Bright Reviews 728

Ciaran was extremely helpful with clarifying some issues we were having with our payroll schedule. He patiently went through our information and we were able to rectify the queries we had.

The new interface appears well designed; however, there are significant practical limitations for firms managing a large number of employers. For organisations with hundreds of employers and multiple users requiring access to the new Connect version of the software, user access must currently be granted manually on each individual client file.

Unlike the previous BrightPay Connect system, where a user could be invited once and then granted access across all employers in bulk, the new process requires access to be configured separately for every employer. For larger firms, this creates a considerable administrative burden and represents a substantial increase in manual work.

Despite the apparent software upgrade, this aspect of the system feels like a significant step backwards. The absence of bulk user management functionality is particularly problematic for larger practices, where efficient automation and scalable access management are essential. In its current form, the functionality does not adequately support these operational needs.

I was upset & stressed when I called yesterday, my Brightpay had been wiped off my laptop. Ciaran was so kind & patient with me. He calmed me down & explained in the nicest way the worse case scenario, he advised me to to talk to my IT person to see if the file could be retrieved & gave me the info on how to do this.
His people skills are excellent & his kindness was greatly appreciated. I felt much happier at the end of the conversation.

easy to talk , very well explained and no pressure sale

Great support especially as I left it to the last minute to renew and swap to the online version of the software

Ciaran was such a great help!! solved all af my issues.
Thank you

Very knowledgeable and helpful customer support agent.

Forced onto cloud despite the desktop app being it's main selling point and much better. Also, HMRC Employee code notices have not worked for months now. So so poor.

Brightpay Support are always willing to support you whether by telephone or remote support. Their staff are always pleasant, happy and chilled. They are always open to listening to suggestions on improving their software, which is great!

Payroll Bureaus beware…
No issue at all with the payroll software itself but now that the move to cloud has been forced upon us, please be aware when researching that a lot of the information you come across relates to the previous desktop software and the old Brightpay Connect system so it is easy to be mislead about Brightpay Cloud’s functionality.

One vital function that Brightpay Cloud does not feature is the ability to manage users properly. If you want to be able to allocate certain payrolls to certain payroll processors, the granular access control just isn’t there.

If this is likely to cause client confidentiality issues for you Brightpay Cloud might not be the right choice unless they do actually put this in place.

Disappointing as it’s a pretty standard requirement for a Payroll Bureau and other software is able to provide such access control, in fact, I think Brightpay Connect offered it but it hasn’t, currently, been carried forward into the new cloud payroll.

Quick response and straight to the problem

My company is new to BrightPay and needed some help on our first payroll run.
We spoke to Ciaran Belton who could not have been more helpful. Nothing was too much trouble and he helped and explained the processes with patience and professioanlism.

I tried to move from their desktop version to their cloud version, at their request. I had been using the desktop version for 7 years. great product. I requested 2 demos on line but no contact back. Eventually I called as it was approaching payroll day and we had the first "auto enrolment" month. 2 days before payday I got to talk to someone. Pricing was not straight forward so as it was late in the day I told them I would stay with the desktop version and maybe change next year. I cancelled the Cloud version by phone and email and proceeded to purchase the desktop version. On February 2nd my Credit card was charged for the Cloud version. I contacted support on that day as there was no other avenue to complain and was told I could only cancel this payment if I emailed a person in support! It is now the 18th February and despite receiving 3 emails stating my money would be returned in full I still have not been refunded for their error. A very annoyed customer.

It was a excellent experience,Denise was so helpful. I'm not the best with software issues but she took me through it with great patience step by step until the issue was resolved.

I recently started using Bright Pay to process payroll for one member of staff.

I have never processed payroll before, or dealt with pensions etc., but I find Bright Pay to be user friendly and have managed to successfully process two months payroll, set the employee up with Nest (which is integrated, so payment submission to Nest is straightforward) process the HMRC payment and claim back our NI Employment Allowance. It's been a learning curve for me, and one that Bright Pay has made quite simple.

I have not needed to contact their customer service since initially signing up, but I'm confident that there will be help available when needed. The subscription cost is very small for just one employee and I am getting so much more than I would had I chosen a free software provider (I did originally trial free software with another provider and I very quickly got very confused!)

Charlotte provided excellent service, great communication, issue solved with a clear explanation.

Needed to refund pension payments to an employee
that should have been Employers payments as employee opted out. Ciaran was able to inform me that the actions i had taken were correct making my pension report correct for this tax year.

Since the merger with Relate and HG Capital investment the product has deteriorated

We have been reluctantly forced to move from desktop to cloud

Our cloud report numbers have no formatting whatsoever - critical business reports shoudn't look like this 9999999

Despite 2 messages to support this was final response

"I have re-added this to our developers wishlist for you. We have not had an update on when this will become available but hope to have it implemented some time in the future. Thank you for your suggestion.

Not good enough

What Ciaran did for me yesterday. was ‘above and beyond’ in exceptional customer service!
Over 15 years using Thesaurus/Brightpay, I have found all the staff extremely helpful in sorting out any issues we encountered over the years. In my 53 years in business in Dublin, Brightpay, and their teams, are No 1 in the Software backup area. Well done!!!

Used BrightPay for many years without issue, now they have decided to discontinue the desktop version and force everyone on to their cloud app. The price increase between desktop and app is around 400%.

We've now been told that our largest client can't be run on the cloud version so we need to find another provider for that client. So not only are we paying 400% extra, the cloud app isn't as good as the desktop version that we have been using for many years.

In conclusion, if you are happy paying 400% more for a lesser app then BrightPay is your answer, otherwise I would look elsewhere like we are having to.