HR Software in Egypt and Saudi Arabia: A Practical Buyer's Guide for SMEs

The HR software Egypt SMEs need has to do more than store employee files. It has to turn punches into payable hours, leave requests into accurate balances, and gross salaries into correct net pay after social insurance and salary tax, all under rules that changed when Labour Law 14 of 2025 took effect. This guide is for owners, HR managers and finance leads in Egypt and the Gulf who are replacing spreadsheets or an old desktop system. It explains what to look for, which legal rules the system must apply for you, and how to test a vendor before you commit.

Key takeaways

• Good HR software connects attendance, leave and payroll so the same data is never typed in three places.
• Egypt's Labour Law 14/2025 changed leave entitlements, overtime premiums and contract formalities. Your system needs effective-dated rules, not hard-coded formulas.
• In Saudi Arabia the system must speak GOSI, Mudad (WPS) and Qiwa.
• Prefer a cloud, Arabic-first platform with published pricing, an employee app and a trial long enough to run one payroll in parallel.

What is HR software?

HR software, also known as an HRMS (human resource management system) or HRIS, is the system of record for your people. It holds who works for you, on what terms and in which branch. It records when they work and when they are on leave, and it works out what you owe them. In Egypt you will also hear "برنامج اتش ار" or "برنامج شئون العاملين". The older term usually means a desktop personnel-and-payroll tool. Modern platforms add employee self-service, mobile attendance and approval workflows.

Traditional personnel software vs. a modern cloud HRIS

What an integrated HR and payroll system should cover

The value is in the connections between modules. An approved leave day stops the employee showing as absent, and calculated lateness flows into payroll as a policy-based deduction. Loan installments come off on schedule. Unreturned assets show up in the final settlement.

Why Egyptian companies are moving now

Labour Law 14/2025 raised the cost of mistakes

Egypt's new Labour Law came into force on 1 September 2025, replacing Law 12/2003. Several of its rules need precise monthly calculation:

• Working time is capped at 8 hours a day or 48 a week, excluding breaks of at least one hour. Nobody may work more than 5 consecutive hours without a break.
• Overtime is paid at the hourly wage plus 35% for daytime and plus 70% for night work. Work on the weekly rest day earns double pay plus a substitute rest day.
• Annual leave is 15 days in the first year (after six months' service) and 21 days from the second year. It rises to 30 days after 10 years' service or at age 50, and to 45 days for persons with disabilities. Unused balances must be settled or paid at least every three years.
• Disciplinary deductions are capped at 5 days' basic wage per violation and 5 days per month. Employer-loan repayments may not exceed 10% of the wage, and no interest may be charged.
• Contracts must be written in Arabic in four counterparts. The annual periodic raise is at least 3% of the insurable wage.

Net pay in Egypt has three statutory layers

Social insurance under Law 148/2019 is 11% for the employee and 18.75% for the employer on the insurable wage. For 2026 the insurable wage runs between EGP 2,700 and 16,700 a month and is fixed on the January wage. Salary tax under Law 7/2024 then applies an EGP 20,000 personal exemption and brackets from 0% to 27.5%, per PwC's Egypt tax summary. Finally, the Martyrs Fund takes 0.05% of gross pay. Get the order or the insurable base wrong once and the error repeats every month.

Owners want decisions, not dashboards

Most owners do not open an HR dashboard every morning. They want to know who is late, who is absent without permission and what is waiting for their approval. Modern HR software answers that in seconds, and BashKatib reads the answer out to you (more below).

Legal information here is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the official text or your adviser before applying it.

Spreadsheets vs. HR software

Cloud vs. on-premise

For SMEs in Egypt and the Gulf, cloud usually wins: no IT team required, and tax and insurance updates arrive without a project.

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf

An HR system for Saudi Arabia must fit a different government stack:

• Labor Law: 8 hours a day or 48 a week, reduced to 6 a day (36 a week) in Ramadan for Muslim workers. Overtime pay is the hourly wage plus 50% of basic. Annual leave is 21 days, rising to 30 after five consecutive years (MHRSD).
• GOSI: different rates for Saudis registered before and after 3 July 2024, with yearly steps for new registrants. The contributory wage (basic + housing) is capped at SAR 45,000 (PwC KSA).
• Mudad / WPS: the payroll file must match the Qiwa contract wage and the GOSI wage.
• End of service: half a month per year for the first five years and a full month per year after that, reduced on resignation.

In the UAE you will need WPS SIF files and GPSSA for nationals. Ask every vendor whether it maintains a separate rule pack per country.

Buyer's checklist

• Egyptian Labour Law 14/2025 defaults (leave, overtime, penalties) that you can edit
• Salary tax and social insurance with 2026 limits and the January insurable-wage rule
• Integration with your fingerprint device, or a phone punch that stops buddy punching
• Approved leave flows automatically into attendance and payroll
• Multi-level approvals with delegation and escalation
• Arabic employee app for requests and payslips
• Granular permissions (branch, department, role) and an audit trail
• Bank transfer files, plus a Mudad file if you operate in KSA
• Transparent local-currency pricing
• Full data export at any time
• A trial long enough to run one payroll in parallel

What does HR software cost?

Vendors charge per employee per month, by headcount band, or as a perpetual license plus maintenance. BashKatib charges per employee per month, billed annually, with a 10-employee minimum. Prices at the time of writing, excluding VAT:

• Free: up to 5 employees, attendance and leave.
• Starter: EGP 25 / SAR 8 / AED 8.
• Growth: EGP 45 / SAR 14 / AED 14. Includes payroll and statutory files, assets, and the daily voice briefing for the owner.
• Pro: EGP 75 / SAR 22 / AED 22.

See pricing for current figures and a headcount calculator.

Getting started in eight steps

1. Create your account and pick your country to load the Egyptian or Saudi defaults.
2. Set up branches, geofenced work locations, departments, positions and grades.
3. Import employees from the Excel template, with error preview.
4. Configure shifts, grace minutes, lateness tiers and overtime.
5. Configure leave policies and check opening balances.
6. Connect your device, or invite staff to the app by SMS or WhatsApp.
7. Run one payroll in parallel with your current method and compare.
8. Approve, lock the period, and issue payslips and the bank file.

How BashKatib helps with HR

BashKatib is an Arabic-first HR and payroll platform for 10–500-employee companies in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. We call it "The Decision Engine".

• AI voice daily briefing. A 45–90-second spoken summary in Egyptian or Gulf dialect, Modern Standard Arabic or English. It covers headcount, late arrivals with minutes, unexcused absences versus approved leave, branch performance against 7- and 30-day averages, and what needs your decision. The system computes every number and validates it, so the AI never invents figures. See the AI voice briefing.
• Attendance you can trust. Device-bound phone punch with passkey (phone fingerprint or Face ID), geofence and optional selfie, plus a rotating-QR kiosk, ZKTeco cloud integration and a review queue. See attendance.
• Leave as a ledger, with Egyptian and Saudi templates and approval workflows (leave).
• Compliant payroll. Egyptian tax and social insurance, Forms 1/2/6, Martyrs Fund, GOSI and Mudad files, Egyptian bank templates, and anomaly checks before approval (payroll).
• Complete employee records with Egyptian national ID validation and effective-dated salary history (employees).
• Documents and assets: expiry alerts, QR-verified letters, custody receipts and clearance (documents, assets).
• Employee app: an installable web app for iPhone and Android, with native apps coming soon (employee app).
• Reports: attendance, overtime, balances, and payroll cost by branch (reports).

Frequently asked questions

What is HR software?

HR software (also called an HRMS or HRIS) is a system that keeps employee records, attendance, leave, payroll, contracts and documents in one database and applies your policies and the labour law automatically instead of spreadsheets.

Do small companies in Egypt really need HR software?

Usually yes. In a 10–50 person company one person often runs HR and payroll alone, so manual errors in overtime, leave balances, tax or social insurance repeat every month. Cloud HR software needs no servers and is typically priced per employee.

Does the software support Egypt's new Labour Law 14 of 2025?

It should. BashKatib ships Egyptian defaults for annual leave (15/21/30/45 days), overtime at +35% day and +70% night, disciplinary deduction caps, social insurance and salary tax, all effective-dated so changes apply from the right month.

Can it connect to our existing fingerprint device?

BashKatib connects to ZKTeco terminals that support cloud push (ADMS), imports CSV/Excel exports from other devices, and also offers a phone-based punch with device binding, passkey and geofence.

Does it handle Saudi GOSI and Mudad?

BashKatib's Saudi rule pack covers GOSI for both pre- and post-July-2024 registrants, the SAR 45,000 contribution cap, end-of-service benefits and a Mudad WPS payroll file.

How much does HR software cost?

Pricing varies by headcount and modules. BashKatib publishes its prices: a free plan up to 5 employees, Starter at EGP 25 / SAR 8 and Growth at EGP 45 / SAR 14 per employee per month billed annually, with a 14-day free trial.

Try BashKatib on your own data

Create an account, import your team and run one month alongside your current process. The trial gives you 14 days of the full Pro plan and can be extended to 30 days for a parallel payroll run. Start your free 14-day trial or book a demo and hear your first daily voice briefing.