In 2026, Morphry Thyme works with around 100 clients across Norfolk and beyond, from businesses turning over £100,000 a year to those at £12mn, spanning agriculture, hospitality, construction, retail, and professional services. The team includes management accountants, accounts assistants, bookkeepers, an HR manager, and an executive assistant. In 2023, it was named a finalist for Bookkeeping Team of the Year at the Accounting Excellence awards.
Payroll wasn’t in the plan
When Morphry Thyme launched, payroll was not part of the offering. Then a client came along with 25 staff and asked if the firm could handle it. Ben said yes and kept going.
The practice already used BrightPay for payroll processing and Xero for bookkeeping. Connecting Modulr to that stack was the step that changed what payroll could mean as a service. Rather than calculating payslips and handing back a Bacs file for the client to deal with, Morphry Thyme could now run the whole process: calculating, approving, and paying employees directly, via Faster Payments, without ever needing access to a client’s bank account.
That last point matters more than it sounds. “With Modulr, we’re not logging into clients’ bank accounts or managing Bacs systems on their behalf,” Ben says. “It’s simpler and more secure: everything goes out through Modulr, and clients have confidence that no one needs to be in their banking.”
“When I started Morphry Thyme, payroll wasn’t even in the business plan. A client came along with 25 staff and asked if we could do it. We said yes and kept going. We processed 550 payslips last month.”
From payslips to payments
In a local market where most practices calculate payslips and don’t get involved in the payments, Morphry Thyme runs the complete process from start to finish, payments included. That distinction has become one of the clearest reasons clients choose them over a payroll bureau or a larger firm.
Payroll income has grown by around 50 per cent in the year to June 2026. It remains the smallest of the firm’s three revenue streams, yet it is the one growing fastest.
Ben is aware that what he has built is a competitive advantage. Other practice owners have started asking what Morphry Thyme uses for payments. “Part of me doesn’t want to tell them,” he says, “because I know what we’re doing works so well.”
What matters the most for Morphry Thyme’s clients
For payroll clients, the impact is simplicity. The director sets up one transfer to the Modulr account on Thursday. Morphry Thyme goes through the approvals, submits the batch, and everyone is paid on Friday. Processing takes around 15 minutes, even for payrolls of 105 employees.
For supplier payment clients, the difference is more striking. One client, a printing business trading as Totally Branded, grew from £8mn to £12mn turnover in a single year and was previously managing 300 to 400 supplier payments a month by hand. The director spent half a day every week working out who to pay, entering each payment individually into online banking, and sending remittances. Since Morphry Thyme integrated Modulr with their Xero, the whole payment process takes around 15 minutes. Two-way reconciliation happens automatically: payments are made and marked off without anyone having to touch it.
“The director doesn’t have to touch the bank at all,” Ben says. “We tick through the approvals, hit submit, and the notification comes back to say it’s done.”
“I've had other accountants ask what we use for payments. Part of me doesn’t want to tell them about Modulr, because what we’re doing works so well.”
An accountancy practice built for growth
Morphry Thyme processed 550 payslips last month, up from 25 when the firm took on its first payroll client five years ago. Several new clients and prospects are in the process of moving to Modulr for supplier payments as the firm takes on more outsourced finance functions.
For Ben, the efficiency of the payments process is what makes the commercial model work. “Because we’ve made it so efficient, we’re able to keep our fees competitive and still run payroll profitably,” he says. “And the payments offering is what brings some of those clients in the door.”
Morphry Thyme came to Modulr through BrightPay, the payroll platform at the centre of their tech stack. That integration has proved foundational: payroll runs through BrightPay, payments go out through Modulr via Faster Payments, and reconciliation happens automatically in Xero. The simplicity of that stack, Ben says, is what allows a team of their size to serve 100 clients across a wide range of sectors without the process becoming the bottleneck.
Morphry Thyme set out to give clients more free time. BrightPay and Xero were already in place. Adding Modulr was what gave them the payments piece: the part of the process most practices hand back to the client. What they perhaps didn’t anticipate was the effect it would have on the practice itself. Clients who get half a day of time back each week tend not to go elsewhere, and they tell others. The founding principle turned out to be the engine of growth too: give clients their time back, and the practice grows alongside them.
Find out how Modulr powers payroll and supplier payments for accountancy practices.
