Jul 2022
27
AM Takes Xerocon 2022
Last week the AM team exhibited at Xerocon for the first time. Xerocon is described as the Glastonbury for accountants, and if you haven't been or seen the photos - it's a big deal. Unlike other conferences, accountants attend Xerocon for the talks (rather than to see the exhibitors) and comedian Sue Perkins opened the show at 9am. Sue (best known for the Great British Bake Off) was brilliant throughout the event.
AM had great conversations with attendees and were consistently surprised at the size of the firms they talked to. Typically, when attending events like AccountEx, AM would talk to smaller firms (sole practitioners, 2 or 3 employees), but on average, everyone had around 30 employees.
AM ended the event with 115 scanned badges, all of which have been passed over to the Teleprospecting team. It was a tremendous amount, and we and AM were delighted they got the opportunity to have gotten the opportunity to speak with so many firms that were interested in the product. They also got the chance to meet many existing users and got to know them a bit more on a personal level.
Key Takeaways;
• Most likely because attendees have to pay, only the larger firms attend the event.
• Many disgruntled Senta users' concerns regarding the Iris acquisition are now becoming a reality.
• People liked the idea of AM joining Bright - BrightPay and AM both have a great reputation and users are excited to see what we can achieve together.
Jul 2022
26
Thesaurus Customer Update: August 2022
Welcome to Thesaurus Software's August update. Our most important news this month include:
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The Sick Leave Bill 2022 becomes law
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Modernise your annual leave in 2022 with an online company calendar
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Surf Accounts integration with Thesaurus Payroll Manager - Here's how it works
Sick Leave Bill 2022 becomes law
On 20th July, the Sick Leave Bill 2022 became law. Once the law is commenced, which is expected to happen shortly, employees will be entitled to three statutory sick days. This will rise to five days in 2024, seven days in 2025 and to ten days in 2026.
Transform your practice with Thesaurus Connect [bureau]
Backing up payroll data, sharing payroll reports with clients and sending clients’ employees their payslips each pay period can be costly and time consuming. With cloud-extension Thesaurus Connect, you can transform your practice by taking care of these tasks within a few clicks.
Modernise your annual leave in 2022 with an online company calendar
Do you have an automated system in place that can help manage your employees’ annual leave? If not, this can be a monotonous task for employers. Read our latest blog and explore how an online company calendar can revolutionise your business.
How to prioritise compliance [bureaus]
How can you ensure all financial statements are automatically in line with the latest tax and legislative requirements? Surf Accounts Production has a dedicated compliance team in place to manage the complexity of compliance obligations.
Get paid faster with Surf Accounts [employers]
Sharpen up your billing process by using customisable templates, setting up recurring invoices, and by quickly converting quotes and orders to invoices. Save even more time by using the Surf Accounts app, and work from anywhere.
Strengthen client relationships by improving communication [bureaus]
The relationship between the client and the professional is no longer one-directional. What software has created is a new collaborative framework in which the payroll professional can thrive.
Payroll: There's an app for that [employers]
Improve employee satisfaction and make your life easier by introducing an employee app with powerful features. Employees can access the app securely, using their smartphone or tablet, from anywhere with an internet connection.
Auto enrolment update: what you need to know
Details regarding Auto Enrolment in Ireland were announced this year. The system is to be set up in 2023, with employee enrolments to begin in 2024. Learn how you can start preparing your business for auto enrolment now, to get ahead of the curve.
Living wage to replace minimum wage in Ireland
The Irish government announced that the current minimum wage will be replaced by a new living wage by 2026. This new living wage is to be set at 60% of the median wage in a given year. Read more in our recent blog post.
Jul 2022
25
The Sick Leave Bill 2022 becomes law
This week, on 20th July, the Sick Leave Bill 2022 became law. Once the law is commenced, employees in Ireland will be entitled to sick pay. The Irish Government first produced a draft to introduce a new Sick Leave Bill back in November last year. An Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, announced in March 2022, that the Sick Leave Bill was approved by cabinet and will legislate for a statutory sick pay scheme for all employees, which will be phased in over a four-year period. Before the law was passed, Ireland was one of the few countries in Europe who were without mandatory sick leave entitlement. Before the Sick Leave Act, only about half of all employers had their own sick pay scheme. The Covid-19 pandemic helped to highlight the need for such a scheme to be introduced into Ireland.
When the law is commenced, which is expected to happen shortly, employees will be entitled to three statutory sick days. This will rise to five days in 2024, seven days in 2025 and to ten days in 2026. Employers will pay employees at a rate of 70% of an employees’ wage, subject to a daily maximum threshold of €110. These earnings are based on 2019 mean weekly earnings of €786.33 and an annual salary of €40,889.16.
The rate of 70% and the daily cap are there to ensure excessive costs are not placed solely on the employer. The introduction of the new Sick Leave Bill is to provide a minimum level of protection to low paid employees, who may not be entitled to a company sick pay scheme.
How will it affect employers
If your business does not have a sick leave scheme set in place already, the new legislation being introduced will act as your sick pay scheme. Employers must keep a record of all employees who have availed of the scheme for up to four years, those who fail to keep a record may be fined up to €2,500.
What employees need to know
To ensure that your employees are entitled to receive sick leave pay under the scheme, they must obtain a medical certificate as proof, and must have worked for their employer for a minimum of 13 weeks. If your employees’ sick pay entitlement is finished, and they need extra time off, they may be able to qualify for illness benefit from the Department of Social Protection, depending on their PRSI contribution.
The new Sick Leave Bill will help ensure employees are not penalised for missing days due to illness. Once the law is commenced, your payroll software should be updated to cater for this new employee entitlement.
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Jul 2022
12
Modernise your annual leave in 2022 with an online company calendar
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Do you often feel that your annual leave process is scattered and unorganised? Maybe you’ve missed an employee’s email, only to discover weeks later that certain dates have been double-booked, leaving you short-staffed. This can frustrate employees and employers alike, especially during busy periods. That’s why we recommend having a system in place that can deal with employee annual leave requests in a straightforward and fair way, while reducing the likelihood of errors such as double-booking from occurring.
What annual leave system should I use?
We recommend using a cloud-based annual leave system, ideally one that syncs with your payroll software. This can automate the process even further for you, which we will explain in greater detail further down. An online, companywide leave calendar can revolutionise how you manage annual leave and streamline your business’ processes. Here are 3 ways an online company calendar can transform your business.
1. View all of your company’s leave in one central location
A company leave calendar allows you to view all of your employees’ past and scheduled leave from one central location. No longer do you need to spend hours editing excel spreadsheets and scrambling through emails – you can now process everything from one central hub.
A company calendar allows you to have a complete overview of your employees’ leave, letting you see, at a glance, who is on leave and when. This allows you to make better decisions when dealing with leave requests. It also allows you to spot patterns of absence more easily, meaning you can deal with unauthorised absenteeism before it becomes an issue. It can also save your business time by reducing the likelihood of errors that can crop up due to mismanaged annual leave.
2. Improves employee satisfaction
With a company leave calendar, employees can view their total leave for the year, including their leave taken and leave remaining. This reduces the likelihood of employees constantly contacting you about how much leave they have left, as they can now view it themselves, whether on an employee app or via an internet browser. This in turn, gives your employees more control over their leave and personal data, streamlining communication and reducing stress levels across the board.
3. Modernises your business
Implementing an online company calendar can also modernise your business by improving your carbon-footprint. Digitalising paper-based systems can cut down on supply costs for paper, printer ink and envelopes. This also keeps your company up to date with modern business practices, making sure that you stay in line with competition.
How Thesaurus Connect’s company calendar can help
Thesaurus Payroll Manager’s online company calendar is an intuitive and user-friendly calendar that’s available through their cloud extension, Thesaurus Connect.
As an employer, you can view your company calendar via a secure employer dashboard. From here, you can also be notified of annual leave requests from employees, which you can then easily approve or reject. Employees on the other hand, can access their calendar through a self-service employee app. Employees can simply login to view how many annual leave days they have taken and how many days they have left. They can simply choose the dates within the calendar that they wish to book, and the notification will be sent to the person responsible for taking care of that particular employee’s request. The leave will then be automatically added to the online employee calendar.
Thesaurus Payroll Manager’s cloud extension, Thesaurus Connect, allows you to streamline many other payroll and HR tasks, including:
- Payslip distribution
- HR document uploads
- Storing employees’ payslips
- Revenue payment deadlines
- Automatic payroll data backups
Discover how our cloud-extension can benefit your business today by booking a free online 15-minute demo. We are a fully Revenue compliant and are one of Ireland’s leading payroll software providers.
Jul 2022
4
Bright Walking Challenge 2022
For the month of July, our Charity Committee are organizing a walking challenge. Our staff will be walking a total of 100km each for the month of July.
It’s a team event where we will be split into teams and each day we can enter our daily distance into a spreadsheet and see which team takes the lead.
The walking challenge is to raise money for LauraLynn and Myton Hospice.
It’s a competitive and fun way of getting to know our colleagues.
Let’s get moving!
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