HR software for professional services firms: Your people are the
product. Track them properly.
Projects with linked tasks and time entries, performance cycles that happen, and payroll that stays compliant without a dedicated payroll team.
A smaller headcount where the expensive question is not attendance but where the hours went.
- Project Time Entries
- Task Boards
- Utilisation Reporting
- Performance Cycles
- Small HR Teams
- Compliant Payroll
- Self-Service
- Recruitment
The rules a small firm still owes.
A forty-person firm has the same obligations as a four-hundred-person one: WPS, gratuity, probation and notice. Firms in DIFC and ADGM have a second set, written by the free zone.
| The rule | What it means for HR | |
|---|---|---|
| Wages | On the mainland, due by the 1st of the following month through WPS, whatever the firm's size | Neither DIFC nor ADGM uses MOHRE's Wage Protection System |
| Gratuity | 21 days' basic a year for the first five years, 30 after that, capped at two years' wage | The split between basic and allowances in each offer decides the figure at exit |
| DIFC | Monthly DEWS contributions instead of gratuity: 5.83% of basic for five years, then 8.33%, on at least half the total wage | A contribution every month and a schedule for the scheme, not a lump sum at the end |
| ADGM | Gratuity on at least half of total pay, with no two-year cap, or a qualifying scheme instead | Long-serving senior staff cost more at exit than the federal rules suggest |
| Probation | Up to six months, not extendable. 14 days' notice from the employer during it | A probation end date is a decision with a deadline, not a formality |
| Notice | Whatever the contract sets, between 30 and 90 days | The notice clause in each contract becomes the last working day in the settlement |
Worked example: an associate in DIFC
An associate in a DIFC firm earns AED 30,000 a month, with AED 12,000 written as basic. For DEWS the basic wage is never less than half the total, so the contribution is worked on AED 15,000: AED 874.50 a month (5.83%) for the first five years of service and AED 1,249.50 (8.33%) after that. Nothing is deducted from the associate's pay.
DenwaysHR sets this per establishment: a firm with a DIFC office and a mainland one puts DEWS on the payslips of the DIFC staff only, stops their gratuity accruing from the scheme's start date, and lists each month's contributions on a schedule for the scheme administrator.
Professional services
Hours attached to the work that consumed them
In a services business the difference between a good month and a bad one is where the hours went, and most firms find out too late.
- Time entries started and stopped against projects and tasks
- Projects carrying their own linked tasks and statistics
- Reporting by project and by person
- A desktop tracker for teams that want it
Professional services
Task boards that hold real detail
Client work stalls quietly. Checklists, dependencies and watchers are what make a blocked task visible before a deadline moves.
- Statuses, checklists, labels and attachments
- Dependencies between tasks
- Recurring tasks for retained work
- Watchers and reminders before something is due
Professional services
Review cycles that complete
In a firm where people are the product, a review cycle that slips is a retention problem. Structured cycles put it on a date.
- Individual and team goals tied to the cycle
- Manager assessment and self-assessment together
- Completion visible across the firm
- Summarised results for partners and HR
Professional services
Compliant payroll without a payroll team
A forty-person consultancy still owes WPS files and gratuity. The obligations do not scale down with the headcount.
- Guided monthly run with validation gates
- WPS file generation for your country
- Gratuity calculated automatically at exit
- Self-service payslips, so nobody emails for one
Small team. Same obligations.
A forty-person firm has the statutory duties of a four-hundred-person one, and a fraction of the people to meet them.
The work
- Time entries against projects and tasks
- Dependencies, checklists and recurrence
- Reporting by project and person
The people
- Goals tied to review cycles
- Manager and self-assessment
- Recruitment when the team grows
The obligations
- WPS files from the payroll run
- Gratuity calculated at exit
- Audit trail on sensitive actions
Questions
Professional services questions, answered.
Can we track billable time against clients and projects?
Time is started and stopped against projects and their tasks, producing time entries you can report on by project and by person. How you map projects to clients is up to you, and project statistics come from the work logged rather than a separate timesheet.
Is this too heavy for a forty-person firm?
Core HR, attendance and leave are on every plan, and modules such as payroll, projects and performance switch on with the plan level that includes them. You are not paying for a payroll engine you do not run, and there is nothing to install.
We have no dedicated HR person. Does that work?
Having no dedicated HR person is the common case in a services firm. Employee self-service handles most routine questions, approval chains follow the reporting hierarchy you already have, and the payroll run is a guided workflow with validation gates rather than an expert task.
Do we still owe WPS files and gratuity at our size?
Statutory obligations do not scale with headcount. Wage protection submission and end-of-service entitlement apply to a small firm as they do to a large one, which is why both are generated from the payroll run rather than assembled by hand.
How do performance reviews work for a small team?
Goals are set against a review cycle, both the manager and the employee assess against them within the cycle window, and HR sees completion and summarised results. The structure is what makes the conversation happen on time rather than annually in principle.
Can we use it before we need payroll?
Yes. Many firms start on core HR, attendance and leave, then enable payroll when they are ready. Moving up a plan turns the module on for the same account with your existing records in place.
Keep reading
Bring your whole workforce onto one platform.
See how DenwaysHR handles HR, attendance and leave across the GCC, and payroll with the WPS file in the UAE.
