Kazisafi 101: Five Questions People Ask Before Signing Up
Everything a Kenyan business owner asks before picking a payroll system, answered.
Before signing up for a payroll system, know what it covers. Here are the five questions that come up most.
1. Does it handle all the statutory deductions?
Yes. PAYE, NSSF, SHIF, Housing Levy and NITA are calculated automatically for every employee, every month. Rates update with the law. When NSSF’s tier limits jumped on 1 February 2026, Kazisafi was ready that morning.
Each deduction gets its own line on the payslip, and filing reports are grouped the way KRA, NSSF, SHA and NITA expect. New to any of the five? The statutory deductions reference has definitions and current rates.
2. What about salary advances and staff loans?
Yes. Both. Same for HELB, union dues, welfare contributions, or any other deduction.
Each has a name, an amount, start and end dates, and rules for who it applies to. Payslips read “Christmas advance” instead of something generic. A six-month loan stops deducting once it’s paid off. An “after probation” rule keeps a company-wide deduction off new hires.
3. What about SACCO deductions and pension top-ups?
Yes to both. They’re set up differently because the tax code treats them differently.
SACCO is a straight deduction. Name it, set the amount, enroll the contributors. It appears as its own payslip line, deducted from net after tax.
Pension top-ups to a registered scheme count as tax relief, not a regular deduction. The contribution comes off their salary before PAYE, so the employee pays less tax that month.
Two rules apply:
- Capped at KES 30,000 per employee per month. That’s the tax code’s ceiling on what can reduce PAYE.
- Contributions above the cap still go through. Anything past the 30,000 ceiling is treated as an after-tax contribution.
Worked example: A KES 40,000 monthly pension contribution splits in two. The first 30,000 comes off before PAYE. The remaining 10,000 goes in after tax.
Same treatment for private insurance premiums (15%, capped at KES 5,000/month) and mortgage interest (capped at KES 30,000/month).
4. How friendly is the interface, can multiple people use it, and how safe is the data?
Interface. Kazisafi is built for someone whose job title is not “payroll administrator”. If you can use a smartphone, you can run payroll. New users run their first payroll in under 30 minutes. Prefer to see it? Book a 15-minute demo.
Multiple users. Add as many people as you need, each with a role. Company Admin can do everything. HR Manager can manage people and their salaries but cannot touch bank details. Payroll Manager can run payroll and see filing reports but cannot see personal HR data. Every change is logged with who did it and when. That log cannot be edited.
Data protection.
- Registered with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. Kazisafi complies with Kenya’s Data Protection Act, 2019, so employee and salary data is handled under Kenyan law, not just company policy.
- Walled off. Each company lives in its own space. No other company sees your payroll, and you cannot see theirs.
- Encrypted in transit and at rest. Data is protected by SSL/TLS on the way to us and scrambled on our servers.
5. For statutory payments, can it handle the company side too, or only employee deductions?
Both. For every statutory deduction with an employer contribution, Kazisafi calculates two figures:
- What the employee pays (comes off their payslip, reduces their take-home)
- What the business pays on top (goes on your business ledger as an expense)
Try any salary, see both sides:
Filing reports separate the two totals. Your accountant sees what to send to KRA (PAYE + Housing Levy), NSSF, SHA (via eCitizen) and NITA, and who pays what.
Why This Matters
Five deductions, every employee, every month, and being roughly right costs the same as being wrong once a deadline passes. Kazisafi runs the math the law expects and groups the filings the way KRA, NSSF, SHA and NITA want them. The questions people ask before signing up all have the same answer, and it stays that way after.