Import BrightPay Data via the Bureau Dashboard

• Bank details: Employee data is exported from the BrightPay tool in a CSV format. Use caution if you open this file before importing. Excel often automatically reformats long strings of numbers (like Sort Codes or Account Numbers) into dates or scientific notation. If you do open the file, ensure you reformat these columns back to 'Text' to prevent corruption of bank details during the import process.
• HMRC settings: RTI settings cannot be imported automatically and will need to be set up manually in the platform.
• Pension details: You will need to manually review your pension settings and add your provider name, employer number, and admin details. You must also confirm the frequency and pension type within their contribution plans.
• Deduction Categories (including Court Orders): The exporter tool will extract all deduction categories from BrightPay, including any active Court Orders. These will appear under Deduction Categories in the payroll platform after the import. 
  Action Required: You must manually set these up as Pay Run Inclusions at the employee level to ensure they calculate correctly in the pay run. Detailed instructions on configuring these can be found here: Court Orders and Court Order Deductions Report.
• Business contacts: BrightPay supports multiple contacts, but our platform currently supports only one. We import the first contact listed under Business Details—if this isn’t the correct contact, you will need to update this manually.
• Business settings: Any additional business-specific settings (e.g., chart of accounts, payslip settings) will need to be configured manually after the import is complete.

• Year-to-date (YTD) figures: If you export from BrightPay at the end of a tax year, YTD figures for that year will be included in your file.

  • If you do not want these YTD figures to be imported, delete the YTD values from your spreadsheet before you make the upload.

  • If you do want to keep the YTD figures, ensure the platform is set to the matching tax year. You can verify or update this on the Opening Balances settings screen before you run the import.

• Daily Rate Employees: If any employees are paid a daily rate, you must manually create a Daily Rate Pay Category in the platform before starting your import.
  • Note: If this category is not set up beforehand, the import will proceed, but any employees assigned a daily rate in your file will be skipped.
  • Learn how to set up a Pay Category here: Create and manage pay categories.
• Employees with Benefits: While the tool imports as much benefit data as possible from BrightPay, we recommend checking these records once the import is complete.
  • Action Required: You will need to manually configure how these benefits are processed (e.g., payrolling vs. P11D).
  • View our guide on processing benefits here: Payrolling Benefits, P11Ds.

1. Download the BrightPay Exporter Tool.

Important

Ensure that BrightPay is not open when you are exporting the data. You must have the BrightPay desktop application installed on your laptop for the exporter to function correctly.

2. Once downloaded, right-click the file and select Extract All…
    
3. Select the destination folder where you would like the files saved, then click Extract.
4. Open the extracted folder, then open the folder named net48.
5. Double-click the application named BrightPayEmployeeExporter to run it.
   

6. Click Add files… and select the BrightPay business files you want to export.

   

7. Under Output Directory, select the folder where you want the exported files to be saved. Optionally, you can save the files to a password-protected zip folder.
8. Click Export. The tool will run and confirm when the export has completed successfully.

The export will generate two CSV files:

• An employers list CSV containing your business (employer) setup details.
• A combined employees CSV containing the employee details to be set up within those businesses.
   

1. Log in to the Bureau Dashboard.
2. In the left-hand side menu, click BrightPay Import.
    
3. Under Business Upload, drag and drop your employers list CSV file, or click browse to select it.
4. If you have multiple brands, select the brand you want the businesses to be imported into from the Brand drop-down menu.
5. Click Import.
    
6. Once the import is complete, a confirmation message will appear. Open the import log to review the details and check for any errors.

1. From the BrightPay Import page in the Bureau Dashboard, under Employee Upload, drag and drop your combined employees CSV file, or click browse to select it.
2. If applicable, select the correct brand from the Brand drop-down menu.
3. Click Import.
    
4. Once the import is complete, a confirmation message will appear. Open the import log to review the details and check for any errors.

To add a Court Order to an employee's record, you need to go to the Employee Details and then select Pay Run Inclusions.

On the Pay Run Inclusions page select the Add button on the deductions row.

From the drop down menu select Post-Tax Deduction.

Then click Apply Court Order.

A box will then pop up requesting you to apply the court order. Here you need to select the appropriate court order from the drop down menu and the system will pre-populate the most common settings for that type of court order.

The court order type options are:

• England/Wales Attachment of Earnings Order (AEO) - Priority
• Deduction from Earnings Order (DEO) - Pre March 2003
• Deduction from Earnings Order (DEO) - Post March 2003
• Council Tax Attachment of Earnings Order (CTAEO)
• England/Wales Attachment of Earnings Order (AEO) - Fines
• England/Wales Attachment of Earnings Order (AEO) - Non Priority
• Scotland Earnings Arrestment (EA)
• Department of Work and Pensions Direct Earnings Attachment (DEA) - Higher Rate
• Department of Work and Pensions Direct Earnings Attachment (DEA) - Standard Rate
• England/Wales – Council Tax AEO Pre 2007 (CTPRE07)
• Wales Council Tax Attachment of Earnings Order (CTAEO) – April 2002

Once you have made your selection you will need to enter the appropriate fields required for your court order.  So for example an AEO has a fixed amount and a preserved earnings amount which needs to be completed, then press save and you will be taken back to the deductions page.

Here you have the option to change the amount (per pay run) to:

• Fixed - this is a fixed amount taken every pay run.
• Percentage of Gross - this is a percentage of the gross earnings.
• Percentage of Net - this is a percentage of the net earnings.
• Varied based on earnings amount - when this option is selected you will need to then select the type of court order and weekly/monthly. The system will present to you the most common way of that court order being deducted depending on what you have selected. You could get either the pop up box or a varied earnings.

If the employee has multiple court orders, the system needs to know which one to apply first. The system defaults to 0 but it is up to the user to decide the priority. 

If the employee has a student loan:

Depending on the type of court order they have will depend on how the student loan is deducted. If they had a CTAEO then this would stop student loans being deducted, others depend on if they are priority or non-priority or exactly what type of order they are.
The system will determine this and you have the option to amend this should you need to.
If there are no student loans then the system will just ignore it.

You need to select if the payment is to be paid manually or to a bank account.

If you pay it to a bank account, you can then enter the details for where it will be paid.

Preserved earnings are a fixed pound amount that is used to indicate the minimum amount an employee must be paid before a deduction can be made. You have several options as to how the preserved earnings are applied, you need to select from the drop down menu either: never; once a minimum net earnings limit has been reached or once a percentage of net earnings limit has been reached. 

You can also set the system to either not pay the deduction, or pay the deduction up to the preservation limit, and set up how any carried forward amounts are treated for both preserved earnings and court orders if required.

If you want any notes to appear on the pay run for the inclusion they should be entered in the notes section.

You need to enter when the inclusion should start, options are:

• today
• on the following date

When it will expire:

• never
• on the following date
• after the following amount has been reached

If the court order was originally set up on a previous payroll and has had payments already made you can enter the figure paid so far in the ‘Amount paid so far’ box.

If you have selected for the pay run inclusion to expire ‘After the following amount has been reached’ a box will appear showing the initial court order balance.

This court order will now be set up and will be applied in the pay run that you have set the inclusion to start in.

If you wish to take a £1 admin fee you need to set up a deduction for this and follow the court order guidance as to when to apply it. Click here for more information on how to set up a deduction.

In the reports screen under the Payroll category is a Court order deductions report.

The report shows all court order details for each employee.

The report can also be added within the report packs.