About us
Are you interested in taking investment or selling?
We may consider taking outside investment in the future.
We've got no plans to sell the company.
Our mission is:
Updated: Tue, Mar 14, 2023."Create a world where everyone gets better pay."
Are you interested in talking to investors or selling?
We may consider talking to investors in the future.
We've got no plans to sell the company.
Our mission is:
Updated: Tue, Mar 14, 2023."Create a world where everyone gets better pay."
Can I pay you to add a feature?
If you'd like a feature added that others might also want, share your idea by contacting us.
We're focused on building features that benefit the entire community.
If you have a feature request, let us know on 1st Money's FREE support ... Mon-Fri, 9 am to 12 noon, UK time.
If it's a feature others might benefit from, we may add it as a standard feature in 1st Money. Many of our best features come from your ideas.
See all the ideas: 1st.money/ideas
Updated: Thu, Apr 20, 2023.Can I trust you with my data?
We won't spam you, and won't sell your private info. We're here to build software that helps you grow your business.
Our promise to you:
- We won't spam you.
- We won't sell your private info.
- We keep building great software that solves real world problems.
How big is your company?
The number of our employees is growing.
See how big our team is (and see the team's photos): 1st.money/about
Updated: Tue, Mar 14, 2023.How can I persuade you to add my favourite feature?
We're always interested in adding new ideas.
If you have a feature request or new idea, let us know at 1st Money's FREE support ... Mon-Fri, 9 am to 12 noon, UK time.
See all the ideas: 1st.money/ideas
Updated: Tue, Mar 14, 2023.How do I arrange to write about you for my blog?
We welcome inquiries from the press, reporters, journalists, and bloggers.
If you're a journalist who's interested in our business story, please get in touch.
Reach us on 1st Money's FREE support ... Mon-Fri, 9 am to 12 noon, UK time. Our customer happiness team gets you through to the best person.
Also see our press page: 1st.money/press
Updated: Tue, Mar 14, 2023.How do I contact you?
Reach us on any of our details.
Chat support
1st Money's FREE support ... Mon-Fri, 9 am to 12 noon, UK time.
Email support
You're welcome to email us anytime: [email protected]
Press & media
Have a media inquiry? We'd love to hear from you. Tell us, and we'll get you on a call with the right person. Learn more: 1st.money/press
Updated: Tue, Mar 14, 2023.How do I find a feature I've used before?
To find a feature:
- Click:
- Type into the search box:
How do I know you're going to be around long term?
We're here to stay because:
- We're 100% boot-strapped (self-funded).
- We've got no debt.
- We haven't taken any outside investment (yet).
- We've got savings in the bank.
- We've got on-going revenue from our existing products.
- We're a team of passionate individuals who really care about building something great.
We're here for the long-term, until we achieve our mission.
Our mission is:
Updated: Tue, Mar 14, 2023."Create a world where everyone gets better pay."
How do you keep your software reliable?
6:16
Ever wondered how we, at 1st Money, keep our software so reliable? In short, we do it by every day:
- Exactly matching all 4,300 of HMRC's model tax calculations,
- Publishing 189 product videos,
- Running over 6,000 click-navs,
- Checking over 21,000 asserts,
- And running over 1,000 delves.
This video's numbers are up-to-date as of the 8th of September, 2023. Keep watching, to see how this all works.
Tax scenarios
We test our tax calculations by inventing 15 different imaginary taxpayers, shown (at the top of the screen).
Each one has different settings. For example, how many hours the imaginary taxpayer works, how much is paid, whether the imaginary taxpayer's married, whether there's children, and much more. We use our 15 different imaginary taxpayers to exactly match all 4,300 of HMRC's model tax calculations.
Each tax calculation is matched to the penny, giving us recognition from HMRC that our tax software is 100% correct. And, of course, we sit down and re-verify them all with HMRC every year.
Product videos
So far, we've made 189 tutorial videos, explaining every part of the 1st Money product.
Everywhere in the 1st Money product, you'll find video buttons . When you click one, a video pops out from the side. In our help pages, almost every sentence can be clicked on to show a video explaining that step.
To make this all work perfectly, we've built our own video player, and video creation software. This way any customer that wants help can immediately find answers.
Questions and answers
We've written 1,000 questions and answers, explaining even more parts of the 1st Money product.
The questions and answers are searchable through an AI powered search box. When you type a question, the AI interprets your question's meaning, and then shows you the best matching answers.
It's fast, and it's accurate, and we're always adding more answers.
Elements
To make our software look beautiful on both laptops and smartphones, we've built our own library of 40 software widgets. Each widget has its own testing page, showing the different ways it can be used. This helps us spot if any of the elements has any errors.
Click tests
Every night, we use robots to do 10,000 clicks through the 1st Money product on 6,000 pathways. This pushes our test server's 8-core CPU to 100% for over 9 hours straight.
On each pathway, a tiny robot clicks a different path through the 1st Money product as fast as the CPU allows. It's like you're seeing on-screen right now. If the robot spots anything wrong, it takes some screenshots and writes some notes about the error. Using the error notes, our software engineers then make fixes.
By using click tests, bugs are usually spotted by us first, and not by our customers.
Engineering tools
At 1st Money, all our software engineers use specialised engineering tools for their day-to-day programming.
Every time a software engineer finishes making changes to the software, the software engineer tools analyze the code the software engineer's written. This warns the software engineer about errors like missing functions, unused variables, and much more.
TypeScript
Every software engineer, twice a day, runs a script that compiles all 200 of our TypeScript files, and then scans them with ESLint. We use TypeScript to make sure any JavaScript errors get caught by us first, and not by our customers.
Unit tests
Every software engineer, twice a day, runs thousands of asserts to test our software. This includes 7,000 tax asserts, and 14,000 system asserts.
Each dot you can see on the screen represents about twenty asserts. Altogether, the 21,000 asserts take about 1 minute to run. This makes sure that day-to-day software changes don't accidentally break our existing code.
Delves
Every software engineer, twice a day, runs 1,000 code checks, taking about 2 minutes for the entire set. The code checks scan the 6,000 files in our codebase, looking for things to improve in the code, including:
- Code that's too complicated,
- Things that need to be named more clearly,
- And much more.
This way, each day's changes are continuously scrubbed clean.
Confirm URLs
Every software engineer, twice a day, runs a spider that automatically opens and tests a sample of over 500 pages, spread across 1st Money's entire system. It takes about 1 minute each time, to test them all.
This helps make sure that obvious problems like dead links or page-load errors are caught by us first, and not by our customers.
Documentation quality
Every software engineer, twice a day, runs a script that scans all our documentation and help, searching for sentences that can be improved. We check for things like:
- Spelling,
- Abbreviations,
- Sentences that're too long,
- And much more.
We hope you love it!
And that's it! That's everything you need to know about how we keep our software reliable at 1st Money. We've loved building it, and hope you love it too!
How long have you been in business?
We first opened our doors in 2020.
We've now been in business for 3+ years.
Updated: Tue, Mar 14, 2023.I'd like to work at your company. How do I apply?
To apply for any of our openings, take a look at our jobs page.
To apply for a job:
- Go to: 1st.money/jobs
- Click one of our open vacancies (at the top).
I think I've found a bug. How do I report it?
Please report any problems or bugs to us.
Reach us on:
- 1st Money's FREE support ... Mon-Fri, 9 am to 12 noon, UK time.
- Or email us: hello@1st.money
My project's confidential. Can trust you?
We won't enter into discussions with any other party concerning your business.
Some steps we take to protect your data:
- We won't publish case studies that may allow the identification of your org, without your express permission.
- All our employees sign a non-disclosure agreement that comprehensively protects your confidential info.
- Our HR department personally re-trains all employees on their confidentiality obligations every six months.
- Our employees have signed agreements are digitally archived and available for inspection for security and auditing purposes.
What's the legalities to start using your products?
Using our products means you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Notice.
- Terms of Service: 1st.money/terms
- Privacy Notice: 1st.money/privacy
There's no other legal formalities.
Updated: Tue, Mar 14, 2023.What's the mission of your company?
Our mission is:
"Create a world where everyone gets better pay."
We believe this can be achieved by giving businesses, both small and large, access to high quality, FREE software. For us, this journey starts with FREE payroll, HR, and attendance.
Updated: Tue, Mar 14, 2023.What products do you provide?
We provide the following products:
- FREE 1st FREE Payroll & HR
- PRO 1st PRO Pro
- FREE 1st FREE Onboarding
- FREE 1st FREE Time Off Tracking
- FREE 1st FREE Time & Attendance
- FREE 1st FREE Expense Reporting
- FREE 1st FREE HR Docs & Automation
- FREE 1st FREE Offboarding
- 1st FREE+ Payroll & HR
- 1st FREE+ Pensions
- 1st VIP Pension Filing
- 1st VIP CIS Construction Industry Scheme
- 1st FREE+ Accountant Edition
- 1st FREE+ Integrations
- How it works
What technologies did you build with?
We've used a variety of software and services to build this. Where possible, we've used open source software.
We're built with:
| Category | Vendors |
|---|---|
| Hosting | DigitalOcean |
| Server OS | Debian |
| Desktop OS | Ubuntu Desktop, Mac OS X, Windows, Azure VM |
| Virtualization | Vagrant, VirtualBox, Parallels, Azure VM |
| Web server | Nginx |
| Data layer | MySQL, Redis |
| Code | HTML, SCSS, PHP, TypeScript, jQuery, JavaScript |
| Code management | Git, GitLab |
| Configuration management | SaltStack |
| Tools | PhpStorm, Gimp, Double Commander, Total Commander |
| Collaboration | Pop, Slack, Gmail, Trello, Google Drive |
| Customer service | Tawk.to, Help Scout, G Suite |
| Art | Gimp, SVG |
| Demo videos | OBS Studio, HandBrake, Amazon Polly, Azure TTS |
Where are you based?
Our main office is in Chorley, United Kingdom.
We operate with:
- Our team spread across the UK, New Zealand, and other countries.
Where can I find a copy of your terms and privacy docs?
See our Terms of Service (ToS) and Privacy Notice:
- Terms of Service: 1st.money/terms
- Privacy Notice: 1st.money/privacy
A print version and list of changes over time can also be found on those pages.
Updated: Tue, Mar 14, 2023.Where can I get photos and images for my article?
Download photos and product images for redistribution at our press page: 1st.money/press
You're welcome to redistribute the materials on our "Press" page. You don't have to ask.
Updated: Tue, Mar 14, 2023.Which countries are you launching your products for?
The UK, then the U.S., Australia, and Canada.
After launching in the UK, we expect to then launch in the U.S., Australia, and Canada sometime after.
Other countries may follow after that.
Updated: Thu, Apr 20, 2023.Who are your investors?
We currently have no investors.
- We're 100% boot-strapped (self-funded).
- We've got no debt.
- We haven't taken any outside investment (yet).
- We've got savings in the bank.
- We've got on-going revenue from our existing products.
- We're a team of passionate individuals who really care about building something great.
Who do I contact if there's a problem?
We're available: Mon-Fri, 9 am to 12 noon, UK time.
Reach us on:
- 1st Money's FREE support ... Mon-Fri, 9 am to 12 noon, UK time.
- Email: hello@1st.money