Aug 2022
2
Weather alert: How to handle last-minute annual leave requests
Phew, what a summer we’ve been having! From barbeques to beach days, it’s no wonder staff have been booking days off last-minute to soak up the sun. However, this can lead to businesses becoming short-staffed, which can put a strain on your usual workflow. With more staff taking annual leave, it can also often lead to you spending more time on payroll. You’re a business owner, not a juggler, so how does one handle last-minute holiday requests, every time the sun comes out? Here are our top 3 tips and tools from the payroll industry.
1. Take your annual leave management online
Rather than receiving annual leave requests via letters, phone calls or emails, why not get a software that manages the whole process for you? For example, employee apps are becoming increasingly popular, and with good reason. With an employee app, you can let employees book annual leave themselves, from a few simple taps on their phone. This means your employees can submit annual leave requests from anywhere, at any time.
You, as the employer, will then be notified of this request and can sign into your employer portal from a browser, where you can accept or reject the requests, at the click of a button. This can be done whether you’re on your desktop in the office, or your tablet at the beach – perfect for those last-minute leave requests!
This not only streamlines and automates your annual leave management process, it also makes your business much more tech savvy, improves employee job satisfaction, and aligns more with hybrid and remote working models.
2. Automatically sync employee annual leave to your payroll software
Adjusting payroll files last-minute can be exhausting, especially during busy holiday periods. However, using a payroll software that can automatically sync your employees’ annual leave data back to the payroll software, can save you a significant amount of time, each pay period.
For example, our cloud extension, Bright Pay Connect, syncs all of the data from our annual leave management tool, directly back to the payroll software. This means that all of your employees’ leave data will be up-to-date in the payroll software while you’re using it. This reduces the likelihood of errors on payslips, saving you time rectifying any errors that can crop up from mismanaged annual leave.
3. Get an online company calendar
Having an online companywide calendar lets you view your entire company’s leave (annual leave, maternity leave, sick leave, etc.) from your browser, on any device. This means that when you’re deciding whether to accept or reject a last-minute annual leave request, you can quickly pop onto your online company calendar to see who else might be booked off on those selected dates.
Having an online company calendar also allows you recognise patterns in staff’s annual leave bookings. For example, John might have taken annual leave the past four Mondays in a row, Frank could be unknowingly taking every second Friday off, while Mary doesn’t seem to have taken any leave in the past 10 months. This lets you keep a closer eye on your staff’s time off, and lets you make more strategic and well-rounded decisions for your business.
Summer isn’t over, and neither are last-minute leave requests
As you can see, annual leave management really has never been easier. All of the features mentioned above are available in our cloud extension, BrightPay Connect. If you’re interested in learning more about BrightPay Connect, why not book a free 15-minute demo, where we can show you even more ways our cloud extension can benefit your business.
New to BrightPay? BrightPay is one of the UK’s leading payroll software providers for small businesses, and is award-winning payroll software. Download our completely free of charge 60-day trial, with full functionality.
Want to stay in the loop of all things payroll? Keep up-to-date on all the latest payroll trends, news and legislative updates in our weekly newsletter.
Jul 2022
28
Customer Update: August 2022
Welcome to BrightPay's August update. Our most important news this month include:
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Payroll errors at 3 major companies leave thousands out of pocket
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Could the end of Internet Explorer affect your business?
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AM Summer Sessions: One virtual stage, eight hot topics, hundreds of ideas
Free webinar: Secure and reliable ways to make payments to employees, subcontractors and HMRC [bureau]
Did you know that you can pay employees, subcontractors and HMRC, directly from your payroll software? In next week’s webinar, discover how payment platform, Modulr, can offer your practice faster, easier and more secure payments.
Free webinar: Manage your HR workload this summer (even on holidays) [employer]
Payroll and HR tasks can often overlap; from managing annual leave to backing up your payroll files. In our upcoming webinar, learn how you can streamline your business’ payroll and HR processes with cloud technology.
Last chance: Customer Survey 2022
It’s that time of year again, time for our annual customer survey! To take part, please click the link below. It should only take a few minutes, and we will be sharing the results in the coming months. This is the last chance to participate in the survey, as it will be closing very soon.
Save hours of time by letting clients enter payroll details themselves
Are you spending hours communicating back and forth with clients to retrieve payroll details? In our latest blog, discover how BrightPay’s client payroll entry feature can save you time and help streamline your practice.
Upgrade your business with BrightPay Connect
With BrightPay Connect your employees can:
- View and download a history of their payslips.
- Request annual leave directly from their smartphone.
- Access important HR documents from anywhere.
Why not book a free 15-minute demo to see how BrightPay Connect can help streamline your business.
7 steps to saving an hour of work each payroll run
Do you feel like your payroll process is inefficient? In this free guide, discover seven steps you can take to speed up the process, while also improving accuracy.
Payroll: There's an app for that
Improve employee satisfaction and make your life easier by introducing an employee app with powerful features that can be accessed securely, using their smartphone or tablet, from anywhere with an internet connection.
Staff left out of pocket due to almost 11,000 payroll errors
Employees at the supermarket giant Asda have been left up to £500 out of pocket due to an “issue” with their payroll system. This shows the real-life impact payroll errors can have, and is a reminder to employers of just how important it is to pay employees correctly and on time.
Virtual Summer Sessions for Accountants
Throughout the summer, AccountancyManager are bringing together industry experts, software vendors and practice owners to share insights and advice on eight key topics in the accounting industry. From growing your accountancy practice to the fundamentals of client communication, there’s something for everyone.
Jul 2022
20
Save hours of time by letting clients enter payroll details themselves
Do you feel like you’re spending hours during the week emailing back and forth with clients, making payroll adjustments, and entering details that could have easily been done by the clients themselves? Whether you’re entering their employees’ hours, new starter details, or additions and deductions, it can be frustrating waiting for clients to get back to you with these details.
Imagine if you could share this payroll workload with your clients in a way that didn’t end up in never-ending back and forth emails. Imagine if there was a centralised hub that allowed information to flow effortlessly between you both, automating your payroll workflow.
Thankfully, with BrightPay Payroll Software’s Client Payroll Entry feature, this is now possible. The Client Payroll Entry feature allows your client to send updated payroll information each pay period, before the payslips are finalised. You can send a summary of payroll information from your bureau dashboard directly to the client's self-service dashboard. From here, clients can enter any changes to employees’ hours and any additions and deductions for that pay period. The client can also add any new starters in this area, and enter details such as addresses, phone numbers and tax codes.
The best part about all of this is that any changes the client makes to their payroll fully syncs back to the payroll software, once you have reviewed and approved it. Allowing you time to attend to more important matters of your business. There is also an full audit trail of changes made, so whatever your client has worked on will be tracked and recorded. This not only makes the flow of information between you and your client quicker, but it can also save you hours of time each pay period.
“I've just had a little play with your new 'Requests' feature. Oh my goodness, do you know how utterly fabulous it is? I've loved your software since I was introduced to it, but this is a game-changer. It's going to make such a big difference!”
Annamarie Angell, Deadline Accounting Ltd
Our Client Payroll Approval feature takes innovation to another level by allowing you to send a payroll summary to your clients via their self-service dashboard. Clients can access the dashboard from their computer, review their employees’ payroll and approve it or add a note. Once they’re happy with it, you will be notified on your own bureau dashboard that it's been approved. This information automatically flows to the payroll software, eliminating tedious back and forth communication.
Want to learn more about this feature? Check out this short step-by-step guide and six-minute video on how it works. However, the Client Payroll Entry and Payroll Approval aren’t the only features of our cloud-extension, BrightPay Connect. Learn more about our cloud-extension by booking a free 15-minute demo of BrightPay Connect. BrightPay Connect also comes with a wide range of other payroll and HR features to increase your value and service offering. These include:
- Automatic cloud backup of payroll files
- Employee self-service app
- Annual leave management tool and company leave calendar
- HR document uploading hub
- Bureau branding
It's time to automate your payroll workflow and streamline client communication with our cloud-extension. Book your free 15-minute BrightPay Connect demo today. Interested in staying up-to-date on all the latest payroll trends and legislative changes? Sign up to our newsletter below for weekly emails so you can stay in the loop.?
Jul 2022
8
Free Webinar: 5 ways to boost employee satisfaction
Whether you’re a shop owner, a hairdresser or run an agency, it can be difficult juggling between attending to customers, managing employees AND running payroll.
That’s why using technology that automates employee communication can save your business time, while in turn improving employee job satisfaction. For example, using a cloud-based payroll platform can give employees more control over their data, reduce the amount of emails you send, and streamline your annual leave. This can also allow you to focus on any exciting plans for expanding and developing your business, or other tasks that you might have been putting off.
Our cloud extension, BrightPay Connect, can offer you the features mentioned above and more, streamlining your HR and payroll tasks like never before. In our free webinar on the 20th of July 2022, we’ll be discussing how BrightPay Connect can boost your employees’ job satisfaction by:
- Introducing a fast and easy way to book annual leave, where employees can submit leave requests through an employee app on their smartphone.
- You as the employer, are notified of annual leave requests on your own employer dashboard, where you can easily approve or reject these requests, at the click of a button. You will also be able to view all of your employees’ leave through a user-friendly, companywide calendar.
- Offering an online payslip hub on the employee app, where employees can view a chronological history of their payslips. They can also view, print or download their payslips from any period, at any time.
- Allows you to upload any important HR documents to the cloud, with customisable accessibility. This means that you can choose specific departments or staff members to view certain documents or reports.
- These reduce the amount of unnecessary emails and paper-based letters being sent out to employees, giving them a more streamlined communication experience. It also gives them more control over their payroll data, which improves your GDPR compliance.
The best part? All of this syncs directly back to the payroll software. Register for our free webinar on the 20th of July at 11.00am, to discover how your business can implement a quicker and easier way to communicate with your employees.
Can’t wait for the webinar?
Why not book a free, 15-minute demo of BrightPay Connect today to see our cloud extension in action. It offers a host of other features that can enhance your business, including:
- An entire tab to view upcoming HMRC payments, allowing you to keep track of deadlines.
- Improves the security of your employees’ information by automatically backing up your payroll data every 15 minutes to the cloud.
- Access to payroll reports that are created from within the payroll software. These automatically sync to the reports tab on your employer dashboard, where they can be downloaded in CSV or PDF format.
- The ability to invite unlimited users to your BrightPay Connect account, at no additional cost.
It’s time to take your business to the next level. Book a free demo of BrightPay Connect today, to see how cloud technology can enhance your business processes.
Jun 2022
29
Customer Update: July 2022
Welcome to BrightPay's July update. Our most important news this month include:
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The new wave of payslip distribution
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Streamline your business' annual leave management
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3 ways to boost job satisfaction in your workplace
Get the most out of BrightPay by automating payroll processes
Join our upcoming webinar on the 7th of July, where you will discover how to automate your payroll process. Must-have features include batch-processing payslips, an online client portal, and the ability to send payroll entry and approval requests to clients, before you finalise the payroll.
The importance of automation and why you need it
Join our upcoming webinar on the 5th of July where you will discover how integration has transformed the world of payroll. Having integrated software applications can be incredibly convenient for the end-user. That’s why BrightPay integrates with various applications to automate many day-to-day tasks.
Increased NIC thresholds from 6th July 2022
The NIC thresholds are increasing from 6th July 2022. BrightPay has been updated to reflect these changes, so please ensure that you are using the latest version of the software. These rates will then automatically apply to payments due to be made on 6th July or later.
The new wave of payslip distribution
Say goodbye to the hours spent regenerating payslips or searching through files when employees want copies of their past payslips. With the employee app, employees will be able to access a complete history of their payslips through their smartphones, tablet or any internet browser.
Save your practice over £20,000 per year
Discover in our new free guide, how you can save over £20,000 per year using BrightPay and BrightPay Connect. We’ll look at what’s most important to accountants when choosing payroll software, and exactly how much value it can bring to your practice.
Learn how practice management software could transform your business
Discover in our new free guide, how you can save over £20,000 per year using BrightPay and BrightPay Connect. We’ll look at what’s most important to accountants when choosing payroll software, and exactly how much value it can bring to your practice.
Tech is taking the pain out of payroll and payment processes
By integrating a reliable, real-time and efficient payments platform into your payroll system, your business can save a vast amount of time. Automate how you pay employees, subcontractors and HMRC, with Modulr. This will eliminate errors and improve data security.
Jun 2022
9
The new wave of payslip distribution
How many times have your employees had problems locating their payslips? Whether employees forget their passwords to access payslips, lose their payslips, or their payslips never got sent to them in the first place, following this up can take a lot of your precious time away as a business owner. If you’re sending paper-based payslips, problems that crop up can take even longer to rectify. Tracking down old payslips from weeks, months, or maybe even years ago can also take up a chunk of your day-to-day admin work.
Payroll should be a smooth and intuitive process, even after payslips have been finalised. Payslip distribution and locating employees’ payslips shouldn’t be a burden or cause unnecessary stress. It should be an automated process, allowing you more time to attend to other matters of your business. Here’s how our employee app can streamline payslip distribution for you.
Let employees access payslips from anywhere, any time
Once the payslips have been finalised, they’re automatically synced to the employee app, allowing your employees to easily access, download and print their payslips from anywhere, at any time. They will also receive a push notification on their phone when a new payslip has become available to view, eliminating the hassle of follow-up emails or re-printing payslips. This gives your staff complete control over when and where they can access their payslips, improving their employee satisfaction.
Stores a history of all previous payslips
Say goodbye to the eons spent searching in file cabinets and desktop files for employees’ old payslips. With the employee app, a complete history of all your employees’ payslips are stored securely on the platform, and are accessible at a moment’s notice. Whether an employee wants to double check an old payslip or is applying for a mortgage – their payslip history is readily available from one centraliszed location, at the tap of a button.
Cuts down on paper waste
Not only does the employee app save you time distributing payslips, improve employee satisfaction, and increases your business’ efficiency, but it’s also better for the environment. Payslips can stack up a large portion of paper weight each year and can be a costly expense for businesses.
It can be difficult to stray from systems that we’re more familiar with, but digitalising payroll processes can help your business stay in line with competition, by evolving to more modern and tech-savvy practices.
Interested in learning more about BrightPay Connect? Watch this short one-minute video on how it works. We offer free 15-minute demos for you to see in more detail how our cloud-extension works, and how it can take your business to the next level.
Related articles:
- What to include on a hybrid working policy
- Digital trends that every employer should know
- BrightPay Connect: The GDPR Survival Toolkit
Jun 2022
1
Customer Update: June 2022
Welcome to BrightPay's June update. Our most important news this month include:
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New RTI Requirement from April 2022 - CIS Deductions Suffered
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3 ways to boost job satisfaction in your workplace
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New: File CS01s through AccountancyManager
Free webinar: The payroll opportunity in a digital world
It’s time to work smarter and faster when offering payroll services to your clients. Join our upcoming webinar on the 9th of June where BrightPay’s Marketing Manager, Rachel Quinn, will explore 6 current payroll trends, and how they can be used to transform your practice.
How API integration is shaping the future of payroll
During our upcoming webinar on the 16th of June, BrightPay will discuss the benefits of integrating your payroll and accounting software. Our experts will demonstrate how you can streamline the entire process from start to finish using API technology.
Increased NIC thresholds from 6th July 2022
The NIC thresholds are increasing from 6th July 2022. BrightPay has been updated to reflect these changes, so please ensure that you are using the latest version of the software. These rates will then automatically apply to payments due to be made on 6th July or later.
Your guide to save time and money when processing payroll
Processing payroll for your clients can and should be profitable. In this guide, find out how using BrightPay and BrightPay Connect together, can help your practice save time and money. By introducing cloud innovation and automation, you can run payroll more efficiently while making a profit.
Easily manage summer annual leave
BrightPay Connect takes the stress out of managing annual leave. With a company-wide calendar and employee portal, your clients can easily approve holiday requests, on the go. The leave will automatically be added to the employee calendar, and synchronised to the payroll software.
New feature: Nominal ledger mapping – custom items
As part of the BrightPay journal process, users can now add further adjustments to their payroll journal before posting into their accounting software. For example, to record HMRC Payment adjustments, such as employment allowance and recoverable statutory pay.
We want your feedback!
Last year, we introduced new prompts in BrightPay. Now, we want your feedback. Click here to complete a quick, 1-minute survey, so that we can evaluate these changes.
May 2022
24
Streamline your business' annual leave management
Managing employees’ annual leave can be a stressful process. For you as the employer, having email or even paper requests sent from multiple locations can be frustrating, especially during busy holiday periods. Likewise, employees having their leave rejected because of double bookings or mismanagement can sometimes sour working relationships. An inefficient annual leave system can also make managing and tracking payroll to become more difficult.
Having a system in place that can automate these tedious aspects of annual leave management can improve your working relationships with employees, as well as increasing their job satisfaction levels.
Move your employees’ annual leave to a secure online portal
It’s time for your employees to say goodbye to printed letters, excel spreadsheets and long email threads to book annual leave. While these more traditional methods can be still used, they’re becoming less and less reliable, and there are more effective alternatives to take their place.
Moving annual leave management to a secure online portal offers many benefits for your business, including:
- Saving time chasing annual leave requests
- Reducing stress with a more automated system in place
- Eliminating errors that can occur from more traditional methods
- Increasing employee satisfaction by reducing mismanagement
- Creates a fair system where all requests are timestamped, so staff can be accepted on a first come, first served basis
- Reducing admin workload from rectifying mistakes and retrieving lost emails
- Promoting environmental sustainability by turning annual leave into a completely paperless process
Using BrightPay’s cloud extension, BrightPay Connect, automates the entire annual leave process for you. Our employee self-service app allows staff to request annual leave through an easy-to-use calendar format on their smartphone or tablet device, where you will then receive a notification on your own employer dashboard. From here, you can view the company calendar through the same and choose to either approve or reject employees’ requests. Managing annual leave has never been so easy!
Our cloud extension comes with a host of other benefits to increase your service offering, such as:
- Client payroll approval feature that gives your clients more control over their payroll by allowing them to make any necessary changes and approve the payroll before it is finalised and before payslips are distributed.
- Automatic cloud backups of your payroll data that ensure your clients’ data is safe and secure at all times. This also aligns with GDPR best practices.
- Remote working support by notifying you when someone else has worked on an employer’s file from a different computer, and if they are still working on that file.
- Bureau branding giving clients a more personal touch to your services, enhancing work relationships.
Interested learning more about BrightPay Connect? Sign up for a free 15-minute demo. Interested in staying up to date on all the latest payroll trends and legislative changes? Sign up to our newsletter below for weekly emails so you can stay in the loop.
May 2022
23
Start preparing now for this year’s P60 deadline
It’s hard to believe it’s that time of the year again, to start preparing your P60s, where did the time go? With the new tax year well underway and payroll processors settled back into their routines, it can be easy for to forget about upcoming HMRC deadlines. Luckily, we’re here to keep you informed with all the latest up-to-date payroll news and legislative updates. The next upcoming due date is the P60 deadline, on May 31st.
By May 31st, all employees who were working for you on the last day of the tax year (April 5th, 2022) must receive a copy of their P60. Failure to provide employees with their P60s by this deadline can result in costly fines from HMRC, that can build up quite quickly. However, accidents happen and if you can provide proof of a genuine mistake, the likelihood of receiving a fine is lessened. Fines start out at £300 , with an added £60 per day penalty thereafter.
This is why we strongly advise to start preparing now for this year’s P60 deadline, to avoid the possibility of any fines cropping up in the coming weeks.
How do I start preparing for P60s now?
Preparing P60s can seem daunting at first, and depending on what payroll software provider you use, it can be either a tedious process or one that is automated, requiring minimal work. If you’re using BrightPay Payroll Software, we’ve made the process of preparing and sharing P60s as smooth as possible for you. In the payroll software, the P60 option is located within the “Employees” tab. From there, you can generate the P60 of individual employees, or you can generate P60s for multiple employees at once.
Once the P60s have been created, you can email the files to your employees, directly from the payroll software. You also have the option to print or export the documents in PDF format. If you use our cloud extension, BrightPay Connect, once generated, your employees will automatically be able to access their P60s from the online employee portal or through the employee app on their smartphone.
Streamline P60 distribution with cloud technology
By using our cloud extension, you don’t have to worry about your employees misplacing their P60s. All employees’ P60s are stored conveniently in one location, on the employee self-service app. From here, your staff can view, print and download their P60s, as well as their payslips and any other important payroll or HR documents.
If you’re still distributing physical documents to employees, there’s a chance that these documents could fall into the wrong hands. Likewise, if you accidentally send these files to the wrong email address, there’s a possibility of unauthorised persons viewing employees’ sensitive personal and financial information.
Having your employees’ documents stored in the cloud, accessible from one central location, improves the safety of your employees’ data. It also reduces your administrative workload and saves your business time.
How can I stay up-to-date on future HMRC deadlines?
To make thinks easier for employers, we’ve created a list that summarises all of the key dates for the 2022/23 tax year. For the latest payroll news and legislative updates, sign up to our weekly newsletter to stay in the loop.
Did you know that by the 6th of July 2022, you must report any employee expenses and benefits for the 2021/22 tax year? For further information on this, please read here.
Interested in using BrightPay? We are a fully compliant HMRC payroll software with both the credibility and reputation behind us. Why not take a look at our 5-star ratings on Trustpilot or book a free 15-minute demo of our award-winning payroll software.
Related articles:
- The 22/23 tax year: Key dates for employers
- Year End - Frequently Asked Questions
- 6 payroll mistakes (and how to avoid them)
May 2022
5
Direct payment platforms – taking your bureau to the next level
Paying employees and making payments to HMRC, each pay period can be a timely task for bureaus. Not only from an admin point of view, but also the time it takes to manually create bank files, rectify any errors that crop up, and ensuring that payments land in employees’ bank accounts on time. It’s a lot to juggle on top of everything else on your to-do list.
Imagine if there was a sophisticated system that integrated with your payroll software. A system that allowed you to pay employees, subcontractors and HMRC easily and smoothly, eliminated manually uploading bank files, and improved the security and time-efficiency of your payments…
Modulr, a direct payments platform, is integrated with BrightPay Payroll Software and can do all of the above for you. Modulr completely streamlines the entire payment process of your payroll workflow, leaving you with more time to attend to other business matters. Here are three key ways that BrightPay’s integration with Modulr can take your bureau to the next level.
Pay employees in just 90 seconds
Modulr allows you to pay employees in just 90 seconds from within the payroll software. It’s an all-in-one seamlessly integrated payments system. The integration can save you time by removing the need to double and triple-check that all pay amounts are correct, as this information flows directly from the payroll software.
Modulr allows you to schedule payments in advance and you can make any last-minute changes to clients’ employees’ payments if needs be, on any day of the week. This gives you much greater flexibility when making payments, in comparison to more traditional payment methods.
Increases your payments’ security and reduce errors
Modulr provides added layers of protection for payments through a range of security features. Their partnership with the authenticator app, Authy, is an optional feature that provides two-factor authentication when logging in. Two-factor authentication means that there are two forms of identification required when logging in. These can include a code that is sent to your phone number or email address, or can include biometrics such as a fingerprint. This ensures that only authorised users can approve payments within the client’s company. If the client would rather that you authorise the payments for them, this can be done also. Once the payments have been approved, they will be sent straight to employees’ bank accounts within 90 seconds or at the scheduled time. Modulr’s network is also fully encrypted, protecting your payments from any potential cyber-hacks or ransomware.
Having a direct payments system in place eliminates the likelihood of any data input errors and uploading issues to occur, saving you time rectifying any payment submission problems should they arise. This gives you peace of mind, knowing that your clients’ employees will be paid on time, every time.
Direct payments to HMRC
BrightPay is a fully HMRC complaint payroll software. This integration with Modulr automates most of the workload involved in submitting HMRC payments. No longer do you have to export and upload files from multiple locations – it can all be done from one centralised location – within your payroll software. Your HMRC payments will also be sent and received by HMRC in just 90 seconds.
Want to learn more?
To discover more about BrightPay’s integration with Modulr, please read our webpage on the topic.
Interested in learning more about BrightPay? Sign up for a free 15-minute demo today. We are one of the leading providers of payroll software for accountants in the UK, are a fully HMRC complaint payroll software and have a 5-star rating on Trustpilot.
