When authenticating with HMRC through BrightManager, HMRC’s login service rejects passwords that contain special characters. This is an HMRC-controlled limitation of the integration, not a BrightManager setting.
What this means
- Use only letters and numbers (A–Z, a–z, 0–9) in the Government Gateway password you use for HMRC submissions via BrightManager.
- Do not use spaces or symbols (for example: !, @, #, $, %, ^, &, *, (, ), -, _, +, =, :, ;, ", ', ?, /, , ., ,).
Typical symptoms
- Authentication or submission fails with messages such as “Invalid credentials,” “Authentication failed,” or similar when BrightManager tries to connect to HMRC.
How to fix
- Change your HMRC Government Gateway password (the account used for submissions):
- Sign in to HMRC (Government Gateway) directly.
- Go to your security or sign-in settings and change your password.
- Choose a strong alphanumeric-only password (avoid all special characters). Consider using a longer passphrase made of letters and numbers for security.
- Update your credentials in BrightManager:
- Open BrightManager > HMRC/Integrations settings for your firm or the specific client workflow.
- Enter the updated Government Gateway username and new alphanumeric-only password.
- Save and test the connection.
Notes
- BrightManager cannot override HMRC’s password acceptance rules for their authentication endpoint.
- If you cannot access your Government Gateway to change the password, contact HMRC Online Services support for assistance.
- If authentication still fails after changing to an alphanumeric-only password, verify the username and that two-step verification prompts (if enabled) are completed directly in HMRC where required, then try again.