Kenya Payroll Assistant

Inspiration

Kenya Payroll Assistant was inspired by the difficulty many Kenyan employers face when running payroll manually. Payroll involves salaries, PAYE, NSSF, SHIF, Housing Levy, reliefs, deductions, and filing deadlines. For small businesses especially, one mistake can lead to underpayment, overpayment, or compliance issues.

We wanted to build a tool that makes payroll clearer, faster, and less stressful.

What it does

Kenya Payroll Assistant helps employers calculate payroll for Kenyan employees. It guides users from gross pay to statutory deductions and final net pay.

It can calculate:

Gross pay
NSSF contributions
SHIF contributions
Affordable Housing Levy
PAYE
Personal relief
Other deductions
Net pay
Employer payroll cost

A simplified net pay formula is:

$$ \text{Net Pay} = \text{Gross Pay} - \text{NSSF} - \text{SHIF} - \text{Housing Levy} - \text{PAYE} - \text{Other Deductions} $$

How we built it

We built the project by first breaking Kenya payroll into clear steps. We mapped the payroll journey from employee details and salary inputs to taxable income, statutory deductions, PAYE, and final net salary.

The system was designed to be transparent, so users can see how every deduction contributes to the final result. Instead of only showing the answer, the project explains the calculation flow.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was handling payroll compliance in a simple way. Kenya payroll has many moving parts, including tax bands, statutory deductions, reliefs, contribution limits, and filing timelines.

Another challenge was making the project useful for business owners who may not be payroll experts. We wanted the experience to feel practical and understandable, not technical or intimidating.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that Kenya Payroll Assistant turns a complex payroll process into a clear step-by-step experience. It helps employers understand not only what to deduct, but why each deduction matters.

We are also proud of building a project that solves a real local problem for Kenyan businesses.

What we learned

We learned that payroll software needs accuracy, clarity, and trust. It is not enough to calculate numbers; the system must help users understand the results and feel confident using them.

We also learned more about Kenya’s payroll structure and how local compliance requirements shape payroll workflows.