Payroll software for a charity

What is the best solution for a charity with fluctuating staff

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I have taken over as a trustee of a local charity. The charity employs about 20 people between May and September while for the rest of the year it has zero employees.

Our requirements are:

1. Online payroll service that allows the payslips to be emailed out and to be password protected. The ideal solution would be for the emails to be sent unencrypted but for the PDF's to be password protected. 

2. Cost effective solution. Many of the solutions I have looked at charge per employee but typically for 12-months, rather than for just the months we need.  

Does any one have any recommendations?

Replies (15)

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JCACE
By jcace
02nd Nov 2018 23:51

Have a look at BrightPay.
It's not an online service, but can be networked via apps such as Dropbox or Googledocs.
It's very cost effective, can email out payslips (password protect pdfs) or has a cloud facility for staff to access payslips etc.
Intuitive at dealing with Auto Enrolment.
Very straightforward to use.

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Replying to jcace:
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By leadville
06th Nov 2018 13:15

I had a look at Brightpay and it looks perfect for our needs. On a seperate note, we use Payrollsite for our business payroll and I am tempted to move it across to Brightpay as well.

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Replying to leadville:
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By Alex_T
06th Nov 2018 13:58

You won't regret it @Leadville... its excellent software at an excellent price. We moved to BrightPay a few years ago and we've never looked back.

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Euan's picture
By Euan MacLennan
03rd Nov 2018 13:00

You "need" payroll software for all 12 months of the year in order to submit nil RTI reports online to HMRC for the months in which no-one is being paid and at the end of the tax year (March/April). If you don't know what I am talking about, you might wish to consider using a payroll bureau.
I am a fan of Moneysoft.

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RLI
By lionofludesch
03rd Nov 2018 16:58

20 employees is too many for free software.

As above - Brightpay or Moneysoft.

Trial them both and see which you like the better.

Like Euan, I'm a Moneysoft voter.

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By clark.hall
04th Nov 2018 14:48

I’d second the BrightPay recommendation. Good value and does what you need - just not a cloud app. But I moved from Payroo on the cloud to BP.

I also tried MoneySoft along the way which was too dated for my liking.

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By Alex_T
05th Nov 2018 12:44

BrightPay offer free payroll software to UK registered charities. I found out recently when I put a local charity in touch with them. Best of luck!

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Replying to Alex_T:
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By Mr Hobbit
08th Nov 2018 13:06

Thank you for this information. I had no idea Brightpay offered a free payroll licence to UK charities. They really are a breath of fresh air in the market.

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By leadville
06th Nov 2018 13:18

Thanks everyone for the advice to look at Moneysoft and BrightPay.

On a related note, what does everyone use to send encrypted emails to end users?

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Replying to leadville:
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By Alex_T
06th Nov 2018 14:01

We use BrightPay Connect cloud portal which allows the employee to access their payslips and payroll information securely via an app on their phone.

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By Counting numbers
06th Nov 2018 14:12

Nice to see a company giving something back. Well done Brightpay!

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By ShayaG
08th Nov 2018 10:36

Payroo isn't pretty but is (often) free and functional.

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By David.dgwright.co.uk
08th Nov 2018 11:04

I chair a charity with 40 employees and multiple projects. Brightpay provide the software free to us. Give them a call, they are a great company and may provide it free to you? It is the full program. Departmental reporting is good which is great for our restricted funds. Used it for years now. Highly recommend it.

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By Coppice Payroll
08th Nov 2018 15:25

Just wanted to throw in that BrightPay is offering free software to registered UK charities. Just send their support team an email to ask about it.

The email is [email protected]

Couldn't vouch for this software enough, to be honest.

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By NYB
08th Nov 2018 16:42

Brightpay for sure. Excellent software, superb support and completely affordable. You can’t go wrong.

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