BrightPay Software

Definitely recommend to other organisations and NGOs

Pros

Easy to use. Value for money, customer service staff are supportive and helpful, as a charity we have benefitted alot and saved alot of money. Thank you.

Cons

Well there are no negatives to state. We have not had any issues nor any technical issues to report as a complain.

Pros

The system is easy to follow. The help is also very quick to come back. The price is also reasonable for a small company

Cons

I feel the reports could be easier and the year end could be improved on. I think it would be nice to have someone available after working hours

Pros

Nice, simple and easy-to-follow functions. If you're basically a non-technically-minded book-keeper, it keeps everything clear, and if you get it a little wrong at first it's easy to backtrack and put it right.

Cons

No complaints at all with it, though the automatic enrolment pension requirements did cause a little hiccup, which was probably down to confusion on my part anyway.

Pros

It is easy to move from one one screen to another and then back again. Tailoring reports is very flexible.

Cons

Each tax year's records are stand-alone. So compiling records for a calendar financial year or any other period that involves more than 1 tax year involves extra work.

Love the software, love the kind people at technical support and love the vibe that Thesaurus Software are in business to help others do business well. Other vendors are only in it for themselves unfortunately.

Pros

Very intuitive and it works. Simply no jargon and non of that endless stream of annoying ad ons that you have to pay for just to have some extra piece of functionality. Whatever ad ons that are needed will be really needed by you and hence you will see the value of purchases them.

Cons

It would be great if there was some kind of front end graphical dashboard. Other than that I cannot fault it - oh yes is there a way to produce invoices using this product?

I now have more time to get one with my work thanks to Brightpay.

Pros

At last a payroll system that doesn't require a lot of extended time, just gets on with what is required. Having changed from Sage/ Tas to this I can say it is like escaping from a maze of confusion into the bright sunshine! I changed initially as we are a small company and needed to sort out pension provision that could be easily done via our payroll. Sage/Tas were unhelpful and it looked to be very expensive. Thank goodness I found Brightpay. Pensions has still been a bit of a challenge, but with the assistance of Brightpay we are there now!

Cons

No major issues, and there was an update that fixed an alignment issue if weekly pension pay didn't match with one that had been set up. All good.

Cons

1. Holiday pay entry. Calculation of pay is manual. Why isn't it number of hours or days or weeks.
2. Payment of one off amount has to be either No of hours or days

Pros

Ease of use, layout and inclusion possibilities of payslips.
We operate minibuses and private hire vehicles where the employee hours vary from week to week. Brightpay's ability to accrue holiday pay based on hours worked and to show this on the payslips is very useful saving independent spreadsheets.

Cons

Really impressed with the fact that payslips can be translated into so many languages some of which I've never heard of.

And yet translation into Welsh not available - Please show some respect and recognize the continued existence and use of one of the oldest languages in Europe. Consider also the existence of the Gaelic and Cornish languages. Offer these translations and market the availability.

The Welsh language also has official status in Wales. This means that public organisations should give information and provide services in Welsh, as well as in English. The ability to provide Welsh payslips would be advantageous to companies seeking to show support or actively running their companies in and with Welsh as the main language.

Keep up the great work everyone @ BrightPay

Pros

If you have just the slightest knowledge of payroll (used to use HMRC software), you will find BrightPay a breeze.
Its simple to use, all calculations are done for you. You can print detailed payslips, which was a first for me. I can also send information straight to our Automatic Enrolment pension provider. Has a great employee calendar to keep track of holidays, sick days and absences. As the title says, its so easy to use it is child's play.

Cons

There isn't anything negative I can say about this software, except the new cloud service that has recently appeared should be available without extra charge! It would be a useful tool to have for my employees!

Highly recommended and will save you a fortune

Pros

I haven't found a feature that I have needed that isn't in this package, and compared to the package I was using before this represents outstanding value.

Cons

Until the latest version I had to calculate the journal entries to put into Sage by hand, but now in the latest version even this is taken care of!

It seems it will do bank transfers too, so you never have to leave the application, though haven't tried that yet. If its anything like the rest it will work great. Recommended.

Pros

I got this when I set up our pension scheme as the Basic PAYE Tools wouldn't do it, so was a manual process. This is such a time saver. Another benefit is that it emails PDF payslips all at once. Integrates with HMRC for RTI, and also for coding notices which is great. Also interacts with Nest pension provider.

Cons

I find it difficult to write about the cons. Could be a bit cheaper for very small employers with 4-6 staff maybe.

great to now, just thoughtless process on licenses. I'll be leaving.

Pros

Works great when it isn't ripping you off as detailed below unable as it is to recognise that one individual may work for others and have one PC.

Cons

I have my own small business (free licence) and work for a company and do their payroll (standard licence). Now I can't access my own software as it treats me as a payroll bureau despite different details entirely (email etc) just working on the same lap top.

As a volunteer I need to get the job done fast and accurately and so it is very helpful

Pros

Makes me feel confident to do this role. All detail is clear and payslips are welcomed for clarity.

I had been a Sage 50 Payroll customer for around 20 years but found it getting ever more expensive and difficult to get in touch with customer care when you needed them with lengthy waits on hold. I needed to renew my Sagecover and they wanted to put me onto a monthly subscription, the amount they wanted just did not represent good value for money to me so I started to look at other options which was a big decision after using the same software for so long and having to learn another product from scratch . I trialed Moneysoft which also gets good reviews but I didn't really like the very old fashioned 1980's looking interface very much although it did the job. Then I tried Brightpay and was immediately impressed, it covers all the features I need including RTI and Auto Enrollment at a fraction of the price of Sage for the amount of employees I have. Moving data from Sage and setting things up took a little bit of time but this was mostly double checking everything was correct. The user interface is great and I find it easy to use, it's not quite so in depth as Sage so maybe misses a few features but this makes it less cluttered and easy to learn and operate. Also there's no need for dedicated stationery everything can be produced on plain paper which is another cost saving. I had a couple of initial queries and customer care answered these promptly. I would highly recommend this product, it's fantastic value for money.

Pros

Nice modern user interface.
Easy to learn and operate.
Covers RTI and Auto Enrollment.
No need for dedicated stationery.
Excellent value for money.
Fixed yearly fee includes all legislation and feature updates and support.

Cons

Would be nice to be able to attach documents to employee records i.e. contract of employment, disciplinary letters, etc.

Very easy to pick up and use with help screens that do just that. So much better than Quick Books (desk top) and half the price for more functionality. It's win, win, win!!

Pros

The way Brightpay handles auto enrollment and statutory leave/pay. And that it creates a csv file to export payments to Nat West Bankline.

Cons

Allows only one user. A second user who has limited access (eg to holiday files only) would enable us to use that function.

I would like to be able to change working patterns easier, like to record half sick days, the report writer could be easier

Pros

Very easy to use, simple steps to follow when adding staff. Reporting directly to HMRC is a great time saver

Cons

Doesn't load into bank, I have staff working over several departments so would like to record this better to then run a journal from

Excellent package providing all our payroll requirements, and the complimentary licence for us as a registered charity is much appreciated.

Pros

Very easy to use and is efficient and flexible, giving comprehensive standard reports without the need to formulate our own.

Superb customer service

Pros

Everything all under one roof, no separate logging into pension, employees payslips all in one place where they can reprint if need be.

Cons

Holiday only shows what they've had to date, doesn't include what's already been booked!
HMRC think it's a new employment first time you use it.

Pros

I would have given you 10 stars for your customer service helpline. Any time I am stuck, I have help straight away from your helpline staff. Can I especially commend Customer support representative for her kind assistance.

Cons

As a small educational charity with 11 part-time staff, this is a considered expense every year. I hope we can continue to afford the software.

Pros

Easy to use, powerful and constantly improving, significantly cheaper than Sage. We previously used Sage 50 Payroll and find this software to be significantly easier to use with no real training required to get everything working. All the main features we need are included and they have released newer features such as cloud employee self service in the last year which further improve things. Good support and overall highly recommended.

Cons

It would be nice to see the software fully in the cloud, but, that is really a wish for the future than a real complaint.