About Us
Surf Accounts is a wholly owned Irish company that was founded in 2011. Surf Accounts is a member of the Relate Software Group, the largest supplier of software to the accountancy profession in Ireland. Relate was formed in 2002 and has offices in Dublin, the UK and India.
Surf Accounts Production is a cloud based accounting software perfectly suited to small and medium sized businesses. Our easy to use online accounts packages help accountants prepare and produce financial statements wherever and whenever they choose.
In 2021, Relate Software joined forces with Thesaurus Software, and we are now jointly operating as Bright. Click here to find out more about Bright.
Accountants
Using the unique integration between Surf Accounts and Surf Accounts Production the team have the experience necessary to build a system where the business owner can work with their accountant in a seamless and efficient way. With a number of Chartered Accountants on the management team, Surf Accounts has built a network of Partners in the accountancy profession. Surf Accounts works closely with Bookkeepers and financial advisers to help business owners take charge of their accounting information and at the same time enable the smooth production of management and statutory financial statements.
Access and update your accounts anytime, anywhere and on any device. Online collaboration with your client becomes a seamless and real-time event. Business owners and their accountants can work in the system at the same time, making reconciliations, returns and management accounts much easier and quicker to complete.
Surf Accounts – Multi Award Winning Software
- Accenture Digital Media Awards Finalist: Silver on Best Financial Services
- Bank of Ireland Startup of the Year 2016
- Bank of Ireland Best Online/Digital Business 2016
- Realex E-Comm Awards Best Micro 2016
- Selected as part of the Alpha programme in both 2014 & 2015, which selects the best Irish Start-ups for the Collision Conference in the United States, the Web Summits sister
Stephen Murdoch
Chief Executive Officer
Stephen has deep tech domain experience spanning hardware, software and services. His professional ‘signature’ is the achievement of strategic, transformational change in businesses at scale. He has held senior executive positions at IBM and Dell and was most recently CEO of Micro Focus, a global software business.
Paul Byrne
Founder and Board Director
Paul is one of the founder members of Bright, starting Thesaurus Software in the early 90s. A chartered accountant, with many years in practice, he brings vast experience of the payroll software market to Bright’s Board.
Bob McKay
Chief Financial Officer
Bob has over 20 years’ experience in various senior Finance roles in the Tech industry across both Corporate and Private Equity sectors. Bob is focused on partnering with the Business to maximise the Groups significant growth potential while leading the Finance Team and transforming Bright’s Financial systems, processes, reporting and Business Partnering capabilities.
Laura Murphy
Chief People Officer
Laura’s industry experience brings deep, commercial understanding of our employees’ and customers’ needs. Laura has overseen the integration of personnel across multiple acquisitions, ensuring company values and employee engagement are retained and maximised.
Ross Webster
Chief Software Architect
Ross is a multi-disciplined software creator and manager with over 15 years experience in building, designing and delivering desktop, web and mobile applications. Ross is the visionary and lead developer behind BrightPay, our multi-award-winning payroll product.
Richard Grey
Chief Information Security Officer
Richard has the specialist cyber security knowledge to keep corporate and customer data safe. His work helps to ensure our compliance with industry-standard best practice, including ISO 27001 and GDPR, for our on-premise and cloud products.
Ben Bishop
Chief Product & Technology Officer
Since 2010 Ben has worked in Accountancy, Finance, Payroll and ERP software from some of the UKs largest suppliers and has an in-depth knowledge of the industry, its key players and the software landscape. Ben is responsible for Product Strategy and Engineering execution across Brights full portfolio of products.
Richie McMahon
Head of Automation & Innovation
A founder of Relate Software and Surf Accounts, Richie heads Surf Accounts, Surf Accounts Production and Surf Payroll products division. He has over 35 years’ experience in software development for the Accountancy and SME markets.
Dipak Guharay
Head of Indian Operations
Dipak has 35 years’ project management, systems analysis and software development experience across industries as varied as accounting, pharma, and heavy industry. At Bright, he focuses on continued product innovation and development.
Neeraja Sankar
Director of Strategic Projects
Neeraja is focused on driving key strategic projects that improve efficiency and drive company value. Neeraja has previous experience managing mergers and acquisitions and value creation projects across various industries.
Alexander Schwendtner
Chief Revenue Officer
Heading up the Sales and Marketing functions at Bright, Alex brings an information-driven mindset to upgrading the customer experience, so our users choose to keep renewing from year one through to year ten and beyond.