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Platform Documentation · BrightBridge Assist

Updated September 2026   Contact support

Overview

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Overview

BrightBridge Assist Documentation

Everything you need to run your workforce on BrightBridge Assist. Start here to understand how your account is put together, then jump to the guide for your role.

Written for

Owners, managers and staff

Covers

Setup, people, hours, payroll

Time to read

About 8 minutes

1. How the platform is organized

Four layers. Almost every question about "why can't I see this?" or "who is allowed to press that?" is answered by one of them.

  • Company — your business. Tax details, pay schedule, banking and your package live here.
  • Locations — the physical sites your people work at. One per address.
  • People — every employee belongs to one location. That location decides which manager can see them.
  • Accounts — the login someone uses. The account carries a role, and the role decides what they can do.

Employees and management accounts are separate things. An employee record is a person you pay. A management account is a person who administers the system, and has no employee record of its own. Someone who is both needs one of each, with a different email address on each.

One email, one account

An email address can only belong to a single account across the whole platform. If the same person needs two roles, the second account needs a second email address.

2. Your package

Your company is on one of three packages. The package decides which parts of the platform switch on, so your screens may not match a screenshot from another customer. Compliance and people management are included in all three — there is no package without them.

Package

Compliance Only

People, onboarding, documents and compliance tracking. No time clock, no payroll.

  • Employee records
  • Onboarding checklists
  • Document expiry tracking
Read the details
Package

Full Service

Everything: compliance, the time clock, and payroll with tax filing.

  • Payroll and tax filing
  • Time clock and approvals
  • Compliance and documents
Read the details
Package

Workforce Management Only

Time clock and approvals, with approved hours exported to your existing payroll provider.

  • Time clock and timesheets
  • Hour approvals
  • Approved-hours export
Read the details

3. Who does what

Roles exist so the person closest to the work is the one who confirms it. A location manager knows whether Maria really worked those hours; a payroll manager knows whether the funding will clear. Neither does the other's job.

TaskOwnerLocation ManagerPayroll ManagerEmployee
Add or edit an employeeYesNoNoNo
Approve and correct hoursYesOwn locationNoNo
Submit payrollYesNoYesNo
Export approved hoursYesOwn locationYesNo
Company settings and bankingYesNoNoNo
Create management accountsYesNoNoNo
Clock in and outn/an/an/aYes
Request time offn/an/an/aYes

Owner

Full control of the company across every location. The only role that changes settings, banking and access.

Owner guide

Location Manager

Runs one site. Approves and corrects that site's hours, and keeps its people compliant.

Location manager guide

Payroll Manager

Runs payroll across every location — and never edits an hour.

Payroll manager guide

4. Your first week

New companies follow the same path regardless of package. Steps 4 and 5 apply only if the time clock or payroll is part of your plan.

Confirm your company details

Legal name, EIN, addresses and pay schedule. These flow into tax filings, so a typo here surfaces weeks later as a rejected filing rather than an error on screen.

Add your locations

One per physical site, using the address you actually operate from. Location addresses drive both manager scoping and, where enabled, the time clock's allowed area.

Set up your managers

Assign a location manager per site, and a payroll manager if someone other than you will run payroll. Both are created through the management wizard, not the employee wizard.

Add your people

Each employee gets a location and an onboarding checklist. The checklist collects the paperwork the hiring form doesn't: I-9, certifications, handbook sign-offs.

Let a period run before it counts

Have people clock in for a few days, approve the hours, and walk the payroll screen up to — not through — submitting. You will see exactly what the real run looks like before money moves.

Go live

Submit your first payroll before the cutoff shown on the payroll screen. Cutoffs come from the banking network, not from us.

5. Where the numbers come from

BrightBridge doesn't invent payroll figures. Three systems each own a piece of the truth, and knowing which owns what makes troubleshooting much faster.

  • The time clock owns hours. Punches are recorded there, then pulled into your timesheet for approval.
  • The payroll provider owns money and taxes. Gross, net, employer taxes, the exact bank debit and the pay period calendar. BrightBridge displays those figures; it never edits them.
  • BrightBridge owns people and compliance. Employee records, locations, onboarding, documents, approvals and who is allowed to do what.

Why your pay period looks fixed

The current pay period and its dates come from the payroll provider. If a period stays open past its end date, that just means it hasn't been processed yet — normal, and you can still submit against it.

6. When a screen says something isn't available

Unavailable is not one thing, so BrightBridge tells you which of four it is. The wording matters, because each one has a different answer.

What you seeWhat it meansWhat to do
Not part of your planThis feature isn’t in your packageTalk to us about upgrading
Not yet activatedIt’s in your package but hasn’t been switched onCheck the Upgrade item in your menu
Setup incompleteSwitched on, but something still needs finishingFollow the setup checklist shown
Temporarily unavailableA provider is unreachable right nowWait and refresh; nothing is lost

If payroll figures stop loading

A banner reading "last known period — actions disabled" means the payroll provider is temporarily unreachable and BrightBridge is showing cached information rather than a wrong number. Wait and refresh.

7. Getting help

Every page here is written for a specific reader. If you're unsure where to start, open the guide for your role. For anything the documentation doesn't answer, email support or call 201.388.3164.

Next

Compare the three packages

Or jump to

The owner's guide

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