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Kenyan payroll

Payroll that keeps up when the deductions change.

Kenyan statutory deductions have changed more in the last two years than in the ten before. Every change lands on whoever runs payroll, usually a week before the run. Set up properly, the rates are settings, the returns come out of the system, and payroll is posted straight into the books.

3 - 6 weeks
including a parallel run
PAYE to Housing Levy
every statutory deduction
Posted
straight to the general ledger

What you get

What the payroll setup covers

The test of a payroll system is a month where a rate changes, someone joins halfway through, and someone leaves with leave days owing. We set it up for that month, not the easy one.

Statutory deductions calculated correctly

PAYE with reliefs, SHIF, NSSF tiers and the Affordable Housing Levy, each held as a dated rate so an old payslip still recalculates the way it was paid.

Returns and remittance files

The figures and files you need for KRA, SHA, NSSF and the Housing Levy each month, produced from the payroll you just ran rather than rebuilt in a spreadsheet.

Payslips and bank files

Payslips emailed to staff, and a bank payment file in the format your bank accepts, so salaries are not keyed in one by one.

Posted to the books

Salary costs, statutory liabilities and net pay posted to the right accounts and cost centres automatically, so payroll and the general ledger never disagree.

Leave, attendance and advances

Leave balances, attendance or shift data, salary advances and loan recoveries feeding the payroll run directly, instead of arriving as a list on the morning of payday.

Staff self-service

Employees see their own payslips, leave balances and P9 forms, which removes most of the questions that land on whoever runs payroll.

Is this right for you

Right for you if

  • Payroll runs on a spreadsheet, and every rate change means rebuilding it
  • Payroll and the accounts are kept in two places that never quite agree
  • You pay casuals or shift workers alongside salaried staff

Not the right buy if

  • You have five staff on fixed salaries - a payroll bureau will be cheaper

How it runs

What happens, step by step

An implementation is not finished when the screens work. It is finished when your opening balances, stock and customer ledgers agree with the books you are leaving, your invoices clear eTIMS, and your team can close a month without calling us.

01 Collect the current payroll Employees, salary structures, allowances, loans and the last few payslips, so we know exactly what the new system has to reproduce.
02 Parallel run At least one month run on ERPNext alongside your existing payroll, with every difference explained before anyone is paid from the new system.
03 Switch over The first live run done together, and statutory changes kept up to date for as long as you are on support.

What it costs

What it costs to get started

Starting prices. The final figure is fixed in writing before any work starts, and does not move once it is. ERPNext has no licence fee per user.

Kenyan payroll setup

one-off

From KES 120,000

From USD 1,200 billed internationally

Salary structures, statutory deductions, payslips, bank file and a parallel run for up to fifty staff. Larger payrolls, attendance devices and leave policies are quoted on the call.

Never the whole fee upfront - the last payment falls due on delivery

Before you commit

What people ask about payroll

Who updates the rates when the law changes?

On support, we do. Rates are dated settings, so a change is entered once with its effective date and every payroll from that date picks it up.

Can we run payroll on ERPNext without the rest of the ERP?

Yes. Frappe HR runs on the same platform and can be used on its own, with the accounting postings exported to whatever you use for your books today.

How do you make sure the first payroll is right?

By running it alongside your current payroll first. Every employee is compared line by line, and the switch only happens once the two agree or every difference is explained.

Can it handle casuals and staff paid by the day?

Yes. Daily and hourly workers are paid from attendance or timesheet data, with the statutory rules applied to them the same way as to salaried staff.

Every question we get asked is on one page, if you would rather read the lot.

Talk to us about payroll

The call is free, and ends with a straight answer on whether this fits, how long it would take, and what it would roughly cost.

  • Free 30-minute call
  • Fit, timeline and budget range
  • A straight answer if an ERP is wrong for you

Or reach us directly

Weekdays, and we answer the same day.