Ben Bishop
Chief Executive Officer
ABOUT BRIGHT
Software built for accountants, bookkeepers, bureaus and businesses
Bright began in Ireland, formed in 2021 when Thesaurus Software and Relate Software joined together. Now, Bright builds award-winning products for accounting practices, bookkeepers, payroll bureaus and businesses across Ireland. We exist because the professionals who handle compliance deserve software that understands the work they do.
4M+
Payslips processed every month
400,000
Customers across the UK and Ireland
WHO WE SERVE
Software purpose-built for every workflow
Bright has built products tailored for your workflow, whether you’re an accountant, bookkeeper, payroll bureau, or business, and connect products where it matters.
Accounting practices
Winning clients, managing client relationships day to day, and filing accounts through Revenue's iXBRL requirements via ROS are different jobs. Bolt a generic CRM onto all three and something slips, like a proposal that never gets followed up or a missed filing deadline. Bright has built a dedicated tool for each stage instead.
BrightPay - BureauBureau Payroll at any scaleBrightExpensesExpense management & ERR complianceBrightBooksSimple bookkeeping and invoicingDextSimple bookkeeping and invoicingBrightManagerComprehensive practice managementBrightProposeEnd-to-end proposal solutionBrightAccountsProduction Fully compliant financial statementsBrightWorkpapersWorkpapers for every engagement
Payroll bureaus
A bureau isn't one employer's payroll, it can be hundreds, each on its own schedule and pension provider, with Revenue watching every one. Generic payroll software strains under that, with manual updates whenever a new legislation is applied (like auto-enrolment and ERR). Bright’s cloud software has been built to make this a smoother and simpler process.
Bookkeepers
Bookkeeping is high-volume and repeatable work, where speed and accuracy matter. Bright’s bookkeeping software has been built to cut down on the repetitive admin involved in your day-to-day work.
Businesses and employers
Payroll and bookkeeping need to be accurate and compliant from day one, whatever the size of the business. Bright’s software has been built to be simple enough to run in-house, while letting you easily work with your accountant when you have to hand off work to them.
AWARDS
Award-winning software
OUR MISSION
Why Bright exists
Bright exists to bring clarity to complex, compliance driven work. Bright has been built for accountants, bookkeepers and payroll bureaus and provides specialist software products that work effectively on their own and together.
Each Bright product is designed to perform a specific role, such as payroll, practice management, bookkeeping, accounts production, proposals or company secretarial work, while sharing consistent language, logic and workflow principles across the platform.
This reduces fragmentation between systems, lowers cognitive load for teams, and creates a more coherent way to manage professional work across services and departments.
What Bright was built to solve
Accountants, payroll bureaus, bookkeepers and businesses have spent years working in disconnected systems built for a different era of professional services.
Practices had to rekey the same client data into separate systems for practice management, accounts, and tax software, with no shared records.
Bookkeepers worked from spreadsheets and standalone tools that didn't connect to the wider practice, turning routine reconciliation into repeated manual work.
Bureaus ran payroll on desktop software that had to be manually updated, which was especially difficult when changes like auto-enrolment took effect.
Businesses had to use payroll, expenses, and bookkeeping tools that weren’t connected to each other.
Bright was built to close those gaps.
INVESTMENT AND LONG-TERM VISION
Backed to build the definitive platform for Irish and UK compliance professionals.
Hg’s investment in Bright is a commitment to building a platform business rather than a collection of products. Sustained investment in product development and compliance intelligence means Bright’s customers are not caught out by regulatory change.
Backed by Hg
Hg became Bright’s majority investor in September 2021, backing the combined business of Thesaurus Software and Relate Software.
What the investment funds
Continued product development, new-market expansion and the acquisition strategy that brought Bright’s products together under one platform.
For practices and bureaus choosing a long-term software partner, this matters: Bright will be here when Revenue reporting requirements change, when auto-enrolment matures, and when the next compliance challenge arrives.
OUR STORY
Bright’s Irish roots
Bright’s Irish roots run through its founders.
1990searly
Paul Byrne, a chartered accountant, founds Thesaurus Software with Tom Horan.
2021
Thesaurus Software and Relate Software join together to form Bright.
2021Sept
Hg becomes Bright’s majority investor, backing the combined business.
Today
Award-winning products for practices, bookkeepers, bureaus and businesses across Ireland.
2027NEXT
BrightPay becomes cloud-only from January.
LEADERSHIP
The team building Bright
Led by people who have spent their careers understanding what accounting practices, bookkeepers, bureaus and businesses need.
Stephen Murdoch
Executive Chair
Andrew Lam
Chief Operating Officer
Bob McKay
Chief Financial Officer
Alex Schwendtner
Chief Revenue Officer
Laura Murphy
Chief People Officer
Rick Norgate
Chief Product and Technology Officer
Rich Neal
Chief Customer Officer
Richard Grey
Chief Information Security Officer
Seamus Moore
Chief Marketing Officer
Paul Byrne
Founder and Board Director
Shane Ormsby
IPASS General Manager
Andrew Brown
Head of Strategy & Corporate Development
Neeraja Sankar
Director of Strategic Projects
Maria Hickey
Senior Legal Counsel
Richie McMahon
Head of Automation & Innovation
Ross Webster
Chief Software Architect
WHERE WE ARE
Where is Bright located? Our Irish Head Office and other locations
Bright’s compliance teams sit in Ireland and the UK, with product and engineering spanning Ireland, the UK and India.
HEAD OFFICE
Duleek
Unit 35 Duleek Business Park, Duleek, Co. Meath, A92 N15E
Leamington Spa
Aura, 1 Harrison Way, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV31 3HH
Belfast
Office 3, Block 1, Forestgrove Office Park, Belfast, BT8 6AW
Ipswich
1-5 Queen Street, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP1 1SW
Kolkata
Experis IT Building, GP Block Plot J3, Salt Lake Sector V, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700091
Cloud-first
Bright’s cloud products are hosted in ISO 27001-certified data centres in the EU (Ireland) or the UK, and BrightPay becomes cloud-only from January 2027.
JOIN BRIGHT
Help us build the future of payroll, accounting, tax and compliance software
We are growing across product, engineering, compliance and commercial roles in Ireland and the UK. If you want to help build software that matters and support the accountants, bookkeepers, bureaus and businesses who use it, we would love to hear from you.
