Nov 2019
7
Thesaurus Customer Update: November 2019
Welcome to our November update where you will find out about the latest hot topics and events affecting payroll. Our most important news this month include:
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Important Pricing Update for Thesaurus Payroll Manager 2020
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Free Webinar - PAYE Modernisation: The story so far
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Parent’s Leave & Benefit Bill... Paid leave is on the way for all new parents!
Important Pricing Update for Thesaurus Payroll Manager 2020
To ensure that our investment in technology keeps pace with Revenue’s changing landscape and to facilitate the increase in customer support resources, we are changing our pricing for 2020. This new pricing structure is designed to better match usage and support requirements with price.
Unlike many of our competitors, we’ve added hundreds of powerful features and enhancements and heavily invested in additional customer support staff, all so that you don’t have to worry. 99.9% of the time everything will run smoothly but if you ever have problems we will be there to help you. Payroll is way too important not to have a first-class backup service. We believe our pricing remains excellent value and continues to be very competitive when compared to the options from other providers.
Why Customers Love Us
"When I rang support, I was answered straight away, no holding, and my query answered quickly. My payroll is a joy to do, easy and quick."
Félim O'Connor, Photofast Ltd.
"Replaced Sage package and Thesaurus was much simpler and user friendly. Made life a lot easier for a small employer."
Joseph Coughlan, Cographix Premedia Ltd
"Knowing that your exceptional customer service continues after the sale plays a big part in my decision to use and highly recommend BrightPay. Would like to say a big THANK YOU."
Nuala McGowan
"The Thesaurus service is excellent with most queries solved within a working day which saves time and panic. I would give Thesaurus 10 out of 10 for service and products delivered."
Caroline Moynihan, Quiet Moment Tearooms
Free Webinar - PAYE Modernisation: The story so far
This webinar is specifically tailored for employers where we will look back on PAYE Modernisation in 2019 and decide if the new real-time payroll reporting system has been a success. We are delighted to welcome Sinead Sweeney from Revenue who will review some of the most common mistakes employers have made to date and what employers should expect in 2020.
New Thesaurus Connect Subscription Pricing Model
From January 2020, customers will be billed on a usage subscription model based on the number of active employees in the billing month. Once signed up for a Thesaurus Connect account, you will be invoiced monthly in arrears through our new online billing system. There are no contracts or ties. Should you decide to stop using Connect, no notice is required. Payroll Bureaus on a bureau package will be charged based on the total number of active employees in respect of clients that are synchronised to Thesaurus Connect (not on a client-by-client basis). Our 2020 order system will be available shortly.
One4all Vouchers available to purchase on Thesaurus Payroll Manager
Thesaurus Payroll Manager offers a facility where users can securely purchase One4all gift cards for their employees. Employers can give a gift card of up to €500 tax free to employees. Under the small benefits scheme, both company directors and employees can receive a gift card completely tax free each year. Thesaurus Payroll Manager customers can purchase gift cards directly from the payroll dashboard from One4All. There is no additional charges on Thesaurus Payroll Manager to avail of this facility to purchase gift cards.
Oct 2019
25
Cloud HR Platforms – Making Compliance as easy as 1,2,3
As an employer, when it comes to your new employees, you must give a written statement of 5 core terms of employment within 5 days of starting employment (also known as a Day 5 Statement).
These 5 terms are:
- The full name of employer and employee
- The address of the employer
- The expected duration of the employment contract
- The method of calculating or rate of pay
- The expected normal working day and week
Employees must receive the remaining terms in writing within 2 months of starting work. Penalties for non-compliance are up to €5,000 fine and in extreme cases a potential prison sentence!
Nowadays, you don’t have to worry about how to get documents to your new employees. There is an easier, more powerful way to share your employee contracts. Thanks to Cloud HR Platforms, compliance is as easy as 1,2,3!
- Create a contract of employment for your new employee, making sure to include the core terms of employment.
- Ensure that your new employee has access to the employee portal for your company’s Cloud HR Platform
- Upload their completed contract to the Cloud and move on to getting to know your new hire!
That’s it! You are now fully compliant, following best practice recommendations and safe in the knowledge that your employees have received the information you need them to have!
With Thesaurus Connect, employers can securely and seamlessly distribute documents to employees via their employee self-service app. Book a demo today to discover more ways that Thesaurus Connect can keep you compliant.
Oct 2019
22
Parent’s Leave & Benefit Bill... Some paid leave is on the way for all new parents!
The Government is working on a range of changes to help parents spend more quality time with their children. Last week, they published the new Parent's Leave and Benefit Bill 2019. This Bill is expected to be enacted on or before 1st November 2019.
So what is this….?
The new Parent’s Leave & Benefit Bill introduces the concept of paid parent's leave for employees for the first time in Ireland. Originally called the ‘Parental Leave & Benefit Bill’, this has had a name change to the Parent’s Leave & Benefit bill to clearly differentiate parent's leave from parental leave (which is a separate entitlement!).
What’s included in the new Bill?
- Parents will be able to take two weeks paid parents leave for any child born / adopted on or after 1st November 2019. The leave must be used before the child’s first birthday. In the case of multiple births, a parent will only be able to claim parents leave once.
- It is available to both parents and it can be taken as a continuous period of two weeks or in two separate one week blocks.
- An employee needs to give their employer six weeks' notice of when they want to take the leave, stating the expected start date and the duration.
- Employers are allowed postpone the parent's leave in situations where taking the leave would have a substantial adverse effect on the operation of the employer's business. Employers however cannot postpone the leave for more than 12 weeks.
- Parents receive a statutory payment of €245 per week (they need the necessary PRSI contributions to qualify!).
The Bill does not require employers to pay employees while on parent's leave. It will be up to each employer to decide if they want to top-up an employee's parent's benefit and, if so, by how much. The advice would be to be consistent with approaches taken on the other family leave types.
Company policies should be reviewed and updated to reflect the changes being introduced. This will help you prepare for any increase in staff requests. Make sure you keep your paperwork & record keeping in order.
Want to find out more? Register for our free employment law webinar.
Oct 2019
16
Thesaurus Customer Update: October 2019
Welcome to Thesaurus Software's October update where you will find out about the latest hot topics and events affecting payroll. Our most important news this month include:
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PAYE Modernisation in 2020: What you need to know
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Thesaurus Software’s new employee SmartPhone App
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Budget 2020 – Employer Focus
Backing up your payroll data in 2019
Disasters happen. It’s all part of being in business: Fire, flood, theft, you name it. If you own premises or an office, it might happen to you. Did you access your free Thesaurus Connect cloud backup facility yet? In 2019 we gave all of our Thesaurus customers a FREE Thesaurus Connect licence. Automatically store payroll information in the cloud and enable online access anywhere, anytime for you and your employees.
Free CPD accredited webinar | PAYE Modernisation: The story so far
During this PAYE Modernisation webinar, Thesaurus Software's MD Paul Byrne looks back at the story so far and decides whether or not the new real time payroll reporting system has been a success. In this free CPD accredited webinar, we will review some of the most common mistakes employers have made to date and what employers should expect in 2020. Part two will deep dive into how online payroll platforms can improve your efficiency.
Places are limited. Book early to avoid disappointment.
Have you invited your employees to use their FREE smartphone app?
Our new employee self-service smartphone and tablet app is available with our cloud add-on Thesaurus Connect. It’s completely free to all Thesaurus customers for 2019. The user-friendly app streamlines the payroll processing while reducing the number of payroll queries from employees. The benefits for employees include:
- Instant access to current & historic payslips.
- Request leave on the go.
- View HR documents such as employee contracts & handbooks.
- Edit personal contact information including address and phone number details.
HR & Employment Law Landscape - Free Webinar
Business Owners and Managers are all too aware of the on-going challenges and constant changes in the area of Employment Law and HR Best Practice. This webinar will offer the opportunity to keep abreast of change and plan for the future. Places are limited.
Oct 2019
9
Budget 2020 – Employer Focus
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe announced Budget 2020 with very few changes:
- There is no change to tax credits, cut off points or the rates of PAYE
- There is no change to the rates of Universal Social Charge (USC)
- The Earned Income Tax Credit will increase by €150 to €1,500
- The Home Carer Tax Credit will increase by €100 to €1,600
- The Benefit In Kind will remain as 0% on electric vehicles provided by an employer to an employee until 2022
- The Minimum Wage increase of 30c recommended by the Low Pay Commission has been deferred due to the threat of a no-deal Brexit. The current rate of €9.80 per hour will remain until there is more clarity on Brexit.
PRSI:
The National Training Levy which is collected as part of Employer PRSI will increase by 0.1% from 0.9% to 1% in 2020 to fund further and higher education.
| 2019 | 2020 | |
| Employer PRSI Class A Reduced Rate | 8.7% | 8.8% |
| Employer PRSI Class A Higher Rate | 10.95% | 11.05% |
| Employer PRSI Class H | 10.25% | 10.35% |
Oct 2019
3
Free Webinar: One year later... Can PAYE Modernisation be considered a triumph?
Join Thesaurus Software’s Paul Byrne as he takes you through the PAYE Modernisation journey so far, and decides whether or not PAYE Modernisation has been a success. During the webinar, Paul will also review some of the most common mistakes employers have made to date and what employers should expect in 2020.
As part of this webinar, we’ll take a closer look at Connect and how important it is to backup your payroll data for PAYE Modernisation. Ian Jenkinson will take you on a whistle-stop tour revealing the hidden benefits of our self-service employee app and explain how Connect’s cloud platforms can improve your payroll processes.
We are delighted to be joined by our guest speaker Sinead Sweeney, who is the PAYE Modernisation Change Manager at Revenue. Sinead will discuss what has happened since PAYE Modernisation has gone live and what challenges businesses are facing.
The webinar is CPD accredited for accountants and payroll bureaus. The webinar is free to attend and takes place on 23rd October at 11.00 am for payroll bureaus and 24th October at 11.00 am for employers. Limited places available - book your place now to avoid disappointment.
Can’t make it? Register for the webinar anyway and we will send you the on-demand recording when it’s ready.
More upcoming webinars
Thesaurus Software is hosting a number of webinars over the coming months. More upcoming webinars include:
Sep 2019
12
CWPS rates to increase on 1st October 2019
The Construction Workers' Pension Scheme (CWPS) is a multi-employer occupational pension scheme providing pensions solutions for workers in the construction and related industries, at a low cost to both employees and employers. It is designed to allow construction workers and their families retirement and low cost protection cover.
The pension rates for CWPS agreed in the Sectoral Employment Order will increase from 1st October 2019. The employer contribution total will increase by 78 cents and the employee’s contribution total will increase by 53 cents.
The new rates are as follows:
| Employer Contribution | Employee Contribution | Total | |
| Pension Contribution | €27.35 | €18.24 | €45.59 |
| Death in Service Contribution | €1.14 | €1.14 | €2.28 |
| Sick Pay Contribution | €1.30 | €0.65 | €1.95 |
| Totals | €29.79 | €20.03 | €49.82 |
The additional voluntary extras of Construction Workers Health Trust member contribution of 1.00 and the Benevolent Funds of employer contribution of 0.19 and member contribution of 0.50 will remain the same as the current rates.
Sep 2019
4
Schools are back! Using Parental Leave to help your staff get a good work-life balance
Many employees find it tough to balance their work responsibilities with the demands placed on them in their home and family lives. This is never more obvious than with the return of schools this week – school drop offs and collections, preparing healthy lunches for fussy little eaters, extra-curricular activities to attend, homework battles and an increase in time spent stuck in traffic are all too familiar occurrences come September….
Employers can support their staff by helping them adjust to their new daily routine through flexible working options and/or reduced hours working arrangements. Employers, however, will need to manage these requests carefully, ensuring there are no substantially adverse effects on their business. Very recently, there has been a number of changes made to Parental Leave that employers should be aware of.
So, what’s new with Parental Leave?
- Parental Leave entitlement has increased from 18 to 22 weeks. This is going to further increase again on 1st September 2020 to 26 weeks. Employers should be aware that, for their employees who have already taken their current entitlement, they will be able to take the additional 8 weeks of leave - provided they meet the eligibility requirements.
- The leave can be taken at any time prior to the child turning 12 years old. This was previously set at 8 years old. So any leave not taken previously, due to the fact that the child in question reached the previous limit of 8 years, will now become available for employees to use again.
What should I do?
As an employer, you will now need to update your Parental Leave policies to reflect these new changes (If you use our Bright Contracts package, we have updated these for you already in the Handbook section!). You need to put in place a process for keeping Parental Leave records – these need to be retained for 12 years.
You should review every application for Parental Leave very carefully – weighing up the impact of this request for both the staff member and your business. Parental Leave can be taken as either a block period or as single days. Staff must give you 6 weeks notice of any leave they wish to take. You can postpone a Parental Leave application request, based on business needs, for up to 6 months.
What are the benefits of being seen as a flexible employer?
- You can attract top talent as you will create a culture that respects and recognises that your staff have priorities outside of work.
- Improved retention of staff and less staff turnover as they are better able to manage their time. They will not feel under as much pressure or that it is not sustainable for them to keep working with you.
- Improved employee well-being – their emotional and mental health can benefit by being able to successfully multi-task family and work duties.
- Improved employee morale and loyalty to their employer.
- Improved diversity. As childcare still falls mainly on women, female talent is more likely to be retained as you have made facilities available to them to enable them to keep working.
There is no doubt that employers are increasingly supporting their staff by helping them to balance the demands of working versus homelife. In this current climate of skills shortages and demands for talented, committed staff, it is hoped that progressive steps such as flexible working options will enable parents, juggling these conflicting demands, to remain in the workplace and feel supported by their employer when doing so.
Book a demo of Bright Contracts today to find out how you can keep your Parental Leave policies updated and compliant with employment legislation.
Aug 2019
27
More flexibility, more time: Payroll as a cloud service
Payroll processing has never exactly been the belle of the ball. Businesses disliked it because it’s onerous, while accountants loathe it because payroll has proven difficult to monetise. Not to mention, the work is complex and there are bountiful opportunities to mess it up.
But now, payroll is finally having a moment. Cloud portals have altered the landscape, unlocking new productivity and profits for businesses and accountants. Moving beyond the confines of the desktop and connecting payroll software to the cloud opens all sorts of new, exciting prospects.
The benefits of cloud allows constant and iterative improvements because software companies can offer added benefits and additional layers of access via the web, rather than through more traditional, unsecured methods like sending attachments via email. This formula for progress holds true for cloud payroll accessibility. Synching your payroll data to the cloud enables new features, fully supported by a remote access infrastructure for your clients that’s always improving the payroll process.
As for your clients and their employees, a cloud portal can act as an in-house HR system, streamlining many internal payroll administrative duties. For employees, there is just one login to view employee documents and a company noticeboard. Employers can upload documents such as employment contracts, staff handbooks, privacy policies, training manuals. The employer can decide whether the employee should have access to view the document or not, using it as a central location for everything to do with each individual employee.
Cloud integration updates your information in real time which is easily accessible at any time via any device with internet access. Whether it’s just checking something after hours, or enabling flexible online access to payroll information creates freedom. Cloud payroll portals are making it easier and cheaper to provide payroll services at scale for all of your clients. Drudge work is automated, it’s more collaborative, and a simple, intuitive online interface speeds up your work.
But the potential profits from online payroll platforms aren’t just about payroll itself. Time is money, as the old saying goes. Less work filling in boxes means more time spent on lucrative work such as advisory services, consulting and new business development. All throughout the accounting profession, we’ve seen that when firms cut the time spent on traditional services like bookkeeping, tax preparation and now payroll, they can then take on additional clients and projects, using the same number of staff.
More capacity, more time, more flexibility, more collaboration, more profits: the benefits of cloud automation and remote self-service portals will seep into every corner of your practice.
Book a Thesaurus Connect demo today to increase your profits from your payroll service.
Aug 2019
19
Upcoming Webinars - Brought to you by Thesaurus Software
PAYE Modernisation Webinars | Guest Speaker: Revenue
Thesaurus Software has teamed up with Revenue where we will look back on PAYE Modernisation in 2019 and decide if the new real time payroll reporting system has been a success. The PAYE Modernisation webinar series features four webinars for employers and four webinars for payroll bureaus and accountants, starting with PAYE Modernisation: One year on - was it a success? which takes place at the end of September.
Payroll & Cloud Platforms
Cloud technology is here and it can easily compliment any SME workplace. This webinar busts the myth that employee related technology is only for the big employer. During our webinar on the 17th of September - Payroll and cloud platforms: What employers need to know (and why employees love it) - we take a look at exactly how you can manage your employee administration with cloud technology. Huge cost and time savings can be made by using the right technology.
Employment Law Webinars
Business Owners and Managers are all too aware of the ongoing challenges and constant changes in the area of Employment Law and HR Best Practice. This webinar will offer the opportunity to keep abreast of change and plan for the future, including terms and conditions of employment, gender pay reporting, parental leave and WRC 2019 targets. Join us on the 12th of September for 2019 HR & Employment Law Landscape to make sure you’re kept up-to-date with employment law.
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