NOTE: You are viewing documentation for a previous tax year version of BrightPay. Click here to view the documentation for the current 2024/25 tax year version.

Quick Start

This is a quick and easy reference guide to help first time users get started with BightPay. Additional detailed explanations and guidance can be found by selecting a specific Help topic within the Help file which is broken down by software feature and most common user queries.

There are 6 easy steps to processing Payroll;

Step 1 New Employees

Step 2 Processing Payroll

Step 3 Payroll Summary (prior to finalisation)

Step 4 Finalise Payslips (Process the payroll)

Step 5 Print Payslips

Step 6 Analysis (Reports)

STEP 1 NEW EMPLOYEES

To setup update an employee’s details to the payroll software follow the below step by step instructions. It is advisable that you enter as much information as is available to you.

New Employee, Enter the following detail;

1)       Personal
           Update the relevant fields with all the information available to you.
           The minimum required information by the software is Surname, Forename and Gender.

2) Employment

Works number- If applicable, apply a works number to the employee.

Start Date - Employment commencing after 06th April of the current tax year - for any new employees joining after 06th April of the current tax year then the total gross earnings and tax deducted from all previous employments which occurred within this tax year must be entered at the initial set up

Departments - set up a master list of departments (if relevant) which will be available to choose from across all employees. Departments can be set up in the “Employer” menu.

Typical Working Days- Tick relevant boxes to show employees typical working days.

Employer Schemes – Tick box if you are using an employer sick pay scheme rather than Statutory Sick Pay

3) Tax & NIC - Update the relevant fields with all the information available to you.

You must indicate a tax status;

Week 1 Basis - tick if appropriate entering the PAYE Code.

Cumulative Basis - tick if appropriate entering the PAYE Code

National Insurance Table - assign the appropriate NI Table to the employee, indicating age at the start of payroll, if the Pension is contracted out or not as appropriate etc.

Student Loan – Tick if Employee is liable to make student loan deductions.

National Insurance Number – enter employees NI number, e.g. AB123456C

Director – Tick if Employee is a director, (option to use “Alternative method of calculating NICs will become available.

4) Payment

Indicate what Pay frequency to use for the employee, Weekly/ Fortnightly/ Monthly etc.

Indicate How pay is worked out, either by weekly gross or an hourly rate.

Payment Method – Choose a payment type Cash, Cheque, Credit Transfer. If Credit transfer is applicable, Employees bank account details will need to be entered.

5) HR
Use this screen to record personnel information such as recruitment date, emergency contact details etc.

Click on SAVE to activate the employee record.

Employees must be entered on the payroll within the tax period they commence work with you. Once the Payroll has been rolled forward you cannot enter employee details retrospective to when they commenced employment.

STEP 2 PROCESSING PAYROLL

You can enter an employee’s pay in one of two ways:

(1) Gross Basis (pay before tax deductions)

(2) Net Basis (take home pay)

If you pay your employees a GROSS Wage then use one of the following options:

PAYROLL

Set up your Weekly/ Monthly Payroll- You can set automatically what you want your pay date to be, i.e. Last day of the month, 2^nd to last weekday or specify the same date each month.

On the Payroll screen you can select your different payroll frequencies (if applicable).

The current week/ Month your payroll is currently set to is represented by an employee picture.

Edit Employees’ Pay

To Edit an employees pay, to add in Statutory payments, pension etc, double click on the Employees name

If you Pay by the Hour

If you pay your employee(s) by the hour then enter hourly rate for the employee. Each period enter the numbers of hours worked for that period within the relevant fields. You can select the Rate of pay standard, double, triple or set the rate yourself.

Additional Hourly rates can be set up by clicking “Add” (under the pay section) and selecting “Hourly Pay”.

Remember that if you enter the hourly rate and the hours worked then do not enter the weekly basic as well as the total pay will result in the number of hours multiplied by the hourly rate PLUS the weekly basic figure.

If you Pay by a Weekly/Monthly Basic

If you pay your employee(s) by a basic rate then enter the basic gross wage in the Monthly/Weekly Pay field.

Statutory Pay

Click Calendar to apply a Statutory pay to the Employee.

On the calendar select the date range for the Statutory payment.

Select what type of Statutory payment applies, SSP, Paternity leave etc. In this calendar you can also enter when an employee is on holidays, unpaid leave etc, by selecting the date range and ticking the relevant leave.

The system will automatically apply the relevant Statutory payment to the employee.

Additions

If you wish to include additions to your employee(s) salary then within this section click the Add button. There are default Additions for you to use and enter the amount of the addition in the box to the right hand side. The narrative and amount will be displayed separately to the basic pay details on the payslip.

By clicking the Edit button, you can edit the Addition, from the addition being taken before Tax or NIC. You can edit the department weighing as well as the repetition of the addition.

Deductions

If you wish to include deductions to your employee(s) salary then within this section click the Add button. There are default deduction (Pension, Payroll Giving) for you to use, enter the amount of the deduction in the box to the right hand side. The narrative and amount will be displayed separately to the basic pay details on the payslip.

By clicking the Edit button, you can edit the deduction, from the deduction being taken before/after Tax or NIC. You can edit the department weighing as well as the repetition of the deduction.

Pension schemes have to be set up in the “Employer” menu, as will Attachment of Earnings.

Holiday Pay

If you are including Holiday Pay within a pay period then within payroll click the next week (e.g. you are on week 1 and you want to pay for week 2 in advance.)

Click the next week in advance of the current week you are on.

The system will automatically keep the existing weekly basic figure for you. If you wish to change any of the Employees pay figures you can do so.

To pay the holiday pay in advance, click “pre pay week 2 in week 1” button.

This will also give an advance in the Freepay and NIC allowance to the employee.

NET TO GROSS PROJECTION

To access the Net to Gross Projection screen Click Edit button in Pay section and select Net to Gross.

Enter Desired Net Pay

Once an Net to Gross has been selected, a pop up box will appear on screen, “Enter Desired Net Pay”. Within this field enter the actual "Net Pay" as opposed to "Payment" figure which would be after "Non-Taxable Additions" and "Non-Allowable Deductions".

The Gross Wage will be calculated automatically and displayed on screen.

The GROSS figure prompted is based on working a Basic Net figure back to a Basic Gross figure, any entries to Additions and Deductions are taken into account for the basis of the calculation.

STEP 3 PAYROLL SUMMARY (before Finalising)

It is recommended that you view your payroll figures before proceeding to finalising your payslips by means of the "Back to summary" report which shows the payroll figures entered to date for the current pay period. To access the report click “Back to Summary” from the Payslip menu. The Period Number at the top of the screen is the period you are about to Finalise.

All employee’s being paid for this period should be shown within this payroll summary and you should ensure the figures on screen are correct before proceeding to Finalise Payslips.

If an employee is not appearing then they have not been setup within the program therefore revert back to Employees to add the employee to the program.

If an employee is showing the incorrect pay figures then return to the pay entry screen (by double clicking on that Employee) to make the necessary amendments.

STEP 4 FINALISE PAYSLIPS

This section will update your payroll run for ALL SELECTED EMPLOYEES for the period.

Choose Finalise Payslips from the menu.

The payroll period that you are about to process is also shown as eg “Week 1 Finalise”

The period number that you are processing is automated by the program as the next sequential pay period to process and is not available for amendment by the user. The paydate will automatically be the paydate you specified when starting the payroll.

All Employees will automatically be ticked to be updated. If you do not wish to include an employee at this point (to process their payroll at a later date) Untick that employee.

To complete and Finalise payslips, click “Ok”

STEP 5 PRINTING PAYSLIPS

Once the Payroll has been updated then the payslips and the reports for the period are available for printing. To Print the Payslips select “Print Payslips from the menu bar. (all historical payslips can be printed by simply choosing the prior week period weeks menu).

Click on the individual employee names for which you want to print a payslip for or choose “Select All”

Choose the Payslip type that you wish to print, 2 per page will print to plain A4 paper.

Choose Print to send to Printer

Payslips by Department

Alternatively, if you have set up employees assigned to departments, simply choose the department for which you want to print the payslips for.

All relevant employees within the chosen department will be automatically highlighted.

Choose Print to send to Printer.

STEP 6 ANALYSIS

It is recommended that you print a Payroll Summary as a file copy for the employer records. To access the Payroll Summary Report select Analysis from the menu bar