Put the scissors down!

We stand with accountants, and always have.

There’s been some confusion in the market recently. A company called BrightHR is claiming accountants are a cost you can cut from your business. That isn’t us and we disagree with the message.

At Bright, everything we’ve built, every product we’ve acquired, every team we’ve brought together, has all been driven by one core belief: accountants, bookkeepers and payroll professionals are essential to the success of the businesses they serve.

How We Got Here

Bright was founded in 2021 when two established software businesses (Thesaurus Software Ltd and Relate Software Ltd) came together. Our founding mission was simple: to better serve accounting professionals who were being let down by existing solutions.

We didn’t start from scratch. BrightPay, our flagship payroll product, was already respected in the industry, having won Payroll Software of the Year multiple times. But we recognised the gap in the market: accountants needed more than isolated tools. They needed a partner.

Over the past few years, we’ve been methodical and deliberate in building that partnership. We acquired AccountancyManager (now BrightManager) to support practice management. We brought in BTCSoftware (which evolved into BrightTax). In 2023, we acquired IPASS (The Irish Payroll Association) to strengthen our support for payroll professionals in Ireland. We added MyWorkpapers (BrightWorkpapers) for compliance, Inform Direct for company secretarial support, TimeKeeper for time tracking, and The Payroll Centre in the UK. Each acquisition wasn’t about scale for scale’s sake. It was about building a comprehensive suite of tools that covers the entire workflow of accounting practices, from client acquisition to compliance.

Why? Because accountants told us what they needed. And we listened.

Our Mission Is Built for Accountants

Our mission statement sits at the heart of everything we do: To deliver leading secure software, built for the future, and rooted in a deep understanding of the people who use it. A customer-centric culture underpins it, focused on reducing the pressures that come with complex, high-stakes work.

That’s not marketing speak. That’s a commitment.

When we build software, we’re building for people whose reputations are on the line every single day. Errors in payroll or compliance don’t just cost money, they erode client trust and jeopardise a practice’s standing. We understand that. We build for it. Every product Bright creates is designed with bulletproof compliance at its core, accurate to HMRC and regulatory standards, and auditable at every step.

We’re also building for people who have no time to waste. Every hour saved on back-office work is an hour a practice can invest in client relationships, strategy, or growth. Our mission isn’t just to comply, it’s to free accountants to do their best work.

The Brand Built by Accountants, for Accountants

Our brand essence is simple: The brand built for accounting professionals, by people who genuinely care.

We’re not outsiders looking in. Many of us have worked in accounting. We’ve done payroll runs. We’ve navigated HMRC rule changes. We’ve felt the pressure of compliance deadlines. We get it because we’ve lived it.

That’s why we’re empathetic. That’s why we’re honest when things go wrong. That’s why our support team doesn’t disappear when you need them most. And it’s why we’ve structured ourselves as a partner, not a vendor.

Where We Stand

Bright exists to power the digital practice of tomorrow — today. That practice is stronger with accountants at its centre. Not weakened by them. Not hindered. Strengthened.

If you’ve heard something different about Bright, we wanted to be clear: we stand with accountants, bookkeepers and payroll bureaus. We’ve built our company on that principle. We live it every day. And we always will.

We’re not cutting accountants out. We’re building the tools that help them win.

This content may have been developed with the assistance of AI tools. Content is reviewed by a member of the Bright team before publication. Guidance on legislation can be obtained from your industry body.