Accounting firms in Zambia
Payroll software for accounting firms in Zambia
PayrollMaster lets an accounting firm in Zambia run every client's payroll from one account. Each client organisation carries Zambia's statutory rules — PAYE, NAPSA and NHIMA — calculated on every payslip and filed with Zambia Revenue Authority. Switch into a client's books in one click and see the whole book on one dashboard.
What every client needs
What must you get right on a Zambian client’s payroll?
5 statutory items, collected by 4 different bodies — on every client, every month. We maintain the rates; you keep the client.
Zambian employers pay monthly. One cost that is not a deduction but hits every payroll budget: employees on fixed-term contracts are entitled by law to gratuity of at least 25% of the basic pay earned over the contract, payable when it ends. Fixed-term contracts are common, so this is a real part of the cost of employing someone in Zambia.
| Deduction | Authority | Paid by | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| PAYE Pay As You Earn | Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) | Employee | Monthly: nil up to K5,100; 20% on 5,101–7,100; 30% on 7,101–9,200; 37% above K9,200 Source · in force from 2025-01-01 Commonly misreported. Several third-party salary calculators circulate a different, incorrect table (25% and 37.5% marginal rates). The bands above are corroborated by PwC and PKF Zambia, and they reconcile exactly against the published annual thresholds — 5,100 × 12 = 61,200, 7,100 × 12 = 85,200, 9,200 × 12 = 110,400. |
| NAPSA National Pension Scheme Authority contribution | National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) | Employer + employee | 5% employee + 5% employer of gross earnings, capped at an insurable-earnings ceiling of K37,236/month — a maximum of K1,861.80 each Source · in force from 2026-01-01 Commonly misreported. NAPSA’s own website still shows a stale ceiling of K28,920.30. The current figure is K37,236 for 2026, and NAPSA revises it every January — it is set at four times the national average earnings, which checks out exactly for both 2025 and 2026. This is precisely the kind of number you should not be maintaining by hand. |
| NHIMA National Health Insurance Scheme contribution | National Health Insurance Management Authority (NHIMA) | Employer + employee | 1% employee + 1% employer of basic salary, with no ceiling Source · in force from 2019-09-19 Commonly misreported. The base is BASIC salary, not gross earnings — read directly from the Third Schedule of the gazetted National Health Insurance (General) Regulations 2019 (SI No. 63 of 2019). Several secondary sources say gross; they are wrong, and getting this wrong overstates the deduction for every employee with allowances. |
| SDL Skills Development Levy | Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) | Employer | 0.5% of gross emoluments, employer-paid. Employers with annual turnover below K800,000 are exempt. Source · in force from 2017-01-01 Commonly misreported. From the 2026 charge year, SDL became deductible against corporate income tax. That changes its tax treatment, not the 0.5% rate. It is not charged on gratuities or redundancy payments. |
| WCFCB Workers’ Compensation Fund assessment | Workers’ Compensation Fund Control Board (WCFCB) | Employer | Not yet verified The Workers’ Compensation Act fixes no single universal percentage — the Board sets rates per industry risk class by Gazette notice. WCFCB’s own site was unreachable throughout our research, and the figures circulating in secondary sources (anywhere from 0.5% to nearly 7%) are mutually inconsistent and untraceable. We will not print a number we cannot stand behind. Confirm your industry’s rate directly with the Board. |
Rates last reviewed 2026-07-14 against Zambia Revenue Authority and other official sources. Where a figure is widely misreported elsewhere, we say so above rather than leave you to find the contradiction yourself. Where authorities genuinely conflict, both readings are shown rather than resolved. Statutory rates change with every finance act — confirm current figures with a local practitioner before relying on them. PayrollMaster applies the current rates centrally, so your payroll run does not depend on this table being fresh.
How it works
One account, every Zambian client
- 1
Add the client
Create a managed organisation for a client who has nothing yet, or invite one that already runs on PayrollMaster. Their employees, pay components and statutory setup live in their own books.
- 2
Scope who sees what
Grant your team access per client. A junior can work one client’s payroll without seeing the rest of the book; a partner sees everything.
- 3
Work the book
Switch into any client’s books in one click, run their payroll on their country’s statutory rules, and switch back. No second login, no separate tool per client.
- 4
See it all at once
The agency dashboard aggregates clients, employees, payroll runs and gross payroll, with a cross-client activity feed showing who did what, where.
- Agency accounts that manage multiple client organisations
- Create managed clients or invite existing ones, with granular per-client permissions
- One-click tenant switching — operate inside a client’s books and back
- An agency dashboard aggregating clients, employees, runs and gross payroll
- A cross-client activity feed
The rest of your book
Clients outside Zambia?
Each client organisation carries its own country. Hold them all in the same agency account.
Questions
Client payroll in Zambia: common questions
Can an accounting firm in Zambia run payroll for multiple clients?
Yes. An agency account manages multiple client organisations from one login. Each Zambian client runs on Zambia's statutory rules, and you switch into their books in a click. The agency dashboard aggregates clients, employees, runs and gross payroll across the book.
Which Zambia deductions are handled for each client?
Every statutory item a Zambian payslip carries — PAYE, NAPSA and NHIMA — is calculated on each client's payroll and filed with Zambia Revenue Authority. The rates are maintained centrally, so a change does not become a per-client task for your firm.
Can I manage Zambia clients alongside clients in other countries?
Yes. Each client organisation carries its own country, so one agency account can hold Zambian clients next to clients in every other market PayrollMaster supports. There is no separate account or tool per country.
Can my team be limited to specific Zambia clients?
Yes. Permissions are granular and per client. A team member assigned to one Zambian client sees that client's payroll and nothing else, which keeps the rest of the book closed to them.
Run one Zambian client free
Start free, add a single Zambia client, and run one real month end to end — the deductions, the payslips and the filing with Zambia Revenue Authority. Compare it against your current process before you move the book.