Payroll software should make your life easier — not add to it. This month’s BrightPay Cloud update is packed with new features designed to give payroll bureaus and employers greater visibility, fewer manual steps, and more confidence in every pay run.
What is BrightPay Cloud?
BrightPay Cloud is Bright’s award-winning payroll software, built for accountants, payroll bureaus, and employers across the UK and Ireland. It combines powerful payroll processing with an intuitive client portal, employee self-service, and automatic enrolment tools — all in one place, accessible from anywhere.
New Features
Payroll Differences Report
One of the most common pain points in payroll is spotting what’s changed between pay periods — and doing it quickly. The new Payroll Differences Report solves this by surfacing variances in employee pay at a glance, so bureaus and payroll managers can review, query, and sign off each run with confidence. No more cross-referencing spreadsheets or hunting through individual records.
Customisable Payroll Summary Columns
Every employer is different, and the data you need front and centre varies accordingly. BrightPay Cloud now lets you configure the columns displayed in the Payroll Summary at employer level. Set your preferences once and the software remembers them — a small change that saves meaningful time across a large client portfolio.
Portal Invitation Timestamps
When did you last send that employee portal invitation? Now you’ll always know. BrightPay Cloud records the exact date and time whenever portal invitations are sent — for both the Employee Portal and Client Portal — and displays a Last Emailed timestamp on the invitation screen. It’s the kind of audit trail detail that saves awkward back-and-forth with clients and employees.
People’s Pension — Retrieve Opt-Outs
For employers using People’s Pension, managing opt-outs just became hands-free. When an employee opts out, BrightPay Cloud can retrieve that information directly and update their automatic enrolment status automatically. No manual updates, no risk of records drifting out of sync.
SSP1 Form Generation
BrightPay Cloud can now generate an SSP1 form directly within the software. The SSP1 is required by HMRC when an employee isn’t entitled to Statutory Sick Pay, or when their entitlement has ended. Having it available at the click of a button means employees get the right documentation promptly — and can access any other support they’re entitled to without delay.
A4 Security Stationery Payslip Template
Bureaus that print payslips on security paper can now use the A4 Security Stationery payslip template directly in BrightPay Cloud, keeping payslip formats consistent across clients’ employees without any workarounds.
Continuous Improvements
Great payroll software isn’t just about headline features — it’s about the hundred small things that make the experience smoother every month. This release includes a range of refinements across reporting, portals, and payroll processing:
- Cleaner report exports — payroll report figures now include thousand separators across PDF downloads and print, for easier reading at a glance
- More accurate annual leave balances on the Employee Self-Service Portal, reflecting entitlement, days booked, and remaining allowance in real time
- Auto zeroise settings on daily rates now persist automatically between payroll runs on monthly schedules, removing a repetitive manual step
- Faster departmental updates — changes to an employee’s department now reflect immediately across their payroll profile
- Smarter HMRC messaging — when HMRC’s coding notices service is temporarily unavailable, BrightPay Cloud now provides a clear explanation so you always know what’s happening
- Instant NEST pension updates — successful submissions now reflect immediately on the Dashboard and Pension tab
- Full Client Portal reliability across payroll approval requests, P30 reports, the Statutory Pay Report, and View Amounts Due for all authorised users
- Enhanced confidential employee access — managers and users with the appropriate permissions now have full visibility of confidential employees within payroll requests
Why Payroll Bureaus Choose BrightPay Cloud
BrightPay Cloud is built around the needs of payroll bureaus and accountants managing multiple employers. Features like batch payroll processing, a dedicated client portal, automatic enrolment tools, and now the Payroll Differences Report mean less time on admin and more time delivering value to clients.
If you’re currently using desktop payroll software — or looking to switch providers — BrightPay Cloud is worth a look.
