People
- Employee records: details, department, position, manager, documents and a linked login for self-service.
- Leave: staff apply and see their balance, and managers approve.
- Attendance: see who was in, late or absent. Records come from a clock-in device through the attendance API, or are entered by HR.
- Training records: course, provider, dates, hours, cost, certificate and expiry.
- Self-service: staff see their own leave, advances, timesheets, payslips and P9.
Who can see payroll
Only the owner and the Payroll Admins the owner names can open payroll. Roles cannot grant it, even a role with every other permission. Actions go to a separate payroll audit log, and the general audit trail holds no pay figures. Staff must confirm their password to see their payslips, and only ever see their own.
A payroll month, step by step
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| Pay profile | Basic salary, allowances, statutory numbers, pension and insurance. A live estimate uses the same calculation as the run. |
| Catalogue | Each earning or deduction is marked as taxable, or as counting for NSSF, SHIF, levy and pension. |
| Variables | Overtime by hours, bonuses and one-off items for this month only. |
| From People | Approved unpaid leave and, if you choose, recorded absences come off gross pay before tax. |
| Calculate | Review the register, correct and recompute as often as needed. A disputed payslip can be held. |
| Approve | Payslips become final, loans and advances are recovered and the journal posts. Corrections after this go into a later month. |
| Pay | Net salaries are paid through Treasury. A bank file and an M-Pesa bulk file can be downloaded for upload. |
| Payslips | Emailed as PDFs, optionally opened with the national ID number. The email itself has no figures. |
Statutory work
Rates are a setting by country and year, and approved runs keep the rates they used. Kenya 2026 is set up for you. Remittances and returns lists what each body is owed for each month, with employee and employer shares, what has been paid, and the due date. A line shows overdue once the date passes.
For Kenya, Navigate produces the P10 schedule to copy into KRA's template, CSV files for NSSF, SHIF and the housing levy, and P9 cards for each employee.
Staff loans and advances
Payroll records staff loans and recovers them on a schedule when a run is approved. A wrong loan can be rescheduled while what was already deducted stays. An overdue staff advance can also be recovered through payroll.
How it ties into the books
Approving a run posts the payroll journal. Cost dimensions on the pay profile put salary cost on the right department and branch. Statutory payments go through Treasury and reduce the payable, and the ledger balance should equal what is outstanding across all months.
Where Navigate may not fit
- No recruitment or applicant tracking.
- No performance appraisals.
- Only Kenya 2026 payroll rates are preloaded. For other countries you enter and maintain the rates yourself.
- Returns are files for you to submit. Navigate does not file with KRA, NSSF or SHA.
- Salaries are not disbursed directly from Navigate. You upload the payment files.
- People and Payroll are not on plans below Corporate.
Frequently asked questions
Can Navigate run payroll in Uganda, Tanzania or Rwanda?
The rates are a setting, so you can add the bands and deductions before running a pay group there. Only Kenya 2026 comes set up, and the ready-made returns are the Kenyan ones.
Does it pay salaries directly?
No. It creates a bank transfer file and an M-Pesa bulk file for you to upload to your bank or M-Pesa. Navigate records the payment through Treasury.
Does it submit P10 to KRA?
No. It gives you the data to copy into KRA's P10 template and upload in iTax. Check the columns against the current KRA template first.
Can it take attendance from our biometric device?
Yes, through the attendance API, if your device or its software can post punches to it. Check this with your device supplier.
Can managers see salaries?
Not through their role. The owner must name them a Payroll Admin, and can remove that access at once.