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Why Dubai Businesses Are Switching to Outsourced Payroll | Swift Audit

Written by Swift team, Swift Audit & Advisory | Feb 17, 2025 5:00:00 AM

Why would businesses in Dubai outsource their payroll services?

There are a few reasons: building and maintaining a skilled payroll department takes time and costs money. It can be far more cost-effective to outsource the function to a dedicated company whose payroll team is already in place. 

These outsourced payroll teams are also specialists, giving their clients access to their industry expertise and up-to-date knowledge. It can be onerous to keep track of economic and legal changes when your focus is on running your own business. Outsourced payroll teams will keep you in the loop on labor law changes, tax changes, and anything else that might affect your business. This leaves you able to concentrate on your business.

What benefits are there in outsourcing payroll in terms of cost saving and operational efficiencies?

As mentioned, hiring and maintaining a payroll team takes time and money. When you outsource the payroll function to a dedicated company, you save on the costs of paying your own staff and in the maintenance of payroll software and systems. Outsourced teams are often more affordable, since the cost of their salaries, software and systems is shared between their clients. 

Business compliance is also a big factor. There are many important requirements tied up in payroll, and by outsourcing it, your business risk is reduced by ensuring that you are always legally compliant.

Payroll is a time-consuming, repetitive monthly process. By outsourcing it, you allow your finance team and other departments to concentrate on their core business. With accurate, timely, and efficient payroll in place, you and your employees are able to focus elsewhere.

 

Which industries or businesses most benefit from outsourced payroll services?

While many businesses benefit from outsourcing payroll services in Dubai, we find small- to medium-sized businesses benefit the most. Outsourcing gives these businesses access to high-quality, experienced specialists, which they may otherwise not be able to afford. 

In terms of industries, again, there are many that benefit from outsourcing payroll but we find those with complex payroll structures benefit the most. Some examples are construction, hospitality, retail, and healthcare, in which there are frequent changes to labour law, monthly changes in wages or salaries, as well as commission or shift-based structures. 

Outsourcing allows industries like these to ensure they are business compliant in the UAE and globally, while reducing their administrative burdens.

 

What risks or challenges are there for businesses who choose to keep payroll in-house?

While it may seem an obvious thing to handle in-house, there are considerable risks and challenges involved in managing payroll in-house.

  • Compliance: In-house finance teams are often split across multiple functions, from reporting and bookkeeping to payroll. This leaves room for compliance issues to creep in, resulting in costly fines and time-consuming corrections.
  • Errors: Since payroll is a repetitive, time-consuming process, it can leave room for errors at a number of levels. These can include salary errors, misallocated benefits or commissions, or WPS issues.
  • High costs: Skilled, dedicated staff are expensive, adding to costs internally. Additionally, the software and systems required to handle payroll can also cost a lot. 
  • Resource drain: The payroll function is a necessary one for almost any business, but it is time-consuming and can become a drain on the internal resources of your company.

 

How does Swift Audit ensure the confidentiality and accuracy of payroll data for its clients?

Confidentiality and accuracy are of paramount importance when handling the delicate data connected with payroll. At Swift Audit, we take several steps to ensure the integrity of the information that we handle:

  1. Encryption: All data is encrypted and stored on secure servers with strict access controls.
  2. NDAs & training: All payroll staff sign NDAs before starting work on client accounts, and receive regular training on handling sensitive data.
  3. Automations: To reduce human error, we make use of automated systems within Zoho Books. This ensures that our payroll services are accurately calculated every time.
  4. Review process: Frequent checks and dual reviews ensure the correctness of our information and payroll data.
  5. Compliance updates: As per UAE labour laws and WPS regulations, our systems are updated to ensure all our clients are business compliant in the UAE.
  6. Technology: We employ secure cloud systems and integrated payroll tools to streamline processes while maintaining data integrity.

 

Can you share success stories where businesses improved their operations by outsourcing payroll to Swift Audit?

Yes, we love hearing from our clients and sharing that with you. An SME client of ours was recently able to save an enormous amount of time and trouble by ensuring they were fully compliant with UAE labour laws. Outsourcing their payroll function to us meant they avoided fines and time wasted on correcting unnecessary errors that had existed in their system before working with us.

A local retail chain reported increased employee satisfaction thanks to their switch to working with Swift Audit. Our accurate, automated payroll solutions meant that every month their payroll was reliable and correct, reflecting in their employee happiness.

Another example is a startup who were able to reduce costs and streamline their operations by replacing their in-house payroll team with Swift Audit’s payroll experts.

 

What payroll compliance requirements should businesses in Dubai know and how does Swift Audit help clients with them? 

The legal and financial regulatory environment is prone to frequent change. Keeping up to date with these changes, from changes to UAE labour law and WPS regulations. We ensure our clients remain compliant at all times in a few key ways:

  • Automating WPS-compliant payroll processing.
  • Ensuring accurate calculations for gratuities, leave, and deductions.
  • Keeping payroll data secure and up to date with legal changes.

We find these areas are key to keeping up with business compliance in the UAE, and crucial for ensuring our clients remain compliant at all times.

 

Outsource your payroll services Dubai with Swift Audit

There’s no better time to outsource your payroll services than right now. Get in touch with our dedicated team and let us relieve you of the monthly burden of payroll.