Running payroll · 4 min read · Updated October 2026
Moving payroll: the data and the parallel run
What to gather before you move your payroll, how your data is loaded and checked, and how two months alongside your current provider let you check every figure before anything depends on us.
How do you move payroll to a new provider without risking a payday?
Gather each employee's record, this year's pay so far, leave and end of service balances, and one sample output file from your current provider. Your initial payroll data is captured by CSV from our template. For two months we run alongside your current provider from the same inputs, and you compare both line by line. You go live on payroll in month three, once the numbers match.
Check us against the payroll you already trust
A payroll move goes wrong in one place: the first month that depends on the new provider. Whatever is wrong in it reaches every employee on the same payday.
The parallel run takes that risk out. For two months we run your payroll beside your current provider. Your people are paid from your current provider's files throughout. The first payroll that depends on us is one you have already checked twice.
That is why the move is built around checking, not speed.
Gather what the move needs
Most of what the move needs is already in your own records, or in what your current provider sends you each month.
| What to gather | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Each employee's record: name, nationality, salary and allowances, identity numbers and IBAN | The calculation and every file are built from it. Nationality decides which contributions apply. A missing ID number or IBAN holds a salary file back |
| The date each employee's service began | In the Gulf, end of service is worked from this date, not from the date of the move |
| For each Saudi, the date they first joined GOSI | It decides which contribution rates apply |
| For each Emirati, their pension scheme and when they first registered | It decides their pension rates |
| Pay, tax and contributions so far this year | In Egypt, salary tax is settled over the whole year, including the months before the move |
| Leave balances | Untaken leave carries into the new payroll. It counts in a leaver's final pay |
| End of service balances, in the Gulf | They let you check our figure, worked from each start date, against the one you hold today |
| Your entity's registration numbers, and the account it pays from | Your entity's files carry them |
| One sample output file from your current provider | It shows what we have to match, and it is enough to scope the move |
Load your data once, and fix it before anything runs
Your initial payroll data is captured by CSV, from a template we give you. We map it into one record.
Each row is checked as it loads. A missing IBAN, a missing salary, an ID number of the wrong length or a nationality that matches no country is listed by its row. Each one is put right with you before the first parallel month.
Leave balances are loaded with the record, so the first month carries what each employee has left.
Compare two months, employee by employee
For two months we run your payroll from the same inputs your current provider receives. Each month, both outputs are set side by side.
Each employee is matched across the two, by their employee reference or their name. Gross pay, deductions and net pay are compared for each person. Every difference is shown.
We explain every difference. Each one comes down to a cause you can see, such as an input read differently, a rule applied differently or a balance carried over differently. You sign off each month once it is explained.
Go live on payroll in month three
You go live on payroll in month three, once the numbers match. From that month, your entity pays from our files and submits them.
Your current provider stays in place until then. Nothing depends on us until you have compared two full months.
Add the rest of the platform when you want it
The move covers payroll and nothing else. The rest of the platform does not go live with it.
New starters completing their own records, self-service, time and attendance and the other areas are added when you want them. Payroll runs the same whether or not you use them.
Common questions.
Do we need our current provider to hand anything over?
What if someone is on our current payroll and missing from yours?
Do our people notice anything during the parallel months?
See how a payroll month runs with us.
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