll quickly and easily. You can also send subcontractor verification requests directly to HMRC from within BrightPay.

Setting up automatic enrolment pension schemes is also a breeze with BrightPay, simplifying the entire automatic enrolment process. BrightPay is integrated with a number of the UK’s leading pension providers and automatically assesses your clients’ employees for you, and notifies you of any changes to their work status. BrightPay also goes the extra mile by automatically generating enrolment letters for you that are customised for each employee, streamlining this task for you even further.

7. Muti-user remote access

With BrightPay, the payroll software can be installed on up to 10 different devices. This means that up to 10 different users can process the payroll or from 10 different locations. It also means that if you have employees who process the payroll working remotely, they have the ability to access the software from multiple locations.

Posted byEleanor Mc GuinnessinPayroll Software

Customer Update: April 2022

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

• BrightPay and AccountancyManager join forces

• New messaging on payslips required

• The payroll and HR connection (and how to use it to your advantage)

2021/22 Year-End guidance to completing the tax year 

To assist customers in completing the tax year and transitioning to 2022/23, we’ve created a step-by-step guide and video tutorial on 5 Steps to Completing the Tax Year 2021/22. We have also combined a list of frequently asked questions about the transition.

Process multiple clients at once with batch operations 

If your bureau has a lot of single-director companies or payrolls that don’t change from week to week, BrightPay gives you the ability to batch process multiple employer files, all at once. Our cloud extension, BrightPay Connect, offers additional impressive features, including a bureau dashboard, as well as a self-service dashboard for your clients.

Annual leave has never been easier  

As summer approaches, annual leave requests can be difficult to manage. With our cloud-extension, BrightPay Connect, your employees can simply request leave via their smartphone, on the employee app. You, as the employer, will then receive a notification and can simply approve/reject the request.

Free Webinar: HMRC Payments - A Better Way to Pay PAYE Tax 

Posted byEleanor Mc GuinnessinCustomer Update