# PayrollMaster Africa — full content > PayrollMaster Africa is payroll software that automates statutory payroll across Africa — calculating PAYE, social security and levies, filing with local authorities, and paying employees in their own currency. PayrollMaster Africa runs payroll in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zambia, Ghana and DR Congo. Each market has its own statutory deductions, collecting authorities and filing schedule; the software maintains those rules centrally and applies the current version on every payroll run. Key facts: - Entity: PayrollMaster Africa (Mediacent Interactive Ltd) - Markets: 8 — Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zambia, Ghana, DR Congo - Headline capability: 20,000+ employees in under a minute - Pricing model: per employee per month, statutory filing included - Contact: info@payrollmaster.africa --- ## Product capabilities ### Payroll Run a pay cycle end to end, at any size. #### Payroll engine A full pay run, calculated in one click. You draft a pay run, calculate the entire thing server-side in one click, then approve and complete it. Every transition records who did it and when. Pay periods run daily through quarterly or custom, mid-period joiners and leavers are prorated automatically, and each run keeps a drill-down history. What it does: - Full run lifecycle — draft, calculate, approve, complete, with cancel and revert - Every transition stamped with who did it and when - One-click server-side calculation of an entire run - Pay periods: daily, weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, monthly, quarterly or custom - Proration for staff who join or leave mid-period - Run totals, payment-status breakdown, and per-employee history you can drill into Q: How does PayrollMaster run payroll? A: You draft a pay run, calculate the entire thing server-side in one click, then approve and complete it. Every transition records who did it and when. Pay periods run daily through quarterly or custom, mid-period joiners and leavers are prorated automatically, and each run keeps a drill-down history. #### Pay components Any earning, deduction or contribution, your way. Yes. Build unlimited pay components — earnings, deductions, employer contributions and taxes — with five calculation methods (fixed, percentage, formula, hours-based, lookup), min/max guards and processing order. Target them by department, grade or position with effective dates, and give each a GL code that feeds the accounting journal. What it does: - Unlimited components: earnings, deductions, employer contributions, taxes - Five calculation methods — fixed, percentage, formula, hours-based, lookup - Calculation base (gross/basic/net/custom), min/max guards, taxable flags, processing order - Target everyone, or by department, grade or position — with effective dates - A GL account code per component that feeds the accounting journal - Grades with salary bands, pay scales with stepped progression, effective-dated pay revisions Q: Can PayrollMaster handle our salary structure? A: Yes. Build unlimited pay components — earnings, deductions, employer contributions and taxes — with five calculation methods (fixed, percentage, formula, hours-based, lookup), min/max guards and processing order. Target them by department, grade or position with effective dates, and give each a GL code that feeds the accounting journal. #### Payslips Payslips your way, delivered for you. PayrollMaster generates a PDF payslip for every employee — using a built-in classic or modern template, or one you design in the custom builder with a live A4 preview. Email them to one person or an entire run in bulk, with delivery reporting. Each slip shows statutory IDs, year-to-date figures and the full breakdown. What it does: - Built-in classic and modern templates, plus a custom payslip builder - HTML editor with a live A4 preview and a token palette for company, employee and totals - A PDF for every payslip, and a combined all-payslips PDF per run - Email payslips to one employee or an entire run in bulk, with delivery reporting - Statutory IDs, year-to-date earnings and the full component breakdown on every slip Q: How do employees get their payslips? A: PayrollMaster generates a PDF payslip for every employee — using a built-in classic or modern template, or one you design in the custom builder with a live A4 preview. Email them to one person or an entire run in bulk, with delivery reporting. Each slip shows statutory IDs, year-to-date figures and the full breakdown. #### Approvals One inbox for every sign-off. Payroll runs, leave requests and loans all flow into one approvals inbox, with a dedicated queue per type and a complete history log. Nothing is finalised without the right sign-off, and you can see exactly what is waiting and on whom — no email chasing. What it does: - A unified approvals inbox spanning payroll runs, leave requests and loans - Dedicated queues per approval type - A full approval history log — who approved what, and when Q: How do approvals work in PayrollMaster? A: Payroll runs, leave requests and loans all flow into one approvals inbox, with a dedicated queue per type and a complete history log. Nothing is finalised without the right sign-off, and you can see exactly what is waiting and on whom — no email chasing. ### Compliance Statutory rules, returns and reports that hold up to an audit. #### Statutory compliance Statutory rules that update themselves. The statutory rules for each country are configured centrally as versioned brackets, bands and rates. When a finance act changes a rate, we update it once and your next run uses it. Country-specific statutory IDs are validated, and returns — including Kenya’s P9A and P10 — export and email straight from the run. What it does: - A data-driven, versioned country engine — brackets, bands, tiers, percentages or fixed amounts - KRA-ready P9A (annual tax card) and P10 (employer monthly return), exportable and emailable - Employee tax settings — residency, exemptions, reliefs and configurable statutory opt-outs - Country-specific statutory ID fields with validation (KRA PIN, NSSF/SHIF numbers, and more) - Every statutory report downloadable as PDF, Excel or CSV Q: How does PayrollMaster stay compliant with the tax authority? A: The statutory rules for each country are configured centrally as versioned brackets, bands and rates. When a finance act changes a rate, we update it once and your next run uses it. Country-specific statutory IDs are validated, and returns — including Kenya’s P9A and P10 — export and email straight from the run. #### Reports & analytics The numbers your accountant asks for. PayrollMaster produces a payroll summary by component and department, period-over-period variance, a balanced double-entry payroll journal built from your GL codes, and a headcount report by status and department. Every one exports to PDF, Excel or CSV, and the journal posts straight to your accounting system. What it does: - Payroll summary by component and by department - Period-over-period variance - A balanced double-entry payroll journal using component GL codes - Headcount by status and department - Every report exportable to PDF, Excel and CSV Q: What reports does PayrollMaster produce? A: PayrollMaster produces a payroll summary by component and department, period-over-period variance, a balanced double-entry payroll journal built from your GL codes, and a headcount report by status and department. Every one exports to PDF, Excel or CSV, and the journal posts straight to your accounting system. ### People The whole employee record, leave and self-service. #### Employee management The whole employee record, in one place. Every employee has a rich profile — emergency contacts, multiple bank accounts with salary splits, statutory IDs and employment type. A guided four-step onboarding brings them in; probation, confirmation and contract-end are tracked; and offboarding records rehire eligibility. Departments, cost centers and positions map your whole structure. What it does: - A searchable directory with filters by status, department and employment type - Guided 4-step onboarding — personal, employment, statutory, banking - Rich profiles: emergency contacts, multiple bank accounts with salary splits, statutory IDs - Employment types — permanent, contract, casual, intern, consultant, task — with default pay cycles - Probation, confirmation and contract-end tracking; offboarding with rehire eligibility - Departments with hierarchy and cost centers, positions with headcount limits, an org chart Q: How does PayrollMaster manage employee records? A: Every employee has a rich profile — emergency contacts, multiple bank accounts with salary splits, statutory IDs and employment type. A guided four-step onboarding brings them in; probation, confirmation and contract-end are tracked; and offboarding records rehire eligibility. Departments, cost centers and positions map your whole structure. #### Leave & holidays Leave balances that count themselves. Yes. Configure leave types with annual entitlements, and employees request leave against a live balance that counts only working days and skips public holidays. Per-year balances track entitled, used, pending and available days, and a shared calendar overlays leave against holidays. What it does: - Configurable leave types with annual entitlements and calendar colours - Requests with live balance checks and working-day counting that excludes holidays - Per-employee, per-year balances — entitled, used, pending and available - A leave calendar overlaying approved and pending leave against public holidays - Holiday management — public, company and religious, including recurring annual holidays Q: Does PayrollMaster manage leave? A: Yes. Configure leave types with annual entitlements, and employees request leave against a live balance that counts only working days and skips public holidays. Per-year balances track entitled, used, pending and available days, and a shared calendar overlays leave against holidays. #### Employee self-service The questions stop reaching your inbox. Yes. Every employee gets a self-service login showing their latest payslip, full payslip history with PDF downloads, leave balance, active loans, net-pay trend and a compensation breakdown. Most payroll questions are "what was deducted and why" — this answers them without interrupting HR. What it does: - A personal portal — latest payslip, leave balance, active loans, net-pay trend - Payslip history with PDF downloads, including casual payslips - A my-compensation salary breakdown - Self-managed profile and password - Invite employees with role control Q: Can employees see their own payslips and leave? A: Yes. Every employee gets a self-service login showing their latest payslip, full payslip history with PDF downloads, leave balance, active loans, net-pay trend and a compensation breakdown. Most payroll questions are "what was deducted and why" — this answers them without interrupting HR. ### Flexible workforce Casual and gig payroll, loans and advances. #### Casual & gig payroll Casual and gig workers on the same platform. Yes, and it is a genuine strength. Timesheet casuals and fixed-fee gig workers run on the same platform, with attendance capture (manual, QR, biometric or geofence), automatic overtime by type, region-specific minimum-wage enforcement, sub-monthly PAYE, and automatic withholding-tax certificates for task workers. What it does: - Two models — timesheet-based casuals and fixed-fee task/gig workers - Attendance via manual entry, QR code, biometric or geofence, with automatic hours - Overtime computed by type — weekday, rest-day and holiday rates - Minimum-wage enforcement with region and job-category floors, and below-minimum flagging - Sub-monthly PAYE handling with prorated relief and below-threshold exemption - Task workers: staged payments, resident and non-resident withholding tax with automatic certificates Q: Does PayrollMaster handle casual and gig workers? A: Yes, and it is a genuine strength. Timesheet casuals and fixed-fee gig workers run on the same platform, with attendance capture (manual, QR, biometric or geofence), automatic overtime by type, region-specific minimum-wage enforcement, sub-monthly PAYE, and automatic withholding-tax certificates for task workers. #### Loans & advances Staff loans that reconcile themselves. Yes. Define loan types with limits and approval rules, issue a loan under interest-free, flat or reducing-balance interest, and PayrollMaster generates the amortization schedule, deducts each installment on the payroll run, and tracks the outstanding balance to zero. What it does: - A loan-types catalog with maximum amount, term and approval requirements - Three interest methods — interest-free, flat, or reducing balance - Auto-generated amortization schedules with a principal/interest split per installment - An approval workflow, repayment recording and outstanding-balance tracking - Automatic deduction on the payroll run Q: Can employees take loans and advances through PayrollMaster? A: Yes. Define loan types with limits and approval rules, issue a loan under interest-free, flat or reducing-balance interest, and PayrollMaster generates the amortization schedule, deducts each installment on the payroll run, and tracks the outstanding balance to zero. ### Platform Integrations, agencies, security and the things that scale. #### Accounting integrations Payroll lands in the system you already run. Yes. PayrollMaster pushes the payroll journal to your ledger and keeps employee records in step — Zoho Books and Zoho People connect today through an OAuth wizard with field mapping. SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Odoo and QuickBooks are on the roadmap, and any other ERP connects now through the documented REST API. What it does: - Zoho Books — push the payroll journal per run, with chart-of-accounts sync (live) - Zoho People — employee sync with configurable field mappings and per-record results (live) - An OAuth-based setup wizard with field mapping - SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Odoo and QuickBooks — on the roadmap - A documented REST API for any other ERP, today Q: Does PayrollMaster integrate with accounting systems? A: Yes. PayrollMaster pushes the payroll journal to your ledger and keeps employee records in step — Zoho Books and Zoho People connect today through an OAuth wizard with field mapping. SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Odoo and QuickBooks are on the roadmap, and any other ERP connects now through the documented REST API. #### Multi-company & agencies Run payroll for every client from one account. Yes. Agency accounts manage multiple client organisations from one login, with granular per-client permissions and one-click switching into a client’s books and back. An agency dashboard aggregates clients, employees, payroll runs and gross payroll, with a cross-client activity feed. What it does: - Agency accounts that manage multiple client organisations - Create managed clients or invite existing ones, with granular per-client permissions - One-click tenant switching — operate inside a client’s books and back - An agency dashboard aggregating clients, employees, runs and gross payroll - A cross-client activity feed Q: Can an accounting firm run payroll for multiple clients? A: Yes. Agency accounts manage multiple client organisations from one login, with granular per-client permissions and one-click switching into a client’s books and back. An agency dashboard aggregates clients, employees, payroll runs and gross payroll, with a cross-client activity feed. #### Security & access The most sensitive data you hold, treated that way. Access is role-based across seven roles and enforced on the server, not just hidden in the UI. Every change is logged with a before-and-after diff, the actor, their IP and user agent — searchable and exportable. Sessions use JWTs in httpOnly cookies, and data residency is set per organisation. What it does: - Seven roles — tenant admin, HR, payroll, finance, employee, viewer, auditor — enforced at the route level - A full audit trail: every change with before/after diff, actor, IP and user agent, searchable and exportable - Email invitations, account lock/unlock, forced password change, email verification by OTP - Secure JWT sessions in httpOnly cookies - Data residency — region and country — set per organisation Q: How does PayrollMaster keep payroll data secure? A: Access is role-based across seven roles and enforced on the server, not just hidden in the UI. Every change is logged with a before-and-after diff, the actor, their IP and user agent — searchable and exportable. Sessions use JWTs in httpOnly cookies, and data residency is set per organisation. #### Platform Localised, branded and built to grow into. PayrollMaster runs in English, Kiswahili and French, including localised error messages. Each organisation sets its own branding, timezone, date format, currency, fiscal-year start and payroll cutoff, and gets per-tenant document storage with a categorised library — all on flexible plans with seat add-ons and billing history. What it does: - Three languages — English, Kiswahili and French — including localised error messages - Organisation branding: logo, brand colour and default payslip template - Org settings: timezone, date format, currency, fiscal-year start and payroll cutoff day - Per-tenant document storage with quotas and a categorised document library - Flexible subscription plans with seat add-ons, trials, receipts and billing history Q: What languages and settings does PayrollMaster support? A: PayrollMaster runs in English, Kiswahili and French, including localised error messages. Each organisation sets its own branding, timezone, date format, currency, fiscal-year start and payroll cutoff, and gets per-tenant document storage with a categorised library — all on flexible plans with seat add-ons and billing history. --- ## Solutions (what PayrollMaster solves) ### Multi-country payroll For: For companies paying staff in more than one African market. Problem: Every country deducts a different set of things and reports to a different set of bodies. Run each in its own spreadsheet and you are maintaining several snapshots of several tax codes, all going stale at once. Outcome: One account, one process, and each market’s statutory rules kept current for you. PayrollMaster runs payroll across African markets from one account. Each country keeps its own statutory rules, its own returns and its own currency, and you review and approve one payroll process — not a separate spreadsheet and a separate bureau per country. Q: Can one account run payroll in several African countries? A: PayrollMaster runs payroll across African markets from one account. Each country keeps its own statutory rules, its own returns and its own currency, and you review and approve one payroll process — not a separate spreadsheet and a separate bureau per country. ### Casual & gig workforce For: For employers who run large casual, seasonal or gig teams. Problem: Casual and gig pay is where payroll breaks: hours captured on paper, minimum-wage floors missed, and the wrong tax treatment applied to sub-monthly earnings. Outcome: Casuals paid correctly and compliantly, on the same run as everyone else. PayrollMaster pays casual and gig workers on the same platform as salaried staff — with attendance capture, automatic overtime, minimum-wage enforcement, sub-monthly PAYE and withholding-tax certificates. The workforce most payroll tools ignore is a first-class citizen here. Q: How do you run payroll for casual and gig workers? A: PayrollMaster pays casual and gig workers on the same platform as salaried staff — with attendance capture, automatic overtime, minimum-wage enforcement, sub-monthly PAYE and withholding-tax certificates. The workforce most payroll tools ignore is a first-class citizen here. ### Payroll for accounting firms For: For accounting, HR and outsourcing firms that run payroll for clients. Problem: Running client payrolls across separate logins and separate tools means separate invoices to reconcile, no consolidated view, and a lot of context-switching. Outcome: Every client’s payroll in one place, switchable in a click, visible at a glance. PayrollMaster gives outsourcing firms one account to manage every client’s payroll — create or invite client organisations, set per-client permissions, switch into a client’s books in a click, and see the whole book of business on one dashboard. Q: Can an outsourcing firm manage multiple client payrolls? A: PayrollMaster gives outsourcing firms one account to manage every client’s payroll — create or invite client organisations, set per-client permissions, switch into a client’s books in a click, and see the whole book of business on one dashboard. ### Statutory compliance For: For payroll and finance teams accountable for getting filings right. Problem: Statutory rates change with every finance act, and a payroll spreadsheet has no way of learning that the law moved. It keeps producing confident, well-formatted, wrong payslips. Outcome: When the law changes, you do nothing — your next run is already right. PayrollMaster maintains each country’s statutory rules centrally and versioned, so every payroll run uses the current rates and produces the returns each authority expects — including Kenya’s P9A and P10 — without anyone patching a spreadsheet. Q: How do you keep payroll compliant when the law changes? A: PayrollMaster maintains each country’s statutory rules centrally and versioned, so every payroll run uses the current rates and produces the returns each authority expects — including Kenya’s P9A and P10 — without anyone patching a spreadsheet. ### Staff loans & advances For: For employers who lend to staff or run salary advances. Problem: Staff loans usually live in a side spreadsheet, with someone manually remembering to deduct each installment and reconcile the balance. Outcome: Loans issued, deducted and tracked to zero without a side spreadsheet. PayrollMaster turns staff loans into a self-reconciling part of payroll: define loan types and limits, issue under interest-free, flat or reducing-balance interest, and let repayments deduct on each run and track to zero automatically. Q: How do employee loans work through payroll? A: PayrollMaster turns staff loans into a self-reconciling part of payroll: define loan types and limits, issue under interest-free, flat or reducing-balance interest, and let repayments deduct on each run and track to zero automatically. ### Employee self-service For: For HR teams drowning in payslip and leave questions. Problem: On payday, HR spends the afternoon answering "what was deducted", "how much leave do I have left", and "can I get a copy of last month’s payslip". Outcome: The payroll questions stop reaching your inbox. PayrollMaster gives every employee a login for their payslips, leave balance, loans and net-pay trend, so the questions that used to land on HR every payday are answered before they are asked. Q: What can employees do for themselves? A: PayrollMaster gives every employee a login for their payslips, leave balance, loans and net-pay trend, so the questions that used to land on HR every payday are answered before they are asked. --- ## Partner programme (referrals) PayrollMaster Africa runs a referral partner programme. You introduce an organisation that needs payroll software, and you are rewarded when that organisation becomes a paying customer. Partners do not resell, implement or support the product — the contract and the support relationship stay with PayrollMaster Africa. Apply at https://partners.payrollmaster.africa. How it works: 1. Apply to the programme — Register on the partner portal with your name and email. We review applications and set you up with an account — there is no long form and no contract negotiation to get started. 2. Introduce an organisation — Submit a referral from your portal dashboard when you meet a business that runs payroll badly. You can see the status of every lead you have submitted, so you are never guessing where an introduction went. 3. Earn when they become a customer — A referral is rewarded once the organisation you introduced becomes a paying customer. The reward structure and payment terms are set out in the Partner Agreement you accept when you join. Who the programme is open to: - Accountants and bookkeepers: You already see which clients are running payroll on a spreadsheet, and you are the one who finds the error at year end. Referring them is a fix to a problem you are otherwise asked to clean up. - HR and payroll consultants: You advise on payroll process, statutory compliance and HR operations. A referral gives your client the system your advice assumes they have, and gives you a stake in it working. - ERP and implementation partners: You implement finance and business systems and keep meeting payroll as the gap in the stack. PayrollMaster posts payroll journals to the ledger and exposes a documented REST API for the rest. - IT firms and digital agencies: You are the trusted technology voice for businesses that do not have a CIO. When a client asks what to do about payroll, a referral is a straightforward answer that does not become your support burden. - Outsourcing and business services firms: You run finance, HR or administration for other companies. If you already process payroll for clients, PayrollMaster runs every client from one account, each on its own country rules. - Customers and professional networks: The strongest referrals come from people who already run their payroll on PayrollMaster. If you use it and would recommend it, the programme is open to you on the same terms as anyone else. Q: Who can become a PayrollMaster partner? A: The programme is open to individuals and organisations who can introduce businesses to PayrollMaster. That includes accountants, bookkeepers, HR and payroll consultants, ERP and software implementation partners, IT firms, digital agencies, outsourcing providers and existing customers. You do not need to be a reseller or hold a certification. Q: How do I refer a customer? A: Submit the referral from your partner portal dashboard rather than sending an email. Each lead you submit carries a visible status, so you can see what has happened to an introduction without having to chase anyone for an update. Q: When do I receive rewards? A: A referral becomes rewardable once the organisation you introduced becomes a paying customer, rather than when they sign up for a trial or take a demo. The reward structure and the payment terms are set out in the Partner Agreement you accept when you join the programme. Q: Is there a cost to join? A: Registration asks only for your name and email address, and no payment is requested to apply. There is no minimum volume to commit to and no tender process. The Partner Agreement presented at signup is the full statement of the terms between us. Q: Can companies become partners, or only individuals? A: Both. A firm can join as an organisation — which is the usual route for accounting practices, consultancies and IT companies referring across a client base — and individual professionals can join in their own name. The application is the same either way. Q: Can existing PayrollMaster customers join? A: Yes, and customer referrals tend to be the strongest ones, because they come from someone who has actually run payroll on the product. Being a customer does not change your terms as a partner; you join through the same application as everyone else. --- ## Custom payslip templates PayrollMaster Africa produces every payslip from a template, and there are three ways to get one: ### Use a built-in template — Ready on the first run Two layouts ship with the product — one classic, one modern. Pick one as your organisation’s default, and every payslip in every run follows it without anyone designing anything. - Classic and modern layouts, available from day one - Your logo and brand colour applied from your organisation settings - Set one template as the default for the whole organisation ### Design your own — The custom payslip builder If the built-in layouts are not your payslip, build the one that is. The custom builder is an HTML editor with a live A4 preview, so you are looking at the real page as you edit rather than guessing and printing. - An HTML editor with a live A4 preview at real page size - A token palette for company, employee and totals — drop a value in, it fills from the run - Save it as your default and every subsequent run uses it ### Have us build it — Send us the payslip you already use Some payslips are not a preference. They are fixed by a bank, an auditor, a union agreement, or by fifteen years of employees knowing exactly where to look. Send us that layout and our team will build it as a template on your account. - Send the payslip you issue today — a PDF, a spreadsheet, or a printed slip - We build it as a template on your account, using the same builder you can edit later - It stays yours: the template is editable in your account afterwards, not locked to us On every payslip, whichever template produced it: - The full breakdown: Every earning and every deduction as its own line, so an employee can follow a net figure back to the components that produced it. - Statutory IDs: The identifiers each authority expects on a slip, carried from the employee record rather than typed in per run. - Year-to-date figures: Cumulative earnings and deductions, which is what makes a payslip answerable when someone asks what they have paid so far this year. - A PDF, per employee and per run: One PDF for each payslip, plus a single combined PDF of every slip in the run for whoever needs the whole set. Q: Can I design my own payslip template? A: Yes. PayrollMaster includes a custom payslip builder: an HTML editor with a live A4 preview and a token palette for company, employee and totals. Design the slip, save it as your organisation’s default, and every run from then on produces it. You can keep editing it afterwards. Q: Will you build my payslip template for me? A: Yes. Send us the payslip you issue today — a PDF, a spreadsheet or a printed copy — and our team will build it as a template on your account. It is built in the same custom builder you have access to, so you can edit it yourself later rather than coming back to us for every change. Q: Do payslips carry my company branding? A: Yes. Your logo and brand colour come from your organisation settings and apply to the built-in templates automatically. In the custom builder you control the whole page, so the payslip can match the rest of your company’s documents rather than looking like software output. Q: How do employees get their payslips? A: Two ways, and most companies use both. Email them — one employee, or an entire run in bulk, with reporting on what was delivered. And employees can pull their own from their self-service login, which holds their payslip history as downloadable PDFs. --- ## Pricing (Pricing below is indicative and not yet final — request a quote for current rates.) ### Starter — KES 100 per employee / month For a small team running payroll in a single country. - One country - All statutory deductions, calculated and filed - KRA P9A and P10 forms with e-signature - Employee self-service payslips - Payslips generated and emailed in bulk - Email support ### Pro — KES 150 per employee / month For teams paying staff across more than one African market. - Everything in Starter - Payroll across every supported country, from one account - Mobile money, bank, cash and cheque payment methods - Overtime, leave and casual workers - Employee loans and repayments - Reports, analytics and the double-entry journal - Zoho integration live, more on the roadmap, plus the API - Bulk import and export - Priority support ### Enterprise — Custom pricing For large or complex payrolls, with finance in the loop. - Everything in Pro - Financial and expense management - Custom integrations and full API access - Advanced compliance tools - Custom approval workflows - Single sign-on - Dedicated account manager - White-label options - 24/7 phone support --- ## Implementation — Jumpstart programme PayrollMaster Africa offers Jumpstart, a structured implementation programme charged as a ONE-TIME fee, separate from the per-employee monthly software licence above. It covers configuration, employee data migration, statutory compliance setup, roles and security, administrator training, user acceptance testing, go-live support and hypercare. Priced by organisation size: - Launch (1–50 employees): KES 50,000 - Growth (51–200 employees): KES 100,000 - Business (201–500 employees): KES 200,000 - Professional (501–1,000 employees): KES 350,000 - Enterprise (1,001–5,000 employees): KES 550,000 - Enterprise+ (5,001+ employees): Custom quote Optional add-ons quoted separately: Legacy data migration, ERP integrations, Banking integrations, Third-party integrations, Attendance device integration, Advanced training, Extended hypercare, Custom reports and dashboards, Custom development. Q: What is the PayrollMaster Jumpstart programme? A: Jumpstart is a structured, fixed-scope implementation service. Our team configures the system, migrates your employee data, sets up statutory compliance, trains your administrators, runs user acceptance testing and supports your first live payroll — so you go live with confidence rather than figuring it out alone. Q: How much does implementation cost? A: Jumpstart is priced by organisation size, as a one-time fee. It starts at KES 50,000 for up to 50 employees and rises by band up to KES 550,000 for 1,001–5,000 employees. Organisations above 5,000 employees are quoted individually — book a call and we will scope it with you. Q: Is the Jumpstart fee separate from the software licence? A: Yes. Jumpstart is a one-time implementation fee. The software itself is licensed separately, per employee per month — see the pricing page for that. The two are billed independently, so the Jumpstart figure is the cost of getting set up, not of running payroll thereafter. Q: What is included in every package? A: Every Jumpstart package covers the same scope regardless of size: discovery, system and organisation configuration, employee data migration, payroll and statutory setup, roles and security, administrator training, user acceptance testing, go-live support and hypercare. The price changes with headcount; the scope does not. Q: Can I add integrations or extra services? A: Yes. Legacy data migration, ERP, banking and other third-party integrations, attendance devices, advanced training, extended hypercare, custom reports and custom development are all available as optional add-ons. They are quoted separately based on your requirements, so you only pay for what you need. Q: What if I have more than 5,000 employees? A: Large and complex payrolls are quoted individually rather than from a fixed band. If your implementation also involves ERP, HRIS, finance or banking integrations, our consultants prepare a tailored implementation plan and quotation. Book a discovery call and we will map it to your environment. --- ## Payroll by country ### Kenya (KES, Kenyan shilling) PayrollMaster Africa is payroll software for Kenyan employers. It calculates PAYE, NSSF, SHIF and the Affordable Housing Levy on every payslip, files the monthly returns with KRA, and pays staff in Kenyan shillings. Kenyan companies use it to run compliant payroll without hiring a dedicated payroll specialist. Tax authority: Kenya Revenue Authority. Filing: PAYE, NSSF, SHIF and the housing levy are remitted by the 9th of the month following payroll, through KRA’s iTax P10 return. Statutory deductions: - PAYE (Pay As You Earn), collected by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). PayrollMaster calculates PAYE on each employee’s taxable pay using KRA’s graduated bands and applies personal relief automatically. Rate: Graduated 10%–35% across five monthly bands, with personal relief of KES 2,400 per month. - NSSF (National Social Security Fund), collected by National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Employer and employee each contribute to NSSF, which funds employee retirement benefits. PayrollMaster deducts both halves and remits them together. Rate: 6% employee + 6% employer, on pensionable pay up to KES 108,000/month (Year 4 rates). - SHIF (Social Health Insurance Fund), collected by Social Health Authority (SHA). SHIF replaced NHIF as Kenya’s statutory health deduction. PayrollMaster deducts SHIF from gross pay and remits it to the Social Health Authority. Rate: 2.75% of gross pay, minimum KES 300/month, no upper cap. - Housing Levy (Affordable Housing Levy), collected by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). Employer and employee each pay the Affordable Housing Levy on gross pay. PayrollMaster remits it alongside the monthly PAYE return. Rate: 1.5% employee + 1.5% employer of gross pay, no cap. (Sources disagree: In force under the Affordable Housing Act 2024, which the High Court upheld. A consolidated constitutional challenge was heard by a five-judge Court of Appeal bench on 19 January 2026 and, as at 14 July 2026, no judgment has been published. The levy stands until one is. This is the only genuinely unresolved rate on the site.) - NITA levy (National Industrial Training Levy), collected by National Industrial Training Authority (NITA). Employers pay a training levy per employee to NITA. It is not deducted from employee pay. PayrollMaster tracks headcount and schedules the payment. Rate: KES 50 per employee per month, employer-paid. (Sources disagree: Remittance frequency is unclear: the levy is quoted per employee per month but reported by some sources as payable annually.) Kenya FAQ: Q: Is PayrollMaster KRA compliant? A: Yes. PayrollMaster calculates PAYE using KRA’s current graduated bands, applies personal relief, and produces the monthly PAYE return in the format KRA’s iTax system expects. Statutory deductions for NSSF, SHIF and the Affordable Housing Levy are calculated on the same payslip and remitted together. Q: Does PayrollMaster handle SHIF now that NHIF has been replaced? A: Yes. SHIF replaced NHIF as Kenya’s statutory health deduction in October 2024, and PayrollMaster deducts SHIF on every payslip and remits it to the Social Health Authority. If your payroll still produces an NHIF line, it is producing an incorrect payslip. Q: How much does payroll software cost in Kenya? A: PayrollMaster charges per employee per month, billed in Kenyan shillings, with no setup fee. A 25-person Kenyan company pays less than the cost of outsourcing payroll to a local accounting firm, and the price includes statutory filing rather than charging separately for it. Q: Can PayrollMaster pay employees into Kenyan bank accounts and M-Pesa? A: Yes. PayrollMaster calculates net pay in Kenyan shillings and records each employee’s payment method — bank, mobile money, cash or cheque, with multiple accounts and salary splits — then tracks the status of every payment on the run. Payslips are generated and emailed in bulk, and no run is final without an authorised approval. ### Nigeria (NGN, Nigerian naira) PayrollMaster Africa is payroll software for Nigerian employers. It calculates PAYE, pension, NSITF and health cover on every payslip, applies the National Housing Fund where an employee opts in, files PAYE with the correct State Internal Revenue Service, and pays staff in naira. Nigerian companies use it to stay compliant across states without tracking each state’s rules by hand. Tax authority: State Internal Revenue Services (and the Nigeria Revenue Service). Filing: PAYE is due by the 10th of the following month to the employee’s state revenue service. Pension goes to each employee’s Pension Fund Administrator within seven working days of payday; NHF and NSITF are monthly; the ITF levy is annual. Statutory deductions: - PAYE (Pay As You Earn), collected by State Internal Revenue Service (e.g. LIRS in Lagos). PayrollMaster calculates PAYE on each employee’s taxable pay and files it with the state revenue service where that employee is resident — not federally. Rate: Annual: nil on the first NGN 800,000; 15% on the next NGN 2.2m; 18% on the next NGN 9m; 21% on the next NGN 13m; 23% on the next NGN 25m; 25% above NGN 50m. Employees earning NGN 70,000/month or less are exempt. (Commonly misreported: The Nigeria Tax Act 2025 replaced the old PAYE ladder on 1 January 2026, and renamed the Federal Inland Revenue Service the Nigeria Revenue Service. The former graduated rates (7%, 11%, 15%, 19%, 21%, 24%) are no longer in force — but many sites still publish them, sometimes mapped onto the new thresholds, which produces a table that is wrong twice over.) - Pension (Contributory Pension Scheme), collected by National Pension Commission (PenCom), via the employee’s Pension Fund Administrator. Employer and employee both contribute to the employee’s Retirement Savings Account. PayrollMaster splits the contribution and routes it to each employee’s Pension Fund Administrator. Rate: 8% employee + 10% employer (18% combined minimum) of monthly emoluments — at least basic salary plus housing and transport allowance. (Commonly misreported: Set by section 4(1) of the Pension Reform Act 2014. PenCom’s own published FAQ still shows 7.5% — that is the superseded 2004 scheme, which the 2014 Act replaced when it raised the combined minimum from 15% to 18%. An employer may instead carry the whole contribution, in which case it must be at least 20%.) - NHF (National Housing Fund), collected by Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN). The National Housing Fund is compulsory for public-sector employees and opt-in for private-sector employees. PayrollMaster deducts it at source for the employees who participate and remits it to the Federal Mortgage Bank. Rate: 2.5% of monthly income. Compulsory for public-sector employees; voluntary (opt-in) for private-sector employees. (Commonly misreported: Section 45 of the Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2022 amended the NHF Act so that private-sector employees "may" contribute, where public-sector employees "shall". It is still widely described as compulsory for everyone. It is not — private-sector staff can opt out, and can reclaim what they already paid in.) - NSITF (Employee Compensation Scheme), collected by Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF). Employers fund the Employee Compensation Scheme, which covers workplace injury. PayrollMaster calculates the employer charge on total payroll. Rate: 1% of total monthly payroll, employer-paid. - NHIA (National Health Insurance Authority cover), collected by National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA). Employers with five or more staff must enrol employees in accredited health cover. PayrollMaster tracks enrolment and the payroll deduction where one applies. Rate: No single statutory percentage. NHIA’s formal-sector formula is 10% employer + 5% employee of basic salary; employers using an accredited private plan differ. - ITF (Industrial Training Fund levy), collected by Industrial Training Fund (ITF). Qualifying employers pay an annual training levy on total payroll. PayrollMaster accrues it monthly so the annual bill is never a surprise. Rate: 1% of total annual payroll, for employers with 5+ staff or NGN 50m+ turnover. Remitted annually. Nigeria FAQ: Q: Does PayrollMaster file PAYE with the right Nigerian state? A: Yes. Nigerian PAYE is administered by state revenue services, not federally, so PayrollMaster assigns each employee to their state of residence and produces a separate return for each — Lagos staff file with LIRS, Abuja staff with the FCT authority — from one payroll run. Q: Has Nigerian PAYE changed under the new tax act? A: Yes. The Nigeria Tax Act 2025 took effect on 1 January 2026 and replaced the previous PAYE bands, and the Federal Inland Revenue Service is now the Nigeria Revenue Service. PayrollMaster applies the current bands; payroll spreadsheets built on the old table are now producing incorrect deductions. Q: How much does payroll software cost in Nigeria? A: PayrollMaster is priced per employee per month and billed in naira. There is no setup fee and no separate charge for statutory filing, so a Nigerian company knows its payroll cost as a single per-head number rather than a base fee plus per-filing extras. Q: Can PayrollMaster pay Nigerian employees in naira? A: Yes. PayrollMaster calculates net pay in naira and records each employee’s payment method — bank, mobile money, cash or cheque, with multiple accounts and salary splits — then tracks the status of every payment on the run. Payslips are generated and emailed in bulk, and no run is final without an authorised approval. ### Uganda (UGX, Ugandan shilling) PayrollMaster Africa is payroll software for Ugandan employers. It calculates PAYE, NSSF contributions and Local Service Tax on every payslip, files monthly with the Uganda Revenue Authority, and pays staff in Ugandan shillings — on the PAYE bands actually in force, which the 2026 amendment has not yet changed. Tax authority: Uganda Revenue Authority. Filing: PAYE and NSSF are remitted by the 15th of the month following payroll. Local Service Tax is deducted in instalments across the first four months of the financial year. Statutory deductions: - PAYE (Pay As You Earn), collected by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA). PayrollMaster calculates PAYE on each employee’s taxable pay using URA’s graduated bands and produces the monthly return. Rate: Monthly: nil up to UGX 235,000; 10% on 235,001–335,000; 20% on 335,001–410,000; 30% on 410,001–10,000,000; plus a further 10% on income above UGX 10,000,000. (Sources disagree: A different table is circulating, and it is not law. The Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2026 would raise the tax-free threshold to UGX 335,000 a month (UGX 4,020,000 a year) and make 20% the first taxable band; Parliament passed it, URA’s own FY2026-27 amendments booklet prints it, and Ugandan press reported it as starting on 1 July 2026. But the President declined assent and returned the Bill to Parliament on 14 July 2026 (over an unrelated clause on betting winnings, not the PAYE bands). Until it is re-passed, assented and gazetted, the table above is the one in force. Expect employees, candidates and printed URA material to quote the 335,000 figure at you.) - NSSF (National Social Security Fund), collected by National Social Security Fund (NSSF Uganda). Employer and employee both contribute to NSSF. PayrollMaster deducts the employee share, adds the employer share, and remits the total. Rate: 5% employee + 10% employer of gross monthly pay (15% combined). - LST (Local Service Tax), collected by Local government authority. Local Service Tax is deducted from employees over part of the year and paid to the local authority. PayrollMaster schedules the deduction so it stops automatically. Rate: Banded by salary, roughly UGX 5,000–100,000 per year, deducted across the first four months of the financial year. (Sources disagree: Bands are set by each local government and the rate table sourced was dated 2017. Confirm current amounts for every city you employ in, not just Kampala.) Uganda FAQ: Q: Have Uganda’s PAYE bands changed? A: Not yet, despite wide reporting that they did on 1 July 2026. Parliament passed a Bill raising the monthly tax-free threshold from UGX 235,000 to UGX 335,000, but the President declined assent and returned it on 14 July 2026, so the older bands still apply. PayrollMaster maintains the bands centrally and applies whichever ones are law on the day you run payroll. Q: How does PayrollMaster handle Uganda’s Local Service Tax? A: Local Service Tax is not a normal monthly deduction — it is spread over the first months of the financial year and paid to the local authority. PayrollMaster schedules it across the correct months and stops it automatically, so employees are never over-deducted. Q: How much does payroll software cost in Uganda? A: PayrollMaster charges per employee per month, billed in Ugandan shillings, with no setup fee. Statutory filing is included in the price, so payroll cost stays a single predictable per-head figure as headcount grows. Q: Can PayrollMaster pay Ugandan employees in shillings? A: Yes. PayrollMaster calculates net pay in Ugandan shillings and records each employee’s payment method — bank, mobile money, cash or cheque, with multiple accounts and salary splits — then tracks the status of every payment on the run. Payslips are generated and emailed in bulk, and no run is final without an authorised approval. ### Tanzania (TZS, Tanzanian shilling) PayrollMaster Africa is payroll software for Tanzanian employers. It calculates PAYE, social security contributions, the Skills and Development Levy and Workers Compensation Fund charges on every payslip, files monthly with the Tanzania Revenue Authority, and pays staff in Tanzanian shillings. Tax authority: Tanzania Revenue Authority. Filing: PAYE and SDL are filed with the TRA within seven days of month-end. NSSF and WCF contributions are due within 30 days, and the WCF also requires an annual return each March. Statutory deductions: - PAYE (Pay As You Earn), collected by Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA). PayrollMaster calculates PAYE on each employee’s taxable pay using TRA’s graduated bands and produces the monthly return. Rate: Graduated 0%–30%; the first TZS 270,000/month is untaxed. - NSSF / PSSSF (Social security contribution), collected by NSSF (private sector) or PSSSF (public sector). Employer and employee both contribute to the employee’s social security fund. PayrollMaster routes each employee’s contribution to the correct fund. Rate: 20% of gross salary in total, commonly split 10% employee + 10% employer. - SDL (Skills and Development Levy), collected by Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA). Employers above the headcount threshold pay SDL on gross payroll. PayrollMaster tracks headcount and applies the levy when it becomes due. Rate: 3.5% of gross monthly payroll, for mainland employers with more than 10 employees. (Commonly misreported: Several live "2026 tax guide" sites still quote 4% or 4.5%. Those are stale — the rate was cut to 3.5% in July 2023. Zanzibar-registered employers use different figures and a different employee-count threshold from the mainland.) - WCF (Workers Compensation Fund), collected by Workers Compensation Fund (WCF). Employers contribute to the Workers Compensation Fund, which covers workplace injury. PayrollMaster calculates it on the gross wage bill. Rate: 0.5% of the gross monthly wage bill, employer-paid. Tanzania FAQ: Q: Does PayrollMaster route contributions to NSSF or PSSSF correctly? A: Yes. Tanzanian employees belong to either NSSF or PSSSF depending on the sector they work in. PayrollMaster records each employee’s fund and routes their contribution to the right one, so a mixed workforce does not need two payroll runs. Q: Is PayrollMaster compliant with the Tanzania Revenue Authority? A: Yes. PayrollMaster calculates PAYE using TRA’s current graduated bands, applies the Skills and Development Levy where the employer meets the headcount threshold, and produces the monthly return TRA expects, with Workers Compensation Fund charges calculated on the same run. Q: How much does payroll software cost in Tanzania? A: PayrollMaster charges per employee per month, billed in Tanzanian shillings, with no setup fee. Statutory filing is included in the price rather than charged per submission, which keeps payroll cost predictable as the team grows. Q: Can PayrollMaster pay Tanzanian employees in shillings? A: Yes. PayrollMaster calculates net pay in Tanzanian shillings and records each employee’s payment method — bank, mobile money, cash or cheque, with multiple accounts and salary splits — then tracks the status of every payment on the run. Payslips are generated and emailed in bulk, and no run is final without an authorised approval. ### Rwanda (RWF, Rwandan franc) PayrollMaster Africa is payroll software for Rwandan employers. It calculates PAYE, RSSB pension, maternity and occupational hazard contributions, and community health insurance on every payslip, files monthly with the Rwanda Revenue Authority, and pays staff in Rwandan francs. Tax authority: Rwanda Revenue Authority. Filing: PAYE and all RSSB contributions are declared and paid by the 15th of the month following payroll, on the same monthly return. Statutory deductions: - PAYE (Pay As You Earn), collected by Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA). PayrollMaster calculates PAYE on each employee’s taxable pay using RRA’s graduated bands and files the monthly declaration. Rate: 0% up to RWF 60,000/month, then 10%, 20% and 30%. - RSSB Pension (Compulsory pension scheme contribution), collected by Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB). Employer and employee both contribute to the RSSB pension scheme. The rate is rising on a phased schedule, and PayrollMaster applies the current step automatically. Rate: 6% employee + 6% employer (12% total) for 2025–2026, stepping up to 7% + 7% on 1 January 2027. (Commonly misreported: Content still showing the old 3% + 3% rate is stale. The phased schedule keeps rising annually through 2030, so any hardcoded figure here has a short shelf life — which is rather the point.) - Maternity (Maternity leave benefit contribution), collected by Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB). A separate employer and employee contribution funds the maternity leave benefit scheme, remitted with the pension contribution. Rate: 0.3% employee + 0.3% employer of gross salary. - Occupational Hazards (Occupational hazards insurance contribution), collected by Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB). Employers alone insure employees against workplace injury and occupational disease, through a contribution on gross salary. Rate: 2% of gross salary, employer-paid. - CBHI (Community Based Health Insurance), collected by Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB). PayrollMaster deducts the community health insurance contribution from net pay and remits it with the monthly return. Rate: 0.5% of net salary, employee-paid. Rwanda FAQ: Q: Is PayrollMaster compliant with the Rwanda Revenue Authority? A: Yes. PayrollMaster calculates PAYE using RRA’s current graduated bands and files the monthly declaration. RSSB pension, maternity, occupational hazard and community health insurance contributions are calculated on the same payslip and remitted on the same schedule. Q: Has Rwanda’s pension contribution changed? A: Yes, substantially. The RSSB pension contribution doubled in January 2025 and rises again in January 2027 under a phased schedule that runs to 2030. PayrollMaster applies the current step centrally, so employers are not re-deriving payroll formulas every January. Q: How much does payroll software cost in Rwanda? A: PayrollMaster charges per employee per month, billed in Rwandan francs, with no setup fee. Statutory filing is included, so a growing Rwandan company can forecast payroll cost as a single per-head number. Q: Can PayrollMaster pay Rwandan employees in francs? A: Yes. PayrollMaster calculates net pay in Rwandan francs and records each employee’s payment method — bank, mobile money, cash or cheque, with multiple accounts and salary splits — then tracks the status of every payment on the run. Payslips are generated and emailed in bulk, and no run is final without an authorised approval. ### Ghana (GHS, Ghanaian cedi) PayrollMaster Africa is payroll software for Ghanaian employers. It calculates PAYE and SSNIT contributions on every payslip, files monthly with the Ghana Revenue Authority, and pays staff in Ghanaian cedis. Ghanaian companies use it to run compliant payroll without tracking the SSNIT insurable-earnings ceiling that changes every January. Tax authority: Ghana Revenue Authority. Filing: PAYE is remitted to the GRA by the 15th of the month following payroll. SSNIT contributions are due by the last working day of the month in which they are deducted. Statutory deductions: - PAYE (Pay As You Earn), collected by Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). PayrollMaster calculates PAYE on each employee's chargeable income — gross less the SSNIT Tier 1 employee contribution — using GRA's annual graduated bands on a cumulative-monthly basis. Rate: Annual: nil on the first GHS 5,880; then 5%, 10%, 17.5%, 25%, 30% and 35% across successive bands up to GHS 605,000+. (Commonly misreported: The top band boundary is stated as GHS 605,000 in the internally-consistent cumulative widths, but some GRA tables print "exceeding GHS 600,000". The difference affects only the highest earners. Verify the current GRA PAYE table before relying on the top bracket specifically.) - SSNIT Tier 1 (Social Security and National Insurance Trust — Tier 1), collected by Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT). Employer and employee both contribute to the mandatory SSNIT basic scheme. The employee share reduces chargeable income before PAYE is calculated. PayrollMaster applies the insurable-earnings ceiling automatically. Rate: 5.5% employee + 8% employer of basic salary, capped at the SSNIT insurable-earnings ceiling (GHS 69,000/month from 1 Jan 2026). (Commonly misreported: The ceiling was GHS 61,000/month in 2025 and rose to GHS 69,000 in January 2026. SSNIT revises it annually — this is precisely the number you should not be maintaining by hand.) - SSNIT Tier 2 (Mandatory Occupational Pension Scheme — Tier 2), collected by Licensed private trustee (not SSNIT). The mandatory occupational pension contribution is paid entirely by the employer and remitted to the employee's licensed private trustee. It is not deducted from employee pay. Rate: 5% of basic salary, employer-paid, capped at the same SSNIT insurable-earnings ceiling as Tier 1. Ghana FAQ: Q: Is PayrollMaster compliant with the Ghana Revenue Authority? A: Yes. PayrollMaster calculates PAYE using GRA's current annual graduated bands on a cumulative-monthly basis, deducts the SSNIT Tier 1 employee contribution from chargeable income before applying the bands, and produces the monthly return the GRA expects. Q: How does PayrollMaster handle Ghana's three-tier pension system? A: PayrollMaster deducts the Tier 1 employee contribution (5.5% of basic, capped at the SSNIT ceiling) and remits it with the employer share to SSNIT. The Tier 2 employer contribution (5% of basic, same ceiling) is routed to the employee's licensed private trustee. Both ceilings update automatically when SSNIT revises them each January. Q: How much does payroll software cost in Ghana? A: PayrollMaster charges per employee per month, billed in Ghanaian cedis, with no setup fee. Statutory filing is included in the price rather than charged per submission, so payroll cost stays a predictable per-head figure as the team grows. Q: Can PayrollMaster pay Ghanaian employees in cedis? A: Yes. PayrollMaster calculates net pay in Ghanaian cedis and records each employee's payment method — bank, mobile money, cash or cheque, with multiple accounts and salary splits — then tracks the status of every payment on the run. Payslips are generated and emailed in bulk, and no run is final without an authorised approval. ### Zambia (ZMW, Zambian kwacha) PayrollMaster Africa is payroll software for Zambian employers. It calculates PAYE, NAPSA, NHIMA and the Skills Development Levy on every payslip, files the monthly returns with the Zambia Revenue Authority, and pays staff in kwacha. Zambian companies use it to run compliant payroll without tracking a ceiling that moves every January. Tax authority: Zambia Revenue Authority. Filing: PAYE, the Skills Development Levy, NAPSA and NHIMA are all remitted by the 10th of the month following payroll. PAYE and SDL are filed together on one ZRA return. Statutory deductions: - PAYE (Pay As You Earn), collected by Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA). PayrollMaster calculates PAYE on each employee’s pay using ZRA’s graduated bands and produces the monthly return. Rate: Monthly: nil up to K5,100; 20% on 5,101–7,100; 30% on 7,101–9,200; 37% above K9,200. (Commonly misreported: Several third-party salary calculators circulate a different, incorrect table (25% and 37.5% marginal rates). The bands above are corroborated by PwC and PKF Zambia, and they reconcile exactly against the published annual thresholds — 5,100 × 12 = 61,200, 7,100 × 12 = 85,200, 9,200 × 12 = 110,400.) - NAPSA (National Pension Scheme Authority contribution), collected by National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA). Employer and employee each contribute to NAPSA, which pays retirement, invalidity and survivor pensions. PayrollMaster applies the earnings ceiling automatically. Rate: 5% employee + 5% employer of gross earnings, capped at an insurable-earnings ceiling of K37,236/month — a maximum of K1,861.80 each. (Commonly misreported: NAPSA’s own website still shows a stale ceiling of K28,920.30. The current figure is K37,236 for 2026, and NAPSA revises it every January — it is set at four times the national average earnings, which checks out exactly for both 2025 and 2026. This is precisely the kind of number you should not be maintaining by hand.) - NHIMA (National Health Insurance Scheme contribution), collected by National Health Insurance Management Authority (NHIMA). Employer and employee each contribute to the national health insurance scheme, which pays for care at accredited hospitals and clinics. Rate: 1% employee + 1% employer of basic salary, with no ceiling. (Commonly misreported: The base is BASIC salary, not gross earnings — read directly from the Third Schedule of the gazetted National Health Insurance (General) Regulations 2019 (SI No. 63 of 2019). Several secondary sources say gross; they are wrong, and getting this wrong overstates the deduction for every employee with allowances.) - SDL (Skills Development Levy), collected by Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA). Employers fund national skills training through a levy on total payroll, filed on the same return as PAYE. It is not deducted from employee pay. Rate: 0.5% of gross emoluments, employer-paid. Employers with annual turnover below K800,000 are exempt. (Commonly misreported: From the 2026 charge year, SDL became deductible against corporate income tax. That changes its tax treatment, not the 0.5% rate. It is not charged on gratuities or redundancy payments.) - WCFCB (Workers’ Compensation Fund assessment), collected by Workers’ Compensation Fund Control Board (WCFCB). Employers pay an annual assessment, rated by their industry’s risk class, that funds compensation for employees injured or made ill by their work. It is an annual charge, not a monthly payroll deduction. Rate: not yet verified. (Sources disagree: The Workers’ Compensation Act fixes no single universal percentage — the Board sets rates per industry risk class by Gazette notice. WCFCB’s own site was unreachable throughout our research, and the figures circulating in secondary sources (anywhere from 0.5% to nearly 7%) are mutually inconsistent and untraceable. We will not print a number we cannot stand behind. Confirm your industry’s rate directly with the Board.) Zambia FAQ: Q: Is PayrollMaster compliant with the Zambia Revenue Authority? A: Yes. PayrollMaster calculates PAYE using ZRA’s current graduated bands and files the monthly return, with the Skills Development Levy filed on the same return. NAPSA and NHIMA contributions are calculated on the same payslip and remitted by the 10th of the following month. Q: Does PayrollMaster apply the NAPSA earnings ceiling correctly? A: Yes. NAPSA contributions are capped at an insurable-earnings ceiling that NAPSA revises every January, tied to national average earnings. PayrollMaster applies the current ceiling automatically, so high earners are not over-deducted — and you are not maintaining a number that changes annually. Q: How much does payroll software cost in Zambia? A: PayrollMaster charges per employee per month, billed in kwacha, with no setup fee. Statutory filing is included rather than charged per submission, so payroll cost stays a predictable per-head figure as the team grows. Q: Can PayrollMaster pay Zambian employees in kwacha? A: Yes. PayrollMaster calculates net pay in kwacha and records each employee’s payment method — bank, mobile money, cash or cheque, with multiple accounts and salary splits — then tracks the status of every payment on the run. Payslips are generated and emailed in bulk, and no run is final without an authorised approval. ### DR Congo (CDF, Congolese franc) PayrollMaster Africa is payroll software for Congolese employers. It calculates IPR income tax and CNSS contributions on every payslip, files monthly with the Direction Générale des Impôts, and pays staff in Congolese francs. Companies operating in DRC use it to manage a payroll stack that includes employer-only levies for occupational risk, family benefits and — for expatriate staff — the IERE exceptional tax. Tax authority: Direction Générale des Impôts. Filing: IPR and CNSS contributions are remitted by the 15th of the month following payroll. Statutory deductions: - IPR (Impôt Professionnel sur les Rémunérations), collected by Direction Générale des Impôts (DGI). PayrollMaster calculates IPR on each employee's taxable remuneration using the DGI's annual progressive bands, capped at 30% of taxable salary, and produces the monthly return. Rate: Annual: 3% on the first CDF 1,944,000; 15% on 1,944,001–21,600,000; 30% on 21,600,001–43,200,000; 40% above CDF 43,200,000. Final IPR may not exceed 30% of taxable salary. - CNSS Pension (Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale — Pension), collected by Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale (CNSS). Employer and employee each contribute to the CNSS pension scheme. The employee share reduces taxable income before IPR is calculated. PayrollMaster deducts both halves and remits them together. Rate: 5% employee + 5% employer of gross salary. - CNSS Occupational Risk (CNSS Occupational Risk contribution), collected by Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale (CNSS). Employers fund workplace injury cover through the CNSS occupational risk levy. It is not deducted from employee pay. Rate: 1.5% of gross salary, employer-paid. - CNSS Family Benefits (CNSS Family Benefits contribution), collected by Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale (CNSS). Employers fund family benefit payments through the CNSS. It is not deducted from employee pay. Rate: 6.5% of gross salary, employer-paid. - IERE (Impôt Exceptionnel sur les Rémunérations des Expatriés), collected by Direction Générale des Impôts (DGI). Employers pay an exceptional tax on expatriate remuneration on top of the normal IPR stack. It is not deducted from the expatriate's pay. Rate: 25% of the IPR base, employer-paid, for expatriate employees only. DR Congo FAQ: Q: Is PayrollMaster compliant with the DRC tax authority? A: Yes. PayrollMaster calculates IPR using the DGI's annual progressive bands, applies the 30% effective-rate cap, deducts CNSS pension contributions before computing taxable income, and produces the monthly return the DGI expects. Q: How does PayrollMaster handle the IERE expatriate tax in DRC? A: PayrollMaster flags each employee as resident or expatriate and applies the IERE only to expatriate payslips. The 25% charge is calculated on the IPR base and shown as an employer cost — it does not reduce the expatriate's net pay. Q: How much does payroll software cost in DRC? A: PayrollMaster charges per employee per month, billed in Congolese francs, with no setup fee. Statutory filing is included in the price rather than charged per submission. Q: Can PayrollMaster pay DRC employees in Congolese francs? A: Yes. PayrollMaster calculates net pay in Congolese francs and records each employee's payment method — bank transfer, mobile money, cash or cheque — then tracks the status of every payment on the run. Payslips are generated and emailed in bulk, and no run is final without an authorised approval. --- ## Salary & PAYE calculators Free per-country salary calculators estimate net take-home pay from a gross wage: https://payrollmaster.africa/salary-calculator/. Worked examples (estimated monthly, on current statutory rates): ### Kenya salary calculator — https://payrollmaster.africa/salary-calculator/kenya/ - Gross KES 30,000 → net KES 26,194 (87% take-home). - Gross KES 50,000 → net KES 39,029 (78% take-home). - Gross KES 100,000 → net KES 70,442 (70% take-home). - Gross KES 200,000 → net KES 137,131 (69% take-home). - Gross KES 500,000 → net KES 338,206 (68% take-home). ### Nigeria salary calculator — https://payrollmaster.africa/salary-calculator/nigeria/ - Gross NGN 100,000 → net NGN 81,825 (82% take-home). - Gross NGN 250,000 → net NGN 189,563 (76% take-home). - Gross NGN 500,000 → net NGN 363,950 (73% take-home). - Gross NGN 1,000,000 → net NGN 710,400 (71% take-home). - Gross NGN 2,000,000 → net NGN 1,382,600 (69% take-home). ### Uganda salary calculator — https://payrollmaster.africa/salary-calculator/uganda/ - Gross UGX 500,000 → net UGX 420,500 (84% take-home). - Gross UGX 1,000,000 → net UGX 743,833 (74% take-home). - Gross UGX 2,000,000 → net UGX 1,389,667 (69% take-home). - Gross UGX 5,000,000 → net UGX 3,339,667 (67% take-home). - Gross UGX 10,000,000 → net UGX 6,589,667 (66% take-home). ### Tanzania salary calculator — https://payrollmaster.africa/salary-calculator/tanzania/ - Gross TZS 500,000 → net TZS 435,600 (87% take-home). - Gross TZS 1,000,000 → net TZS 797,000 (80% take-home). - Gross TZS 2,000,000 → net TZS 1,432,000 (72% take-home). - Gross TZS 5,000,000 → net TZS 3,322,000 (66% take-home). - Gross TZS 10,000,000 → net TZS 6,472,000 (65% take-home). ### Rwanda salary calculator — https://payrollmaster.africa/salary-calculator/rwanda/ - Gross RWF 150,000 → net RWF 136,000 (91% take-home). - Gross RWF 300,000 → net RWF 246,000 (82% take-home). - Gross RWF 600,000 → net RWF 456,000 (76% take-home). - Gross RWF 1,000,000 → net RWF 736,000 (74% take-home). - Gross RWF 2,000,000 → net RWF 1,436,000 (72% take-home). ### Zambia salary calculator — https://payrollmaster.africa/salary-calculator/zambia/ - Gross ZMW 4,000 → net ZMW 3,760 (94% take-home). - Gross ZMW 8,000 → net ZMW 6,850 (86% take-home). - Gross ZMW 15,000 → net ZMW 10,924 (73% take-home). - Gross ZMW 30,000 → net ZMW 19,474 (65% take-home). - Gross ZMW 60,000 → net ZMW 37,712 (63% take-home). --- ## Frequently asked questions Q: What is PayrollMaster Africa? A: PayrollMaster Africa is payroll software for employers operating in Africa. It calculates every statutory deduction each country requires, produces the monthly returns those authorities expect, and pays employees in their own currency. It currently supports Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Zambia. Q: Which African countries does PayrollMaster support? A: PayrollMaster supports payroll in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Zambia. Each country has its own statutory deductions, its own filing requirements and its own currency, and each one is maintained separately rather than approximated from a shared template. Q: How long does it take to set up payroll? A: Most companies run their first payroll within a week. Setup is importing your employee list, confirming each employee’s country and pay details, and reconciling one historical payroll run so the year-to-date figures are right. The first run is the slow one; every run after it takes minutes. Q: What happens when a tax rate or statutory deduction changes? A: We update it centrally and your next payroll run uses the new figure. You do not patch a spreadsheet or install anything. This is the single biggest reason companies move off spreadsheets: a formula written two years ago has no way of knowing that a Finance Act moved the rate. Q: Does PayrollMaster file statutory returns for me? A: PayrollMaster produces the monthly statutory returns in the format each authority expects — the PAYE return, social security schedules and levy remittances for every country you operate in. Filing is included in the subscription rather than charged per submission. Q: Can one payroll run cover employees in several countries? A: Yes. You approve a single payroll run, and PayrollMaster applies each employee’s own country rules to their payslip. Filings are produced per country, because each authority requires its own return, but the approval, the funding and the cost reporting happen once. Q: Can employees see their own payslips and deductions? A: Yes. Every employee gets a self-service login showing their payslips, year-to-date tax, statutory deductions and leave balance. It works on a phone. Most payroll questions are "what was deducted and why", and this answers them without anyone in finance being interrupted. Q: How many employees can PayrollMaster handle? A: PayrollMaster runs payroll for more than 20,000 employees in under a minute, including every statutory calculation and payslip. The same product serves a five-person company and a twenty-thousand-person group, so you do not migrate to a different system when you grow. Q: Does PayrollMaster integrate with my accounting system or ERP? A: PayrollMaster posts payroll journals to Zoho today, against the right accounts and cost centres, and keeps employee records in step. SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Odoo and QuickBooks are on the roadmap, and any other ERP connects now through the documented REST API our Zoho connector is built on. Q: Does PayrollMaster have an API? A: Yes. A documented REST API covers employees, payroll runs, journals and statutory reports, with webhooks so your systems hear about a completed payroll run without polling. Every pre-built integration we ship is written against that same API. Q: How much does payroll software cost in Africa? A: PayrollMaster is priced per employee per month, with statutory filing included rather than billed per submission. That makes payroll cost a predictable function of headcount. Outsourcing to a local bureau is usually cheaper below about ten employees per country and more expensive above it. Q: Is there a free trial? A: Yes — 14 days, with no credit card required to start. That is enough to re-run a month you have already closed: the same employees, the same period, compared line by line against what you actually filed. You do not have to wait for a live month-end. We would rather you found a discrepancy in the trial than after you switched. Q: Are statutory filings included in the price? A: Yes. Statutory returns are part of the subscription, not a per-filing charge. This is the main structural difference between payroll software and a payroll bureau: a bureau prices on headcount and activity, so every change you make appears on an invoice. Q: How is payroll data kept secure? A: Payroll data is encrypted in transit and at rest, access is role-based, and every change to an employee record or a payroll run is logged with the person who made it. Salary data is the most sensitive data most companies hold, and it is treated that way. Q: Who can approve a payroll run? A: Only an authorised signatory you nominate. Payroll can be prepared by one person and must be approved by another before any money moves, and the approval is recorded. No payment leaves your account because a single account had a bad day. Q: Can I add a country later? A: Yes. Adding a market means adding employees with that country attached — the statutory rules are already maintained. You do not migrate to a different product or negotiate a new contract per country, which is the usual cost of expanding when you use a local bureau in each market. Q: Do you support mobile money payouts? A: Yes, in the markets where employees actually use it. In Kenya, mobile money is not a fallback for a bank account — for many employees it is the account. PayrollMaster disburses to mobile money and to local bank accounts from the same payroll run. Q: Can I import payroll history from my current system? A: Yes. Year-to-date figures matter — tax is cumulative, so starting mid-year with a blank history produces wrong PAYE. PayrollMaster imports historical payroll from a spreadsheet or an export from your current provider, and reconciles it before your first live run. --- ## Articles ### Payroll software vs outsourcing in Africa: costs compared Outsourcing payroll is cheaper for very small teams. Payroll software is cheaper past roughly ten to fifteen employees per country, and sooner if you operate in more than one. The reason is structural: software is priced on headcount, while a bureau is priced on headcount and activity. The honest answer is that outsourcing is cheaper for very small teams, software is cheaper past roughly ten to fifteen employees per country, and the crossover comes sooner than most finance leads expect — because the outsourcing quote is rarely the outsourcing cost. ### What does outsourcing payroll actually cost in Africa? A local accounting firm typically charges a monthly base fee plus a per-employee fee, and then bills separately for the things you assumed were included: statutory filings, mid-month changes, a new joiner, a leaver, a payslip reissue, a report your auditor asked for. The quote you compare against software is the base fee. The invoice you actually pay is the base fee plus the extras, and the extras scale with how much your company changes — which, if you are growing, is a lot. ### What does payroll software cost? Per employee, per month, with the statutory filing included rather than billed as an event. That is the structural difference, and it matters more than the headline number: software pricing is a function of headcount, and outsourcing pricing is a function of headcount and activity. If your team is stable and small, activity is low and outsourcing looks good. If you are hiring, correcting, promoting and expanding, activity is high — and every one of those events is a line on a bureau invoice and a free action in software. ### Where is the crossover? Roughly ten to fifteen employees in a single country, and much earlier if you operate in more than one. The multi-country case is where outsourcing gets expensive fast, because you are not buying one relationship — you are buying one per country. Three bureaus in three countries means three invoices, three sets of deadlines, three people to chase, and no consolidated view of what payroll actually cost the group. ### What does a bureau give you that software does not? Someone to phone, and someone to blame. That is worth real money and it is dishonest to pretend otherwise. A good local bureau knows things that are not written down — how a particular authority behaves in practice, which official to call, what a specific audit tends to look for. If you are entering a country for the first time and you have nobody on the ground, that knowledge is worth paying for. ### What does software give you that a bureau does not? Speed, and a system of record. With software, payroll is a thing you run, not a thing you request. There is no email thread and no two-day turnaround to add a joiner. The data is yours, in one place, queryable — so "what did we spend on payroll in Tanzania in Q2" is a question with an immediate answer instead of a request. And the compliance logic is maintained centrally. When a rate changes, it changes for everyone at once. A bureau updates its own systems too, of course — but you are paying for the update in every invoice, forever. ### So which should you choose? Use a bureau if you have a handful of people in one country, low turnover, and no in-house finance capacity at all. Use software once you have more than about ten employees in a market, or the moment you operate in more than one country — because that is the point at which the coordination cost of multiple bureaus exceeds the cost of running payroll yourself. And be honest about which costs you are comparing. A software subscription and a bureau's base fee are not the same number, and the difference between them is every change your company makes this year. ### How to run payroll for a remote team across African countries You cannot run one payroll filing across several African countries, because each country taxes its own residents through its own authority. You can run one payroll process that fans out into the correct filing per country. This guide covers the structures, what differs between markets, and what breaks as you scale. Running payroll for a team spread across several African countries is not one payroll problem. It is one payroll problem per country, and the mistake almost everyone makes is trying to solve it once. ### Can you run one payroll for a team across several African countries? Not as a single legal filing, no — and any tool that claims otherwise is misleading you. Each country taxes its own residents, through its own authority, on its own schedule. Kenya files with KRA; Nigerian PAYE goes to a state revenue service, not a federal one; Uganda deducts a Local Service Tax over only part of the year. What you *can* do is run one payroll process: one approval, one funding step, one set of numbers in your accounts — that fans out into the correct filing in each country. That distinction is the whole design problem. ### Where do people actually employ their remote team? There are three common structures, and they have very different payroll consequences. - A local entity in each country. You are a real employer there, with real statutory obligations. This is the structure PayrollMaster is built for. - An employer of record. A third party employs the person on your behalf. Simple, and expensive per head — it stops making sense somewhere around five to ten people in a market. - Contractors. No payroll, no statutory deductions, and real misclassification risk if the person works like an employee. Several African tax authorities have become noticeably less relaxed about this. Most companies start with contractors, move to an employer of record when that gets uncomfortable, and open local entities once a market has enough people in it to justify one. The painful moment is the third one, because that is when payroll becomes your problem. ### What actually differs between countries? Four things, and they are the four things a spreadsheet cannot keep straight: - The deductions themselves. Kenya has PAYE, NSSF, SHIF and a housing levy. Nigeria has PAYE, pension, NHF and NSITF. Tanzania routes social security to NSSF or PSSSF depending on the sector the employee works in. They do not map onto each other. - Who collects them. Nigeria's PAYE is administered by state revenue services, so an employee in Lagos and one in Abuja file with different bodies — from the same company, in the same month. - The filing rhythm. Different returns, different deadlines, different formats. - How people get paid. A bank transfer is the default in Nigeria. In Kenya, mobile money is not a fallback — for many employees it *is* the account. ### What breaks first when you scale? The spreadsheet does, and it breaks quietly. A payroll spreadsheet is a snapshot of the law on the day someone wrote the formulas. It has no way of knowing that a rate moved or a fund was replaced. It keeps producing confident, well-formatted, wrong payslips — and because the total still looks plausible, nobody checks. The second thing that breaks is the reconciliation. When each country is its own file, nobody can answer "what did we spend on payroll last month, across all markets, in one currency" without a day of work. ### How to run multi-country payroll without a bureau in every capital The workable shape looks like this: - One employee record per person, with the country that governs their pay attached to it. - Statutory rules maintained per country, centrally, by someone whose job it is. - One approval step for the whole run, so a human sees the total before money moves. - Payment in each employee's own currency, into the account they actually use. - Filings generated per country, in the format each authority expects. - One consolidated cost report, so finance sees the group number. That is exactly what PayrollMaster does. Each country keeps its own statutory rules and its own filings — because it has to — but you review and approve one payroll run, and the numbers reconcile at the end of it. ### Payroll compliance in Kenya: PAYE, NSSF and SHIF explained Kenyan employers must deduct PAYE for KRA, NSSF contributions, SHIF for the Social Health Authority, and the Affordable Housing Levy from every payslip. The rates change with each Finance Act, but the structure does not. This guide explains what each deduction is, who collects it, and what employers get wrong. Every Kenyan employer has to take four things off a payslip before an employee sees a shilling: PAYE, NSSF, SHIF and the Affordable Housing Levy. Most also owe a training levy to NITA. The amounts change; the list does not. Understanding the list is most of the job. ### What must a Kenyan employer deduct from every payslip? A compliant Kenyan payslip shows PAYE withheld for the Kenya Revenue Authority, an NSSF contribution from both employer and employee, a SHIF deduction remitted to the Social Health Authority, and the Affordable Housing Levy paid by both sides. Employers separately owe the NITA training levy. Miss one and the payslip is wrong, even if the net pay looks right. ### What is PAYE and who collects it? PAYE — Pay As You Earn — is income tax withheld by the employer and paid to the Kenya Revenue Authority on the employee's behalf. It is charged on graduated bands, so a higher-earning employee pays a higher marginal rate, and personal relief is applied to reduce the final amount. The important operational point is that PAYE is the employer's liability to remit, not the employee's. If you deduct it and do not pay it over, KRA pursues the company. ### What is NSSF and who pays it? NSSF is the National Social Security Fund, and it funds employee retirement benefits. Both the employer and the employee contribute, and the employer remits both halves together. NSSF is the deduction Kenyan employers most often get wrong, because the contribution structure has been stepping upward in phases rather than staying still. A payroll process that hardcodes last year's figure quietly under-deducts for months before anyone notices. ### What replaced NHIF, and what is SHIF? SHIF — the Social Health Insurance Fund — replaced NHIF as Kenya's statutory health deduction, and it is remitted to the Social Health Authority rather than to NHIF. This transition caught a lot of employers out. Payroll spreadsheets that still had an NHIF line kept deducting a fund that no longer existed, while the new SHIF obligation went unpaid. If your payroll is still producing an NHIF line, it is producing an incorrect payslip. ### What is the Affordable Housing Levy? The Affordable Housing Levy is charged on gross pay, and both the employer and the employee pay it. It is collected by KRA and remitted alongside the monthly PAYE return, which means it lands in the same filing rhythm as income tax rather than as a separate errand. ### What about the NITA training levy? The National Industrial Training Authority levy is paid by the employer per employee, and it is not deducted from the employee at all. It is small enough to be forgotten and regular enough to accumulate penalties when it is. ### Why do Kenyan payroll rates keep changing? Because they are set by legislation, and legislation moves. A Finance Act can change PAYE bands, a court can suspend a levy, and a new statute can replace an entire fund — as SHIF replaced NHIF. This is the single most useful thing to understand about Kenyan payroll compliance: the structure is stable and the numbers are not. Which deductions exist, and which body collects them, changes rarely. What each one costs can change in a single budget cycle. That is why we do not publish a rate table on this site and tell you it will still be right next year. Rates belong in software that is updated centrally, not in a blog post or a spreadsheet formula that someone copied in 2023. ### What do Kenyan employers get wrong most often? Three things, in order: - Running payroll on a spreadsheet whose formulas encode a rate that has since changed. - Deducting correctly but remitting late, which turns an accounting problem into a penalty. - Keeping a retired deduction — an NHIF line, say — long after the fund it paid into stopped existing. All three are the same underlying failure: the payroll process has no way of learning that the law moved. ### How PayrollMaster handles Kenyan payroll PayrollMaster calculates PAYE, NSSF, SHIF and the Affordable Housing Levy on every Kenyan payslip and tracks the NITA levy for the employer. When a rate changes, we update it centrally and your next payroll run uses the new figure — you do not patch anything. The monthly return comes out in the format KRA expects, employees see their own deductions in self-service, and staff are paid into Kenyan bank accounts or mobile money. You approve one payroll run; the filings follow from it. --- ## Note on statutory rates Rates carry a source and a date, and where authoritative sources disagree the disagreement is shown rather than resolved. Statutory rates change with every finance act — check any rate against the relevant authority before relying on it.