BrightPay's Client Portal allows users to be set up to access employee and payroll information. Users can access financial data such as payslips, reports, Revenue details, employee's personal details including leave and employee calendar, employer calendar, portal management and more.

The Client Portal gives access to a user to all employees in the employer and users can access the payslips, calendars, annual leave entitlement details, resources and employee portal management, if enabled for the user. 

BrightPay' Client Portal enables payroll bureaus to provide an online employer portal for direct use by their clients. This Client portal enables the employer to access the payroll summary and other reports, amounts due to Revenue, employee and employer calendars, all employee information and more.

There is no limit of users that can be set up in BrightPay to access the Client Portal for an employer or multiple employers.

Setting Up the Client Portal

Before users can access the Client Portal, you will need to configure it from within BrightPay. 

To do this:

1. In BrightPay, navigate to the Employer tab at the top of the screen.
2. Select Client Portal from the left-hand menu, then click Settings.
3. Configure your preferred portal options — including enabling payslip email notifications, payroll approval requests, and employee self service features.

4. Click Save to apply your settings.

    

Adding Users to the Client Portal

To add a user who can access the Client Portal for a specific employer:

1. In BrightPay, go to Employer > Client Portal > Manage Users.
2. Click Add User and enter the user’s email address.
3. Select the user type — Super User or Standard User — and configure their permissions accordingly.
4. The user will receive an email invitation with a link to activate their account and set up their Bright ID.

User Types

BrightPay’s Client Portal supports two types of users:

• Super Users — Full access to all areas of the Client Portal, including the ability to manage other users.
• Standard Users — Restricted access based on the permissions configured by a Super User or bureau administrator.

For a full breakdown of permissions, see the Options for Users on the Client Portal article here. 

Organisation Owners and Administrators

Organisation Owners and Organisation Administrators automatically receive Client Portal access for every employer in any organisation where they are set as an Owner or Administrator. There is no option to disable this access — organisation-level permissions always take precedence.

For example: if you are an Organisation Admin and also a Standard Client Portal user with ‘view reports only’ access, you will still see all areas of the portal because your Organisation Admin role takes precedence.

What Your Client Will See

Once a user logs into the Client Portal, they will be taken to the Dashboard for the employer. From here they can access:

• Employer — view/edit employer details, employer calendar, and manage users
• Payroll — view completed pay periods, amounts due to HMRC, and export payslips
• Employees — view employee details, manage the employee portal, and handle leave or personal detail requests
• Reports — create, view, and export payroll reports

Two-Factor Authentication: If two-factor authentication is required for Clients, users can enable this themselves in the Client Portal by selecting the profile icon (top right-hand corner) and choosing Manage My Bright ID. Under the Security tab, select 2FA Settings.

Under the 'Choose your preferred 2FA method' there are three options to select from:

• Authentication App, which is the preferred and most secure method. Use an authentication app that can generate a personal one-time code. Entering the code will be required to successfully log into BrightPay with your Bright ID
• Text Message – receive a text message containing your code to your mobile phone whenever you try to log into BrightPay with your Bright ID. Entering the code will be required to log in successfully.
• Email – receive an email containing a code to your email address whenever you try to log into BrightPay with you Bright ID. Entering the code will be required to log in successfully.

Managing Multiple Employers(Clients)

If you are a client user for more than one employer, you will be able to select which client to access on the first screen. To switch between employers/clients within the portal, click the employer name in the top-left corner of the screen and select another from the dropdown list.

If you are set up for multiple employers but are being taken straight into a specific client on login, try clearing your browser's cache and cookies, as the system may be defaulting to a particular URL.

There currently isn't a way to globally add a payroll processor to multiple employers as a client user. The development team are planning to release this ability in the 2027 tax year software.

Client portal users will / will not receive notifications regarding employee holiday or annual leave requests, or requests to change personal details. Currently, holiday notifications are available for managers and employees (where enabled), but not directly for client portal users. For full visibility of leave activity, reports can be accessed via the client portal calendar. If a client user wants to receive email notifications when employees request leave, they can be set up as a global manager also.

If the email instruction is not reaching the client user, double check the email address entered into BrightPay - amend and resend invitation if required.

The Client portal Login page can be found at: https://client.brightpay.com

FAQs

Q. Do client portal users receive email notifications for holiday/leave requests or changes to personal details?
A. No, only managers and employees receive these notifications (where enabled). Client users do not receive them unless they are also set up as a manager.

Q. Can one email address be used to access multiple employer (client) portals?

A. Yes, one email address can be used to access multiple employer accounts in the BrightPay Cloud Client Portal.

You can use the same email address to be invited as an Administrator (or payroll processor), Client user or Manager across several different employer accounts. This means you only need one login (Bright ID) to switch between organisations or employers you have access to within the Client Portal.

As long as the employers or bureaus set the user up within the software and send invitations to that email address, you’ll be able to see and manage each employer account from your portal dashboard.

Q. How can a client user switch between different schedules in the client portal?

A. If one employer has different payment schedules; ie weekly and monthly - the client portal does not show these in the same view as in the 'Payroll' section on BrightPay for processing. A client user can go to the client portal dashboard > click into the Payroll section; All payment periods that have been processed will be listed in chronological order - each payment period will have it's own section, rather than being a 'schedule' like it is shown on the BrightPay payroll processing side.

Q: I’m getting an error "Something went wrong"  in the Client Portal.
A: Please log out of the Client Portal and then log back in. This usually resolves the issue. If the error message still appears, please reply to this message and let us know, and a member of our Support team will review your account.