Custom HR compliance software for Saudi employers
Cicada Solutions builds HR systems that keep every employee file, contract, document and payroll record consistent with what Qiwa, Mudad and GOSI hold, and that warn the team before a gap turns into a penalty or a blocked service.
- 01Records that match Qiwa and Mudad
- 02Alerts before deadlines
- 03Client-owned code and IP
- 04Sensitive data, tightly controlled
HR risk now lives in the gaps between your records and the government's.
Saudi employment runs on shared records. Qiwa holds the contract, Mudad records what was paid, GOSI holds registration. When your own files disagree with them, the consequences arrive quickly.
Three versions of every contract
The signed paper copy, the Qiwa version and the payroll record each say something slightly different, usually because an allowance changed by email and was never updated everywhere.
Payroll slips without anyone noticing
A documented wage clause can be enforced through Najiz 30 days after a missed payment, or 90 days after a partial one, with five days to respond. A habitually late run now leaves a dated trail.
Documents expire in a spreadsheet
Iqamas, passports, medical insurance and professional accreditations are tracked in a sheet that someone has to remember to open.
Every report is rebuilt by hand
Headcount, cost and compliance figures are assembled again for each management meeting, audit or government request.
Follow one employee from onboarding to the monthly report.
A useful HR system keeps one record per person and checks it against every system that matters. These screens come from SiteLedger, a workforce and site-cost platform Cicada built for a Riyadh general contractor.
Create one complete employee file
Contract terms, salary components, documents, accreditations and cost centre are captured once, with required fields enforced from day one.
Keep the Qiwa contract and the HR record in step
Each employee carries the Qiwa contract reference and status, and salary components are compared with the documented contract whenever either changes.
See today's workforce, documents and alerts in one view
Attendance by site or team, documents nearing expiry and open actions appear together, so supervisors and HR act on the same information.
Check every payroll run against Mudad
After each run, what was paid is compared with what each contract says is due, by component, and any shortfall is flagged long before the 30-day and 90-day marks.
Produce cost and compliance reports from live records
Labour cost by site or department, budget use and compliance status come from the same records, so reports are ready when management or auditors ask.
SiteLedger screens are shown as published in its case study. Your fields, workflows and reports are designed around your own workforce.
The records and controls HR and payroll actually use.
- Employee files and document vault
- Contract terms and allowance history
- Qiwa contract status tracking
- Mudad reconciliation per payroll run
- GOSI registration status
- Iqama, passport and insurance expiry alerts
- Professional accreditation tracking
- Leave and end-of-service records
- Attendance by site or team
- Field-level access and audit log
- Headcount, cost and compliance reports
Different workforces need different HR system shapes.
Contractors and site-based teams
Crews that move between sites, daily attendance captured by supervisors, ID documents checked on site and wages tracked against each site's budget.
- Attendance by site
- Crew and supervisor records
- Labour cost per project
Multi-branch service businesses
Retail, hospitality and clinics with shifts, transfers between branches, high turnover and documents that need renewing all year round.
- Shifts and branch transfers
- Onboarding and exits at scale
- Branch-level compliance view
Regulated and professional teams
Engineers, healthcare and licensed professionals whose accreditation must be valid for them to work and to count correctly.
- Accreditation and licence renewals
- Certificates by role
- Expiry blocks on assignments
Connect the HR record to the platforms that check it.
Most government platforms do not open an API to every establishment. Where one is available to you, we connect to it; where it is not, the system imports the official exports and keeps the reference numbers.
The custom system
One record of truth. Each connection has an owner and a failure path.
- 01
Qiwa
Contract references, documentation status and terms, from the access your establishment has or from Qiwa exports.
- 02
Mudad
Wage Protection Program payment records compared with each contract after every payroll run.
- 03
GOSI
Registration status and contribution figures kept against each employee record.
- 04
Muqeem
Iqama and visa data for expatriate staff, from Muqeem reports where your establishment subscribes.
- 05
Payroll and accounting
Salary runs, end-of-service provisions and cost allocations posted by site, branch or department.
- 06
Attendance devices and mobile
Biometric devices or supervisor phones feed attendance into the same record that drives payroll.
Evidence from a workforce system we have built.
SiteLedger applies the discipline an HR system needs: a workforce register with ID expiry alerts, attendance captured where the work happens, a wage ledger that explains every balance, and reports the office can trust.
Workforce and site costs
SiteLedger
Mobile attendance, a worker register with ID expiry alerts, a wage ledger, pay runs and seven reports.
Open proof02Sector brief
HR compliance software
How Saudi employers connect records, alerts, Saudization and reporting.
Open proof03Saudi Tech Brief
Enforceable Qiwa wage clauses
What payroll must get right now that documented wage clauses can go straight to enforcement.
Open proofJudge the system by gaps closed before anyone else finds them.
HR value shows up as records that match, payroll that reconciles, documents renewed on time and reports that take minutes. Each should be measured against a baseline taken before launch.
Records
Measure whether every file is complete and consistent.
- Complete employee files
- Contracts matching Qiwa
- Missing documents per employee
Payroll
Measure whether every employee is paid what and when the contract says.
- Runs paid on the contract due date
- Shortfalls against contract
- Time to resolve a payroll issue
Expiry
Measure whether renewals happen before deadlines.
- Documents that expired while working
- Alerts acted on before the deadline
- Accreditations renewed on time
Reporting
Measure how quickly HR can answer a question with evidence.
- Hours spent preparing reports
- Audit requests answered the same day
- Headcount figures needing correction
During discovery, Cicada agrees the baseline, target, measurement owner and review window with you. Compliance remains the employer's responsibility; results depend on data quality and operating decisions and are not guaranteed.
Custom HR software is not always the right answer.
Saudi HR platforms cover payroll and employee self-service well, and many employers should start there. Custom development earns its place when your workforce model, reconciliation or reporting goes beyond the product, or when HR records must live inside your own operations system.
| Decision | HR platform subscription | Custom HR system |
|---|---|---|
| Workforce model | Built around standard departments and office staff. | Fits sites, crews, shifts, accreditations and cost allocation the way you run them. |
| Reconciliation | Reports you export and compare yourself. | Contract, payroll and government records compared automatically, with exceptions owned. |
| Operations link | Separate from the systems that schedule and cost the work. | Shares one record with attendance, projects, branches and finance. |
| Ownership | Priced per employee while you subscribe. | The client owns the code and IP for the custom build by default. |
Answer the expensive questions before the build.
Each page resolves one question HR, payroll and compliance teams ask before they change their systems.
Saudization and iqama tracking
Entity-level Nitaqat estimates, separate profession checks and document expiry in one view.
Open pageNitaqat calculator
Check your effective Saudization rate under the current counting rules.
Open pageEnforceable Qiwa wage clauses
Why payroll timing and allowances are now a legal exposure.
Open pageNitaqat 2026
What your HR system now has to track per employee and profession.
Open pageHR compliance software
The sector view for Saudi employers and workforce teams.
Open pagePDPL enforcement brief
What the data protection law means for employee records.
Open pageStart with the records you already have. Commit in useful stages.
- 01
HR and payroll walk-through
Follow onboarding, a payroll run, a renewal and an exit, and note every place records diverge.
- 02
Employee data clean-up
Bring contracts, salary components, documents and accreditations into one clean structure.
- 03
Records and alerts first
Release employee files, expiry alerts and the compliance view before touching payroll.
- 04
Reconciliation and integrations
Add Qiwa, Mudad and GOSI checks and the payroll and accounting connections.
- 05
Reporting and self-service
Add management reports and, where useful, employee and supervisor self-service.
Sensitive data
Salaries and identity numbers are visible only to roles that need them, masked elsewhere, and every access is logged.
Hosting and PDPL
Cloud or self-hosted deployment, including in-Kingdom hosting, is assessed against PDPL and the sensitivity of employee records.
Ownership and support
The client owns the custom code and IP by default, with a documented path for support as labour rules change.
Built in Riyadh for employers under Saudi labour rules.
Saudi HR now depends on shared government records: contracts documented on Qiwa, wages verified on Mudad, registration with GOSI and enforcement through Najiz. Cicada is based in Riyadh and builds HR systems for employers across the Kingdom.
Practical answers before the first conversation.
01Does this replace our payroll provider?
Not necessarily. Many employers keep their payroll provider and add a system that holds the master employee record, checks payroll against contracts and Mudad, and tracks documents and accreditations.
02Can the system check payroll against Mudad?
Yes. After each run, Wage Protection Program records are compared with each contract by component, and any late or partial payment is flagged with an owner and a deadline.
03Does it connect directly to Qiwa?
Where your establishment has API access, yes. Where it does not, the system imports Qiwa exports and keeps each contract reference and status, which still allows contract and payroll checks.
04Can it track iqama, passport and insurance expiry?
Yes. Each document has an owner and an expiry date, alerts go out at the windows you choose, and assignments can be blocked when a required document has lapsed.
05Can it calculate end-of-service benefits?
Yes. End-of-service provisions and final settlements can be calculated from the contract, service period and termination reason, then reviewed by HR before payment.
06Does it work in Arabic and English?
Yes. Screens, reports and employee-facing documents can be bilingual, with right-to-left layouts for Arabic.
07Do we own the code and intellectual property?
Yes. Cicada Solutions' default position is that the client owns the code and IP for the custom build, subject to the final agreement and any clearly identified third-party services.
Show us where your HR records and the government's disagree.
Tell us your headcount, how you run payroll today and where contracts, documents or reports cause the most work. We will respond with a practical starting point.
- Headcount, sites and branches
- Current HR and payroll tools
- Where records or payroll disagree today
- Platforms and systems to reconcile or connect