Solutions
MENA payroll for UK and Irish businesses.
Statutory payroll across the GCC, Egypt, and the Maghreb — calculated correctly, every cycle, every country. UK-registered specialist, billed in pounds sterling on request. We deliver two ways: as a bureau where you keep submission control, or as a managed platform where we run the cycle.
Global Kinect runs MENA payroll for UK and Irish businesses across eleven countries. Two delivery models — Payroll Bureau (calculation-only, you submit) and Managed Payroll (we run the full cycle on the platform). One statutory engine behind both. UK-registered specialist (Companies House 16852789), with offices in London and Dubai. Production payroll data hosted on Oracle Cloud in Jeddah for Saudi clients.
Delivery models
Bureau or managed. Same engine. Different ownership.
Choose the model that matches how much of the cycle you want to keep in-house. Both run on the same statutory engine and the same platform data.
The regimes
MENA statutory regimes, defined
The acronyms named once, properly. The engine handles each one natively — these are the regimes that determine whether MENA payroll is correct.
All payroll runs flowing through Saudi banks are routed through Mudad before disbursement. The engine handles the upload as part of the cycle.
The GCC-wide bank channel for payroll disbursement. UAE first, then Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Each country's WPS file format differs; the engine generates the right format per country, per cycle.
Two-tier contribution rate per employee depending on tenure. Pre/post-2026 transition handled at the per-employee level rather than as a bulk reclassification.
Covers Emirati nationals across federal and DIFC employers. The engine routes federal-vs-DIFC per employee per cycle.
Applies to UAE-resident employees with specific exemption rules. Monthly contribution per category, separate registration channel from GPSSA.
Morocco's progressive personal income tax, applied per bracket. Sits alongside CNSS (Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale) for social insurance and AMO for mandatory health cover.
Egypt runs two parallel statutory tracks — social insurance and personal income tax — plus the labour code's leave and entitlement provisions. Each Levant and North African market carries its own regime, all named on the relevant country page.
One engine
What's the same across both
Whether you run with us as a bureau or hand over the cycle, the engine, the calculations, and the outputs are uniform.
- Statutory schedules — every country, every cycle
- WPS / SIF / Mudad-compatible bank files
- EOSB liability movement on every run
- Gross-to-net register with full audit trail
- Variance report flagged before sign-off, not after
- Payslip data, raw or PDF
The shape of the service
Quick. Digital. Efficient.
Built for how MENA statutory submissions actually run in 2026.
Quick.
Fixed monthly cut-offs. Predictable turnaround on a clean diff. No back-and-forth chasing.
Digital.
Mudad-ready. WPS-formatted. ILOE-aware. GPSSA on the federal vs DIFC split. Built for how authorities actually run in 2026.
Efficient.
One engine handles every statutory rule in every country. Your team stops babysitting calculations and reconciling spreadsheets.
Compare
Bureau, Managed Payroll, or EOR
Three delivery models. Different ownership splits. Same engine and audit trail behind all three.
| Dimension | Payroll Bureau | Managed Payroll | EOR |
|---|---|---|---|
| For whom | Operators with their own entities who want calculations and engine, not a system change | Operators who want their full payroll cycle run on a connected platform | Operators hiring people in countries where they don't have an entity |
| Best for scale | Any size — works at five employees and at five thousand-plus in a single country | Best for operators who want one connected workflow across payroll, HRIS, and EOR — not three separate handoffs | Per-employee model — typically one to fifty employees per country before entity setup is the better economics |
| Who is the legal employer? | You (your existing entity) | You (your existing entity) | Global Kinect's local entity |
| Who submits to the authorities? | You — to GOSI, WPS, Mudad, GPSSA, SSC, and the rest | We can, where the operator framework permits — otherwise you | We do — every authority, every cycle |
| Who sponsors the visa? | Not applicable — your entity already does | You | We do |
| Who manages employee queries? | Your team | Configurable — your team or ours | Our team |
| Where data lives | Oracle Cloud, in-Kingdom for Saudi clients | Oracle Cloud, in-Kingdom for Saudi clients | Oracle Cloud, in-Kingdom for Saudi clients |
| Commitment shape | Calculation-only — light touch | Full platform engagement | Full employment relationship |
| What you submit to us | Monthly diff in shared drive | Diff or live edits in the platform | Hires, terminations, comp changes |
| What we return | Payroll pack: register, statutory schedules, WPS file, EOSB, variance | Same pack plus platform state, HRIS data, EOR cascades | Same pack plus contracts, visas, benefits |
FAQ
Common questions about MENA payroll
What's the difference between Payroll Bureau and Managed Payroll?
Bureau is calculation-only. We run the engine, return a payroll pack, and you submit to the authorities and bank yourself. Managed Payroll runs the full cycle on the Global Kinect platform — we operate, you approve. Same engine, same calculations, same audit trail. The split is who handles the operational work.
Can I start with bureau and move to managed payroll later?
Yes. The engine and the data carry across. Most expansions move when an operator wants HRIS or EOR connected to the same payroll, or when they're ready to hand the cycle over. Transition is a configuration change, not a re-onboarding.
Where is my payroll data hosted?
Oracle Cloud. In-Kingdom — Riyadh and Jeddah — for Saudi clients, aligned to Saudi PDPL. For other MENA clients the data sits in the regional Oracle estate and stays inside the GCC.
Which countries do you cover?
Eleven MENA countries: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, and Jordan. The statutory engine handles each country's rules natively.
Do I need a local entity?
For Bureau and Managed Payroll, yes — these run through your own entity, your registrations, your bank account. If you don't have an entity, our EOR service employs the worker through Global Kinect's local entity and runs the same engine behind the scenes.
Can I run bureau in one country and managed in another?
Yes. Engine, calculations, and audit trail are uniform across both delivery models. Some operators run bureau in markets where their entity is mature and managed payroll where they're still scaling.
Can I be invoiced in pounds sterling?
Management fee can be invoiced in sterling for UK and Irish clients on request. Statutory pass-through is denominated in local currency at cycle rate. We agree the invoicing structure during onboarding.
Does the payroll output align with UK GAAP and our consolidation cycle?
The engine produces a per-cycle summary that maps to UK GAAP cost categories — wages, employer's NIC equivalent (the regional contribution lines), end-of-service accruals, and benefits in kind. Most UK and Irish finance teams plug the summary into their consolidation cycle as a regional cost centre without re-classification. Variance reports name the period and line item explicitly so audit trail reconciles cleanly.
What's the place of supply for VAT, and how does that affect procurement?
The management fee is supplied from a UK supplier (Global Kinect Ltd, registered in England and Wales, VAT GB513719302) under the standard UK B2B place-of-supply rules — your finance team treats the invoice as it would any UK supplier. Local statutory pass-through costs sit outside this — they're costs of employing in the relevant jurisdiction and are passed through at cost, not invoiced as a service supply.