HR and payroll setup
HR & Payroll Setup holds the company-wide rules that every payroll and attendance day follows. Fiscal starts with sensible defaults for Saudi Arabia and the UAE; check them before the first payroll.
Open HR & Payroll›HR & Payroll Setup. It has six tabs.
Payroll settings
- Accounts: Salaries Payable (what the company owes the employees until they are paid), Social Insurance Payable, and Social Insurance Expense (employer's share). Each pay component posts to its own account, set on the next tab.
- Working time: when the day starts and ends, the break in minutes, the weekend days, and how many minutes late an employee may arrive before the day counts as late.
- Daily rate: Monthly salary ÷ 30, or Monthly salary ÷ days in the month. It is used for part months and unpaid days.
- Overtime and absence: the Overtime Rate and the Rest Day / Holiday Rate, as multiples of the basic hourly rate. Saudi labour law pays the hourly wage plus 50% of the basic hourly wage; the UAE pays 125%, and 150% at night or on rest days. Check the rates that apply to your company.
- Take overtime hours from attendance and Take unpaid absent days from attendance: when they are on, the payroll fills these in from the attendance sheet for every employee with an attendance code. When they are off, you enter them in the payroll yourself.
- Establishment numbers: the MOHRE Establishment ID and Employer Bank Routing Code for the UAE WPS file, and the GOSI Establishment No. in Saudi Arabia.
Pay components
A pay component is one line of the salary: an earning (basic salary, housing, transport, overtime, bonus) or a deduction (absence, advance, loan instalment).
- Worked Out As: a fixed monthly amount set per employee, a % of Basic (for example housing at 25% of basic), or entered in each payroll (bonuses, advances, loan instalments).
- Expense Account for earnings, or the account a deduction is Credited To.
- What it counts for: Counts for social insurance (the insurable wage), end of service and leave salary, whether it is Reduced for unpaid days and part months, and whether it is variable pay in the UAE WPS file.
Standard components (basic salary, housing, overtime, absence) are marked Standard: payroll relies on them, so only their name, account and wage settings can change.
Social insurance
The rates per scheme and part, for example GOSI annuities and occupational hazards in Saudi Arabia, or GPSSA pension in the UAE. Each rate has a start date, the employee's and the employer's percentage, an optional wage cap, and Only Below Wage for the UAE government's share on lower salaries. The payroll uses the rates in force at the end of the month, on the insurable wage up to the cap.
Fiscal's default rates come from published payroll guides. Check them against GOSI (gosi.gov.sa) or GPSSA (gpssa.gov.ae) before the first payroll, and add a new line from its start date when a rate changes.
Departments, job titles and public holidays
Add the departments and job titles used in the employee files, each with its Arabic name. Under Public Holidays, add each day of a holiday on its own line, for example three lines for a three-day Eid. Attendance treats these days like the weekend: no one is absent, and any work counts as rest-day overtime.