Payroll Services in Dubai

When you outsource payroll to DirhamWise, one team runs the whole monthly cycle, from collecting changes to posting the journal. You approve the figures and release the payment from your own bank account. We handle the calculations, prepare the files and keep the records.

Payroll fits naturally with our accounting and bookkeeping service. We also run it as a standalone service for companies that keep their books elsewhere.

We agree the exact dates with you during onboarding. A typical month, with salaries credited before month-end, runs like this:

Paying a few days before the due date gives you time to deal with a rejected record or a bank holiday without missing the first of the month.

What we need to start

• Employee list with labour card or personal numbers, contract start dates, basic salary and each allowance
• Bank or exchange house details for each employee, and your WPS agent and employer reference
• Leave balances and any unpaid leave taken to date
• Your policies on overtime, commissions, deductions and advances
• The last three payroll registers, so we can reconcile opening balances

Under Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 on labour relations, a full-time foreign employee in the private sector earns an end-of-service gratuity after at least one year of continuous service. UAE nationals are covered by the pensions and social security legislation instead. The rules for foreign employees are:

• 21 days’ basic wage for each of the first five years of service
• 30 days’ basic wage for each year after the first five
• Part years count pro rata, once the first full year of continuous service is completed
• Days of unpaid absence do not count towards the period of service
• The calculation uses the last basic wage only, so housing, transport and other allowances are excluded
• Total gratuity cannot exceed two years’ wage
• No gratuity is due for less than one year of continuous service

Worked example

An employee leaves after exactly 7 years with a final basic salary of AED 12,000 a month. For illustration, we convert the monthly basic to a daily rate by dividing by 30, which gives AED 400 a day. We confirm the daily-rate method with each client at onboarding.

We accrue gratuity every month for every eligible employee. The liability on your balance sheet stays current, and a resignation does not bring an unexpected cost.

Many free-zone companies employ staff through their free-zone authority rather than MOHRE. Each free zone sets its own employment rules and decides how salaries must be paid and evidenced, which may include paying through WPS. During onboarding we confirm your free zone’s current requirements and set up the payroll and payment files to meet them.

DIFC handles end-of-service benefits differently. Since DEWS, the DIFC Employee Workplace Savings plan, launched in February 2020, DIFC employers have funded these benefits through DEWS or another qualifying scheme instead of paying a lump-sum gratuity at exit. For DIFC clients we calculate the monthly contributions and include them in the payroll in place of a gratuity accrual.

Groups with both mainland and free-zone entities can run all of them on one payroll calendar, with separate files and journals for each entity.

Salaries are usually a company’s largest cost, so payroll records belong in the tax file as well as the HR file.

• Corporate tax records: taxable persons must keep their records for 7 years after the end of the tax period they relate to (Article 56, Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022). Payroll registers, payslips, WPS confirmations and settlement statements all fall under this rule. We keep them organised by month and entity so you can produce them when asked.
• Staff accommodation and VAT: Cabinet Decision No. 149 of 2026 amends the VAT Executive Regulation from 1 October 2026. The changes cover how input tax on employee accommodation is treated. If you house staff, review how that housing is provided and charged at the same time as payroll. Our VAT services cover this review.
• Accruals in the accounts: gratuity and leave liabilities belong in your financial statements. We post them every month, so the year-end figures for your corporate tax return and audit are already in place.

We charge a fixed monthly fee for payroll. It depends on the number of employees, the number of entities and how much changes each month, for example overtime, commissions or frequent joiners and leavers. We agree the fee with you in writing before we start.

You can add payroll to one of our monthly accounting packages, published at AED 950, AED 1,650 and AED 2,150 a month, or ask for a quote for payroll on its own. The pricing page sets out what each accounting package includes.

Onboarding takes one payroll cycle. We collect employee data and balances, then run a parallel payroll alongside your current process for a month. Once we have reconciled any differences, we take over from the following month.