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All or nothing

17th Feb 2017
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I have a habit of approaching a lot of things in an all or nothing fashion. This was certainly true when I started my practice when I was desperate to make sure I succeeded (in paying the bills at least) and is even more so now.

As I mentioned in my last blog post I’ve decided to look to grow my practice. Staff are on board and performing well and I am seeing the benefits of being able to share the workload and be relieved of low level work which they can perform just as well and sometimes better than me.

Its going so well that one of them is already a Xero certified advisor, the other will probably follow in a couple of months.

Anyway back to the all or nothing – on top of growing the business, taking on and training staff I’ve also decided to change payroll software and start using a PM system.

The change in payroll software was borne out of the frustration of dealing with auto enrolment. Moneysoft as good as it is (nice new website) is really lacking in this area – the export/import of files to the pension scheme provider is a pain. An extra 5 minutes per client per month spread over 40 payrolls – soon becomes half a day extra work.

Brightpay on the other hand can do it at the click of the mouse – hooray!

Back to the PM system – I’ve chosen mTrio and am really excited about this. We’re still in the preparation stage – I’m busy documenting my processes – making sure I get this right. Can’t wait to see this on screen.

After two one hour webinar demos I can already see how I will be savings hours of admin time each week and will have the set up to continue driving efficiency and customer service ever upwards.

Oh and the new prospects continue to knocking on my door so to speak, 3 enquiries on Monday alone. I’m having to revise my growth predictions for this year and with the right staff (tick) and right systems (tick) in place we’re well placed to cope with this and more!

Replies (6)

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By tom123
18th Feb 2017 15:32

All sounds nice and positive!

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By mumpin
19th Feb 2017 20:21

I'm having a wretched time with Moneysoft and NEST.
Are you really confident about Brightpay. Have you trialled it extensively? Do you feel that it is a superior product?
TIA for your thoughts.

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Replying to mumpin:
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By jjswjjsw
21st Feb 2017 13:41

Hopefully you can get your Moneysoft/NEST problems resolved - I find the set-up time consuming initially but after that my Moneysoft/NEST submissions have been fine. Is it worth sharing your problems in case others can help?

My problems were mainly with the NEST period dates not being quite what I wanted e.g. for February they set up 29 Jan - 28 Feb not for the calendar month so I had to get the NEST side correct for it to work.

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Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
20th Feb 2017 15:20

@Mumpin Brightpay is great bit of software for the money. Very good with AE.

Good news that are putting your foot on the gas this year Kent I share your views as I think this is a year of opportunities for us smaller guys who can make decisions and act on them quickly.

Good luck.

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By chatman
21st Feb 2017 12:44

Hi Kent - One of the things that put me off BrightPay before is the absence of an equivalent to the Moneysoft RTI Batch Processor, which allows you to see, on one screen, which clients have RTI returns due, and file them all from that same screen, so you don't have to open each client's file. Does BrightPay have something like that now? And is there anything about BrightPay you don't like?

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Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
21st Feb 2017 13:28

@mumpin - I use Smart Pensions and the lack of direct integration between the 2 is a pain. Exporting/importing files is a proper pain and as most of my AE work is between now and November I couldn't face this.

Brightpay is a lot more straight forward and integrated directly with Smart.

To be honest if Moneysoft had a Smart integration I wouldn't change.

I had been looking to do a mid year change but moving client data mid year is not that straight forward so I'll start Brightpay properly in April.

Fully tested? No, but I have seen enough functionality to know "it'll do the job" and it is a lot more user friendly and less rigid.

@Chatman - I never used the batch processor. I email payslips to every client each month - I see this as another form of staying in touch. I often get queries/updates as a reply to the payroll emails.

Yes I do like the screen where all outstanding returns are flagged, however with the use of a PM system which will flag all outstanding actions, I'll use that as the workflow monitor.

I can also see Brightpay payroll being web based soon, a long time before Moneysoft. Which is another reason to move.

What had put me off Brightpay a couple of years ago was that it didn't have a CIS function, it does now and this with its handling of AE has lead me to move.

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