Payroll Services for Businesses in Kenya
Payroll is the one job in a business that cannot wait. Whatever else is happening, staff expect the right amount on the right day, with deductions correct and a payslip to show for it.
For an employer with fifteen or fifty people, it is the same work every month, and it falls due whether or not anyone has the time for it.
Uwazi Consulting provides payroll services in Kenya for small and medium-sized businesses that would rather hand that cycle to someone else. We are based in Nairobi and work with employers countrywide. You send us the month's changes; we process the payroll and give you the figures to approve before anyone is paid.
What Our Payroll Services Include
Payroll outsourcing means different things to different providers, so here is what we handle each month.
Salary and wage calculations
Gross and net pay for every employee — monthly salaries, hourly or daily wages, overtime, leave pay, commissions, bonuses and allowances. Pay structures are set up once and applied every month after that.
Payslip preparation
An itemised payslip for each employee showing gross pay, every deduction by name and the net amount, sent directly to staff or to you to distribute.
Statutory deduction calculations
PAYE, SHIF, NSSF and the Affordable Housing Levy computed per employee, with the schedules prepared in the format each authority expects.
Payroll reconciliation
We reconcile the payroll to what left your bank account and to the deductions remitted, tracing and explaining differences rather than carrying them forward.
Payroll reporting
After each run: total gross, total deductions, total net pay and the employer's own contributions, split by department, branch or project where you need it.
Employee payroll records
Employee details, pay history, leave taken, loans being recovered, joining and leaving dates — there when someone needs a pay history or an auditor asks for support.
Payroll touches two other things we do: the monthly cost reaching your books correctly, through our accounting services, and PAYE as one part of the wider position our tax consultancy team looks at.
Payroll Statutory Deductions in Kenya
Four deductions sit on most Kenyan payrolls, each with its own authority and its own deadline.
PAYE is income tax deducted from employee pay. Employers must remit it, and file the monthly return on iTax, on or before the 9th day of the following month (KRA).
NSSF is deducted from the employee and matched by the employer, within the tiered earnings limits set under the NSSF Act. Those limits were revised again in February 2026 — the kind of change that quietly leaves a payroll under-deducting for months if nobody adjusts for it.
SHIF replaced NHIF and is calculated on gross pay rather than the old fixed bands, which changed what most employees pay.
The Affordable Housing Levy is 1.5% of gross monthly pay from the employee, matched by the employer, and remitted within nine working days after the end of the month (KRA).
Our part is the computation and the paperwork: the amount per employee, the schedules and returns in the right format, and the payment figure and deadline for each. Payments leave your own account, and the legal obligation to deduct and remit stays with you as the employer — penalties for late filing fall on you, not the payroll provider. When rates change, we apply them in the month they take effect and tell you the effect on your cost.
Benefits of Outsourcing Payroll
Most businesses outsource payroll not because it is difficult, but because it is relentless and the person doing it has other work.
- It stops eating the first week of the month. Gathering inputs, calculating and preparing schedules takes hours that belong to running the business.
- The method stays the same every month. Payroll done in a hurry by whoever is free tends to drift, and the drift shows up as staff queries and year-end differences.
- Rate changes become somebody's job. Statutory rates and limits change by amendment and gazette notice, often mid-year.
- You get figures you can use. Payroll cost by department or project, ready for your management accounts rather than reconstructed later.
How Our Payroll Processing Service Works
The first month takes setup. After that it settles into a short, predictable cycle.
Setting up. We take your register, pay rates, contract terms, KRA PINs, NSSF and SHA details, bank details and loan recoveries, or work from your existing system if you have one.
You send the month's changes. Only what has changed: joiners, leavers, overtime, absence, commissions, bonuses, salary adjustments. We agree a cut-off date that leaves room before payday.
We process and send a draft. You get the payroll summary before any money moves, so anything wrong is queried while it is easy to correct.
You approve, then payment goes out. Once you confirm, we finalise the run, release payslips and give you the payment instruction for salaries plus the amount and deadline for each deduction.
Reports and records. The payroll summary, the deduction schedules and the figures your accounts need — with the underlying records kept up to date month on month.
Mid-month changes. A resignation, a salary review, an unexpected advance — tell us when it happens and it goes into that month's run; anything after the cut-off is handled in the next one.
Payroll Confidentiality and Data Handling
Payroll is the most sensitive file in a business: salaries, bank details, KRA PINs and personal particulars in one place.
We treat it that way. Payroll files are seen only by the staff assigned to your payroll, and information goes to the people you nominate and nobody else — a manager who gets departmental totals does not get individual salaries unless you say so.
We send payslips straight to employees where you prefer that to internal distribution, and engagement terms set out what we hold, who may access it, and what happens to the records if the engagement ends.
Payroll Services FAQs
What does payroll outsourcing include?
Calculating pay and deductions, preparing payslips and producing the statutory schedules each month, plus reconciliation, monthly reporting and employee payroll records. It does not include moving your money: salary and statutory payments are made from your own account, on your authority.
Can a small business outsource payroll in Kenya?
Yes, and small businesses are most of this work. A five-person employer faces the same deductions, deadlines and payslip obligations as a two-hundred-person one, usually without anyone whose job it is.
What information do you need to process payroll?
To start: your employee list with pay rates, KRA PINs, NSSF and SHA details, bank details, contract terms and any loan recoveries. Each month after that, only what has changed.
Who is responsible for paying statutory deductions?
The employer. PAYE, NSSF, SHIF and the Housing Levy are your legal obligation, and late-filing penalties fall on you. We calculate the amounts, prepare the returns and schedules, and tell you what is due and when.
How is payroll pricing determined?
Mainly by employee numbers and complexity — several pay structures, branches, commissions or loan recoveries take more work than a uniform salary run. We quote a fixed monthly fee once we have seen your register, so the cost is known before you commit.
Talk to Us About Your Payroll
If payroll is taking the first week of every month, or sitting with one person who would rather it did not, it is worth a conversation.
Send us your employee numbers and a short description of how payroll runs now. We will tell you what we would take on, what we would need from you each month, and what it would cost — before you commit to anything.