Jun 2021
24
Furlough Scheme: Set to change next week
The 2021 Budget, announced at the beginning of March, introduced the government’s spending plans for the upcoming year and the measures they’re taking to wind down the furlough scheme while at the same time supporting businesses and employees. It was announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) would be extended until 30th September with a number of changes introduced before its closure. This week, on July 1st, changes will be made to the level of grant available.
What is the current subsidy scheme?
Currently, under the existing scheme rules, employers can claim grants covering 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500 for the hours an employee is not working. Where the employee is not working, the employer does not have to contribute towards wages for unworked hours, but they are responsible for paying employer NICs and pension contributions. Where an employee is on flexible furlough, employers must pay the full amount for any hours worked (including doing work-related training).
What’s set to change?
From 1st July, the level of grant will be reduced, and employers will be asked to contribute towards the cost of their furloughed employees’ wages. The Government will contribute 70% of wages, up to a maximum of £2,187.50 per month for hours not worked. The employer will also have to contribute 10% of wages so that the employee receives 80% of their usual wages for any hours not worked (up to cap of £2,500). You can choose to top up your employees’ wages above the 80% total at your own expense. You must also continue to pay the employer National Insurance contributions and pension contributions.
Any more changes?
The Government subsidy will continue to drop. In August and September, this contribution will drop to 60% of wages, up to £1,875 per month for hours not worked. The employer will be required to contribute 20% of wages for hours not worked, (again, up to a cap of £2,500).
Support Available
BrightPay hosts frequent webinars, free-of-charge, to support the accounting and bookkeeping community. Take a look at our upcoming webinar where we’ll be discussing the changes to the furlough scheme and how BrightPay payroll software caters for CJRS.
Check out the full list of our upcoming webinars here.
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Jun 2021
8
New Feature! Pay HMRC using Modulr
BrightPay’s recent partnership with Modulr was launched with the aim of providing our customers with the most seamless payroll workflow possible. The API integration allows accountants and business owners to pay employees directly from BrightPay.
Our customers responded to the partnership with enthusiasm, registering with Modulr to set up their accounts to try it for themselves. James Toulson, Managing Director of One Less Worry payroll services, who signed up to Modulr, had this to say after trying our new direct payments feature:
Responding to feedback:
Since launching the integration, we’ve worked closely with our customers to understand what worked well and what could be improved. One feature that customers felt would be particularly useful, was a direct payment method to HMRC using the Modulr integration.
To that end, we’re happy to announce that all BrightPay and Modulr customers can now pay HMRC the tax and National Insurance (and any other deductions) owed for each pay period, directly through the payroll software.
What does this mean?
This new feature provides a fast, secure and easy way to pay HMRC through BrightPay. It adds to Modulr’s already existing functionality that helps you to:
- Pay Instantly (under 90 seconds)
- Pay anytime, anywhere (including weekends and bank holidays)
- Save even more time by cutting out numerous steps associated with Direct Debit and Bacs when paying employees and when paying HMRC
- Cut down on errors associated with manual entry
Already a customer? You can view a step-by-step guide on how to pay HMRC using Modulr here.
Pricing Structure
Our aim of creating the best customer experience possible drove our decision to partner with Modulr, a fintech company which is transforming the way companies do business. Modulr are also the payments partner behind the digital banking app, Revolut.
With this partnership, we wanted to provide as many customers as possible with an improved payroll workflow. If you are an accountant processing payroll for a number of clients, click here to view Modulr's pricing. If you only process payroll for your own employees, click here to view Modulr's pricing.
Get in touch:
Interested in learning more? Get in touch with the BrightPay team to discover the benefits of Modulr’s integration by clicking here. Already a BrightPay customer? Book a demo directly with the Modulr team to learn more.
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May 2021
28
P11D & working from home expenses: What you need to know
Businesses who provide expenses or benefits to their employees or directors need to inform HMRC and pay tax and National Insurance on them. To do this, you report the details on a P11D and P11D(b) form. The deadline for submitting the forms is Tuesday July 6th.
Filing end of year tax returns can be a busy and stressful job for employers and their accountants, this year even more so, with Covid-19 lockdowns complicating matters. Although there are many types of expenses and benefits which require you to pay tax and National Insurance for, there are thankfully, exemptions for expenses associated with working from home. For many businesses, whose employees were required to work remotely this past year, this will alleviate some of the hassle during this busy time.
Employee Reimbursement:
In May of last year, a temporary exemption was introduced for reimbursements of coronavirus-related home office expenses. Employees can be fully reimbursed for equipment expenses made from 16 March 2020, free from Income Tax and National Insurance. The exemption only applies to equipment that was bought as a result of the coronavirus outbreak and would have otherwise been provided by or on behalf of the employer. This exemption was due to end on 5 April 2021, but was recently extended and will now stay in effect until 5 April 2022.
What are considered at-home expenses?
HMRC considers remote working expenses to be:
- Office equipment such as computers, office furniture, internet access, and stationary
- Additional household expenses, such as electricity, heating, or broadband
P11Ds do not need to be submitted for at-home office equipment, as long as that equipment is being used for work purposes.
Additional costs can only be reimbursed if there is an actual increase in costs incurred by the employee. You do not need to report additional household expenses if payment or reimbursement to your employees does not exceed £6 a week (changed from £4 to £6 in April 2020) or £26 a month.
When it comes to broadband expenses, it will only qualify as an additional cost that can be reimbursed tax-free, if the employee is required to install a new broadband connection. If one already existed, it cannot be reimbursed.
Which employees are eligible?
Typically, employees are eligible if they regularly carry out their employment duties while working remotely, i.e. those who work at home frequently or whose at-home work follows a pattern. During the Covid-19 pandemic, HMRC will accept that all employees working from home are eligible because offices are closed or because the employee was required to self-isolate.
Submitting P11Ds
On BrightPay payroll software you can produce P11Ds for sending to HMRC after year end, which includes your Class 1A NICs declaration and details of the expenses and benefits provided including cash equivalents. This feature is provided to our customers at no extra cost.
To learn more about BrightPay’s features and how they can benefit your business, book a free demo today.
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Apr 2021
19
BrightPay celebrates Earth Day 2021
The first Earth Day launched fifty-one years ago in response to an emerging environmental consciousness, catalysed by a number of environmental disasters in the ‘60s. Although the stakes only grow as the years go by, we can appreciate that there has been a profound cultural shift since it began.
At BrightPay we are committed to a cleaner, greener future for all. This commitment will see us developing our business towards ecological sustainability at both a company and an individual level. Our new offices (opening soon!) are purpose built to be energy efficient, affording us the opportunity to record and monitor our carbon emissions. In addition to this, we have established the Green Team, an internal company initiative, to educate, promote and inspire sustainability among our colleagues and our loyal customers.
The Green Team members are brimming with ideas to identify and support the implementation of solutions to help BrightPay operate in a more environmentally sustainable way. Our plans, including those for Earth Day, are grounded in the belief that small actions at the individual level can build to create a larger change. We will leverage our individual power to influence, as an employee, a consumer, a voter, and as a member of our community.
In our first campaign to raise awareness, the Green Team will be celebrating Earth Day 2021 with a number of activities planned throughout the week. Take a look below at what we have planned. On Earth Day, we will be inviting Dr Emma Reeves, Senior Ecologist at the Forest, Environmental Research & Services (FERS) Ltd to discuss climate change, pollution, and what we as individuals can do to help.
Our dedication to the environment won’t stop at the end of the week. Subscribe to BrightPay’s sustainability newsletter to follow our journey.
Apr 2021
7
Pay Employees Directly through BrightPay
Collaboration is at the centre of BrightPay’s plan of continuously addressing the challenges our customers face by ensuring we can offer new and innovative solutions. Our partnership with Modulr, the UK payments platform, achieves exactly this. The API integration will significantly simplify the task of managing payroll payments for thousands of our customers across the UK. Through Modulr, BrightPay’s customers can eliminate the need to create bank files and the manual work associated with making payments to employees.
What does this integration mean for BrightPay customers and their clients?
The Modulr BrightPay integration enables accountants to provide their clients with a new service, the option of a seamless payroll workflow. Using Modulr, accountants and bureaus can offer accounts to individual clients, which allows payroll payments to be initiated within BrightPay payroll software without the need for payment files. Its functionality provides numerous benefits for accountants and their clients.
- Save time: With Modulr, you have access to the Faster Payments Service (FPS) scheme, which does not require you to upload any bank files. This eliminates the many frustrating steps traditionally associated with making Bacs payroll payments.
- Pay employees faster: Faster Payments Service, launched in 2008, is a payment scheme that is far faster than the traditional Bacs method. Instead of taking three days to process payments, FPS settles payments in 90 seconds. Conveniently, you can also make payments 24/7, 365 days a year, with the flexibility of instant emergency payments.
- Minimise error: An integrated payments solution can help cut down on costly data entry errors. By using an automated system, no manual input is required, which improves accuracy and reduces error. Moreover, payments must first be approved by clients on their individual Modulr dashboard before being sent.
- Increase security: Payments are made using a highly secure and compliant network. Modulr’s infrastructure is designed to ensure the highest level of data and system confidentiality and is compliant with the highest industry standards and regulations.??
Who is Modulr?
Modulr is the tech behind the tech. It’s likely you’ve been using their payments infrastructure without even knowing it. They are the award-winning payments partner behind Revolut, Sage, Iwoca and over 10,000 businesses (and millions of customers). The fintech company has established itself as a leading alternative to wholesale and commercial payments. It is FCA approved, has direct access to Faster Payments and is a partner of Visa, granting it direct access to the industry-leading global payments network.?
Pricing Structure
We want our customers to have the best experience possible and this collaboration with Modulr is an important step in this. We are confident that this partnership will improve the payroll workflow. We maintain that having a seamless payroll service should be available at an affordable price point and as our BrightPay customers know, we don’t believe in complicated pricing structures, opaque amounts or unfair selling tactics. That’s why BrightPay will not be receiving any referral fees for this service. This allows our customers who register with Modulr to avail of it at a highly competitive rate.
Schedule a personal demo:
Interested in learning more? Click here to learn more about BrightPay’s integration with Modulr and talk to a member of our team today to discover how BrightPay can improve your payroll processes.
Free webinar:
On Thursday, 22 April, join the BrightPay and Modulr teams for a free webinar, as we explore what you need to know about this Direct Payments functionality. Plus, we will demonstrate how quick and seamless the process is in both BrightPay and Modulr.
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Feb 2021
4
Five Challenges Businesses Face When Switching Payroll Software
Switching software for any business can be a confusing, challenging, and disagreeable process. When it comes to payroll software, this challenge can be even greater. If you are in the process of switching to a new payroll software you may have spent weeks, months even, searching for the best available solution. This likely involved speaking to various customer service and sales teams, watching online product demos, and comparing all the different options available to you. By now, you may have narrowed down your choices. Chances are, this will include BrightPay Payroll Software!
From your research, you fully understand all the additional features and advantages that this new software will bring, from automating tedious tasks to saving you money in the long run. Yet, many businesses who have spent months and months of their time analysing their options, who are fully aware that they are losing money and opportunities by staying with their current provider, are still hesitant to make the move. They feel that the challenges are greater than the benefits.
Let’s take a look at some of these very real challenges and examine how they can be minimised.
1. Business as usual:
Implementing any new software has teething problems. It’s not simply a matter of installing the software; it also means migrating the data over to a new system and ensuring that your team is properly trained to use and make the most of it. Accomplishing this while ensuring that it doesn’t interfere with your day-to-day operations can be quite challenging. You cannot afford to process your own or your client’s payroll incorrectly.
With BrightPay, we recommend that you initially run your new payroll software alongside your previous software. This is a good way to determine that everything has been set up correctly in BrightPay and there are no inaccuracies. It also provides the comfort of knowing you have a fail-safe. We offer a 60-day free trial, an ideal way to test out the software to see if it’s the right fit for your business.
2. Migrating data:
How much time will you have to spend entering data to get the new payroll system up and running? Arguably, migrating data from an old system to a new one, is the most time-consuming part of the job. Certainly, it’s the most tedious. However, it is an important part of the process and requires careful attention to reduce errors and minimise potential issues. Early preparation is key.
To speed up this process, BrightPay facilitates the importing of employee information. If your current payroll software allows it, you can export your data in a CSV file format (or to Excel, which can subsequently be converted to CSV format) and import it into BrightPay. If there is no option to export a CSV file, you also have the option to import the employee information using a FPS file. We also have a dedicated migration team that can assist you through this process.
3. Support for your Software:
Customer support is something that every business needs when switching to a different payroll software. Even if migration runs smoothly, chances are you’ll have a question or a tricky issue down the line that you will need help with. When considering your options, check whether the payroll software provider you choose has a dedicated customer support team, how you can get in touch with them, and if there are any additional costs to avail of support. What other forms of support do they offer? Are there webinars, online product documentation, step-by-step guides and video tutorials easily available?
A lack of support beyond the implementation phase is not acceptable and neither is a whole load of added costs. BrightPay support is completely free and has been for nearly 30 years! This includes payroll experts available via phone or email, free webinars, video tutorials, eBooks, and comprehensive online support documentation. All BrightPay licences include software updates in response to any changes to payroll legislation and government schemes.
We believe providing free support is what’s best for our customers and it motivates us to create easy to use, problem-free software. Don’t just take our word for it though. View our customer testimonials page and see for yourself!
4. Integrating with Internal Processes:
A different challenge but one that can be equally frustrating to buyers is ensuring that the new software they’re looking at will work with internal workplace policies. You may be convinced the software is right for you and your team, but it’s equally important the software meets your IT and Legal team’s requirements. Data protection and compliance with GDPR should be a priority for any company. Speak to the software provider about their privacy policy and how they handle your data or your client’s data. If you’re still unsure, ask your company’s Data Protection Officer to join in on the conversation.
Data Protection has always been a concern for BrightPay and we’ve always aimed to act with complete integrity in this regard. Like all companies, in preparation for GDPR we have had to complete a total review on how we gather, maintain and use data. Find out about BrightPay’s security measures.
5. Timing Differences
Knowing when to make the move can be difficult. On one hand, waiting for the new tax year may look appealing but on the other hand, staying with your current provider may have a negative impact on your business. We would recommend moving at a time that is most convenient to you. If this means waiting for the new tax year, then you will only have to import employee details into BrightPay. If you want to move mid-year, then both employee information and their mid-year pay information will need to be imported.
Book a demo to avail of a free migration consultation with the BrightPay team. You will be assigned a dedicated account manager to help you through your decision making and setup process, ensuring a smooth transition to BrightPay.
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