PAYROLL INTEGRATIONS – WHICH PROVIDERS CAN INTEGRATE WITH brightpay and moorepay

In the final instalment of the payroll integration insights, we look in detail at how different workplace pension providers integrate with the BrightPay and Moorepay payroll system.

One of the most used desktop-based payroll systems is BrightPay. It is now used to process the payroll for over 250,000 businesses across the UK and Ireland. It was rated Best Payroll Software 2020 at the ICB Luca Awards.

BrightPay is often deeply embedded within an organisation. Beyond processing payments, the automated payroll management solution can handle payslips, reports, expenses and benefits, and subcontractor management. Due to its API integrations with popular accounting packages, it is particular popular with small to medium sized businesses as well as the payroll organisations that serve them.

Therefore, integration with BrightPay is an important factor for HR and payroll professionals involved in the selection with a workplace pension provider.

However, our data shows that only a quarter of workplace pension providers offer some form of live/active integration with BrightPay payroll.

Aegon Master Trust and Aegon Workplace ARC are two providers who offer a broad range of integrations with BrightPay. Clients of these providers who use BrightPay are able to automate receiving autoenrollment assessment of employees lists, receiving postponement notifications, receiving employer setup notifications, retrieving employer setup details, receiving autoenrollment lists of assessed employees/enrolling workers notifications, receiving member contributions / autoenrollment payroll update notifications, receiving setup details/joiners notifications, receiving payment approval notifications, receiving payment schedules/contribution notifications, receiving opt-out notifications, receiving stopped contribution notification and retrieving refunds notifications.

Both providers do this on a CSV file basis with the file generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file formal and sent manually.

Royal London also offers the same broad range of integrations with BrightPay. It does this on a CSV file basis, manually mapped and uploaded by either the employer or payroll provider.

True Potential also offers integration with BrightPay, however, the range of integrations is not as wide. Clients of True Potential using BrightPay are able to automate receiving auto enrollment assessment of employees lists, receiving postponement notifications, receiving employer setup notifications, retrieving employer setup details, receiving autoenrollment lists of assessed employees/enrolling workers notifications, receiving member contributions / auto enrollment payroll update notifications, receiving setup details/joiners notifications, receiving payment approval notifications, receiving payment schedules/contribution notifications.

Like Aegon Master Trust and Aegon Workplace ARC, Royal London do this on a CSV file basis with the file generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file formal and sent manually.

However, unlike clients of Royal London, Aegon Master True and Aegon Workplace ARC, clients of True Potential using BrightPay are not able to automate receiving opt-out notifications or receiving stopped contributions notifications.

The final workplace pension provider who offers an integration with BrightPay is Aviva Designer. However, their integration is limited to retrieving employer setup details. They do this on a CSV file basis, generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent automatically.

Overall, our data shows that whilst five workplace pension providers offer some form of integration with BrightPay, not all integrations are made equal. Aegon Master Trust, Aegon Workplace ARC and Royal London offer the widest range of available automations.

It is also worth noting that all integrations are done on a CSV file basis. Unlike some integrations with fellow payroll systems Sage and Xero, some of which are done on an API basis. BrightPay integrates with several accountancy providers on an API basis, therefore is obviously open to working with other companies on API integrations.

Another widely used payroll systems is Moorepay. It is popular with corporations that handle payroll in-house within their HR function and has over 10,000 UK corporations as clients. The system processes over 500,000 payslips every month.

Moorepay is often deeply embedded within an organisation. Beyond processing payments, the automated payroll management solution can handle employee benefits payments, direct debits and BACS. As part of HR business Zellis, it also has HR software which can handle time and attendance, people analytics, health and safety, employee assistance and legal services.

Therefore, integration with Moorepay is an important factor for HR and payroll professionals involved in the selection with a workplace pension provider.

Our data shows that seven workplace pension providers currently have live/active integrations with Moorepay payroll: Aegon Master Trust, Aegon Workplace ARC, Fidelity, Royal London, Standard Life, Standard Life DC Master Trust and True Potential.

Those with the widest range of task integrations are Aegon Master Trust, Aegon Workplace ARC, Fidelity, and Royal London. Clients of all four providers are able to automate receiving autoenrollment assessment of employees lists, receiving postponement notifications, receiving employer setup notifications, retrieving employer setup details, receiving autoenrollment lists of assessed employees/enrolling workers notifications, receiving member contributions / autoenrollment payroll update notifications, receiving setup details/joiners notifications, receiving payment approval notifications, receiving payment schedules/contribution notifications, receiving opt-out notifications, receiving stopped contribution notification and retrieving refunds notifications.

Aegon Master Trust, Aegon Workplace ARC and Fidelity do this on a CSV file basis, generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent manually.

Royal London also does this on a CSV file basis but for its clients the CSV file is manually mapped and uploaded by either the employer or payroll provider.

Standard Life and Standard Life DC Master Trust offer most of the same automated processes, on a CSV file basis generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent manually. However, clients cannot automate receiving employer set up notifications, retrieving employer set up details, or receiving payment schedule/contribution notifications.

The True Potential integration with Moorepay is the narrowest. Clients of True Potential using Moorepay are only able to automate receiving AE assessment of employees lists, receiving postponement notifications, receiving autoenrollment lists of assessed employees/enrolling workers notifications, receiving set up details/joiners notifications, and retrieving refunds notifications. True Potential offers these automated processes on a CSV file basis, generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent manually.

Overall, our data shows that whilst six workplace pension providers offer some form of integration with Moorepay payroll, not all integrations are made equal. Aegon Master Trust,  Aegon Workplace ARC, Fidelity and Royal London offer the widest range of available automations.

Generally, API integrations are the preferred method for most HR and payroll professionals as they offer a real-time and secure data connection from one software system to another. This limits the amount of rekeying of data and therefore the potential for human error or delays occurring, as well as limiting the amount of work that needs to be done by the employer.