Free Payroll Software for Egyptian SMBs: What It Calculates

Before you download free payroll software, be clear about what it needs to do. Any payroll program starts from basic pay, adds variable pay and overtime, subtracts absence and lateness deductions, penalties, loan instalments, social insurance and income tax, then produces net pay and a payslip. Free programs and Excel sheets can do this for a small team if the rules are clear, but on their own they know neither when each person arrived nor what your policy allows. This guide covers the components of a salary, a full worked example, the formulas for a simple Excel payroll calculator, Egypt's legal limits on deductions, and when an app is worth it.

TL;DR. Net pay = basic pay + variable pay and overtime − (absence and lateness deductions under your policy + penalties + loan instalments + social insurance + income tax). Egypt's Labour Law No. 14 of 2025 treats a month as thirty days unless agreed otherwise, and caps deductions: five days' pay a month for penalties, 10% for employer loan repayments, and 25% for debts in general. Social insurance and tax follow other laws, so let your accountant calculate them. Free tools are fine for a handful of staff; the biggest errors usually come from the attendance record before it ever reaches payroll.

What payroll software should calculate

Article 1 of the Labour Law defines the wage as everything a worker receives for their work, in cash or in kind, and splits it into basic pay (the contractual wage plus raises) and variable pay, including commission, allowances, grants, bonuses and more. The split matters because some deductions are calculated on basic pay only. These are the items any payroll software for a small business in Egypt should cover:

Item	What it is	Source	Note
Basic pay	The fixed wage in the contract	Employment contract	Basis for penalty deductions (Article 143)
Variable pay	Commission, allowances, grants, bonuses	Contract and policy	Entered monthly
Overtime	Hourly pay plus a premium	Attendance record	At least +35% by day, +70% at night (Article 121)
Absence deduction	Unauthorised absent days	Attendance record	Per contract and policy
Lateness deduction	Minutes late after the grace period	Attendance record	Per penalties policy, within legal limits
Penalties	Disciplinary deductions by decision	Penalty decisions	No more than five days' pay a month (Articles 140 and 143)
Loan instalments	Repaying an employer loan	Loan register	No more than 10% of the wage (Article 113)
Social insurance	Employee share	Social Insurance Law No. 148 of 2019	Your accountant calculates it
Income tax	Tax on employment income	Tax law	Your accountant calculates it
Net pay and payslip	What is actually paid	The calculation	A breakdown of pay must be given (Article 115)

A tool that only handles basic pay and absence is a calculator, not complete payroll software. Ask any vendor, or the author of any free program: which of these items does it calculate itself, and which do you type in?

How to calculate a salary yourself: a worked example

This example uses hypothetical numbers. It is not an average wage or accounting advice; it shows the logic step by step.

The month: basic pay EGP 9,000, transport allowance EGP 1,000, an eight-hour working day. One day of unauthorised absence, 90 minutes of lateness in total after the grace period, and four daytime overtime hours requested by the manager.

1. Daily wage. Article 2 says a month is thirty days unless agreed otherwise, so the daily wage is 9,000 ÷ 30 = EGP 300.
2. Hourly wage. With an eight-hour day, 300 ÷ 8 = EGP 37.50. Have your accountant confirm the wage base, because your contract may set a different one.
3. Overtime. 4 hours × 37.50 × 1.35 = EGP 202.50, using the Article 121 minimum for daytime hours.
4. Absence deduction. If your approved policy does not pay for an unauthorised absent day: EGP 300.
5. Lateness deduction. If your policy deducts actual minutes at the hourly rate: 1.5 hours × 37.50 = EGP 56.25. If it treats lateness as a disciplinary penalty, follow the notification and hearing steps first.
6. Gross before insurance and tax. 9,000 + 1,000 + 202.50 − 300 − 56.25 = EGP 9,846.25.
7. Social insurance and income tax. Your accountant calculates these under the laws in force, and they come off to reach net pay.
8. Check the ceiling. Make sure the month's disciplinary deductions stay within five days' pay, which is EGP 1,500 in this example.

Notice that three of the eight steps depend on the attendance record: overtime, absence and lateness. That is why correct payroll starts from accurate attendance. Our guide to attendance and payroll explains how to close the month and approve exceptions before this calculation.

A payroll calculator in Excel: the core formulas

There is no payroll calculator file to download on the Yawmy website, but a simple one fits on a single sheet. Give each employee a row with these columns:

Column	Content	Formula (row 2)
B	Basic pay	You enter it
C	Allowances and variable pay	You enter it
D	Daily wage	=B2/30
E	Hourly wage	=D2/8
F	Daytime overtime hours	From the attendance record
G	Unauthorised absent days	From the attendance record
H	Late minutes after grace period	From the attendance record
I	Overtime pay	=ROUND(F2*E2*1.35,2)
J	Absence deduction	=ROUND(G2*D2,2)
K	Lateness deduction	=ROUND(H2/60*E2,2)
L	Gross before insurance and tax	=B2+C2+I2-J2-K2

Then add columns for insurance, tax and loans as your accountant specifies, and lock the formula columns using worksheet protection in Excel. If your attendance log is also in Excel, our guide to the Excel attendance sheet shows how to calculate late minutes and hours correctly before they reach this calculator.

Downloading free payroll software: the options and their limits

Many people search for one free download that handles attendance, payroll and HR records in one go. In practice there are three free options, each with limits:

Option	Suits	Limits
An Excel sheet you build	A small team and one accountant	Formulas break easily; attendance is copied by hand
A free desktop payroll program	A business on one site	Runs on one PC; backups and updates are your job
A free tier in a cloud app	Very small teams	Employee cap, and what the app actually calculates

When you download payroll software, use only the developer's official website: it will hold your employees' names and pay. And ask who updates it when laws or insurance rates change.

A note on searches for payroll systems of specific government bodies or large companies: those usually refer to internal systems run by those organisations for their own staff, not programs you can download. If you work there, ask your HR or finance department how to log in. This guide is for private business owners who run payroll for their own teams.

What Egypt's Labour Law says about salary deductions

These provisions are taken from the text of Law No. 14 of 2025 on the Ministry of Labour website, in force since 1 September 2025. The English wording is our summary, not an official translation; check how they apply to you with a lawyer or accountant.

• Article 113: an employer may not deduct more than 10% of the wage to recover a loan it made, nor charge interest on it.
• Article 114: no deduction or attachment of wages to pay any debt beyond 25% of the wage, rising to 50% for maintenance (alimony) debts. Where claims compete, maintenance comes first, then amounts owed to the employer for damage, overpayments or penalties.
• Article 143: no more than five days' pay may be deducted per offence, and no more than five days' pay a month for penalties.
• Article 115: the employer is discharged only when the worker signs for the wage in the wage register or payroll sheets, or when the wage is transferred to the worker's bank account. The employer must give the worker a breakdown of their pay.

Article 115 also answers the question of how salaries should be paid: cash needs the worker's signature on the payroll sheet, and a bank transfer also discharges the employer. Either way, each employee must receive a payslip. For lateness, absence and penalties in detail, see our guide to attendance policy under Egypt's Labour Law.

Choosing the best payroll software: questions to ask

No payroll program is best for every business. These questions separate software that saves time from software that moves the problem elsewhere:

1. Where does attendance come from? Does the software read attendance directly, or do you type it in from a register or a fingerprint export?
2. Does it separate basic and variable pay? Penalty deductions are calculated on basic pay.
3. Does it enforce the monthly deduction ceiling, or leave that to you?
4. Does it calculate overtime at the right premiums, or just count hours?
5. Does it produce a payslip for every employee?
6. Insurance and tax: does it calculate and update them, or do they stay with your accountant?
7. Branches and departments: can it combine several branches into one payroll sheet?
8. Exit: can you export your data if you leave?

If overtime and leave are your biggest headache, our guide to overtime and leave tracking goes into detail.

How Yawmy handles payroll

Yawmy is a mobile attendance and payroll app for small and mid-sized businesses in Egypt and the Gulf. According to the Yawmy website:

• You add your staff, their basic salaries and working hours; they check in from the app or a Telegram bot.
• Each check-in is GPS-verified against the office radius.
• End-of-month payroll sheets apply lateness and absence deductions automatically, with net pay calculated.
• Live reports show attendance, lateness and hours for every employee and department.

To be precise, the website does not mention calculating overtime pay, social insurance or income tax. So Yawmy covers attendance and the lateness and absence deductions in the calculation, while insurance and tax stay with your accountant. Yawmy is free for two employees. The Pro plan is 500 EGP per month or 4,500 EGP per year for unlimited employees. To compare attendance systems first, see our guide to choosing employee attendance software in Egypt.

FAQ

Is there free payroll software for small businesses in Egypt?

Yes. There are free Excel templates and desktop programs, and some cloud apps have a free tier for a few employees; Yawmy is free for two. Check what each one actually calculates: attendance deductions only, or overtime, insurance and tax as well.

How do I calculate the daily wage from a monthly salary?

Article 2 of Labour Law No. 14 of 2025 says a month is thirty days unless agreed otherwise, so the daily wage is usually the monthly wage divided by 30. Check your contract and policy, which may set a different basis, and confirm with your accountant which wage each deduction uses.

How do I calculate a deduction for lateness?

Convert late minutes after the grace period into hours and multiply by the hourly wage, or apply the written ladder in your policy. If the deduction is a disciplinary penalty, it can only be imposed after notifying and hearing the worker, and with other penalties it cannot exceed five days' pay in a month.

What is the maximum monthly salary deduction in Egypt?

For disciplinary penalties, five days' pay a month (Article 143). For repaying an employer loan, 10% of the wage (Article 113). For debts in general, 25% of the wage, rising to 50% for maintenance debts (Article 114). Confirm how these apply to your case with a lawyer.

Should salaries be paid in cash or by bank transfer?

Under Article 115, the employer is discharged when the worker signs for the wage in the payroll register or sheets, or when it is transferred to the worker's bank account. In both cases the employer must give the worker a breakdown of their pay.

Does payroll software calculate social insurance and tax?

Some do and some do not. Social insurance and income tax follow their own laws, and rates and brackets change, so ask the vendor how they are kept up to date, or leave them to your accountant and enter the result.

Written by Nada Hassan, HR-Tech Strategist, Yawmy. This article is general information, not accounting or legal advice.

Want attendance deductions to reach payroll without retyping? Download Yawmy and start free with your first two employees.