Aug 2022
18
A Time of Change at Bright
This week was both a sad and exciting week for everyone here at Bright as our current Chief Executive Officer, Paul Byrne has decided to step down as CEO and transition into a new role as Founder Board Director. It is hard to put into words how amazing a CEO Paul Byrne has been for the past 32 years. As the founding father of Thesaurus Software and Brightpay Paul built Thesaurus Software from a small family company to become Bright, a leading provider of accounting, payroll and HR solutions. With this amazing growth the small company family has grown to a family of over 200 employees who I think will all agree that the company wouldn’t be where it is today without Paul’s hard work and amazing leadership.
Although it is sad to have our amazing leader stepping down it allows Paul to get back to what he loves, his original product baby, Thesaurus Payroll Manager which he is excited to dedicate more of this time towards. So while Paul gets back to his coding roots we are both delighted and excited to announce that AccountancyManager’s Kevin McCallum will take the baton from Paul and will be Bright’s new CEO. ??
Kevin joined Bright as part of the AccountancyManager acquisition back in March 2022 and since then Kevin has shown great knowledge, energy, and experience. Since joining Bright, Kevin has been impressed with our shared vision and passion for the future of the accounting industry which is what will make for an exciting year ahead with Kevin at the helm.
To celebrate this new phase in Paul and Kevin’s lives we had a small celebration in our head office in Duleek where kind words were shared by our Chief Revenue Officer, Karen and Chief People Officer, Laura who presented Paul with a small gift to mark Paul’s impact on the business and to show our thanks for what he has done for the company and its employees to date. And for us to always remember our former CEO we have changed the name of his favourite room, the boardroom, to be 'The Paul Byrne Suite'.
Thank you again Paul for everything you have done for the staff over the past 32 years and congratulations to both Paul and Kevin on their new roles, the future is certainly Bright.
May 2021
19
Vaccine Policy and Returning to Work: What employers need to know
As we finally leave Level 5 lockdown, we are taking one step closer to a more ‘normal’ life. As such, more businesses will be opening, more employees will no longer need to claim the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, and new employees will be hired. All of this means that employers have a busy few months ahead of them. There are a number of challenges associated with returning to work. As expected, businesses will need to adhere to the guidelines set out by the HSE and carry out risk assessments, while also managing administrative duties such as the annual leave backlog. Going forward, they will also need to look at how they manage and implement more permanent working from home solutions, as well as tackle the issue of a vaccine policy.
An upcoming webinar, hosted by Bright Contracts, our sister product, will discuss the new legislation surrounding working from home to ensure you are compliant, how to return your employees safely to the workplace when phased returns to the office begin and how to address the topic of vaccines and the workplace with your employees. This webinar has been specifically designed for employers and their Human Resources department.
The webinar will address:
- Working From Home: New legislation
- Return to Work Safely Protocol
- Vaccine Policy
- No Jab, No Job
These challenges may seem daunting at first, but if you’re prepared, you can ensure a smooth and safe return to the workplace and even use the changes to support improvements to your business and employee relationships. Managing a team, with some working from home and others in the office, will require regular communication. An online employer and employee portal can offer significant help with this. With an online portal, such as Thesaurus Connect, an employer can communicate with the whole company or share confidential documents with specific employees such as those working remotely or are returning from leave. To learn more about this, click here.
Related Articles:
Feb 2019
22
Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018
The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty has confirmed the new Employment Bill, which has been in the pipeline now for a number of years, will come into force on the 4th March. The Bill is being introduced to ‘improve the security of working hours for employees on insecure contracts and those working variable hours’, common in (but not exclusive to) service industries such as hospitality, tourism and retail. These industries often rely on flexibility in the employment contract and therefore the introduction of this new Bill will require them to take note.
The new Act makes certain breaches a criminal offence; where the employer does not comply with the new obligations in the Bill to provide the required information within one month, can lead to criminal prosecution. Fines on conviction could be up to €5,000 or imprisonment of up to twelve months or both. Directors, managers, secretaries or other officers of a company can be individually liable, i.e. be prosecuted individually for offences.
- In summary, the new Act will:
- Prohibit the use of Zero Hour contracts, save for exceptional circumstances
- Obligate employers to notify new employees of five core terms of employment in writing within five days of commencing employment
- Create a new entitlement to ‘Banded Hours’ contracts
- Provide for minimum payments to employees who are required to be available to work but are not actually called to work
The Act also introduces an anti-penalisation provision whereby an employer may not penalize an employee for exercising their rights under the 1994 Terms of Employment Act. An employee who is penalized can be awarded compensation of such amounts as the WRC considers just but will not exceed four weeks remuneration.
The new Act will bring significant changes for Irish employers and employees and according to Minister Regina Doherty; the Act is a “once-in-a-generation reform of our labour market.”
Please visit Brightcontracts.ie for more information on the new Employment Bill which has been in the pipeline now for a number of years and is to be enacted on 4th March 2019.
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Back to Basics - Disciplinary Steps and Sanctions
Thesaurus Payroll Software | BrightPay Payroll Software | Bright Contracts
Feb 2018
13
Free Webinar: Irish Employment Law Overview
As busy employers it can be difficult to keep up-to-date with the constant changes in employment law.
Bright Contracts by Thesaurus Software is hosting a free employment law webinar on Thursday 22nd February. Our employment law experts will discuss what is new in employment law, recent Workplace Relations Commission cases and have a look at the most frequently asked questions that come through our support line.
Agenda:
- Employment Law - What’s new?
- Recent WRC cases
- FAQs from our support line
- Bright Contracts: A simple solution
Places are limited - book your place now!!
If you are unable to attend the webinar at the specified time, simply register and we will send you the recording afterwards.
Newsletter - Are you missing out?
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Oct 2013
4
CPA Ireland – Practitioners’ Conference 2013
CPA Ireland held their Practitioners Conference in Carton House Friday 20th & Saturday 21st September 2013. Laura Murphy and Audrey Mooney from Thesaurus Software attended the conference. Laura and Audrey enjoyed meeting existing Thesaurus Payroll Manger and Solutions Plus customers – getting their feedback and comments.
It was also an opportunity to show Bright Contracts and our new payroll product BrightPay.
- Bright Contracts is an innovative software package that has everything you need to create and manage your staff handbook and and employment contracts.
- BrightPay is simple to use yet powerful and flexible, it will be offered alongside Thesaurus Payroll Manager giving customers a choice of payroll products.
Laura Murphy (left) and Audrey Mooney at the recent CPA conference
Sep 2013
24
What our customers say!
In a recent customer survey, 97.82% of respondents ranked the quality of our customer support as Excellent or Good.
This customer support covers our payroll software (Thesaurus Payroll Manager and BrightPay), our employment contracts software (Bright Contracts) and our accounts software (Solutions Plus) and is free to all registered users.
While the excellent/good percentage achieved would be way ahead of industry standards, we hope to reduce the 2.18% who ranked our support as fair or poor!
