When you add a new employee with a start date, they now appear in the pay period you choose — not automatically in the period containing their start date. This is invaluable when an employee starts near the end of a pay period and you want their first payment processed in the following period.

A new dropdown on the employee's schedule selection lets you choose whether the employee starts in the pay period containing their start date (current behaviour) or delays until the pay period after their start date. You maintain full control, and the HMRC start date remains unchanged for FPS reporting.

BrightPay now supports additional payslip availability rules based on dates relative to the pay date. Beyond the existing four rules (as soon as finalised, X days before pay date, X days after pay date, on the pay date), you can now set payslips to become available on:

• The Friday on or after the pay date
• The last day of the month on or after the pay date
• The 26th of the month of the pay date
• And many other relative date combinations

This gives you precise control over payslip release timing, accommodating a wide range of business requirements and client agreements without requiring manual date adjustments each pay period.

A new user preference allows you to run key analysis reports against both finalised payslips and currently open (unfinalised) payslips. Access this setting under Settings > General Preferences, where you can choose to "Select report on finalised payslips and currently open payslips."

This gives you flexibility to validate your payroll data before finalisation: verify pension contributions, check hourly pay calculations, validate statutory pay entitlements — using your current unfinalised payroll data as a powerful sense check.

Reports available include: Pension Report, Payroll Summary, Hourly Pay Report, and Statutory Pay Report.