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Mudawwan Payroll Market Study

Mudawwan Payroll is payroll and salary payment software for small and medium businesses in Saudi Arabia. It calculates monthly salaries, allowances, GOSI social insurance contributions and end-of-service benefits, produces the salary file that meets the Wage Protection System (WPS) format, and sends the payments through the business's bank, so the owner or the accountant does not have to rebuild the same spreadsheet every month.

A finished Cast study, read only. 16 interviews with AI users across 2 Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs), run on October 19, 2026. Everyone quoted here is an AI user, synthesized to match an ICP. They are not real people.

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What the study found

Start with finance leads at growing SMEs, where bank file and calculation pain is sharp, and solve fast setup and a parallel trial first.

Finance leads at growing SMEs feel acute, recent pain and most showed interest in the bank file and calculation features. Owner-run businesses feel real pain too, but accountants and price scrutiny can block a switch. In both groups, proof on their own data and a light setup come before trust.

Who was asked

2 Ideal Customer Profiles, each with its own cast.

A scene for the ICP Owner-run small businesses, 10-50 staff

ICP A · 8 AI users

Owner-run small businesses, 10-50 staff

Owner or office manager runs monthly payroll in Excel at a 10 to 50 employee Saudi business.

Markets: Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam

  • 10 to 50 employees on payroll
  • Owner-managed in construction, trading, retail or services
  • Payroll run by owner, office manager or outside accountant, not a finance team
A scene for the ICP Growing SMEs, 50-150 staff, finance lead

ICP B · 8 AI users

Growing SMEs, 50-150 staff, finance lead

Finance manager or HR officer runs payroll for a 50 to 150 employee mixed Saudi and expat workforce.

Markets: Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam

  • 50 to 150 employees on payroll
  • Dedicated finance manager or HR officer runs payroll
  • Mix of Saudi and expat staff

Top findings

What each group said, ranked by how many AI users said it.

ICP A · 8 interviews

Owner-run small businesses, 10-50 staff

Owners feel real payroll pain and show cautious interest, but trust, checkability and accountant approval gate any switch.

  1. 1. Owners want to check every figure and run a parallel trial8 of 8 AI usersNearly all said they would not trust salary and end-of-service calculations they could not see.
  2. 2. Real payroll errors are common and recent8 of 8 AI usersMost could name a specific new-joiner, end-of-service or WPS rejection problem from the past year.
  3. 3. Single-person dependency is the deepest pain5 of 8 AI usersThose who run the sheet themselves feel exposed because nobody else can run or check it.

ICP B · 8 interviews

Growing SMEs, 50-150 staff, finance lead

Finance leads feel real pain from bank file rejections and manual errors, but a failed HR suite makes quick, proven setup the gate to trying anything.

  1. 1. Setup speed is the main gate to trying anything7 of 8 AI usersAlmost all of these finance leads were burned by a past HR suite that took weeks or months to configure.
  2. 2. Bank file rejections are the sharpest, most recent pain7 of 8 AI usersHand-built bank files get bounced for IBAN or formatting problems, and the bank rarely says which row failed.
  3. 3. Excel overtime and end-of-service errors erode trust and time6 of 8 AI usersWrong formulas, wrong rates and leave rules cost days of tracing, and some errors reached staff or surfaced only in a Nitaqat review.

In their words

Verbatim, from the interviews.

“I would want to run it side by side with my Excel sheet for one or two months”
Portrait of Abdulrahman Bakr, an AI userAbdulrahman BakrAl Nakhla Trading, JeddahPragmatist · ICP A
“If it takes months to configure like the last HR suite did, I'm out before I start.”
Portrait of Khalid Al-Otaibi, an AI userKhalid Al-OtaibiNajd Services, RiyadhPragmatist · ICP B
“the bank rejected our WPS file because one employee's details didn't match”
Portrait of Khalid Al-Shehri, an AI userKhalid Al-ShehriRawabi Contracting, DammamSkeptic · ICP A
“Generating the salary file in the Wage Protection System format for the bank could save me the hand-built bank file that keeps getting rejected.”
Portrait of Ahmed Mansour, an AI userAhmed MansourRawabi Trading, DammamEarly adopter · ICP B

How this study ran

One brief, one hour, no recruiting.

16
AI users cast
16
interviews held
9
questions asked
2
ICPs compared

The Casting Agent read the brief, proposed the ICPs and wrote one question list. Each AI user then answered every question in its own interview and the findings were written from those transcripts. AI users role-play a defined customer from what that customer would plausibly know and feel; they do not look anything up.

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