Payroll & HR software for Kenyan hotels
Pay service charge as an allowance, run monthly payroll for kitchen, front-of-house, and housekeeping staff, and stay compliant with KRA, SHIF, NSSF, and AHL — without spreadsheets.
From a single restaurant to a large hotel, PawaHR helps you run payroll, manage staff, and stay ahead of statutory changes.
Statutory rules change. Your payroll shouldn't fall behind.
Automatically calculate PAYE, SHIF, NSSF, and the Affordable Housing Levy for every staff member — kitchen, front-of-house, housekeeping, and management. Generate P9A cards and SHIF and NSSF remittance files. Stay ready for KRA without manual updates.
Last updated: September 2026
Everything your establishment needs
One place to run payroll and manage staff across every department, property, and pay structure.
Service charge & tips
Service charge and tips paid through payroll are added as allowances for the month — taxable by default, as employment income — with statutory deductions applied on top.
Every department in one account
Kitchen, front-of-house, housekeeping, and management as departments, with permanent and short-term contract staff each carrying their own salary, allowances, and deductions.
Multiple properties — coming soon
Branch support for hotel and restaurant groups is coming soon. Today, one account holds all your staff, grouped by department.
Statutory leave
Annual, sick, maternity, paternity, and compassionate leave, with approvals, balances, and required documents tracked per staff member.
Compliance for every member of staff
PAYE, SHIF, NSSF, and AHL calculated automatically on every monthly payroll run, with SHIF and NSSF remittance files for the monthly returns.
Bank payments
Export a bank payment file to pay your whole team at once. M-Pesa payouts are coming soon.
Made for Kenyan hotels, restaurants, and lodges
- Hotels and lodges
- Restaurants and cafés
- Resorts and safari camps
- Catering companies
- Multi-property groups — branch support coming soon
- Hospitality HR leads and managers
Get compliant payroll running in three steps
Add your staff
Set each staff member's salary, allowances, and deductions.
Run payroll
Review automatically calculated statutory deductions before approving.
Pay and file
Pay through your bank with an exported payment file, then export your statutory reports for KRA.
Switching from spreadsheets or a legacy system?
We'll help you move your employee records, pay scales, and deductions across — and you can run PawaHR alongside your current payroll until you're confident.
- Guided setup We help you import your records and check your first payroll run with you.
- Parallel run Run PawaHR alongside your current system before switching.
- Your data stays yours Your records belong to your business, and payroll and statutory reports can be exported whenever you need them.
Control who sees your staff data
Role-based access, encryption, and audit trails. Give the right people the right level of access — without exposing sensitive salary information.
Encrypted in transit
Every connection to PawaHR uses HTTPS.
Role-based access
Admin, HR, Manager, and Staff roles see only what they need. Sensitive actions are limited by role and logged.
Audit logs
Every sensitive action is tracked and immutable. You can see who changed what, when.
Works with the tools you already use
PawaHR prepares payment files for Kenyan banks and exports your data in standard formats. M-Pesa payouts are coming soon.
M-Pesa — coming soon
Pay staff straight to their phones. Until then, bank payment files work today.
Kenyan banks
A payment file export for paying salaries through your bank.
Exports
Download payroll, statutory and employee data as files your accountant or accounting software can use.
Hospitality questions, answered
The things general managers and HR leads ask us about running payroll with PawaHR.
Service charge and tips paid through payroll are added as allowances for the month they're earned. They are employment income, so they are taxable by default, and PawaHR applies PAYE and the other statutory deductions on top.
Yes. Each is a department with its own manager, and each staff member's salary, allowances, and deductions are set on their own record. Everyone runs in the same monthly payroll.
Yes, on contracts paid monthly: short-term contract staff run in the same monthly payroll as permanent staff. Casual workers, as the Employment Act defines them, are paid daily, which PawaHR does not do.
Not yet as separate locations — branch support is coming soon. Today, one account holds all your staff, grouped by department.
Yes. PAYE, SHIF, NSSF, and the Affordable Housing Levy are calculated automatically for every staff member on every monthly payroll run, and P9A cards and SHIF and NSSF remittance files come from the same run. Statutory rates are reviewed whenever KRA, SHA, or NSSF publish changes.
Not yet. Today PawaHR prepares a payment file for your bank; M-Pesa payouts are coming soon.
Be among the first
Join the waitlist and get early access to PawaHR before public launch.
- Early access before public launch
- Dedicated onboarding support
- Direct input on features