All your people data. One place. No extra cost.
Most small businesses manage their people data in a combination of spreadsheets, email folders, shared drives, and memory. It works, until it doesn't.
When you need to check someone's holiday entitlement at 4pm on a Friday, find the latest version of your disciplinary policy, or know at a glance who is absent this week, the cracks start to show.
Breathe fixes that. It brings everything together in one simple, secure, cloud-based platform, and as a Diamond Breathe Partner, we set it up for you, show you how to use it, and make sure it stays current as your business changes.
enlightenHR is a Diamond Breathe Partner.
Breathe access is included as part of our Advice & Support packages, set up by us, configured for your business, and supported throughout your time as a client.
What is Breathe?
Breathe is an award-winning, cloud-based HR management platform designed for UK businesses with 150 - 200 employees. It is used by over 17,000 SMEs across the country and is consistently rated as one of the most intuitive HR software systems available for small and growing businesses.
It replaces the spreadsheets, email chains, and filing cabinets with a single, simple system that your managers and employees can access from anywhere, on desktop or mobile. For mid to enterprise HR software solutions, the group has ELMO Software available.
What Breathe includes
The platform is organised into three areas, covering everything you need to manage your people day to day.
People and Performance
HR Dashboards
Recruitment Tracking*
Onboarding and Workflows
Performance Management
Reporting and Analytics
E-Learning*
Time and Attendance
Staff Holiday Planner
Absence Management
Rotas*
Time Tracking*
Time Logs*
Admin and Compliance
Document Management and E-Signatures
Expense Management*
Xero Payroll Integration
HR Mobile App
Health and Safety* NEW
Each of these is available within the platform. The areas marked with a * are available as optional add-on modules if your business needs them.
What this means in practice
Having the right software is only useful if your team actually uses it. Here is what BreatheHR gives you in day-to-day terms.
Holiday and leave management
Employees request leave directly in the system. Managers approve or decline in a single click. No more email chains, no more misplaced forms, and a clear view of who is off and when across the whole team.
Absence and sickness tracking
Log sickness absences, track patterns, generate Bradford Factor reports, and keep a complete, accurate record of every absence. Supports your return-to-work process and gives you the data you need if absence becomes a formal issue.
Document management
Store contracts, policies, letters, and HR documents securely in the cloud. Employees can sign documents electronically, no printing, no scanning, no chasing. All documents are accessible to the right people, and only the right people.
Performance management
Track performance reviews, set objectives, record one-to-one notes, and keep a full audit trail of performance conversations. Particularly important under the new Employment Rights Act rules, where documentation from day one matters more than ever.
Employee self-service
Employees can update their own personal information, view their payslips, check their holiday balance, and access company documents. Less admin for you. More ownership for them.
Reporting and analytics
Run custom reports on headcount, absence rates, holiday usage, turnover, and more. Real-time dashboards give managers the people insight they need to make good decisions.
What being a Diamond Partner means for you
Being a Diamond Partner is not just a badge. In practice, it means:
• We set Breathe up for you as part of your new client onboarding, transferring your existing employee data, configuring the system to match your business, and making sure everything is in place before you go live
• We run a demonstration and training session for you and your managers, so the system gets used properly from day one
• We keep your Breathe configuration current, when your team grows or changes, we update the system to reflect your current position
• We notify you when changes need to be made, and discuss them at your quarterly review
• You are not trying to figure out a piece of software on your own, we are with you throughout
Other providers can point you towards Breathe. We implement it, configure it, use it alongside you, and make sure it actually does what it is supposed to do for your business.
Why BreatheHR and not something else?
There are plenty of HR software options out there. We recommend Breathe to our clients for specific reasons.
• It is designed for UK SMEs, not adapted from an enterprise system, not aimed at global corporations. Built from the ground up for businesses the same size as yours.
• It is genuinely easy to use. Business owners and managers without an HR background use it every day without needing a manual. That matters when you need someone to approve a holiday request at 8am on a Monday.
• It is cloud-based and GDPR compliant. Sensitive employee data is stored securely, accessible only to the right people, and managed in line with UK data protection requirements.
• It integrates with other tools, including Xero for payroll and a range of other business applications via the Breathe marketplace.
• It scales with you. Whether you have five employees or fifty, Breathe grows with your business without requiring a system change.
How Breathe fits into our service
Every new Advice & Support client receives:
- Breathe platform access, set up and configured by the enlightenHR team
- Transfer of existing employee data onto the platform as part of new client onboarding
- A demonstration and training session so your team can use the system from day one
- Ongoing configuration updates as your team grows or changes
- A dedicated SharePoint for all your HR documents, policies, and templates, connected to Breathe and accessible whenever you need it
If you are a new business and join on the Small Business Starter Pack, Breathe set-up is also included in your onboarding, so the foundations are in place before you need them.
Want to see Breathe in action?
If you would like to see what BreatheHR looks like for a business like yours, we can walk you through it on a free 30-minute call. No commitment, no sales pressure. Just a look at the platform and a chance to ask questions.
Not sure where to start? Let's Talk.
A free 30-minute call with a real HR professional. No sales pitch, just answers.
